TIbe Craig press, jpublisbers, 176=178 fl&onroe Street. 1893, PRICE, 50 CENTS. MYSTERIES OF CHICAGO Cbicago; TTbe Craig jpress, 176*178 fl&onroc St. 1893. INDEX. Pubi r) rejace. ........ ..... g . and the Poor. ago's Glories- -The Other Side of the Picture "Why"' The Hei-i dim .ng :;ur>pirg tho Stree-t 13-29 ? FJieir h\ Jnfli :i<: . vi. INDEX. Theaters, Concert Halls and Museums. Good and Evil Theaters Gilbert's Strong Criti- cism Teachers of Crime Lustful Advertisements Vice Schools Saloons and Houses of Prostitu- tion in Disguise A Hellish Place Fearful De- basement Gorged With Living Prey Ruthless Thieves Sodom and Gomorrah Outdone Clem- ent Scott's Warning Caterers to Morbid Curiosity Wide -Reaching Influence for Evil 54-6? Immoral Dives. Feeders to Worse Places "The Nude in Art" " Opium Dreams " A Basement Hell Diabolical Debasement of Our Boys French Playing Cards Racy Packages The Tricks of These Swindlers Guides to Evil Houses Where is the Law ? 64-G& Obscene Pictures, Books and Advertisements. The Pompeii Frescoes Nude Women's Pictures The Saloon and Obscene Pictures Liquor Adver- tising Tobacco Pictures Theatrical Posters Chi- cago's Vile Books Business Ability Fearfully. Prostituted How These Vile Books are Adver- tised Excuses for Sensuality and Prostitution Sent to the Penitentiary Need for Immediate Suppression The Social Evil. Licentiousness the Most Powerful Cause of Crime A Gigantic Evil Woman's Side of the Question Ignored The "Dual" Standard of Chas- tityInfested With Prostitutes "Fallen Men" Needed Laws A Hard Case Traps for Girls Lecherous Wretches Mr. Ballard's Offer The Widespread Extent of Lust The Black Hole- Lying hi Wait The Prostitutes' Restaurants Temptations to Young Men Unchaste Through Poverty Manufactories of Fallen Women Pro- fessional Prostitutes Gilded Palaces of Sin Cab- man Commissioner's Report The Patrons of These Places Who are They? How They Entrap In- nocent Girls Where the Patrons' Photographs are to be Found Whence Comes the Army of Prostitutes ? The Chicago Liberal The Influence of th.e_Saloon A White Girl in a Colored House a :: * vd- - Jie -Illegitimate Children )le Fiend of sage J'. Prostitution .cant Hooina Pi, jpers Adver- ^? .aped- A "F Procuresses*. Abd The F Ifc- seiit A DIS.L hood of -;oy A Dreadful Observations on the Making of Criminals. Criminals, Born and Well as Evil . ier, T!u-ft and Lnst Criminality < irents WroT-. .ns The Evi: Phy- uicians The Effect of Vile Adver ThePubK / The Agencit. of Refer- Relief and Ai<: T-'ov Fallen Worn. Army King's Daughter- itions^ Per- viii. INDEX. The Agencies oj Reform. Continued. sonal Visitation at Hospitals Police Matrons Erring Women's Refuge Anchorage Mission Midnight Mission Bureau of Justice Protective Agency Can Fallen Women be Reclaimed ? Im- mediate Relief Societies The Public Presa A Word to Pro Jessing Christians. The Position Occupied by Christians Who the Chapter is For How to Show Our Love to God Why are You so Favored ? None of Your Busi- ness ! Shoddy Christianity Large Salaries to Ministers Weak Christians Kill Your Own Sel- fishness What Ought You to Do ? Ministers and Dogmas Dr. Pressley's Mistaken Words What is the Remedy ? " 165-176 Suggestive Remedies. Unselfish Love to Help Sterness to Crush The Survival of the Fittest The Theory of Emascula- tion Crimes Against Criminals The Insane In- discriminate Giving How About the "Unworthy" Poor ? Lodging Houses The Glasgow Plan Homes For Working Men Cooking Depots Public Baths How to Banish Beggary Where Booth's Plan Will Fail No Delegation of Charity Work Encouragement to Thrift Industrial Schools Rich Men their own Almoners True and Mimetic Poverty The sad plight of the Rich Mao The Saloon must go High License Enforce Present Laws Close Saloons on Sunday Dis- franchise Drunkards No Girls to sell Beer More Coffee Houses Water Fountains Public Conve- niences Need of Entertainment Music Singing Classes Organ Concerts Lectures People's Churches Great Preachers to give their Services for the Poor Public Museums Hold Policemen Responsible for Immoral Dives Imprison their Keepers Drive out the Obscene Books Educate the Children to know and avoid them The same Law for Men and Women Close up Houses of Prostitution Abolish acre of Consent Disfran- chise Unchaste Married Men Close up Massage Parlors Children to know the Law of Sex Mis- taken Kindness The Horrible "Physical Neces- sity" Doctrine Midnight Mission Home for Shop Girls Wise Sympathy the only Cure for Poverty, Degradation and Crime. ITf-SlS PRELUDE. "Discovered perils are opportunities and incentives to disciples of the Great Physician." Simon J. McFhersoii, D.D. STANLEY visited the heart of the Dark Conti- nent and wrote " In Darkest Africa ;" General Booth, of the Salvation Army, explored the deepest .recesses of poverty, crime and vice in England and wrote "In Darkest England;" and I, in conjunction with my assistants, have gone into many of the dark " dens " and " black holes " of Chicago, and " Chicago's Dark Places " is written as the product of those visits and investigations. The facts here presented are the combined results of the most thorough and careful scrutinizations made by all the commissioners engaged in this work, but are so arranged and connected as to simplify them for the reader. This book is not written for sensational purposes; it is not offered to gratify any prurient curiosity; but the motives of both commissioners and publisher have been to arouse in the patriotic, philanthropic and Christian people of this great city an intense desire to more effectually cope with the sin, sorrow, poverty, vice and wretchedness that these pages disclose. There is not a single exaggerated statement, con- IO the whole book. The facts, and the facts alone, are given, and, if disputed, can* be proven^ by ; \ny person who will take the ble to carefully investigate : that muck >;; than is contained in this volume could truthfully be said and still leave the record 'of poverty, woe and" vice incomplete and fragmentary. We have only touched here and there the great cancers that so deface beauty and destroy the healthfullness of Chicago. There are those who will exclaim : What good do- hope to accomplish by the publication of such a ':?. They will shake their heads in condemnation of our -ver we make to all such is/ That poverty, disease and vice are lurking, i\ot only in " the dark places,"' but in the business center of the city, and that many of the better class of citizens are apparently imuware of these existences. To assist them to carry out the necessary reforms, the character, o\< and aims of the proprietors of the " dark places" must be '. When this is done, there is some hope of orough moral scavenger work- being* inaugurated and vigorously prosecuted. Plain language has been used not any plainer, however, than was necessary to let the reader under- stand the terrible conditions in which the poor and vicious of this c\ty live. If these pages result" in tHe a*vkening of the jpeeple of Chicago So tne urgent needs and demands of PRELUDE. IJ the present hour, and to renewed activity and increase in the organizations which already exist for the ameli- oration of the fearful conditions under which the pov- erty-stricken and criminal classes dwell, whose lives, with their awful surroundings, are here depicted, the expenditure of time, energy and money on the part of commissioners -and publisher will be well repaid, and their labor not have been in vain. The remedies proposed are earnestly commended to the consideration of those who, regardless of creed or nationality, are striving to make Chicago GREAT in that righteousness which exalteth a nation, as well a's great in that material prosperity which has made her the cynosure of the business, eyes of the whole civilized world. THB CHIEF COMMISSIONER. Poverty and the Poor "It is not to die, or even 'to die of hunger, that makes a man wretched ; many men have died ; all men must the last exit of us all is in a Fire-Chariot of Pain. But - it i to live miserable we know not why ; to work and yet gain nothing ; to be heart-worn, weary, yet isolated, gin with a cold, universal laissez-faire ; it is to die slowly all our life long, imprisoned in a deaf, dead, Infinite Justice, as in the accursed belly of a Phalaris' Bull ! This is, . remains forever, intolerable to all men whom God made." Cc.> "How shall the love of God be understood by those who have been nurtured in sight only of the greed of man ? " A Brooklyn Builder. THE visitor to Chicago who comes for pleasure, and recreation is taken by his frienas in an eleganf carriage, and driven down G\ Boulevard, Drexel Boulevard, Ashland Boulevard, Washington Boulevard, Sheridan Drive, Michigan Avenue,, and the many other, boulevards and avenues, past palatial residences, designed by skilful architects and built by experienced builders, into the parks 'ar.cl. *s which the city has wisely provided, an : the shores of grand old Lake Michigan. Pie . massive, Babel-like, public buildings an<' is feted at the clubs, and spends his evening in i the chastely appointed Auditorium, and in the o midnight hour is invited to "stand in the m 14 POVERTY AND THE POOR. Michigan Avenue and look, first to the south and then to the north; and as the length of the avenue down which he drove in the daytime, is revealed in dimmest outline, in the darkness of the night, by the subdued yet clear light of the long lines of gas lamps he- thinks that, assuredly, he is now in the finest street that can be found in the heart of any great city in the habitable globe. In the morning he leaves Chicago, full of rhetorical enthusiasm over the great and glorious the young and beautiful city he has just left behind. Its homes are " super par excellence," its Auditorium, un- rivalled its parks, exquisite its lake-view, sublime^ its avenues, delightful its energy, wonderful its suc- cess, unequalled its future, glorious. Words fail him to express the feelings of astonishment that overcame him as he saw how the Goddess of Plenty had poured forth her golden stores into the lap of this phoenix of American cities. And, as far as he had seen, his judg- ment would have been correct, his enthusiasm easy to understand, and his laudation to be expected. But, alas! there are two sides to every picture. Too often we hear after the " Look on this side!" the sad response, " Now, look on that! " It must be acknowledged that it is the too great temptation of ordinary Chicago humanity to look only on the side of the prosperity, progress, magnificence and splendor of their city, and in the feelings of honest pride that spring up with such contemplation to forget, or wilfully overlook, the other side. There is more of optimism in our hearts than of pessimism, and it is because we believe that the optim- istic hearts of the men and women of Chicago will lead them to determine to make all things fair and beautitui POVERTY AND 1 HK POOR. 1 5 and good in their city that this corps of commissioners was appointed to draw aside the veil that too long has covered the other the darker, the sadder side of the picture. Chicagoans! you are brave, you are fearless, you are manly, you are womanly. We honestly affirm this. Will you shrink from the contemplation of the lives of your brothers and sisters, because such contem- plation is saddening and painful? We have faith in you that you will not. We believe in you, that you will earnestly seek to help those whose sorrows are presented to you ; to detertninately punish those who deliberately befoul jour fair city. Therefore, without fear or hesitation, we show you some of the dark places that exist in your midst. It must be confessed and conceded that there do not exist in Chicago such -dense masses of dire degrada- tion and wretchedness of poverty as may be found in Xew York or London. But the conditions are here, and the coming years will surely develop them. There are localities, such as Little Hell, The Black Hole, the Italian Quarter, the Polish Quarter, the Arab tenement houses sections to be found off South Halsted, Third, Fourth, Pacific, Blue Island and other avenues and streets, that beggar description. Tumble down, rickety, wretched frame houses alleys full of reeking filth the refuse of stables, ash-piles, decaying vegetable matter, giving out foul odors, and uniting with miasmic cess-pools, in breeding disease and death. Here you may see blear-eyed, bloated-bodied, semi-palsied, de- jected, debased, degraded men and women; children who are utter strangers to soap, water and towel, and whose gieatest enjoyment is to dabble in the mud and 16 POVERTY AND THE POOR. filth of the. alleys. Inside, the houses are as vile as their outer surroundings. Close,- stuffy and stinking, with- out any attempt at ventilation men arid 'women crowd- ing together as swine in a dirty sty cooking, eating r drinking, smoking, working and sleeping, all in the <-ame room no attempt at decency in the separation of the sexes boys, girls, elder brothers, sisters, father and. mother all lleeping together in one room; the picture is not one of beauty, nor fit for calm contemplation nor is contact with the immediate locations anything but nauseating in the extreme. Yet they exist. They are here in our midst, and they ought not to be here. Some effort should be made to remove them. In our chapter on " Remedies," there are some suggestions which we trust will be deemed thy of trial, and which are earnestly commended as the outcome of years of study and thought of those whose work has been in the amelioration of similar foul conditions in other large cities. There are many who will say^they ai*e pert, familiar with "the fact that i-n large city, there necessity, exist a large number of poor, very poor people, and that, therefore, Chicago is no exception to the general rule. It is not the purpose, of these pages to show that Chicago is an exception, but it is apparent'tViat dire ; ration exists here on .the one hand, and that great 'tli is in the bauds of professed!}' < i people and 2 other. o could read the columns of the / ome weeks ago, .when the editor, with his corps of report- ers, penetrated, some of the dark regions of po this c moved? The ' POVERTY AND THE POOR. I? woe there related were unquestionably true, and yet they were but a hundredth part of what might have been told. Relief was cheerfully given by many peo- ple, and yet it must be confessed the effort was but spasmodic, and the Herald itself stated that it had to close its relief rooms when there were still constant calls for aid. Our chief commissioner in speaking with a gentle- man well known in Chicago's political life, asked him to give his view of the general distress and poverty, and here is what he said: " When the city put in operation the compulsory education law, tenant inspectors were sent out to bring in the truant children. They found a great number so destitute that they were absolutely unfit to attend the public schools. Common decency would not permit that children of both sexes, in a worse than semi-nude condition, should associate in the school-rooms. A com. mittee of ladies representing the Chicago Women's Club, the Trades' Association and the Women's Asso- ciation, started a movement to clothe these poor children. In one season they clothed over 300, and yet, they acknowledged that they could only reach the mere outskirts, whilst the dense mass of poverty was allowed to remain unheeded and unhelped. " A friend of mine was an eye-witness to the fol- lowing: Some time in the middle of last winter an advertisement appeared in one of the papers for men to go out of the city and cut ice. Passing near the Canal Street depot my friend saw an immense crowd gathered there, and fearing a terrible railway accident had taken place, and that they were bringing in the dead and wounded, he worked his way into 1 8 POVERTY AND THE POOR. the throng and asked what was the matter. To his astonishment he found that this great crowd was com- posed of laborers who had come to answer the adver- tisement for ice-cutters. Although the wages were small and the work disagreeable, so anxious were men for work, that they begged to be sent out. " I have in my possession a transcript of the daily record (for two days) of one of our city police sta- tions. Last February, in one night, 124 destitute, home less men applied for shelter 5/ and of this number sixty" eight were native-born Americans. The station was so crowded that in one cell S x 9^, fourteen men passed the night. Some would stand whilst the others lay packed like sardines, and after awhile, those standing would change places with those who, on the floor, were seeking to woo " sweet, peaceful sleep." And there is not a night that passes that you cannot find in the police stations a large number of these homeless men, who, because of their wretchedness and poverty, are thus compelled to become familiar with the cells where criminals only are supposed to be confined. It needs no keen acumen to see that this, in the very nature of things, has a demoralizing tendency, for, too often, alas! it is but a step from misfortune to criminality. It should be the aim of good government to do all it can to make that step hard to take, but this plan of sending poor men to the prison cells of bad men, simply because they have no means to go elsewhere, is a reversing of that principle, and thus renders the taking of the step from misfortune to criminality an easy and almost natural one. " An old man, wretched, poor, homeless and desti- tute not knowing where to lay his head, was seen t ? It is because there is not a single saloon in this city into which any decent woman ought to set foot. The pictures on the walls, the horrible language of the fre- SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. 