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diff --git a/42830-0.txt b/42830-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..642b55b --- /dev/null +++ b/42830-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4212 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42830 *** + + CHICAGO, SATAN'S SANCTUM. + + + "I am to speak of stories you will not believe; + of beings you cannot love; of foibles for which + you have no compassion; of feelings in which you + have no share."--W. MC. PRAED + + + By L. O. CURON. + + + C. D. PHILLIPS & CO., + CHICAGO. + + + + + COPYRIGHTED 1899 BY + L. O. CURON + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The present Mayor of the City of Chicago was recently re-elected. A large +number of independent voters, deeming one issue a dominant one, which, in +fact, was no issue at all, assisted in again bestowing on him the most +important office in the municipal government. + +The legislature had repealed a law under which evil, through the +threatened action of corruptionists in the Council, might have been +visited upon the city. That they were powerless to inflict it had been +demonstrated prior to the repeal of that law and prior to the election. +His competitors entertained, upon the question of the extension of street +car privileges, the same views as his own. Both were men of as great +ability as he, and each had, and still has, a reputation for personal +integrity not surpassed by his. Both were men more mature in years, and +possessed wider business experiences than he. Hence, either of them could +have been safely entrusted with the powers of the executive. Neither of +them, however, could invent, for campaign purposes, so catching, so +powerful, and yet so sophistical, a political phrase as "The streets may +be dirty, but they still belong to the people." To the inventor of that +cry the Mayor owes no small political debt. + +It might be inferred from the large vote he received that, as a public +servant, he had been tested and not found wanting. With respect to his +persistent opposition to the extension of street car privileges, without +adequate compensation to the city, and for a period not in excess of +twenty years, it should be said he bravely and manfully did his duty, +following, however, not leading public opinion on that question. All +danger from that source had disappeared when the polls opened in April +last. His competitors stood, on that morning, as honorably pledged to +throttle it, if it again appeared, should either of them be elected, as he +did. + +It cannot, however, be said that during his first administration he did +his whole duty. It is a peculiarity of the American people that they +always praise, with exaggeration, an official who partly does his duty, if +the part performed is regarded by them as especially serviceable to the +public. He had the benefit of so much exaggerated praise from a press +that, for nearly two years then last past, had been condemning him, that +some people were charmed into a sort of hysterical admiration for him. He +had the happy faculty of concealing the shortcomings of his first +administration, under cover of a supposedly overshadowing danger. Thereby +he caused his previous record to appear as if free from blemish, and that +he had performed every duty--and performed it well. The very adroit use of +this faculty is the only reason why he received a plurality of votes so +much larger than that of any other candidate nominated on the same ticket +with him for a minor office. + +His best friends did not contend that he did his full duty. They now only +hope he will do so. A public official is not entitled to praise, or +thanks, for doing his whole duty. He is elected for the purpose of its +performance. But full performance is so rare that the people seem to be +content if a public servant will do his duty only fairly well. + +The vices which prevail in the city, and which grew to their enormous, +threatening, and hideous proportions during the Mayor's first +administration, were known to the people to exist, but were forgotten by +them at the polls, were known to the police, and are still known to them, +and upon no conceivable basis of belief can it be supposed their existence +may not have been known to him, and that he does not know of their +continued existence. + +It is for him to utter the command "Stop," and they will cease, in so far +as they can be kept within bounds by his authority. Their absolute +suppression, under existing legislation is, perhaps, impossible, but their +regulation thereunder is not wholly impracticable. Ordinances demanding, +for instance, the imposition of a fine of $200 per day for keeping a house +of ill fame, have, he may say, never been enforced, and have fallen into a +condition of "innocuous desuetude." + +The field of observation on matters such as these is too wide to be +entered upon here. + +During the Mayor's first term, one of his best friends, in the columns of +his widely circulated newspaper, severely criticised his administration, +but supported him for re-election, and explained in its columns, in +response to an inquiry made by a correspondent just prior to the election, +his reasons for doing