41 quenters of the place profane, vulgar, smutty the sights too often seen, even in the best regulated places, for whiskey makes men drunk and worse than bestial in the "toniest" as well as the "lowest" of saloons all these preclude the possibility of their being regarded as fit places for women. It may be objected that hotels even the best of them have a " Ladies' Entrance," also. " Surely," says the remonstrant, " you would not assert that ' no decent woman ought to set foot ' therein"? Think a moment! What lies back of the fact? Is it not the existence of the hotel bar and the density of tobacco smoke in the main office? And has modern civilization made the rotunda of even a "first-class "hotel an altogether pleasant, cleanly place fora woman to enter? There are many saloons in this city where scenes of shame may be witnessed all the time. One sa- loon, and it is by no means the only one, in the heart of the business section of the city, seems to do a far more thriving trade in this " harlot compartment " portion of the house than over the bar, and its trade there is by no means inconsiderable. As one stands at the bar, if he turns his eyes to the other end he will there see a passageway leading off to these " cubby holes," and standing so as to be in full view are a couple or more of women who by lewd looks, winks, gestures and beckonings, etc., lure men into their dens, to debase and degrade them worse than they were before, and then send them out slinking by a "back alley." Yes, just look at the side doors and back alleys in and out of which the frequenters of these places may slide. Come here to this saloon. This is the front en- 42 SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. trance. Now walk around the corner here is the side entrance. Let us enter. There is a man who ha's spent his money and is too " mellow " to be allowed to go out at either of these entrances, so he finds an exit by the alley, which brings him out at the other side of the block. Hell itself could not be more crafty than the sa- loon-keeper in designing plans to catch the unwary and get rid of him when he has lost his vahie viz.: his hard cash. How is it that in most of the saloons the walls are decorated (?) with lascivious pictures? ''An- dromache Tied to the Rocks," " Venus at the Bath," ** The Sleeping Courtesan," " Our Annette," and other subjects, the chief attraction of which is the central fig- ure of an entirely nude woman? Call them works of art if you will, they provoke comments from the drink- ing bystanders that must make devils chuckle with delight. In one of the most "respectable" saloons of this city, a place where many reputable and prominent bus- iness men may daily be seen, there are pictures that would disgrace the vilest bagnio or house of prostitution in the world. We boldly affirm, and defy truthful contradiction, that the saloon is hand in hand with the brothel the one feeds and ministers to the other. They are twin monsters, vying with each other to see which can lead the greater number of human beings to destruction. Another feature of the saloon business must not be overlooked. Whence the philanthropy of these men who advertise " free lunch all day," " hot soup from 1 1 to 2," " an egg with every drink," " red-hots all day," SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. 43 and all this generous feeding of their patrons? The grocer does not seek to induce me to trade with him by advertising free lunches, nor does the baker and candle- stick maker. How is it the beer-seller is so generous and philanthropic? Let us look and see if we can find a reason, or more than one reason. First of all, watch the bartender as he draws the beer. One of our commissioners noted the number of drinks drawn from a half barrel and counted 261, and the barrel was on tap and had been drawn from be- fore he began to count. In a conversation with the barkeeper he asked how much the barrel held, and was told that this was but a half barrel and contained sixteen gallons. "And how many drinks do you suppose you can get from half a barrel ? " " Oh, I haven't any idea! I couldn't tell you at all!" " Can't you give a rough kind of a guess? You've been at this business a long time, I should imagine, and surely you can give me some kind of an idea." After figuring awhile the answer was: "Well, it'll be about 560 drinks!" Here was figuring with a vengeance. Had we ever ventured such a statement we should have been charged with the grossest exaggeration and wildest ex- travagance. So to bring the matter to reasonable com- pass, suppose we estimate that instead of 560 there were but 360 drinks in the half barrel. At 5 cents a drink that is a total of $18 for a half barrel, or $36 for the full 32 gallon barrel. It must not be thought that these are the figures upon which our former estimates were based ; they are 44 SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. just given to show how a skillful beer-drawer can draw in the nickels by handing out the froth with a little basis of beer in the glass, so that there is plenty of mar- gin for free lunches when the drinks are thus served. What intelligent man would submit to be thus swindled in buying sugar or flour, or any of the neces- saries of life? But in the hands of the saloon-keeper he is blind and dumb. His "manliness" will not allow him to protest against this open robbery on the part of the well dressed, white-aproned, sleek-faced gentleman (?) behind the bar, whose immaculate, diamond-studded shirt-front would lead one instinctively to exclaim, " Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these!" He is always smooth-voiced and full of pleasant words for every person, provided he has the cash to sp^nd for "beverages," but, let the poor, besotted wretch who has lost all his cash and has noth- ing left but his insatiable appetite for alcohol dare to show his face, and at once the scene changes. Many of the saloons are owned by the large brew- ers, whose power and influence render it an easy thing to secure a license for any abandoned scoundrel who will be a willing tool in their hands. Thus these brewer-owned saloons become the hatching places for all kinds of foul conspiracies, political and otherwise^ from eg*gs sown there by the men in power the brew- ers who own the keepers, body, mind and soul. And these brewers often pose as public benefactors. They point with pride to their great charities and the like, forgetful of the fact that to the clear-eyed they stand as worse than highway robbers posing in the guise of philanthropists. With both hands, 364 days in the year, they rob and pillage their poor victims, who are so SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. 45 t)linded by their devilish arts as to be willing to be thus plundered not only, alas! of money, but of health, po- sition, character, honor and religion. Then on the 365th day they pose as sweet angels of charity and point with glowing pride to their benevolent acts. Other men, not content with the wicked revenues gained from the demoralization of good citizens in one saloon, establish several of their branch establishments of hell in various parts of the city, and thus by multi- plying their traps capture more of the unwary. There is a saloon under one of the newspaper offices of this city where one night about fourteen boys and girls, ages varying from 14 to 17, were seen to enter. The girls were in short dresses, and the boys without " down " on their upper lips. The keeper of this " hole," it is said, has boasted that he built a fine business structure in Chicago out of the " froth " on the beer he served. And we are told that when the newspaper propri- etors took possession of the offices above they offered him a bonus of $10,000 to relinquish his lease, but as it covers a period extending past the time of the World's Fair, he said he would not dispose of it for less than a sum which to thousands of men in Chicago would be a fortune. In a recent number of Our Day, of which Joseph Cook, the indefatigable reformer, is editor, appeared the following: " Without considering the saloon in connection with American politics, its social influence is enough to condemn it forever. As a class, saloon-keepers in our country are of the lowest characters. They are impure, profane, irreligious, vulgar, and often criminal; and their saloons are like themselves. In no place, as here out- side of the bagnio is the atmosphere so saturated with all that is 46 SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. vicious and corrupting. Here one meets with the world's filthiest characters, filthiest pictures, and filthiest conversation, because here congregate society's filthiest souls. The American saloon is the rendezvous of thieves, and cut-throats, and gamblers. Bummers, tramps, dead beats throng round them as flies around the paper pre- pared for their destruction. Here it is are planned our prize-fights. Here come the distributers of obscene literature to ply their wretched traffic; here come the ' boodlers ' to arrange for the corruption of our elections here in these ' Pest Holes ' of infamy. Yet it is a la- mentable fact that the principal patrons of the saloon are young men. Into a single saloon in Cincinnati, passed 252 men within an hour 236 of whom were young men. In New Albany, Indiana, in one hour and a half, on a certain evening, 1,109 persons entered 19 of 76 saloons, 983 of whom were young men and boys. C. H. Yatman stood on the streets of Newark, N. J., one day, and in five minutes counted 62 young men going into one saloon. He passed his watch to a friend and asked him to stand and count for thirty minutes. In that time 592 entered the saloon, most of them being young men. Yet this was only one of hundreds of saloons in that city. The two following are from Richard Morse's ' Young Men of our Cities': 'A city of 17,000 population, 3,000 young men; i ,02 1, over one-fourth, entered 49 saloons in one hour one Saturday night.' ' A city of 38,000 population, 6,000 young men ; on a cer- tain Saturday evening 10 per cent, of thsm visited seven of the 128 saloons.' "In Milwaukee on a certain evening, 468 persons entered a sin- gle saloon, nearly all of whom were young men and boys." We can heartily endorse all that is here said against the saloon. The sad facts stated of the effect upon young men can be equalled by Chicago statistics, for here, as elsewhere, the hellish saloon has a fearful influence over our young men. There are many regions of Chicago which are saloon-infested to such an extent that if one were to give a tabulated list of the houses of business in order as they occur, it would be somewhat in this style: SALOON, dry-goods, bakery, SALOON, tobacco and cigars, grocery, SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. 4/ SALOON, dime museum, SALOON, restaurant, SALOON, shoe store, tobacco and cigars, SALOON, ticket office, SALOON, SALOON, SALOON, Concert hall, SALOON, SA- LOON, restajrant, SALOON, tobacco and cigars, SALOON, theater, SALOON, tobacco and cigars. On State Street, for instance, from Van Buren to the Twelfth Street viaduct, there are SIXTY-SIX (66) saloons. On Van Buren, from State to Fifth Avenue, TWENTY-TWO (22). On Fourth Avenue, in two blocks, there are TWENTY-FIVE (25). On Dearborn Street, TWENTY-FIVE (25) within two blocks. On Madison Street, from State Street to Halstead, there are SEVENTY-THREE (73). On Clark, from Polk to Van Buren, two blocks, FIFTY-TWO (52). On Cottage Grove Avenue, from 39th to 22nd, SIXTY-SIX (66). On Wabash Avenue, from 22nd to Jackson Street, THIRTY-FIVE (35). On Halsted, from Lake to Blue Island Avenue, SEVENTY-SIX (76). Now these are merely given as samples. The dis- tricts have not been especially chosen. There may be other ph*ces equally bad, or worse. If any reader will sit and calmly contemplate what this fearful array of saloons pestiferous distributers of moral, mental and physical ruin really means, he will find such cause for genuine alarm as to lead him, at least, to try to do something to crush the whole saloon system. We have shown that there are 5,600 saloons in this city. Look at the power in politics such figures repre- sent. Each saloon will average three votes one for the proprietor and two for assistants three in all. This gives a total voting power of 16,800. SIXTEEN THOU- SAND EIGHT HUNDRED VOTES cast as the vote of one man for one purpose, and that purpose the protection of 48 SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. the saloon. These men have no other politics than the perpetuation of their own unholy traffic, and in deter- mining the fitness of any man in this city who wishes office, the first, and about the only question they ask is, " Is he a friend to the saloon? If he is, vote him in! If he is not, vote him out!" And if you add to this number all those who are in trades connected with the saloon, and therefore in a measure in sympathy with it, and dependent upon it, there is such a vast voting power under the control of the business that there is no won- der it is found almost impossible to cope with it. We hear much of men being victims to drink, but, alas! in this Christian city there are many cases that come under the observation of those who care to look for them, of women who are as absolutely enslaved by it as ever negro was enslaved in the South. Last year, in Chicago alone, thirty-two girls and women attempted suicide in the station houses. Drink and debauchery had rendered life not worth the attempt of living to them, and it was only by the kind and lov- ing attention of the police matrons and others that they were spared to endeavor to reform. This tells its own story. Few girls who indulge in the use of intoxicating liquors, know the dangers to which they are exposing themselves. It is not seldom, but often, that scenes like that described by Rudyard Kipling occur, and not only in Buffalo, but in Chicago. He saw two respectable looking, refined young ladies, enter a beer-hall in the company of two young gentlemen, and he saw them all leave in a state of beastly intoxication. This same fear- ful thing has been seen in Chicago many times, and when a girl is in such a condition she is a prey to those SALOONS A]S 7 D THEIR HABITUES. 49 who seek her virtue. If she is alone, human blood- hounds will track her until she is where they may devour her, and truly death would be preferable to that to which such hideous fiends subject her. In talking with one woman who has been before the magistrates of Chicago over and over again for drunk- enness, and whose name is familiar to every newspaper man in the city, our commissioner learned the fact that the woman has fought desperately against her enslav- ing habit, and the last time she came from prison she said that when arrested she was " crazy, angry, despair- ing, desperate, and had thoroughly made up her mind to enter a house of prostitution, for she could no longer struggle; she must sink, sink, sink!" But kind friends met her at that time, cared for her, and now she is at work on a farm outside of the city, away from its temp- tations and in the home of those who will lovingly help her battle with the fierce fires of desire which consume her. Here is a case of degradation and reform well known to some people in this city. A lady, daughter of a very eminent jurist a prominent educator in the east her family of the upper circles in Chicago and as well connected as any person in the city to-day, fell into the whirlpool of drunkenness. She went deeper and deeper until she became a regular street drunkard, vile and filthy and not fit to be seen. Her friends all cast her off, but one sister, who stood by her until her hus- band positively forbade his wife to receive the outcast at his house. It was not an unusual thing for her to be in the hands of the police, and on the last occasion of her arrest a friend of her father's, the Judge, went to the judge who was to hear her case, and stating the matter 5O SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. to him asked that she be sent to the House of the Good Shepherd. When the poor drunkard was informed by the lieutenant where she was to be taken she most pos- itively refused to go there, on the ground that she was educated a Protestant, and said she would prefer being sent to the Bridewell. Her wish was acceded to, and whilst she was in prison she was led to resolve to lead a new life. On her release she proved her resolve, and for years has been a most earnest worker for the reform of others. She has regained her lost position and her honored station, and although she never seeks to move in society circles, she knows her talents and accomplish- ments, now that she is perfectly reformed, give her the freedom of these circles should she ever wish to enter them. But she is more happy in doing good to those who are in degradation and sin, than in such a butterfly existence, and in that work she prefers to live, and will undoubtedly die. In one of the down-town restaurants some months ago two " society ladies " sat in a " private compart- ment" taking' lunch. Their menu, if written, would have been : Wine, Beer, Wine, More Wine, And Nothing More. On the occasion of their discovery by our commis- sioner the cheque signed in payment was for $4.50. They began by going there once every two weeks. At the time when this was written they were to be found in this "respectable" restaurant (connected, however, with a saloon) twice each week. The above is a solitary instance of hundreds of such SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. 51 cases occurring in Chicago from week to week, and they are not confined to one class alone. It is not only those who are born in, and surrounded by, circum- stances of poverty and degradation, that form vicious habits, but the large class of women too common, alas! in Chicago who devote their lives to an endless round of dress and finery, frivolity and excitement, stifling God-given instincts of purity and holiness. Spurning home cares, denying the claims of duty, they are " idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busy- bodies," they seek "pleasure" in a covert manner by wooing the wine-cup under the pretense of "taking lunch with a friend down town." From the excite- ment of the wine-cup is but a step to "flirting" with the " handsome man," who is ever alert for just such prey. The flirting naturally leads to the "appoint- ment" then more wine the fall, which means the de- struction of marital happiness, the utter ruin of the home, and the ever-grinding Chicago divorce mill com- pletes the first act of this domestic tragedy. That men are also guilty of breaches of marital faith under the guise of "business appointments down town," is so true and so well known as to call forth lit- tle comment, but, strange to say, the world covers a man with the mantle of charity, whilst upon the woman it pours out the vials of its wrath in strongest condem- nation and dooms her to social ostracism. What must be the result of such demoralizing hab- its ? Such thoughtless mothers are not only ruining their own happiness and that of their families, but they are entailing fearful consequences upon their children. Many boys and gir-k are not only born under such con- 52 SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. ditions, but they receive with their mothers' milk the desire for alcoholic drinks, and thus a new genera tion of drunkards is made. It is soon easy to discover that the bottle business of the wine and liquor, as well as of the beer, interests is on the increase, and as this trade grows, so in propor- tion grows the breaking up of family life, the degrad- ing of manhood, the breaking down of womanly virtue and the destruction of all that is pure, noble and good in our youth. One of the most demoralizing forms of the saloon business in its relation to woman is the "beer garden." Numbers of these " gardens " dot the city, and in sum- mer time boys and girls, young men and women are enticed into them by the music and the promise of dancing, singing, romping and pleasant out-door amuse- ment. After drinking the alcoholic beverages provided in these places, conscience and purity are readily drugged into insensibility; and then, passion and desire inflamed and clamorous, the devil's most seductive temp- tation, comes before them, and, too often, the night of the visit to the beer garden ends in the debauch of the house of assignation, from whence few girls ever emerge to any other than a life of continuous unchastity. Ev- ery beer garden in Chicago is an open foe to the honor of every young man, and the purity of every young girl who comes within reach of its influence. What the saloon has done and is now doing in Chi- cago, and elsewhere, is well expressed by the eloquent words of an anonymous writer: "The saloon cuts down youth in its vigor, manhood in its strength, and age in its weakness. "It breaks the father's heart, bereaves the doting mother, ex- SALOONS AND THEIR HABITUES. 53 tinguishes natural affections, erases conjugal love, blots out filial at- tachments, and blasts parental hopes, and brings down mourning age in sorrow to the grave. "It produces weakness, not strength; sickness, not health; death, not life. " It makes wives, widows; children, orphans; fathers, fiends and all of them paupers and beggars. "It feeds rheumatism, nurses gout, welcomes epidemics, in- vites cholera, imparts pestilence and embraces consumption. " It covers the land with idleness, misery and crime. " It fills your jails, supplies your almshouses and demands your asylums. "It engenders controversies, fosters quarrels and cherishes riots. " It crowds your penitentiaries, and furnishes victims to your scaffolds. " It is the life-blood of the gambler, the element of the burglar, the prop of the highwayman, and the support of the midnight incen- diary. ' ' It countenances the liar, respects the thief, esteems the bias- phemer. " It violates obligations, reverences fraud, honors infamy. " It defames benevolence, hates love, scorns virtue and slan- ders innocence. "It incites the father to butcher his helpless offspring; helps the husband to massacre his wife, and the child to grind the parri- cidal axe. "It burns up men, consumes women, detests life, curses God and despises Heaven. "It suborns witnesses, nurses perjury, defiles the jury-box, and ttains the judicial ermine. "It degrades the citizen, debases the legislature, dishonors the statesman, and disarms the patriot . " It brings shame, not honor ; terror, not safety ; despair, not hope ; misery, not happiness ; and with the malevolence of a fiend it calmly surveys its frightful desolation and, unsatisfied with its havoc, it poisons felicity, kills peace, ruins morals, blights confi- dence, slays reputation, and wipes out national honor ; then curses the world and laughs at its ruin. " It does all that and more it murders the soul. "It is the sum of all villainies, the father of all crimes, the mother of all abomination, the devil's best friend, and God's worst enemy." and Museums. "The devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape." Shakespeare. " He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil." Shakespeare. AT the outset of this chapter let it be clearly un- derstood that with the managers of the better class of concert halls and museums, we have na controversy. They are constantly striving to entertain and elevate their patrons, and are fairly successful. They ought to be encouraged. Their work in this direction is commended by a large section of the peo- ple, many of them church-goers and professing Chris- tians. But these better-class places in Chicago can be counted on the fingers of one hand, or, to be fully gen- erous, on those of both hands. And what of the rest? The entertainments provided therein are a disgrace to the city. The demoralization that flows from the abominable scenes enacted upon the stage to the large crowd of boys and girls, young men and women, who nightly attend the theaters, can never be estimated. And this is not the narrow opinion of those who are 54 THEATERS, CONCERT HALLS, MUSEUMS. 55 church-goers and who know little of the stage. The statements of our commissioners are borne out in most emphatic language by such an eminent actor as Mr. John Gilbert, who, in his article in the North Ameri- can Review, thus speaks of the theater. Every word, and much stronger words, can, with perfect justice, be applied to the Chicago theater: "I believe the present condition of the drama, both from a moral and an artistic point of view, to be a subject for regret. A large number of our theaters are managed by speculators who have no love for true art, and who, in the production of 'attractions,' con- eider only the question of dollars and cents. With that class it seems to matter little whether a play has any literary merit; it is sufficient if it is 'sensational' and full of ' startling situations.' Many of the plays that have been adapted from the French are open to the severest criticism on the ground of immorality. I say, as an actor, without any hesitation, that such plays have a very bad influence on nearly all people, especially the young. Some argue that, even in these productions, vice is punished in the end; but when a whole play is filled with amorous intrigue, and fairly bristles with conjugal infidelity when, in short, all the characters are infamous, there is no question in my mind but that its influence is bad." Our commissioners report that many boys and girls now in prison cells, learned their first lessons of the vices and crimes that have imprisoned them, in the the- ater. By the constant witnessing of such scenes upon the stage they became familiarized with vice to such art extent that it began to exert an unconscious influence upon them, to their moral deterioration, and finally cul- minated in their ruin. There seems to be no restriction as to the age of the children allowed to see the most degrading and dis- gusting of performances, and in the lowest of these places it is often astonishing and pit4ful to see the num- ber of young boys and girls who are present. 56 THEATERS, CONCERT HALLS, MUSEUMS. That " all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy " is as true as it is old will be readily conceded, but it does seem an awful thing that in this great, church- dotted city of Chicago the chief place of attraction to thousands upon thousands of its young people is the low theater. In their advertising the managers clearly reveal their diabolical plans by pandering to all that is lustful in human nature. " The nude in art," also " the nude in nature," are their chief attractions. The walls of the city are placarded with announcements that call your attention to "Latest Parisian Dancers." " Grecian Beauties." "Oriental Beauties." " Gaiety Girls." "20 Beautiful Women." " Live Statuary." "Creole Beauties, '' etc., etc. To make money, at any and all hazards, is the first and only object of the proprietors, and to secure this they sink below the level of the brutes in the character of the exhibitions which they furnish every day of the year. The wonder is that the audiences do not revolt at these disgusting performances. Well may the legislators of Minnesota and Penn- sylvania desire legislation which will compel women to cover their nakedness, and managers of theaters to re- spect the decencies of civilized society, for their object seems to be to try just how little clothes a woman may wear in a stage exhibition without subjecting herself and them to arrest the one for indecent exposure and the other for permitting it. Sunday is the " gala day " for these damnable vice THEATERS, CONCERT HALLS, MUSEUMS. 57 schools. Not content with giving lessons in criminality all the week, and throwing in an extra lesson on Satur- day, they are so anxious to educate the boys and girls to become vicious and criminal that they have tivo "sess- ions" on Sunday, one in the afternoon and another in the evening. At the latter performances it is a common thing to see on the outside a placard bearing the legend, " Standing room only." The services of the churches on Sunday are never so crowded as are these dens! What a sight it would be to see a sign at the door of the churches, " Standing room only." The few regular attendants would be al- most paralyzed by such a notice, for a crowded congre- gation is the exception and not the rule. The concert halls of Chicago are mostly saloons and houses of prostitution in disguise. Men and women are attracted to them by the music, and before long the vile influences that dwell in such holes take hold upon them and drag them into the fearful vortex of dissipa- tion and sensuality. The music is the bait which al- lures the victim to drink and lustful pleasures. The reports of our commissioners, who went at different times to some of the vilest of these vile dens which pro- fess to be theaters, but are concert halls and saloons as well, are here given in extenso, so that the people of Chicago may definitely know what exists in their midst. These reports are given almost without alteration, and the first one is by a prominent clergyman, well known in this and neighboring cities: " Speaking of the dark places of Chicago, it is difficult to go amiss of them. They are to be found at every corner. Some dis- play of atrocious crookedness may be seen on nearly every street. But some of these places are so foul, the manner of life the spirit in which things are done in these dens, is so akin to the mind of 58 THEATERS, CONCERT HALLS, MUSEUMS. those who have absolutely rejected all light, that they simply beg- gar description. Sam Jones, in trying to portray the perverseness of human character, said' ' Men are like some of the sticks in the southernwood so crooked they can't lie still.' And surely, in the unrestfulness of wicked plotting and planning to allure men and women to ruin, there are those in Chicago who are never still. "On the busiest thoroughfare of this ceaselessly busy city is a thoroughly advertised theater, where every square inch of space from basement to loft is devoted to the basest sort of vileness and thievery. "Your commissioner, in company with a friend and fellow- worker, paid the ' quarter 'demanded and entered to see the theatri- cal performance. As we entered the hall it was almost blue with smoke, and it required considerable grit to sit down by the side of men who were puffing out clouds of the strong-smelling vapors as if they were volcanoes in a state of active eruption. " We listened to music, furnished by a string band, svhich was almost equal to that given on the street corner by the hand organ. Gave attentive ear to the so-called speeches, dialogues and songs rendered by men, and young, undeveloped girls. Much of the per- formance had a double meaning, a dirty double -entendre^ and such ' touches of life ' were always received by the audience with great laughter and applause. " This performance continued, to the evident delight of the aud- itors, for nearly two hours. When it closed we were all urged, by one who had learned well his speech, to go upstairs into the concert hall) where a free concert would be given. A large number crowded the stairs to the upper rooms and we followed. Upon entering the room we found that instead of music being the attraction, beer, wine and women were the centripetal forces. The coarsest of Chicago's prostitutes were there, twenty or twenty-five in number, soliciting men to go to the bar and drink with them, or asking them if they wouldn't like to go down into the basement, buy them a bottle of beer and see the fancy dance. Questioning elicited the fact that if we each paid $i for a bottle of beer we should receive tickets to see a VERY fancy dance called the can-can. "We refused to be escorted by the 'ladies,' but being desirous of seeing the dance, walked down alone into the basement, and see- ing a number of men chaperoned by the females who had solicited THEATERS, CONCERT HALLS, MUSEUMS. 59 ns, enter a door, we followed. It led into a passageway, on either ide of which were a number of compartments containing a table for the beer and glasses, and a few chairs. A man who evidently acted as a ' watch-dog ' asked us ' did we wish to see some ladies ?' I re- plied ' we wished to see the dance . ' " ' Please step into this room,' said he, ' and I' 11 soon send some ladies to you.' " We entered the room and in a few moments the ' ladies ' ap- peared. Alas, for the degradation ! "They urged us to send for beer. We asked, 'Could we not see the dance on payment of the dollar without ordering the beer?' No ! The only way to see the dance was to pay the dollar for the beer, and then checks would be given to us which would admit us to the can-can room.' " We paid our money. The beers were brought, but no chocks, and after drinking a few sips the ladies left us to find more congenial companions, whilst we were left to sit and console each other for the loss of our dollars. "My friend went to the 'watch-dog' and enquired for the checks for the dance-room. He was told to go and enquire up stairs which meant out of doors. We then went to the bar for there was a bar in the basement as well as in the loft and once again the checks were demanded. The barkeeper, the cashier, the watch-dog and finally the man who seemed to be the ' boss ' of this ' hell ' wer questioned, and each one lied and shuffled urtil the last named gen- tleman (?) gave the parting shot, which was to the effect that ' there was a deal of crying over the loss of a great big dollar. 1 Said he, ' You wasted over five dollars of the women's time and then want your dollar back.' " We retired, acknowledging ourselves worsted at least in one attempt at sight-seeing. " You will say, ' Good enough ! stay away from such places. Jt served you right !' "We will suffer your judgment and gladly part with the dollar, if you Christian parents, moralists and objectors'of any or whatever name, will abandon your supercilious, nonsensical statements that such places do not exist, and will admit that your boy and girl may be ruined by just such resorts. They are here, and here to stay! 60 THEATERS, CONCERT HALLS, MUSEUMS. Open day and night, Sunday and week-day, all the year round. Shameless women coming from every corner of the world to meet debauched men, whose eyes and hearts see, and want only, the vilest of vile things. ''It is nauseating in the extreme to think of and write about such things, but how shall we otherwise work for the salvation of the boys and girls, young men and women, than to expose these hid- den traps which are constantly gorged with living prey human souls who when once entrapped are in danger of eternal hell? " Even though we did not see the dance we saw the abominable and devilish character of the place ; we ourselves were deceived and lied to, and our money taken from us under false pretences, and thus it is that the foul fiend prepares men for hell by establishing such training schools on earth as the one whose horrors we have but feebly and inadequately described." Not satisfied with this report, knowing that only a portion of the iniquity had been exposed, we sent an- other commissioner who was more successful, -vide his subjoined report: " To this resort a visit was paid on a Saturday evening, when it was supposed everything would be in 'full blast." To the uninitiated the outward appearance would lead to the belief that the house was a legitimate family theatre for the working man, but a visit to the interior qnickly dispelled that idea. On one side of the box office was conspicuously displayed a large-lettered sign, which conveyed the intelligence that tickets could be purchased for 10, 15, 25, 35 and 50 cents, and that whole boxes could be obtained for $4.00, while seats in the same boxes could be had for 75 cents. In this case 25 cents were paid for each ticket, and our party consisting of three men was shown through the front door, and there informed that seats were on the second floor. Upstairs we went, and were met by an usher, who politely took us down one side of the house, to a door leading, as we thought, to our seats. Handing us our checks, he informed us that we should 'go up those stairs and go along that passage-way.' As he spoke, he threw open the door, and we saw the stairs he had reference to. There were about five steps, and they led up to a passage, or, it might properly be called a scaffold. This was on a level with the tops of the wings belonging THEATERS, CONCERT HALLS, MUSEUMS. 6 1 to the stage scenes, and was so close to the ceiling that a person walking through could not do so in an upright position. At the entrance to this passage we were met by two girls, in decolleite cos- tume, who politely invited us, as follows: 'Won't you come downstairs and see the can-can danced by twelve naked young ladies? ' This was a surprise to us. To be thus frankly invited, without any solicitation whatever on our part, to witness this crown- ing iniquity, convinced us that this disgusting performance was not a special, but a regular part of the programme. As our mission was one of inquiry, we consented, and were trippingly escorted through the passage and down a flight of stairs to the basement. This local- ity was divided into several rooms, and it was into one of these rooms that we were ushered. There was also in the basement a bar, which did a thriving business, having as its patrons the habitues of the place and the occasional callers and sight-seers. On our arrival in the room in which the dance was to be held, we found some ten or twelve men, most of them respectable looking, some of them young and some of them old, all in eager expectancy awaiting the arrival of the "ladies." Before they made their appearance, how- ever, beer and other liquors were ordered, and then the collection was taken up for the benefit of the dancers. It seems a certain amount of money was required to be in hand before the dancers would appear. (It cost us in all $3.00 for our share of the expense, not including our admission fee.) As soon as the required amount was subscribed, the girls trooped in, and immediately commenced their exhibition, which consisted of a most disgusting dance, per- formed by over a dozen girls in a state of absolute nudity. Horror- stricken though we were, we determined to see the thing to a con- clusion, and, when the dance was over, submitted, with the rest of those present, to open and personal solicitations from these aban- doned women. " Aside from the abominable exhibition, the atmosphere was close enough to cause the stoutest person unused to it to turn sick. Cigars were going in full blast and tobacco juice was freely expecto- rated over all parts of the room . When nothing more could be ob- tained from the visitors they were requested to make room for an- other edition of innocents. " From there we finally found our way to the theater proper nd for some time sat and looked at the ' entertainment.' From the 62 THEATERS, CONCERT HALLS, MUSEUMS. program we learned that the first part would be the 'grand opening, ' introducing the ' entire company,' and when the curtain finally rolled up we had the pleasure (?) of seeing the 'entire company,' consisting of seven girls, two end-men in 'cork,' and three supernumeraries, seated in the regulation minstrel style. Here, as in other parts of the house, cigars and pipes were freely used, and also chewing to- bacco, judging from the condition of the floor. Intermingled through- out the entire program was a mass of obscene jokes and sayings, and after listening for an hour and a half to this wretched performance, it was with a feeling of relief that we bade the house of vice flourish- ing under the name of ' theater,' adieu. Is it necessary to give any further reports upon the character of these places? The one reported upon does not stand alone. There are many others and their ex- treme vileness is only a question of minor degree. And yet, there are many pure-minded girls, who look towards the stage of the Chicago theater as a de- sirable place to secure a livelihood. Let me commend to them the wise words of Mr. Clement Scott, a lead- ing theatrical critic of London, who, in answer to a question on this line, replied: "A woman may take a header into a whirlpool and be miraculously saved but then, she may be drowned. If a girl knows how to take care of herself she can go anywhere; but I should be sorry to expose modesty to the shock of that worst kind of temptation, a frivolous disregard of womanly purity. One out of a hundred may be safe; but then she must hear things that she had better not listen to, and witness things she had better not see. In every class of life women are exposed to danger and temptations, but far more in the theater than elsewhere." We charge the Chicago theaters with being the home of disgusting nastiness; and the faces of all true men and women should be resolutely set against wit- THEATERS, CONCERT HALLS, MUSEUMS. 63 nessing the degrading spectacles that they generally present. In the " museums," too, all that is horrible, mon- strous and deformed in the human body, is exhibited. They are catering to the morbid curiosity of the animal in human nature, and the crowds which visit them are lured there by specious and misleading advertisements, cunningly devised to draw the money from the pockets of the ignorant and debased. Another feature connected with all these atrocious places is the close proximity that exists between them and the brothel and saloon. These three form the trinity of the devil, and where one is you are sure to find the other two not far away. Our commissioners are a unit in affirming it as their solemn conviction, fearful though it be to state it that the evil which these vile places of Chicago engender reaches further in its influence than all the good which flows from all the sermons preached by all the pastors of all the churches \>f this great city. Immoral Dives . " We do not despise all those who have vices, but we despise those who are without any virtues." Rochefoucault. " The beastly owners and frequenters of these places think and speak devilishness only. They incredulously sneer at manly virtue; and woman's ruin affords them a theme over which they chuckle in devilish glee and display their highest wit and choicest humor." UNDER this head come those places which are neither saloons, theaters, concert halls, museums or houses of prostitution, and yet have no other than immoral tendencies. They are the feeders, the adjuncts to the worst of the other places of this class. Here young men are guided to the houses of death; their imaginations are inflamed by vile pictures; their minds made the receptacles of impure thoughts. Our commissioner found several of these places. The following is substantially his report: There are several of this kind of dives in Chicago. On one of the main streets, where thousands of people pass in'a day, there is a notice of a show for "gentle- men only." The announcements clearly state that " the nude in art " is displayed. There are "Parisian girls,' '' opium dreams," etc., but it would take a depraved :mind indeed that could fully imagine the horrors and bestiality of the pictures shown within. IMMORAL DIVES. 65 Picture after picture of nude women in every kind ef posture, some of which are as vilely suggestive as devilish ingenuity can make them. Everything to arouse and excite to the highest degree the fierce fires of passion in man, is cunningly and seductively placed before the young and old who enter this veritable ante- room of hell. Not far away in a basement is another place even more vile, where boys lads of 12, 14, and 16 years as well as large crowds of adults, have been seen. An electric bell is kept constantly ringing to call the atten- tion of the passer-by, and immediately his eyes go in search of the bell they fall upon large picture frames full of photographs of perfectly nude women in the most suggestive positions. A number of notices entice him on; it is free; a sparring match occasionally is held; sporting books are n sale; a fine collection of such photographs as these; 5,000 rare, rich, racy, nude and comic pictures are to be seen inside. The victim, urged on by the passions aroused within him by the sight of these hellish tempt- ings, goes inside. Here, as he looks at the licentious pictures, a young man of pleasant address steps up and tells him he may take his choice for 15 cents. "Does he want anything spicy to read?" Here are all the latest works of the salacious writers of Europe and America. " Would he like a package of ' rich ' French cards?" " No, he never heard of them. What are they?" " Oh, they're transparent playing cards, which, when you hold them up to the light show lewd men and women in a nude condition in all kinds of attitudes." 66 IMMORAL DIVES. A package is on the table labeled exactly as fol- lows: NEW YORK RACY PACKAGE. Don't buy this unless you want the RICHEST PACKAGE EVER SOLD FOR 50 CENTS. Contains all the following spicy pieces: Adven- tures of a newly married couple, or their wedding night secrets. A bashful man's experience on his wedding night. The nuptial night (very rich). How to fascinate. A preacher's illustration. Sparking in the dark. Peeping Tom, the Stroller. Philosophy of hugging. Two rich love letters (read two ways). Alsocontans 12 SPIRITED PICTURES Exhibiting a young couple before and after marriage. How to flirt. How to kiss deliciously. A number of French secrets for both ladies and gentlemen. Also a sample of "THE TICKLER," to please the gents. Of course the contents are bad, but in every way the package is a swindle. Its whole value is not one- half of a cent, merely consisting of two cards, upon one of which are two silly pictures, and upon the other a dirtily suggestive jingle; and a coarse sheet of paper upon which are printed even more dirtily suggestive instructions, secrets, etc. The "padding " of the package is a small book, is- sued by one of the " specialists " who make it their bus- iness to trade upon the fears of the young and vicious. And so it is with all this kind of show. The direct result of this exhibit is to send young men off to the numerous houses of prostitution which are close at hand. IMMORAL DIVES. 67 Then, should contagion or other physical evil follow, th " doctor " h^s already put in his claim for a right to treat his newly-made patient. Can anything be more malignant and fiendish ? Could the evil one have put it into the hearts of men to more completely ruin all that is pure, and noble, and good in our bo#s than to do just what these men are doing? For that what we speak is within the strictest bounds of trnth, will be apparent when we further state that in one of these places we found "peep-holes" covered over with cloth, above which were the most licentiously suggestive directions. One raised the "cur- tain " and peeped in, and in one he was recommended to try a cigar, and in another was practically informed where he might go to gratify his evil desire. And all this close to the heart of the city, under the observation of passers-by, every hour of every day of the year openly, daringly pandering to the basest in man temptingly displaying its wares of hell to the young- -and with electric bell, pictures, music, etc., en- ticing them in. These are but samples of others that might be just as fully described of such bestial resorts in Chicago. Policemen walk by daily, and if they do not know, there is no excuse for their not knowing, the character o these pestiferous plague-spots. Is there no law to reach such Augean stables? And if there is a law, are there not men in Chicago of enough moral backbone to enforce it, if the police re derelict in their duty ? We have the profoundest sympathy for the man or woman who falls, and would help continually all such 68 IMMORAL DIVES. persons desirous of reforming, but for these execrable wretches, the treatment of the Mafia gang in New Orleans is too good for them. They should be flayed alive with whips of living scorpions. Vile, foul, mephitic scoundrels, with wit and intelligence enough to pander to all that is lowest and vilest in mankind setting skilfully baited traps to catch the boys of our city, they should be treated as the venomous vipers they are, and, after a warning to desist, shot down like skunks if they ever dare to exhibit their soilure in Chicago again. Obscene Books, Pictures and A dvertisements. "I've heard that poison-sprinkled flowers Are sweeter in perfume Than when untouched by deadly dew, They opened in their bloom. I've heard that with the witches' song, Though harsh and rude it be, There blends a wild, mysterious strain Of weirdest harmony, So that the listener far away Must needs approach the ring Where, on the savage Lapland moors The demon chorus sing. And I believe the devil's voice Sinks deeper in the ear Than any whispers sent from Heaven, However soft and clear.' 1 Aytoun. In Pompeii, when the ruins of that ancient city were unearthed, were found frescoes and pictures of a most sensual, lascivious and horrible character. Histo- rians have strongly commented upon the fearful state of morality these frescoes and similar things evidenced, and lifted up their hands in holy horror at the debased condition of these people. Our commissioners are al- most unanimous in declaring that in Chicago to-day >v rO OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. there are to be found many thousands of pictures, many of them publicly and freely exposed, that are nearly as- \>ad in fact, and equally as bad in tendency, as these strongly reprobated Pompeiian frescoes. Reader, do you take in the full significance of this statement? In Pompeii two thousand years ago the conditions of life were very different from the condi- tions existent here. Nudity of body, with both male and female, until the age of puberty, made contempla- tion of the human form a common thing to them, and therefore not such an excitant to passion as it is with us. Nearly twenty decades of "civilization" and " Christianity " have passed since Pompeii's days of glory, and yet, ive, the refined, the Christian nation, the " land of the free, and the home of the brave," " the leading nation of the earth," in this city which is to be the center of the world at the Exposition of 1893, tve allow to be exposed for sale in our public windows photographs of nude women that are as dangerously suggestive as anything that ever disgraced the walls of u heathen " Pompeii. We do not utterly and completely condemn the " nude in art," but what art is there in the photograph of a naked prostitute lying or sitting in a most sugges- tive position, and without any grace or beauty to com- mend it? Such pictures have a most dangerous ten- dency. They stimulate and excite the imagination, and this, by the law of reflex action, causes physical excite- ment and desire which sets a young man afire with unholy passion, and sends him off, in many instances,, directly to the brothel. There are now in the hands of the publisher of this book a number of these photographs purchased by OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. 71 our commissioners in various dens of Chicago. In one of the principal streets these photographs are openly advertised on the sidewalk, where a large board has painted upon it the fact that downstairs there are 5,000 Rich, Rare, Racy, Nude and Comic pictures on exhi- bition and sale. How is it that in one might almost venture to say seven out of every ten saloons in this city, the walls are "decorated" with lascivious pictures? In some of the leading saloons of Chicago there are paint- ings, skillfully executed by artistic fingers fingers and brain alas! under the dominion of a most depraved heart, and which have no other purpose than to excite the passionate and lascivious desires of their beholders. Talk about the degradation of ancient Babylon and Pompeii, and the licentiousness of the worship of Aphrodite in Corinth; Chicago is not one whit the better than any of these places, and it is without the brave daring of those people who openly and honestly declared their base worship, and attempted, with some show of reason, to justify it, whilst we lift up our hands in horror and condemn it, profess not to know of its existence, find fault with and ostracise any man who dares to bravely tell us of it and demand that we do our duty in seeking to suppress or cure it, and then lift up our hands to heaven, and, as Sam Jones says, "Go and say our little prayers, and read our little Bibles, and sing our little hymns, and thank God we are not as other men, for we, ive are the people, the choice people of God." Can any of our readers explain ivhy these pan- derers to lust are allowed to continue in their unholy work. Is there no law which prohibits the sale of 72 OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. these beastly pictures? The presence of such pictures provoke men to the most dirty and disgusting com- ments on womankind, and for this, if for no other rea- son, should be prohibited. For men, human beings of intelligence, and often- times of education and what is called " refinement," to out-bestialize the beasts and bring all the powers of their minds to their detestable work of adding to the depravity of others, it is monstrous and devilish; and some means should be adopted to make at least the open pursuing of such demoralizing work an impos- sibility. It can never be that men's morals can be regulated by law. However much it is to be deplored, men may kiell dirty stories one to another if they choose; a man in his private room may cover the walls with vile and sug- gestive pictures, and no law, perhaps, can be framed to interfere with him; but in public places, such exhibi- tions should be sternly suppressed by law, and the pro- moters of them severely punished. Another branch of this lewd picture department is found in connection with advertisements. Various liquor manufacturers advertise their wares by using seductive placards of semi-nude women. Look into the windows of many of the saloons and you see pictures that would make you blush with shame were any pure woman by your side. Our commissioners have walked down some of the main streets of Chicago and have noted the places where these are to be found and the names of the liquors that are thus advertised, and the list is by no means small, although no very special attention has been given to this department. Then, too, in advertising cigars, cigarettes and OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. 73 tobaccos it is a notorious fact that the manufacturers have sought to outvie each other in the dirty nastiness of their suggestive designs. No doubt these fellows would meet us with the proverb, " Honi soit qui maly pense" but where one hears as our commissioners re- port dirty, filthy comments upon the pictures pro- vided by these firms, the " evil is thought " not by us who seek to expose it, but by those whom we say are doing this corrupting work by their lewd exhibitions. Some stores are placarded from one end to the other with tobacco announcements, many of them designed to arouse and excite evil passion. The posters of some of the theatrical companies are not free from this same charge. So brazen and shameless has this business become, that in several cities, the law has been invoked to prohibit the posting of these indecent advertisements. They have a purpose in thus exhibiting members of their companies in slight costumes. It is a pandering to the lustful in men, whose evil hearts delight in gazing upon the half-exposed per^ sons of the performers, attracting audiences for whom lewdness, dirty double-entendre and base suggestiveness are their chosen food. The Monitor, of Rockford, 111./, says: "Municipal authorities allow the managers or agents of variety shows, or troops of nastiness to paste in conspicuous places along public thoroughfares pic tures of semi-nude and grossly voluptuous women, that suggests only sensuality to a child's mind, and whicb, become a matter of conversation among themselves, breeding nothing but baseness and secret sin. Is there to be no remedy for this public method of advertising shame and insulting the virtue and purity of an inuocettf and injured people?" 74 OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. In books too, there is much of this pandering to the vile and depraved in human nature, and Chicago seems to have a " corner " upon the authorship and production of some of the vilest books published in America. We do not refer to the reprints of the so- called classics. Rabelais, Boccaccio, Le Sage and others may be debatable ground, and it is not our object to enter into a discussion as to the moral or immoral ten- dencies of such works as Zola's. There may be some argument in favor of such novels. One can admire the robustness of Fielding, even though he deplores the occasional touches of coarseness Fielding indulges in. There may be some artistic skill displayed in the younger Dumas' novels, which, in a measure, helps to palliate the lustfulness of them. Tolstoi wrote his Kreutzer Sonata with a purpose^ and its revolting pages possess at least the bravery of a true soul seeking the solution of an awful problem. But there can be no two opinions in the minds of any, as to one class of books which are openly exposed for sale, without let or hindrance, on the streets of Chicago. When a book sets out on its title page that it is the realistic history of a street-walker, or the private life of a courtesan, and its pages are full of the minutest details of a life of vice, written in the most sensational and ex- citing manner, it needs no wisdom to discern that such a book has but one ^purpose in view, and that purpose is- to so arouse the young as to send them headlong inta the brothel. Few people recognize the close connection between these things. There is a fraternity, with bonds as close as hell's power can rivet them, existing between the OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. 75 brothel on the one hand, and the saloon, the lewd pic- ture dealer, the lascivious book-maker and the sensual theater manager on the other. The four latter excite their patrons so that they patronize the brothel, and the brothel repays the assistance rendered by becoming a good customer of the saloon and the rest. For where is the brothel without liquor? without lewd pictures on the walls? without exciting books on the tables? and whose inmates do not make of the basest theaters what the Christian woman makes of her church. Indeed the stage of those theaters we have con- demned, is the pulpit of the brothel, and its lessons are taught and lived there, and too often the stage is but the representation of its actualized lessons as found in the brothel. Here are the advertisements reproduced verbatim of two books written in Chicago, published in Chi- cago, and sent broadcast from Chicago; books that are a disgrace to Chicago, and that the citizens of Chicago should suppress, by force if necessary : This story is considered by many to be the most interesting and entertaining ROMANCE OF GAY LIFE ever written. Thire is something about it that Charms and Fascinates, and wins the ad. miration of every reader. The heroine is one of those WILD, RECK- LESS DARE-DEVILS, that every now and then dashes upon the world like a Blazing Meteor and by Brazen Audacity and Wonderful Cheek creates a Sensation that makes her at once The Talk of the Town, and the Star of the Street. She delights in being called Wicked. Her own words, in one striking passage, tells what she is. " Mother," she said, " I will not go home ! I will not be good ! I will not reform ! I will always be "A GAY GIRL OF THE TOWN!" The adventures of this Wild Child of the Street, as narrated in 76 OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. chapter after chapter of the Romance, are Thrilling in the extreme. While under the Spell of a Terrible Enchantment the wayward crea- ture seems really Devil-Possessed, and exhibits a hardness of Heart that a Demon in Hell could not excel. She Laughs with Horrid Glee at a Mother's awful Curse, Defies the Officers of the Law, Damns everything Good, and in every possible way endeavors to be the Wickedest Girl in . She Drinks, Swears, Fights, Lies, Steals, and takes pride in being Abominably Bad. Yet, underneath all there is Something Noble in this Wicked Girl. She is not as bad as she tries to make herself. The marvelously beautiful little Cour- tesan turns with spite and venom upon other and deeper dyed wretches, and is the means of Rescuing Innocence from Peril, and heaping Coals of Fire upon the Heads of those she hates. Some of the situations in this story are Frightful in their Fiendishness, while others are Ridiculous in their Ludicrousne=s. She figures promi- nently in every chapter, from the time she deserts her poor old broken-hearted mother to become an Outcast, to the happier ter- mination of her Wickedness. It is a well-told tale one that will be carefully preserved long after trashy yarns are dead and forgotten and is destined to take Front Rank among the Great Realistic Romances of this Fast Age. J^~ IT IS THE FASTEST SELLING BOOK EVER PUBLISHED. "^J( Most Liberal Terms to Dealers. Agents Wanted Everywhere. This is the second: A ROMANCE CROWDED WITH WILD EXCITEMENT AND STRANGE ADVENTURE. The story told by the author is one that relates entirely to the Night Side of , nearly every scene, from commencement to end, being at or near the Ghostly Midnight Hour. The characters are all taken from life, many real names being used. Every phase of City Life is depicted so truthfully as to make each chapter of the book one of Sensational Excitement. Nothing is omitted that may be seen Under the Gaslight. "The Tiger" is visited in his lair. The Scarlet Woman is pictured in her Magnificence and her Degra- dation. The Assignation Fiend plays a. prominent part. The plot is one admirably calculated to bring out the Fiery Element in writ- ing that has made the author famous. Every chapter contains some- thing Hair-raising and Blood-curdling. It contains every element OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. 77 of popularity as a Sensational Romance, abounding in Abductions, Street Fights, Stabbings, Shootings, Plottings against Virtue, and many more exciting themes, that cannot fail to interest those who like to read of City Life as it is. It is beautifully illustrated with full page engravings. One of the books offered for sale, not only in secret dives, but openly on every hand, is a book as vile and as filthy as it could possibly be. It professes to give the life of a street walker and was written and published in this city. One whole chapter is de- voted to the speech of a young man who is defend- ing the institution of prostitution, and who is justifying himself for visiting a house of ill-fame. With the most specious arguments arguments that the young men and women who read the book will greedily swallow he not only attempts to justify his conduct in coming regularly to these houses, but in most coarse and blasphemous terms condemns those whom he says would "howl at him" were his justifications (?) and explanations made public. Then and we pray the fathers and mothers of Chicago, to heed well what we say of this book the old man to whom the young man is thus speaking grasps him by the hand and says: " Young man, were I your father I would say ' God bless you, my son!' " And with these words ringing in his ears the young man calls to his female partner in crime and they retire to indulge in their foul embraces. Think of it! Such a book as this exposed openly for sale in Chicago, and openly published here, with the loud boast of the publisher on the title page that this is one of the sixteenth edition of five thousand. Eighty thousand copies of this vile fount of pol- lution sold in Chicago to defile the fair sons and daughters of this city. Eighty thousand copies of a 78 OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. specious argument which vicious minds repeat with glee, profess to believe, and certainly make their lives conform to, viz: that it is impossible for any young man to be chaste; that it is only human and natural for him to gratify his lustful appetite. Eighty thousand copies of a book that " damns " all those who would visit censure upon this young man for thus declaring his lustful excuses. Eighty thousand plain and clear incitements to three or four times eighty thousand of the sons of Chicago to visit the house of prostitution, and thus keep up the army of prostitutes that the book acknowledges live in this city. There is now in the penitentiary at Joliet, a mid- dle-aged man, who, for years, carried on the sale of obscene literature in Chicago. He was a man of edu- cation, but through the cursing influence of drink, drifted into the debasing business of distributing these abominable books. He was at one time a bookseller in this city, doing a good and apparently respectable business, but, tempted by the hope of increased gain and profit, began, and successfully carried on for a long time, the sale of obscene literature. The postoffice authorities at length secured his conviction, and he is now serving his sentence. And yet the literature for which this man was con- victed w.as not one whit worse than that which is now publicly sold on our principal streets. Talk about a vigilance committee to exterminate the Mafia, and the necessity of crushing the Clan-na- Gael, and the efforts to suppress this and that evil. Can there be anything that ought to call forth all the deter- mined energies of loyal men and women, pure men and women, fathers and mothers, citizens, preachers. OBSCENE BOOKS, PICTURES, ETC. 79 laymen, reformers, philanthropists, and city officials ta exterminate more than this breed of polluters of our young who make and publish such books as this? We talk of the need of cleaning our city streets and purifying our city government, which are likely to be done, but there is a moral reform work demanding attention of far greater importance; yet one and all conspire in a policy of silence about such things and tacitly acknowledge that " nothing can be done in re- gard to them." The effect produced upon the young men of Chi- cago by this vile literature is infinitely greater for evil in the ruining of moral character, than the efforts of all the preachers of this city are able to counteract. And yet many of them go into their pulpits and roam every- where in their thought, delivering essays on current literature, and beating the air with unmeaning words, when live, active powers of evil like these are before them, demanding attention. The work of the preacher is to expose and seek to crush all evil, and these evils should be a constant theme in the pulpit until the remedies are applied and our mental atmosphere is cleared as far as possible by the destruction of the sources of such pollution and ruin. But not only should the pulpit do its duty. The obligation, is' upon every citizen to assist in the suppression of this vile catalogue of iniquities. Let these statements of fact in regard to these books bring down such a storm of fierce indignation and solemn warning upon the heads of publishers and sel- lers that the repetition of such offenses against the good of the community will be rendered impossible. The Social Evil. "One of the most eminent statisticians and experts i criminal and other social statistics in the United States has gi/en it as his opinion that licentiousness is the most powerful cause of crime in this country." Rev. S. W. Dike. ' ' Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh urderstanding; he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and a dishonor shall he get, and his reproack shall not be wiped away. Proverbs of Solomon. " Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart." Jesus of Nazareth. "The chariot wheels of Vanity, still rolling here and there through distant streets, are bearing her to Halls roofed-in, and lighted to due pitch for her; and only Vice and Misery, to prowl or to moan like night-birds, are abroad. Riot cries aloud, and staggers and swaggers ia his rank dens of shame." Carlyle. THE gigantic evil of prostitution in Chicago has assumed the aggressive attitude it takes in all large cities where constant vigilance is not exer- cised to check it. To say that it is not a grave and fearful problem, is to acknowledge one's-self ignorant of the world's past history. Men have always at- tempted to justify prostitution, but despite these THE SOCIAL EVIL. 8 1 attempts, the world at large has never yet allowed itself to gaze upon a fallen woman without a feeling of ab- horrence and pity. In seeking this justification the woman has been ignored ; her side of the question has never been con- sidered. Solon, the great Greek, even as early as 594 B. c., established public brothels as state institutions, in Athens, for the benefit of men, and this same wise man decreed that " a woman who submitted to the embraces of a lover must atone for the enormity, by loss of free- dom or life." In all ages man, by his superior brute power, has compelled the weaker woman to submit to his lustful embraces. Sometimes it has been under the guise of religious rite, but generally confessed as an outlet for his uncontrolled passionate impulses. In Babylon, Ar- menia, Egypt, Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Carthage, as well as in Greece and Rome, and even in Jerusalem, the sexual subjugation of women in the horrors of prostitution was common. Hence has come down to us in this day of modern civilization the " dual standard of chastity," "what is right for man is wrong for woman! " There are thousands of men in Chicago, who, by their lives more than merely profess to believe this hor- rible doctrine. Physiology emphatically denies such a foul aspersion on mankind. It is as easy for a man to be chaste as a woman. He is no more subject to un- controllable sexual impulse than is she. Therefore the social law that renders a "fallen woman" an outcast and yet tolerates the "fallen man" is an outrage and a slander upon humanity. And this outrage is glaringly apparent in Chicago on every hand. North, West and 82 THE SOCIAL EVIL. South Sides are infested with dens of prostitutes, and, of course, with prostitute's companions, men who are far worse than the women they visit. We extend our intensest sympathy to the majority of these women. Their lives are evil, we admit, but the extenuating cir- cumstances are often greater than the world has any idea; their business is loathsome and hideous even to themselves; their end dreadful and tormenting. So that we pity the poor female, and would extend the helping hand to her, but we confess to no such feelings for the majority of " fallen men." And let it be dis- tinctly understood here, that there are from seven to twelve " fallen men" to every "fallen woman." We must not count the one sex only, in our estimates of this foul evil, the other is far greater in numbers, and we believe, far greater in criminality. Too often the woman's chief fault was her great love and perfect trustfulness in the man who betrayed her. Seduced by his specious promises, she gave all she had, her life, her honor to his keeping, and he foully violated the trust, and then cast her off to enter the life of shame which ends only in dishonor, disease and death. In this great and free commonwealth of Illinois there is no law for the punishment of seduction by either man or woman. Of the need of such law the report of the Protective Agency thus speaks: ' The most painful cases in the Protective work are those of young girls who have been dishonored, outraged and seduced. " Under the influence of some deadening drug, many a terrible assault is accomplished; few, comparatively, are reported unless pregnancy results. For the self-dependent girl to announce her shame (?) is to weight her hands and feet with lead, to take hope out of her heart, and to close the doors of homes to her all over the land. THE SOCIAL EVIL. 83 "Somewhere these murderers walk unmolested; would that they bore the mark of Cain ! " In yonder hospital a young girl awaits the swift-coming birth- pangs in pitiful terror. The old story, seduction under promise of marriage and an attempt, by his assistance, to destroy the fruit of sin forsaken ! " In answer to my question, ' Why not go home ? ' she replied, with streaming tears, 'Oh, I dare not, 1 have no mother, she might forgive me, my step-mother never would.' "And where, meanwhile, is the father of the unwelcome child resting beneath this breaking heart? In one of the most influential firms in this city, received as kindly as of yore, careless, heartless, utterly irresponsive to appeals made to him by ladies of our society, who visited him at different times to urge him to redeem his promise and marry this poor trusting girl and legitimize their child. " ' He needn't live with me if he don't want to, but I can re- turn to my father's house if I am only married,' she said, pit- eously. "And what would we say to these betrayed girls? We would say: If you have fallen rise! If you have been plunged down an abyss climb up ! Assert your womanhood, and remember there is in the world no illegitimate child. Motherhood may be always holy, if we will it so to 6e, and while God lives, none can be fatherless ! Illegitimate parentage there may be, but protect your child, as you value your own immortal soul, from the sting and ostracism of an unjust public sentiment. "And you and I, dear reader and friend, will help usher in a better day by demanding the same code of morals for men and women. " Here is a case which was taken up by the Protec- tive Agency, and given in their last annual report: "Another case of unusual importance was an assault case by a man named Murray, upon a young girl only just fourteen years old. The girl was adopted into a family where she had come to be an un- welcome inmate, and about the time this man became acquainted with her she was very unhappy at home. The man was married, and had three lovely children, but for years had lived a most im- moral life. He was plausible in his address, and, it seems, winning 84 THE SOCIAL EVIL. in his manners, and soon gained the confidence of the child. On a promise of taking her to visit places of interest in the city he enticed her to a hotel where he registered her as his sister. He there as- saulted her. Some six weeks after, the girl's mother by questioning, found out the facts and arrested him. The case was brought to our notice after the beginning of suit in the justice court. Every annoy- ing and odious practice was resorted to for the purpose of discour- aging us from the start. After four or five continuances, sometimes running till late in the evening, we finally had the man held to the criminal court. After some consideration we decided that in view of the fact that the man had a lovely wife and some very bright children and that our complaining witness was a very young girl Almost alone in t'.e world we would not push the case in the crim- inal court if the man's employers would discharge him from a posi- "ion he had held twenty-one years. This they declined to do and he iared us to prosecute him, alleging that the case was a conspiracy against him.. The case was prosecuted and the man found that a ^ury of twelve good men did not consider that the evidence gave any 'ndication of a conspiracy. He was convicted and given twenty vears in the penitentiary. The death of the presiding judge before sentence was passed gave him a new trial, and as we had placed the f\T\ in an excellent school we preferred to have him p}ead 'guilty' ind take three years in the penitentiary rather than subject so young a girl to the odium of another trial. The girl gives us a good promise of an excellent future. She has improved so amazingly while she has been under our charge that we have every reason to believe she -will become a useful and worthy woman." It is a fact so well known to many as to excite no horror and alas! in many, no indignation, "that it is not an infrequent thing for a man to hire a young and pretty girl, ostensibly for clerical work, but 'with the express purpose of debauching her" We could give many such incidents. Here is one which shows the danger to which such girls are exposed: A young lady from a neighboring town, clear- headed, bright, and thank God clean and virtuous, thought that in Chicago she could improve her financial THE SOCIAL EVIL. 85 condition. She was "a good clerk, and typewriter and personally responded to sixteen advertisements she found in Chicago papers, inserted by Chicago business men, asking for a female typewriter. Out of the six- teen, FIFTEEN explicitly told her she might do their work at a salary of from $10 to $12 a week if she would submit to their embraces. Fifteen times had she to spurn these horrible proposals. The sixteenth was the honorable proposal of an honorable man which she accepted, at a salary of $5 a week. And she is still there, and is prepared to give names and full particulars under oath of the above statement, if any person is found with temerity enough to deny it. There are many girls, however, who have not re- ceived the home-training this girl received, and who, therefore, would easily have fallen into the miry pit of sensuality. Our commissioners know of several who have yielded to such offers. At the opening of the new building of the Woman's Refuge Mr. Ballard made the pertinent re mark that if ever a plan should be needed for thedeten tion of the evil men who have made this Home neces- sary, he was prepared to furnish plans for a building in which "every room should be cold as their hearts and dark as their deeds." And to this sentiment, all those who are familiar with many cases of " woman's fall," will heartily concur. There are so many forms in which this most gigantic of evils the social evil manifests itself that it is impossible in these few pages to do more than cursorily touch upon them. One writer has elo- quently and truthfully said : " Impurity is about us like a cloud. It presses in- 86 THE SOCIAL EVIL. ward at all points like an atmosphere. Its grosses* forms are its fewest forms, and its creeping mist tar nishes and defaces even more than it destroys." Col. J. L. Greene's words, uttered at a congress in Washington, apply perfectly to Chicago: " The open doors of hell stand wide to lure the footsteps of oui sons into the ways of death, and to make traffic in woman's ruin ; and we jostle on the streets their emis- saries, who, with hellish craft and unpitying hearts lure the untaught, the unwary, the giddy, foolish girls to re- cruit those swiftly-thinned ranks that fill our hospital? and our potter's fields with loathsome disease and pre- mature death, and who put into the hands of our youths and our children a literature of unspeakable depravity' The secret lust of the outwardly respectable has it? unsuspected homes of sin in all our quarters; the break- ers of marriage vows, men and women, masquerade in our society; the miserable poor herd in a promiscuity that makes innocence impossible and purity almost so; the low wages that make the bargains on our shop counters press upon the unnumbered army of work- women the constant temptation to sell soul and body to supply needed comfort; and the air of the round world throbs wearily day and night with the foul speech and deadly mirth of foul minds and hearts. These things we all might see and know for ourselves, did we not try to shut our eyes to them, and draw our skirts about us, and feel that our only responsibility in regard to them is to avoid them." Our commissioners, however, have not avoided them, and we would that with loud trumpet tones then note of warning might be heard not only in Chicago, but also through the length and breadth of the land. THE SOCIAL EVIL. 87 There are several sections in Chicago almost en- tirely devoted for whole blocks, to houses of prostitu- tion. One of these localities is known as The Black Hole, and it does not belie its name. Lemuel Eli Quiggs in his Tin-Types of Xew York gives a description of the Bowery in that city, that per- fectly applies to the Black Hole and many other less noted regions of Chicago. "In truth, it is a suggestive place, is the Black Hole. Day and night are all the same to it. It never gets up and it never goes to bed. It never takes a holiday. It never keeps Lent. It in- dulges in no sentiments. It acknowledges no authority that bids it remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But from year's end to year's end it bubbles, and boils, and seethes, and frets, while the daylight lasts, and in the glare of the brighter night it plunges headlong into carousal ! " On many streets in Chicago, girls constantly lie in wait and solicit men as they pass. It is a common thing for these poor creatures to openly ply their traffic. And there are houses ostensibly hotels close at hand where they take their, alas! too often, willing victims. Sometimes the invitation is to take a glass of beer, and the offer to allow "privileges" if the man will pay. There are always gaudily decorated saloons and res- taurants, in near proximity to the " walks " of these girls, in which there are private boxes convenient for such a purpose, where, as the girls say, " we shall be perfectly safe, for there's only the waiter to see, and he only comes when we ring the bell." And these restaurants are places where some of the leading men of the city go and eat. Fine, elegant rooms well fitted up food prepared delicately; yet 88 THE SOCIAL EVIL. they are not above being made a means of pandering to the lowest vices of mankind. They may say they know nothing of what goes on in these private com- partments. "If men and women wish to eat, well and good, and they are not supposed to know nor to care what transpires there." Granted that this is so, then it is only another instance of the impudence of vice that it dare stalk so openly into "respectable places." And if the saloon-keepers shall set up the same plea, we would ask them why they keep a door, with a dim light above it, in a back alley, easy of access, ready tor one of these girls to enter with her companion, be he somewhat ashamed and timid? And why is it that these girls and God knows we pity them, oftentime far more than the men who use them are allowed to stand at the foot of the hotel stairs, soliciting men as they pass by? Living as they do, upon a stimulating diet, young men are weakened in power to resist such temptations when thrown in their 'way. And it is not for one- moment to be thought that all these girls bear a rude, repulsive look. That they may ultimately become these we know sadly too well, but in the earlier days of their evil career they look, Christian mother! just as sweet, and pretty, and demure, as your own charming and God be thanked! spotless daughter. This has been, and ever is, one of the constant sources of surprise to those who first engage in this work. It is not always the vicious-looking that are vicious. Fresh- looking, bright, vivacious country lasses, who have not yet begun to seriously feel the terrible effects of their awful life, are the ones who are sought for in these " city " hptel-brothels, for they are more liable to THE SOCIAL EVIL. 89 ^ernpt, more successful in bringing in custom, than the more practiced, but at the same time, more coarse- looking seductress. And, father! mother! your boy is exposed to these temptations. They meet him on every hand, unless he is unusually guarded, or unusually dull. These female seducers are not all professional prostitutes by any means. There is quite an army of shop-girls who walk our streets in detachments of one or two night after night. Our commissioners re- port them on every hand. Sometimes the stories of ^heir hard lives have been learned by questioning. Working for $5 a week how could they live health- fully and clothe themselves decently? After paying two dollars a week for room and fifteen cents a meal for three meals a day there is not much left for clothing and the other necessaries of life. Poor girls, our hearts bleed for them. They are to be pitied and sympathized with. Their woes ought to commend them to the loving care of Christian fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. But instead, we crowd to the bargain counters like flocks of silly sheep, eagerly anxious to purchase the things we do not need, and yet, which sold at the low price they are, still further reduce the Avages of these already almost starving work-girls. God forgive us all for our selfishness. Many a girl working in a store in Chicago, stands at a counter all day, and then, when the shades of night fall over the business centers, walks the streets, solicit- ing the passers-by. There are any number of hotels where for a small sum a room may be obtained, and these poverty-stricken ones, almost driven to despera- tion by their wretched condition, are constrained to $O THE SOCIAL EVIL. use this apparently easy method for adding to their in- comes. How awful 'tis that bread's so dear, When flesh and blood's so cheap. And more awful when we contemplate that to *nany the only way open whereby they may purchasa bread and butter is by the sale of their bodies and souls. We have spoken of girls receiving for wages $5 a week, but there are many who are not paid even thi* miserable pittance. One large store in this city pay competent girls from $2.50 to $3.50 per week, and theses are fair wages for ordinary counte-r girls. In the fac- tories too, such fearfully small wages are paid, that the words of Annie Besant become a stern indictment of the wrong economic principles upon which our busi- nesess are conducted. She says: "Our great em- ployers build homes for fallen women, while they are manufacturing them in their factories." It is all very well for people who know nothing of the lives of these poor creatures to say, " they should either live honest or starve, maybe drown themselves.'' Such a criticism upon them implies that they are possessed of the fine fibre of soul without which one will not cannot, starve or drown one's self. There are few like Lucretius or Virginius. Death is not an easy thing to face, whether it be the slow process of starvation or the more rapid transit by means of knife, charcoal, or the river, and when it becomes a question of " lose your virtue or die," the number of those who will choose the lacter are very few. The wise man knew the human heart pretty well when he wrote, " Skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life." even though that life is all THE SOCIAL EVIL. QI vanity and vexation of spirit. For when a girl accepts a life on such conditions she knows it is but to accept that dire degradation that is worse than vexation of spirit it is a life of wretchedness, misery and dishonor. And they accept the life because as a rule they are neither logical or far-sighted. As Dr. Andrew F. Currier says, " That it should furnish the only available means of preventing starvation in those who are will- ing to work, is too frequently a fact to be cast aside as mere sentiment. How can human beings live on the ridiculous wages which some forms of industry yield ? This is not a pleasant table of alternatives which many a poor girl with scanty wages has to face to beg, steal, starve, commit suicide, or turn prostitute." Oh for men with the power of Moses, the strength of Samson, the vigor of Gideon, the daring of Elijah and the courage of Isaiah to beard the giants of sloth and selfish indifference in their dens, and with eloquent whip of persuading power lead them to make some radical reform in their treatment of these girls. Not only is the woe of their lives cast upon us, but their souls will assuredly be required at our hands un- less we seek more earnestly to do our bounden duty to them. They surely ought to be able to exchange their labor for the necessaries of life; and no system can bear the searching light of justice that does not award them this meed of their labor. Some sections are devoted almost entirely to pro- fessional prostitutes. On the West Side there are places where it is im- possible for a man to walk at night without being openly solicited, and in passing through in the day time there are ten chances to one that if he gazes in the direo 92 THE SOCIAL EVIL. tion of the house windows, gaily-dressed and gaudily- painted "sirens" will seek to lure him to destruction. Some of the girls are white and some are black, but, all alike alas! have the same'black purpose of heart. In one section on the South Side there are several regions devoted entirely to houses of prostitution. In one portion there are from forty to forty-five houses. " And," in the words of the special commissioner who reports this section, " they are not wretched houses, speaking of destitution and want. Oh, no! the visitors generally come in carriages, and I have counted four- teen carriages at one time in this one block, waiting for the ' lords and masters of creation ' who had gone into the ' snare of the fowler' within. " One night, passing by here, I saw four well- dressed, well-appearing gentlemen (?) come out from a house, followed by the four girls with whom they had been having a ' good time,' and the openness of the thing seemed to be nothing extraordinary to them. " The major portion of these houses are ' gilded palaces.' They are as elegantly decorated and elabor- ately furnished within as the mansions of Michigan and Prairie avenues. Fine pictures, bric-a-brac, musical instruments, elegant curtains, Persian rugs and the like, are what one here finds." Such houses are of the " higher " class. They are places where young men, and business men too, are frequent visitors. Our commissioners have followed several of these men to their homes on the avenues and boulevards, where their families were doubtless alto- gether ignorant of their sinfulness. Dr. T. De Witt Talmage after his tour of explora-, tion into the haunts of vice in Brooklyn and New THE SOCIAL EVIL. 9J, York wrote "all the sacred rhetoric about the costly magnificence of the haunts of iniquity is apocryphal." This was doubtless true of the places he saw, but it is not true of many places in Chicago. There are some houses here where elegance of decoration, etc., are to be met with that would charm the most exacting "conos- cente " and from which even disciples of Oscar Wilde might learn. As to the patrons of these places, one of the lady commissioners, whose life for many years has been de- voted to the rescue of the inmates from their fearful life of shame and ruin, thus speaks of one experience: " In calling at one house, the housekeeper in- formed me that the girls were nearly all out. 'But,' said she, 'there's one girl in, but is with her. He's been here drunk for over a week. ( The blank can be filled in by the reader to apply to a millionaire of Chicago, a man as well known as any one of the recent candidates for mayor, and a leading society man.) " Not wishing to see this one girl, under the cir- cumstances, I left, saying I would call again later on. "A few hours later I returned, and as I approached the door one of the girls also came up, to whom I said, ' Can I see you and have a talk with you for a little while?' "'Certainly,' she replied, 'Come in!' " We entered the house, and, instead of taking me to the parlor, where I was accustomed to go and have my talks with them, she took me up two flights of stairs. I thought she was going to her own room so that we might talk alone and undisturbed, but, instead of that she gently rapped at a door. As it was opened, 94 THE SOCIAL EVIL. I was somewhat alarmed to find it in semi-darkness. I had never been in a ' tight place ' in any of my previous visitations to these houses, and thought ' surely they don't mean to entrap me,' and as I stood, the girl urged me to enter. I refused; when another girl, in an almost nude condition, came to the threshold and like- wise desired me to ' Come in! ' " As she did so, I heard the voice of a man pro- ceeding from the direction of the bed, talking in the thick, heavy, maudlin tones of drunkenness. This again alarmed me, and I drew back in horror and dis- gust, when the inmate of the room sought to calm my fear by saying, 'Oh that's only and he's as drunk as a fool.' " I refused to go into the room, and my guide, therefore, took me downstairs to the parlor, where, by this time, several of the girls were assembled. " While I was talking to them the girl we had left upstairs came in. She was in an almost nude state, but was, without exception, one of the most beautiful crea- tures my eyes had ever rested upon. Form, figure, complexion, hair, eyes, voice and manner were alike charming, and as she seemed anxious to talk with me, the interest she aroused in my heart was met with a corresponding confidence in her. manner towards me. When she learned my name and mission, she asked if I knew Miss B (the president of the Mission) and I then learned that her mother was a member of the same church as Miss B , and that this poor girl, living in such abasement, had at one time been a member of the Sunday school of that church. Think of it! Here was a child whose friends lived but a few miles from where she was, and yet they were mourning her as one THE SOCIAL EVIL. 95 * worse than dead.' And the vice that holds her in its chains is allowed to spread and grow almost un- checked. Few are the efforts being made by any one to suppress this monster evil of licentiousness, and it swallows up some of the fairest and most beautiful of our maidens. " But I must return to my account of this man and his victims. A few days later a girl whom I had res- cued a year and a half previously from her sinful life, came to my rooms in order to confer with me about taking a situation that had recently been offered to her. I thought I had seen her on the streets a few days pre- viously with a woman of whose purity and honesty of character I had every reason to be suspicious, and, therefore, out of kindness to the girl, asked her if that was the woman who had been the means of getting her the situation. She replied, ' Yes! Mrs. is a great friend of Mr. (mentioning the name of the man I had found drunk in the house of prostitution) and he has offered me this place. He is very kind to young girls, and when they are poor and have no outfit, he gives it to them.' " This only confirmed my fears as to the danger the poor child was in, and I begged her to have nothing to do with either the man or woman. She refused to accept my counsel, until, as a last resort, I told her what I knew of this man's character, and where I had found him a few days before. ' How can such a man be a true friend to you ? ' " She acknowledged that it did not seem as if he could, and gladly gave up the tempting offer in which such danger lurked, in order to take a humbler but far more safe position. 96 THE SOCIAL EVIL. " Now, perhaps, some will say, how do I know the girls didn't lie about it's being Mr. who was in that room? " Let me explain. Subsequently I was in that room myself, and the girl whose beauty had so charmed me, showed me his photograph, nailed to the inner door of her wardrobe, a large, almost life-size head, and also showed me a number of handsome presents he had given her. And I thought to myself when I saw that, as I have seen other photographs of Chicago men in such vile places, ' what would their families, their churches, and society in general, say, if they knew what I know?' "Would to God that something could be done to keep from these houses men of apparent respectability, and of family, for they at least can find no excuse for visiting these vile dens." We agree with our commissioner. Whatever apparent reason any unmarried men may have, cannot be pleaded as an excuse for the lustfulness of married men, and in our remedies we shall suggest what ought to be done with such cases. Do not let our meaning be misunderstood. We do not intend to convey the idea that unmarried men have any legitimate excuse for visiting harlots. We say most emphatically there is no excuse for either married or unmarried men. We asked for information on this matter from a gentlemen who used to be a cab driver in Chicago, but who is now a prominent official in one of the leading religious organizations of this city and county, and he reports as follows: " A prominent hotel-keeper of this city once en- gaged me to drive to a certain house on the North Side. THE SOCIAL EVIL. Q7 Soon after we got there, he came out accompanied by a beautiful young lady. Then he told me to drive around Park, and said in a whisper I needn't hurry, I might take my time. After I had driven around the park several times he told me to take them to - . (mentioning a house I well knew as a high-toned as- signation house). This interested me in what he wished to do. As we drove along he began to force matters with the young lady, and she screamed so loud that a policeman ran into the road to stop me. But I whipped up my horse and managed to evade him. When we got to the house, he went inside, alone, and soon returned with the madame whom he introduced as his friend, Mrs. . The two then tried to persuade the girl to go inside, but for some reason or other she wisely refused. Mr. Hotel-keeper then told me to drive her home, and went off himself, when he doubt- less told his wife he had been detained with very ' ur- gent business.' "Another time I was standing with my cab when two well-dressed young men came to me and said they were up from a neighboring city, and were here to ' paint the town red.' They wanted me to drive them where they could get < something young.' I took them to one of the leading sporting houses in the city, and soon afterwards they came out accompanied by two beautiful young girls who could not have been more than seventeen or eighteen years of age. I first of all took them to the 'at that time a noted place in Chi- cago where most respectable ladies and gentlemen would go and sip their wine, little imagining that they were in one of the worst resorts of the city. "After they had caroused there awhile, they asked g8 THE SOCIAL EVIL. me to drive them out to a fancy -house on the outskirts of the city, and after spending nearly the whole of the night there in lustful pleasure, keeping me waiting all the time, the young men told me to take them back to their hotel, and the girls to the place from which I had fetched them. I did so. " When I got to the girls' home, they were both sound asleep, and, as the early morning sun shone on their fair young faces, tears came into my eyes, and rolled down my cheeks, hardened man as I was, at the thought that young men demand the sacrifice of the lives, the bodies and the souls of such girls as these, in order that their lustful and evil passions may be gratified." This report leads us to the next inquiry, which we must treat as briefly as possible, viz: From whence comes the great army of prostitutes ? As the old ones die, where are the new ones found? Would to God that men would ask themselves this question, and then carefully seek an answer. Many are decoyed into such houses; more go there after being betrayed. They have lost caste, they are disgraced, and they think there is no other door open to them. Luther's words are indeed true, even to-day, three centuries after they were uttered, " This is a hard world for girls" Hundreds of girls can be found to-day in this city indeed they are passing through the hands of our com- missioners daily in private houses, Mission rooms, hospitals, and poor-house, who have been betrayed under promise of marriage, and then deserted by the execrable wretches who thus traded upon the too great love of a true-hearted woman. THE SOCIAL EVIL. 99 Betrayed, soon to become mothers, cast out by friends, looked upon as sources of contamination in the Church of Christ, where they should be cared for and protected, they feel, as many of them have ex- pressed it in words, " My womanhood was gone, and I could do no other than go to the bad." And to the bad they accordingly went, victims of a cruel and un- just social law which condemns the woman, but ex- cases the man. Whoever studies this problem will be surprised to find how many girls there are who are forced into this life because of their too trustful disposition. Christian and infidel writers alike agree, for investigation com- pels the making of such a statement. From a recent number of a Chicago free-thinking journal, we take the following extract which eloquently expresses the above fact: " My pen pauses. It will not move on. I cannot write of your ruin. I can only remember how you looked, an innocent girl, with your tender, sweet face, your red lips and golden hair. You were seventeen then, as spotless as the lily that lifts itself on its grace- ful stem to the warm kisses of the glowing sun. I know how you fell. Ife paid the fine. He saved you from entering that fearful prison den. I can under- stand your gratitude. I know that you were a woman. It was so sweet to be loved. You believed in him. I understand how it came to you gradually, that he was a monster, an inhuman, heartless wretch, more terrible than a wild beast in the forest. The latter would crush your white bones, would devour you at once. This other, this horrid human vulture that fattens on the degradation of his victims, slowly drained the last bit of IOO THE SOCIAL EVIL. innocence and purity from your woman's soul. He tired of you. You went down down! Where else could you go? Up and down, when considered in rela- tion to men and women are not merely relative terms. " And when they brought you into that police court again and again, he, this man, always stepped forward and paid the fine. And again and again you were forced into the street to ply your wretched voca- tion; and into his coarse, brutal hand your pretty white fingers passed the shining gold. You were young and beautiful and possessed a market value, and this man, as was so coarsely said, 'was in luck.' And the great State, the mighty corporation, was in luck, too! You and thirty thousand more constituted its revenue. It lived off you paid its officers, ran its Justice shop!" There are doubtless some who live this life because of their own wicked inclinations, but, we assure our readers that this number is far less than they could possibly imagine. Some are driven to it as we have before shown; and Dr. Currier thus speaks of others: " I believe that women are less influenced by uncontrollable sexual de- sire than men. It is not usually this which is a leading motive to a life of prostitution. Many women are fore- doomed to such a career. Their early training has been bad or wholly neglected; their home surroundings have been vicious. In the homes of drunkards, thieves and prostitutes, it is scarcely possible to educate children in the ways of virtue. Thousands of women go from such homes to practice prostitution, or perhaps practice it within their homes, with no consciousness of its im- morality. Without a conception of morality how can there be a knowledge of its violation?" THE SOCIAL EVIL. IOI Our cabman commissioner strikes the key-note to many a woman's ruin in the following report: " One evening I was standing with my cab, when two well-dressed ladies stepped up to me and asked me to drive them to Avenue. They would not tell me the number, and I saw at once they had been drinking very heavily. We had not gone far before they became hilarious and excited, and broke all the windows of the cab. Then they began to quarrel about a diamond pin, and made so much noise that an officer came to the center of the road, stopped my horses, and, getting into the cab, ordered me to drive to the police- station, which I did. When we arrived, the ladies were relieved of their diamonds, gold watches, jewelry and money, and were locked up in a cell where there was nothing on which to sit or lie except a bench. " I wanted my pay, but was told by the officer in charge to be at the station the next morning, when it would be given to me. " I appeared at the stated time, but was then in- formed that the ladies were released on bail and that I must get an order from them ere 1 could be paid. I got their address, went to the house and was admitted after considerable talk. To my painful surprise I learned that both ladies were married : one had a sweet, little baby girl, not more than six months old who had been alone all night while her mother was on her drunken spree. These ladies lived in a very aristo- cratic part of the city, and their neighbors would never suspect that they ever did such a thing as get drunk." In this case they were mercifully kept from un- chastity, but, in too many cases with which we are IO2 THE SOCIAL EVIL. familiar, such escapades have ended in the assignation house, the divorce courts, the life of shame, and finally,, the dishonored grave. Here is a case which was heard in one of the courts quite recently: A white girl was found in a negro house of pros- titution. She was the daughter of wealthy and respectable parents. Led astray and deserted she became desperate and reckless, and was sent to one of the rescue homes of this city, from which she escaped, to finally be arrested in this horrible den, where she was consorting with the vilest kind of negroes. Taken to the place in a state of semi-intoxication, by some man whom she had picked up on the streets, she was kept in that condition all the time she was there, and we can well imagine her horror at awaking to find herself in jail. Full of remorse, her bitterness was increased tenfold, when, on going into court, she found her mother, who had been telegraphed for. Sobbing and crying she begged the maternal forgiveness, which with true love was freely and fully given. When our commissioner saw the girl, she was alone in her misery, in the cell of the criminal, held by the law as a witness against the keepers of the dive into whose hellish place she had been entrapped by evil machinations. There she lay on her narrow cot, sobbing piteously in her pain of body, and far worse anguish of soul, praying for death to relieve her of a life that had become too painful to be borne. Thus it is that women enter these houses. Many would flee from them, if they knew where to go to gain an honest living, where they would not constantly be taunted by reminders of their former sinful lives. There THE SOCIAL EVIL. IO3 are to-day in our hospitals many poor girls, sent there diseased and wretched, who would never return to their fearful occupation did they but know of some other place where they might go. But, without character, without friends, without money, without anything, in fact, except the desire to flee to a purer life, their path- way seems hedged in on every hand, so that a return to their old courses seems to be the only alternative for them. Take the following words of Lyman Abbott's, change the word " man " into " woman " and in the first three ways of treating a fallen woman you have key-notes to much of the sin and misery existing in Chicago houses of prostitution. " There are four ways of treating sinful man; four ways in which men actually do treat sinful men; the way of the wolf, the way of the bison, the way of the bee, and the way of Christ. "When a wolf in the pack falls, all the other wolves pounce on him and tear him to pieces. And that is the way some treat a man that has gone wrong. They pull him down, tear him from shoulder to shoulder* rend him, roll his iniquity like a sweet morsel under their tongues, rejoice in his iniquity; and these are the very men who are afraid that forgiveness will tend to take away the conditions of justice, and let men go free. " When a bison falls in his track, the bisons do not turn upon him and rend him; they leave him alone and sweep on in their course. And that is the second way men treat a man gone wrong. Put him in turn the key on him, bury him in oblivion, forget and the great tide of life sweeps on. It is the indiffer- ence and unconcern of absolute selfishness. IO4 THE SOCIAL EVIL. " Then there is the way of the bee. When the drones get too numerous, and cannot be endured any longer, the bees turn upon them and sting them to death, and then shove them out of the hive. So long as sin is not very troublesome, leave it alone : when it takes such shape as to threaten our hive we will get rid of it, and then we will go on making our honey. " The way of the wolf, the way of the bison, the way of the bee and the way of Christ. " We have two stories in the Bible, of women taken in adultery. One m the Old Testament, through whom a javelin was thrust, and she died instantly; and again of the sinner in the New Testament to whom Christ spake the gracious words of hope and forgive- ness. Which of these stories has had the greater effect in the purification of humanity? I doubt not, do you?" " How many prostitutes are there in Chicago? " This is a most difficult question to answer. Some years ago, the pastor of one of the leading churches of the city made the assertion that there were3o,ooo pros- titutes in Chicago. This estimate was undoubtedly an exaggerated one; yet, had it included all those who are habitually unchaste in this city, it would have been nearer the mark than most people would imagine. All estimates, however, must be more speculative than mathematical. We can tell how many open houses there are in certain regions. For instance, in one section there are from 40 to 45, in another about 35 to 40, and in yet another from 10 to a dozen, and so on all over the city. The number of the inmates varies. Some have two or three, others have as many as 25, and in a few cases even more. We are perfectly safe in affirming that there are THE SOCIAL EVIL. IO5 more houses of prostitution and assignation in Chicago than there are churches. Solomon spoke of the former as "the way of hell," his father, David, designated the latter as " gates of heaven." Painful it is, that there are more open ways to hell than there are open gates to heaven. The churches are open but a small portion of the week, the houses of vice never close; they are open from one year's end to another. Eternally vigilant in their soul and body-destroying work, they emphasize the Nazarene's statement that " the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." They never sleep; and thus the seductive temptations are ever kept before the sons of men. And, alas, too many of the young and innocent are entrapped by these dragons of death, as a succeeding portion of this chapter will too sadly show. Referring to those who are " habitually unchaste," the prostitutes themselves are very bitter against those who, for pleasure only, are walking in paths of sin. One of our commissioners writes the following: " A startling statement is being made openly by the inmates of houses of prostitution and we have some facts that confirm it, horrible though it be and that is, that their " business " is being taken from them by married women; women with good homes, and ap- parently respectable, who, just to gratify unholy pas- sion, give themselves into the hands of the seducers who would otherwise come to their houses of prostitu- tion." This statement would not have found its way into the pages of this book on the mere charge of harlots, but, unfortunately and unhappily, our commissioners 106 THE SOCIAL EVIL. are in possession of information which goes to con- firm it. Then, too, there is a large number of shop and office-girls, who walk the streets at night, and take their company into the many assignation houses and " European" hotels, in order that they may add to the miserable pittance they receive for their legitimate labor of the day. Hence, whilst no accurate figures can be given,, there are enough of souls going down to death, and dragging others with them, to make every true man and woman in Chicago stand aghast in horror when they think of the spectacle thus presented. There are several keepers of houses of prostitution n Chicago who have accumulated wealth. Their commercial instincts are developed to an extraordinary degree, but how fearful the character of their mer- chandise! They buy the bodies and souls of young girls, and sell them again for gain. To make money is their sole aim, and many a poor girl's remains lie in a dishonored grave, brought there by the " com- mercial instincts" of these Jezebels. One of the most wealthy of the class in Chicago boasts her philanthropy and charity. She sneers at the petty contributions of Christian women to worthy objects, and proudly calls attention to her own dona- tions. Like Ahab's Jezebel she can well afford to buy up vineyards and give them away to others, when she traffics in human souls and makes wealth out of the vices of men. These women simply profess to accept the statement of those men, lay and professional, and even ecclesi- THE SOCIAL EVIL. IO/ astical, who assert that prostitution is a " necessary evil." It is not our intention here to argue this pro- position."* We simply deny it most emphatically, on any and every ground. Such a statement is neither true to nature, science or morality. All are bitterly opposed to prostitution in any and every form. We will dismiss the matter at this time, merely in- troducing the following comment upon the subject taken from our cabman commissioner's report: "Men talk about prostitution being a * necessary evil.' " When I was cab driving and would be standing in front of one of these houses waiting for my 'fare,' who was inside, I used to count young men by the dozen going into the places. Some of them whom I knew I have watched, and have seen them come to a sad end. I have one young man in mind now as I write, who got so low with disease that he jumped into the river, glad to end his miserable life all caused by this ' necessary ' evil. He not only threw his own life away, but threw a dark cloud over a whole family. " Another I knew, who was as bright and promis- ing a young man as one would see in a day's walk. I saw him go steadily down, until to-day he has lost the respect of all who knew him, and has brought the deepest sorrow over his whole family. " Another came from a good family, and, poor * We may not omit, for we know its increasing prevalenae the eagerly quoted advice of some doctors, that sexual intercourse is necessary for health. Such teaching is to choose one's words deliberately an infernal lie! Alike its existence and its condem- nation may be gathered from the words of Sir James Paget (Clinical Lectures and Essays): "Many of your patients will ask you about sexual intercourse, and expect you to prescribe fornication. I would just as soon prescribe theft or lying, or anything else God has for- bidden. Chastity do:S no harm to mind or body. 1 ' IO8 THE SOCIAL EVIL. fellow, after finding himself diseased, and seeing that hd could no longer master his base appetite and low desires, put a revolver to his forehead, and thus ended his miserable life. All this from a ' necessary evil. "What a shame that men in this enlightened age of the world will not do something to stop this evil. These places should be guarded, and every man caught going there should be severely whipped. "If a man would realize that when he goes to a house of this kind he is as good as saying: ' I approve of this, and to-night I demand that some young girl must give up her innocent life, leave her home, and in a very short time die in a miserable and degraded state, all to satisfy my lust;' he would then see the awful- ness of this 'necessary evil ' and pray earnestly to be delivered from its power." We now turn to one of the most painful phases of this whole question, and that such facts as we present can be true is one of the great mysteries of human life. That they are facts, is the only apology we offer for exposing them, and giving a needed note of warning. "If ye hear without a blush Deeds to make the roused blood rush Like red lava through your veins, For your sisters now in chains; Tell me are ye fit to be Fathers of the brave and free? " In one of the Chicago morning papers of last February, a perfectly harmless-looking advertisement appeared, to the effect that a " gentleman wanted an American girl of from 14 to 16 years of age to do housework in return for fair wages, education in music, etc." A widowed mother of this city, living alone with THE SOCIAL EVIL. IC>9 her two daughters one 13, the other about 16 saw this advertisement, and thinking it would be a help to her in the hard battle of life, as well as an aid to her growing girl, had the child answer it. She, poor woman, earned her livelihood by scrubbing out saloons, working in the early hours of the morning and the late night to gain the scanty pittance upon which the trio existed. A week after the letter was written, a well-dressed, elderly gentleman called at the humble home, and on seeing the girl, grew quite enthusiastic over her. " She would just suit him ; just the very kind of girl he wanted! Yes, they were poor, but if she would only please him, he would help them considerably, and they should never know poverty again! She would be a lovely girl when well dressed," etc. It was arranged that the girl should accept the situation, and go at a later date. She was to receive $2.50 per week, be allowed to go to school, and was to have a musical education. The mother, her suspicions scarcely aroused by such an apparently fatherly man, who had quite a budget of recommendations, asked who composed his household. The reply was: " My wife is dead, and I live alone with my only daughter." A few days later the old man came for the girl. In the meantime, the mother's suspicions had been aroused, and she rather demurred; but he assured her there could be no danger, and rather reluctantly she consented, and the girl went with him to her new home. And now we let our commissioner relate the story exactly as it was told by the girl: " When we got on the cars he held on to me in a way that made me feel as if everybody in the car would be looking at us. It was rather late when we got to IIO THE SOCIAL EVIL. his house, and I found his daughter was a lady of, I should say, 30 years of age. After I'd had something to eat, she went to bed, and then the old man came to me and wanted me to sit on his lap. I told him I wanted to go to bed, and I would like him to show me my room. He said, I should occupy a room with him. 'Indeed, I'll do no such thing,' I replied." And then, to show the unsophisticated character of the girl, she went on and recounted the dialogue which followed, in which he told her that he didn't want a " public girl," but a " nice girl," and he " didn't see why she should n't be willing to please him in this regard." The girl, in her replies, waxed indignant, and spoke in quite a loud tone, wishing to return home, whilst he urged her to be quiet, lest his daughter should hear. Seeing he could not prevail upon the child to yield to his base purposes, he showed her to her room, where, fortunately, although she failed to lock her door, she slept in security. The next day, early, she demanded that he take her home, and after breakfast he saw her a portion of the way home. The poor mother 'had spent a sleepless night, be- cause of the absence, for the first time, of her child, was glad when she returned, and was more thankful than words can tell, after hearing her story, that no harm had come to her. She says she would have exposed him then had she had money to do so, but what was she to do, alone and helpless? It is for the purpose of warning young girls against answering such speciously worded advertise- ments that this incident is given. THE SOCIAL EVIL. Ill We have now in our possession the following letter, which was sent by this old wretch to the girl shortly after her departure from his house. Miss CHICAGO. March 5, 1891. Have not heard from you. I told you to write after a day or two. If you thought I desired to drop you, you made a mistake. I wanted you to put a little more confidence in me, then we would both be happy. Would like to hear from you. A few days later still, another letter was received, and, when our commissioner began to make inquiries, another child was found to whom he had made the same proposals, and whose parents had threatened to expose him. In one of the letters written to these latter people, he said that if any harm should come to the child, he was abundantly able to take care of her; and, furthermore, that he wanted a girl whose parents would implicitly trust him, and not worry him by any suspicions that he would not do right by the child. This man is a large property owner in Chicago, and some of his lady tenants have learned to be afraid of him. One lady never allows him to come into her house, and keeps the door constantly bolted lest he surprise her. These facts are stated to show the gen- eral reputation the man has in the neighborhood where he lives. Now, suppose the parents of these children re- ferred to had been careless as to the morality of their children, as, alas! many, many parents are. His wealth would have purchased their acquiescence, and more girls would have gone to swell the ranks of the " ruined '' of this great city. This is but one of many similar cases with which 112 THE SOCIAL EVIL. our commissioners are fully cognizant. Here is a man, himself a lawyer, fully acquainted with the law, and therefore cautious in his wickedness; an old man, past the vigor of life, and possibly incapable of criminally assaulting a young girl, and yet, who >finds in debauch- ing these children of tender years by sexually exciting them, a kind of sensual pleasure which ministers to his base and depraved appetite. There is another man, well known to our ccmmis- sioners, who has corrupted eighteen young girls of the tender years of from eight to fourteen, and no one knows how many more. He used to beguile them into his stopping-place, which was convenient for such a purpose, being near enough to the public street, and yet away from close observation, and would there tamper with them. All these children were examined by physicians, and all were found to have suffered from his bestial hand- ling, and yet, when an effort was made to punish him by proving rape, or attempted rape, five reput- able physicians of this city went upon the witness stand and swore that the wretch was physically in- capable of committing a rape he was suffering from "senile dementia." He was capable enough ot per- forming all the onerous duties of a responsible posi- tion, requiring some activity and physical vigor, and, although the evidence of his beguiling the girls into his den and tampering with them was absolutely con- clusive, it was found impossible to convict him, owing to the insufficiency of the law to deal with such cases. The Protective Agency has repeatedly been sum- moned into court for the protection of little girls from brutes, who apparently have no fear of retribution. THE SOCIAL EVIL. 113 Cannot this reproach upon our boasted nineteenth century civilization be blotted out? May it not come, that public sentiment can be developed that will force law to be executed, and if need be, amended, so that innocent girls of infantile age may not fall a prey to brutal passion? The evil and corrupting influences of such men cannot be estimated by any of the conceptions people generally hold. Those who are fully aware of the fearful results of such tampering declare that the hor- rible results that accrue from this physical debasement are far worse than those of prostitution. Prostitution is a fearful vice for a young girl to plunge herself headlong into; the woes and horrors ot the whirlpool no pen can ever depict, no tongue evei tell ; and yet, though a fearful perversion of a God- given and natural function, it is a normal use of the sexual organs, but in the bondage produced in the body, mind and soul by these other practices, where these organs are used abnormally, there is death in- volved from the very inception of the habit; death to everything. The body loses its power, the mind its strength, and the soul its perceptions, and nothing but the open grave of pollution and disease stands before the poor victim of such practices. One of the female commissioners says, speaking of this foul crime against the bodies of young girls: " It should be punished more severely than the crime of murder, for it is far worse than murder. There is something cleanly and kind in the immediate taking away of a life, horrible and awful though it be, but in taking a young, innocent, tiny child for I have heard the story from the lips of mere children of a few years 114 THE SOCIAL EVIL. and arousing in her the sexual instinct which should remain dormant for many years, and thus implanting in her a desire for unnatural excitement, which means death to all that is good in body, mind and soul in her; such a crime is foul and detestable beyond the power of language to express." The necessity for some change in the law, to make it possible to punish those who seduce young girls, is painfully apparent in Chicago to those who observe. One girJ, soon to become a mother, only a few days ago, declared she did not believe there was a pure *nan or woman in existence. This statement was the natural outcome of the embitterment of her life caused by her betrayal and the consequent disgrace heaped upon her, because she loved much, but not wisely. Another poor girl speaking of the man who had betrayed her, said, " I hope the Lord will forgive him. I believe He will, but I don't think I shall live long enough to do so." If the number of illegitimate children born each year in this city was given, the figures would astonish those who read them. A visit to any of the hospitals will open the eyes of those unacquainted with the facts. Many are the poor babes born of young mothers with- out wedding-ring, or other name than their own to bestow upon their offspring. In the County Hospital, the Infirmary, St. Luke's, the Women's Hospital, the Erring Woman's Refuge, the Home of the Good Shepherd, and many other places, these waifs of sin and sorrow are launched into life's troubled sea, handi- capped for the race before them in the very start. Another outcome of the " social evil" is the mur- der of born and unborn infants. No statement of this THE SOCIAL EVIL. 115 evil would be even approximately complete that failed to present the truth in regard to this latter awful, and peculiarly American, sin. We are not prepared to give definite information exposing the horrors of the "baby-farming " system in Chicago, but, that baby-farms exist here there is no question. Of their general character all readers are doubtless aware. The keepers of baby- farms are murderers posing as humanitarians. Their places are described by Mr. Elbridge T. Gerry as " concerns by means of which persons usually of disreputable character, eke out a liv- ing by taking two or three, or four babies to board. They are the charges of outcasts, or illegitimate children. They feed them on sour milk, and give them paregoric to keep them quiet, until they die." In New York there is a law compelling them to register, but in Chicago the sole register of them is kept by the devil, and he keeps the account to himself; choosing that his victims shall know only the one place he sends them to in order that they may hide their shame. There are such " homes" in Chicago, where poor, unfortunate women await the awful hour of dishonored motherhood. Their offspring fill up the ranks of the babes who have died through ' ; inanition." One of the lady commissioners who was investi- gating a case, visited one of these hell-holes, and the snappy, suspicious way in which she was received, together with the parting warning, " Never you come again!" showed that they do not court investigation, or desire that enlightened public attention should be called to them or their work. Il6 THE SOCIAL EVIL. Of the murder of " unborn" babes much might be said. Dr. H. S. Pomeroy, in his " Ethics of Mar- riage," makes the following fearful charge: " It would be very difficult to find a hamlet in the country, or a street in a city, where unborn children had not been destroyed by those who were bound by every law of God and man to cherish and protect them." Again, he says: "A vast army of women have gone to early graves, and their death certificates have read ' hemorrhage,' when the word ought to have been written abortion! Another vast army of women who are invalids burdens to themselves and others ought to march under a banner bearing the same shameful and loathsome word." These words are peculiarly true of Chicago, as of all large centers, where the desire to enjoy " society" life overmasters the natural home instincts of woman, hood. Dr. Pomeroy further says: " It must not be supposed that the physician ha*, the most trouble with those who belong to the lower- classes. These give comparatively little trouble in this way. They seldom apply to the reputable physician, and when they do they are easily refused. The real difficulty comes from so-called highly respectable people, even from leaders in social and religious move- ments. We never know when some one of these may not implore one of us, as a family physician, to do thai which is a sin before the law of God and man ; and when to the entreaty there are added the tears and pleading of a charming woman, the situation becomes embarrassing and unpleasant in the extreme. This seems an ungracious thing to say, especially as the phy- sician is under peculiar and delicate bonds to respect THE SOCIAL EVIL. 117 ehe secrets of his patrons. But the time is already past when silence could be a virtue, and it seems as though the very stones would cry out if he does not give speedy warning of the danger which threatens our social life and health." The police records show that men and women are frequently arrested for the detestable crime of procur- ing abortion, but they convey only the faintest idea of its extent. The perpetrators and their victims seldom fall into the hands of the officers of justice. O damnable fiend of lust! How hateful, how awful> how horrible thou art in thine every feature, when thy form is seen by the clear eye of purity. Thy passions are hotter than a thousand furnaces thy cruelty more relentless than that of any Hindoo mon- arch thy tortures infinitely more exquisite in their re- finements of anguish than ever Spanish inquisitor or barbarous Indian inflicted thy stealth more crafty than the sleuth-hound thy hideousness more horrible than gaunt-eyed famine thy swift-dealing destructiveness more sure than earthquake or volcano thy end more to be dreaded than death in battlefield or on the gallows. With alluring craftiness, and wisdom gained by centuries of exercise, thou liest in wait to trap and slay the fairest of Chicago's sons and daughters, and thou trailest thy serpent's slime into every path and byway of this Garden City of Lake Michigan. Would to God the men and women who sweetly move in fancied, though false security, would awaken from their sleep, and, fearlessly hunting thee in high places and low, would resolve to never rest, never cease, until thou wert for ever slain! Il8 THE SOCIAL EVIL. The following words of the Bishop of Durham, in addressing a Diocesan Conference, have the root of the matter in them: "What it seems to me we want is the formation of a vigorous public opinion on the subject. Public opinion, indeed, will not pierce the inmost re- cesses of the heart; but no one who looks into himself, and questions himself frankly, will refuse to own how much he owes to public opinion in other provinces of morality, as honesty and truthfulness, for instance. It keeps the duty always before him till the duty becomes a habit. It furnishes material for the higher religious motives to act upon. Thus, indirectly, it quickens and stimulates his conscience. Now, in this matter of purity, public opinion is so feeble that it can scarcely be said to exist at all. This is what we wish to correct. We desire, God helping us, to create quite another state of things, where public opinion and individual conscience shall act and react on one another in this matter of purity, as they do in those other provinces of morality of which I have spoken. For this purpose it is neces- sary to speak out boldly. " What do you suppose would have become of Christian ethics if the Apostles had observed the same reticence which we are content to observe? The strength of sin is secrecy. Denounce it boldly, and you will find the conscience of men on your side. But you shrink from association for this purpose. You are afraid of scandals. I tell you plainly, so am I. In proportion as the movement succeeds the chance of scandals increases also. But what then? Shall this certainty of scandals paralyze us? Who was it that said, 'It must needs be that offences come?' If this dread of scandals had prevailed the Christian church THE SOCIAL -EVIL. I iy would never have been. The possibility of scandal varies, in most cases, directly as the importance of the work and the magnitude of the undertaking." Ellice Hopkins, the devoted champion of the White Cross movement, cries out in ringing tones, "A purity intent on taking care of its own alabaster skin, recking not what helpless children are suffocated in mud as long as it is not defiled with the touch of it; full of the old nervous ' touch not, taste not, handle not' spirit; bandaged up with this restriction and that, lest it should fall to pieces; and when it comes to saving another from defilement of body and soul, nervously shuffling into a pair of lavender kid gloves, and mutter- ing something about its being ' such a very delicate subject.' This is not that militant, sun-clad power which Milton dreamed of rushing down like a sword of God to smite everything low and base and impure; a purity as of mountain water or living fire, whose very nature it is not only to be pure itself, but to destroy impurity in others." Massage Parlors. " And he said unto me, Go in and behold the wicked abominations they do here. So I went in and saw." Ezekiel viii:g-io. THE " massage" department of the social vice is one that has only sprung into existence quite recently. Our investigations in this line will be appalling and horrifying to those who,like ourselves, before our enlightenment, looked upon the massage parlor as a perfectly respectable and legitimate place for curative purposes. And, of course, there are good massage parlors, where skilled operators, under professional guidance produce the most beneficial results; and, of these, we have no other than words of commendation. But, like all things else that are good, the massage parlor has its horrible, vile, unclean and bestial counter- feit, where prostitution in the gauziest of disguises is rampant. In some places the price of the bath does, indeed, include the body of the operator. In other and more " refined " parlors the manager of the bath is too cunning to run any such risks. She receives the bath fee, and then the girls can make whatever they choose besides, she allowing them a full hour for each visitor. Stand and watch, and to one house we will show you that a priest and a protestant minister are regular MASSAGE PARLORS. 121 visitants; at another, leading business men, married as well as single, are regular patrons; at another, young beardless boys who come out showing their degrada- tion on their, as yet, unhardened, faces. And this is going on every day in every week in Chicago, right under the very eyes of good people and they know nothing of it. Of such papers as advertise these infamous resorts words cannot express too great contempt. They charge an extra price of ten cents a line for such advertise- ments, including clairvoyants, mediums, quack medi- cines and the like. Why? If a massage parlor is a regular and legitimate business, why should those who advertise such business be charged twenty-five cents a line for advertisements, when other legitimate businesses are only charged fifteen cents? There is something wrong on the face of it, and if the proprietors of such papers do not know that they are giving publication to the advertisements of harlots and abandoned women we now make the definite charge that they are, and beg them to thor- oughly investigate these places before again admitting such advertisements to their columns. It is not a rare thing to see in the columns of the