so as follows, viz.: + +"If Mayor Harrison shall receive the support of the independent voters +because of the good points of his administration, that will show that his +strength consists in doing right, not in doing wrong. It stands to reason +that he would rather have the approval of honest and respectable men than +of the vicious elements of the community. The R---- believes that Mayor +Harrison's present administration from first to last has improved and not +deteriorated. The mayor himself ought to know what are the weak points in +it, and if he has acquired wisdom by experience he should choose his heads +of departments for his second term with a view to curing the evils and +failures of his first term. The relations of the police department with +gambling resorts, all-night saloons and other forms of vice have been +indecent, and probably corrupt. The R---- has frequently urged the +dismissal of Superintendent K---- and the appointment of some better man. +It believes that Mayor Harrison is much to blame in permitting the evil +conditions to continue." + +The support he received for re-election came from a very large and +respectable element of the community, but nobody can doubt that he owes +that re-election to the solidarity of the votes of "the vicious elements +of the community!" + +The respectable element did not vote with such allies in order that he +should continue to conserve the interests of vice and criminality. The +supporters of the all-night saloons, gambling halls, poker joints, and of +all other nests of iniquity rallied to his assistance to a man. Without +the massed vote of the saloon and its hangers on, he would not have been +again chosen Mayor. + +The leading financial paper of this city, non-partisan in its political +views, said on the eve of the election: "An emergency exists. The +government of the City of Chicago is held in contempt not only in Chicago +but wherever Chicago is known. We are losing good citizens, property, +capital, prestige. The very streets, with their filth and dust, repel the +visitor; the servants of the city, whether in administrative or +legislative positions, are objects of suspicion; the scheme of a well +ordered civil service is breaking down; vice receives encouragement as the +price of votes. What wonder that many believe the heart is rotten? But +there is virtue and power enough to change all this. The moral sentiment +and enlightened self interest of the city once aroused and properly guided +would overwhelm all opposition." + +Few, if any, evidences have been given out from the City Hall since the +Mayor's re-inauguration tending to show that he proposes voluntarily to +destroy this "contempt." His new comptroller is a worthy successor to the +departed Waller, while the selection for his corporation counsel is all +that could be desired by the most captious citizen. But the vices and +crimes which principally brought, through their unchecked prevalence, that +contempt, find the man, under whom for two years the police force, which +in his friend's language has been "indecent and probably corrupt," again +in its command. Doubtless the army of the vicious rejoices. Certain it is +the community wonders. He will be observed as time passes. May the results +of observation redound to his everlasting credit and success, and to the +benefit of the great city of which he is the executive head! + +In the following pages references to the causes of that contempt will be +made. The prurient will find nothing in them to their taste. These +references ought to be of some assistance to the Mayor in finding out +through a properly organized and well officered police force that these +evil causes do exist. Having discovered them, their haunts, and their +aids, if he does not already know of them, will he tolerate them any +longer in this community? Will his continuous Superintendent of Police be +further allowed to throw his kindly protection over them? + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +CHICAGO--Its Development--Power of Criminal Classes in Its +Government--Pretenses of Reform--Official Satisfaction--Public +Condemnation--Truths as to Power of Criminal Classes. + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE POLICE FORCE--Its Strength--Composition--Power Dominating--Duties of +Defined--Population of Chicago--Nativity of--Police Enemies of Civil +Service--Demoralizing Effect--Tariff on Crime--Rates on Gambling Houses, +Etc.--Penalty for Refusal to Pay--Instances of Police Rates--Method of +Collection--Habits of Policemen--Some Are "Hold Up" Men--Blackmail +Levied--Law Department--Arrests in 1897--Police Fix Boundaries for +Crime--Chief's Testimony--Analysis of Arrests in 1897 in Second Police +Precinct--In City at Large--Division of Fees and Fines With +Magistrates--Police Courts, Corrupt--Cost of Police Force. + + +CHAPTER III. + +ALL NIGHT SALOONS--Character of--Thieves, Thugs and Prostitutes +in--Visitors--Country Buyers, Transients, Delegates, Youth and Old +Age--Women in--Character of--Basement Saloons--Scenes in--Private +Rooms--Scenes in All Night Saloons--Dancing--Music--Morning +Hours--Robberies, Etc., Planned--Girls Entrapped--Young Men +Ruined--Quarrels--Raids--Drinking--Surroundings of--Houses of Ill +Fame--Assignation Houses--Slumming Parties--Fads--Salvation and Volunteer +Army--Houses of Ill Fame--Inmates of--How Managed--Practices +in--Superstitions--Luck Powders--Sources of Supply--Patrons of--Wholesale +House Entertainer--Police Protection--Diseases--Attempts at Reform--People +Indifferent. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +RE-ELECTION OF MAYOR--False Issue Upon Which Re-elected--Vices in +Chicago--"Blind Pigs"--Protected by Police--Where Situated--How +Conducted--Classes--Drug Stores, Bakeries, Barns--Revenue to +Police--Located Near Universities--Lieutenant of Police Convicted for +Protecting--Cock Fighting--Bucket Shops--Women Dealers--Pool Rooms--Police +Play--Pulling of, Farcical--Views of Chief of Police--Players +in--Landlords--Book Making--Alliance Between, and Police and +Landlords--New York and Chicago--Chicago's Police Force Worst--Hold Up +Men--Methods--Victims--Police Sleep--Mayor's Felicitations, April 11, +1899--Account of Hold Ups, Same Day--Classes of Hold Up Men--Strong Armed +Women--Street Car Conductors Robbed--Ice Chests and Ovens for +Prisons--Hair Clippers--Protection to Criminals--"Safe Blowers' +Union"--Fakes--Panel Houses--Badger Games--Nude Photographs--Obscene +Literature--Confidence Men--Diploma Mills--Gambling--Women's Down Town +Clubs--Sexual Perverts--Opium Joints. + + +CHAPTER V. + +COMMON COUNCIL--Boodlers--Bribers--Council of 1899--Powers of--Misuse +of--Price of Votes--Passage of Boodle Ordinances--Public Works Department +and Bureaus--Illegal Contracts--Street Repairing, Etc.--Civil Service +Commission--History of--Present Board Tools of Mayor--Examination +by--Examples of--Attacks Upon Law--Special Assessments--Asphalt Ring--Fire +Department--County Government--Insane Asylum--Sale of "Cadavers"-- +Contracts--Sheriff's Office--Jury Bribers--Judges--Revenue Law--Tax +Dodgers--Town Boards--Coroner's Office--Press Trust--Civic Societies-- +Berry Committee Report--Baxter Committee--Opening Testimony--Conclusion. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + CHICAGO--ITS DEVELOPMENT--POWER OF CRIMINAL CLASSES IN ITS + GOVERNMENT--PRETENSES OF REFORM--OFFICIAL SATISFACTION--PUBLIC + CONDEMNATION--TRUTHS AS TO POWER OF CRIMINAL CLASSES. + + +Chicago, with its world-wide fame as the most marvelous product of +American enterprise among municipal creations in the nineteenth century, +with its wonderful growth, from an Indian trading post in 1837 to a modern +city of the second size in point of population in the year 1898, with the +record of its stupendous strides in reaching its present commercial and +financial position among the commanding trade centers in the world, with +its strong civic pride, its numerous and admirable religious, educational +and charitable institutions both public and private, its cultured +development in literature, music, the arts and sciences, with its +memorable disaster in the great fire of 1871, its speedy recoupment from +that disaster, and its brilliant achievement in the organization and +management of the magnificent "White City," the wide range of the +classified exhibits of which covered the entire and progressive +contributions of mankind to all that goes to make up the civilization of +the age from the earliest period of the commencement of that civilization, +this Chicago, grand, philanthropic and patriotic, suffers, as for years it +has suffered, from the most extensive and persistent advances in political +power, along the lines of their respective crimes, of the criminal +classes, until, from the wealthy bribe-giver to the lowest sneak thief and +sexual pervert, these classes carry elections, corrupt the corruptible in +the Common Council, sway justice in the forum of the lower courts, and +govern the police force until it has become a municipal aid to the +perpetration of crime. + +From one administration to the other, the growing power of these lowest +classes of society manifests a stronger hold upon civic administration. +Pretenses of reform are all that, so far, have followed each bi-ennial +election of a Mayor. Here and there, and now and then, gambling houses +are closed, threats against police officers, who follow the well grounded +practice of levying protection rates upon brothels, street walkers, +gambling games of all descriptions, saloons, concert halls, and that +varied combination of evils forming the working machinery of vice, are +given publicity, and while the growth of these monstrous evils cannot but +be known to public officials, both from observation, official reports, +events as chronicled in the daily press, grand jury reports, civic and +State investigations, and verdicts in the courts, a nerveless cowardice +seems to seize each succeeding incumbent of the Executive's office, under +whatever political party's banner he may be called to the chair, and +prevents him from grappling with, and throttling, the ever increasing +power of the combined votaries of all forms of vice and crime. + +The Mayor recently congratulated the Common Council in these words, viz: +"The report of the General Superintendent of Police contains assurance for +all classes of citizens that the efficiency, vigilance and zeal that have +characterized this department will permit them to pursue their avocations +without fear of being robbed and assaulted by long and short men. One need +not be exceedingly observant to note that with the approach of winter +comes an annual outbreak of crime. We all noticed evidences of such a +visitation at the advent of the winter just ended, but it should not be +allowed to pass without comment that criminality rarely showed itself +during last fall when it was crushed out with a suddenness and success +that ought to be regarded with pride and satisfaction by every Chicagoan. +There has been no evidence of crime through the recent year as in former +years; the criminals came in the fall, but they were severely taught that +Chicago was an unhealthy clime for them, with the result that they were +wise enough not to linger here long." + +This statement, so self-satisfying to the official who made it, so totally +false in fact, so dangerous to the welfare of the people, and so +flippantly interwoven into a public document by one who either knew the +contrary to be the truth, or who knowingly used his official position for +the suppression of truth, if not of crime, is contradicted by the +disclosures made by every organization devoted to the purification of the +public morals, the betterment of civil administration, and the eradication +of the bestial vices so freely and openly flaunted in the faces of a busy +and apparently indifferent people. + +Contrast the announcement of the Law Enforcement League with this official +declaration. Said this League, composed of the pastors of churches and +law-abiding people, "Chicago's influence ought to be on the side of purity +and good order, but the fact is that vice and crime are prevalent, +lawlessness is defiant, recreancy to sworn duty is all but universal. The +disorderly saloon is the nesting place of the terrible debaucheries which +disgrace our city. Ordinances and laws which have for their object the +suppression of venality and crime are trampled ruthlessly beneath the feet +of a disloyal and un-American horde. * * * The public mind is profoundly +agitated over the reign of lawlessness and moral disorder. * * * The +co-operation of all decent and respectable people is absolutely imperative +if municipal government is to be transferred from the baser to the better +element. * * * We have a right to demand that lawlessness shall cease; +that gang rule shall be broken; that partisan politics shall be made +subsidiary to municipal righteousness; that the all but omnipotent power +of the disorderly shall be broken; that the carnival of crime which curses +Chicago shall end; that the law breakers, crime makers and bribe-takers +shall be adequately punished and that the fair name of this imperial city +shall be redeemed from the reproach of blackmail, wanton immorality and +widespread disorder." + +A noted divine said recently, "I believe that this city is to be the +greatest city of this continent and of the world. I believe that Chicago +is the devil's headquarters, and I think it is not far from the City Hall. +If our own eyes could be fully opened we would see there infinite +indecencies, bum politicians, ward workers, heel tappers, men who are the +devil's own and delivered body and soul to do his bidding." + +Another said, "Saloons and all other haunts of vice are wide open, as they +have never been before in the city's history." + +A distinguished lawyer, speaking before the Christian Convention recently +held in this city, said, "Scourge off and out of your temples the +political hyenas that prey on the municipal body politic, that fatten on +the scarlet woman's wages of sin, that share the gambler's plunder and the +blind pig's profits." + +Another eminent divine declared at this meeting, "He knew that men have +been kept from coming to, and investing in, Chicago because our morality +is so low." + +Still another divine declared at the same meeting, "But when in one night +five homes in the block in which I live--and I moved there because it was +the safest place in the city--are robbed, and, within the same week, three +men are held up within two blocks, the conditions are serious." Serious, +indeed, they are, despite assurances of protection by the police force +emanating from the highest official authority! + +A few plain truths as to the utter prostitution of the civil authorities +to the power of the criminal classes in Chicago, and as to the filthiness +of those classes, are attempted to be given in the following pages. They +may assist in arousing the people to a keen sense of their duty as +citizens to demand from a new administration a rigid enforcement of the +law by public officers, and that these officers shall become the servants +of the people rather than remain the slaves, as well as the persecutors +for private gain, of the riffraff of the community. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + THE POLICE FORCE--ITS STRENGTH--COMPOSITION--POWER DOMINATING--DUTIES + OF DEFINED--POPULATION OF CHICAGO--NATIVITY OF--POLICE ENEMIES OF + CIVIL SERVICE--DEMORALIZING EFFECT--TARIFF ON CRIME--RATES ON + GAMBLING HOUSES, ETC.--PENALTY FOR REFUSAL TO PAY--INSTANCES OF + POLICE RATES--METHOD OF COLLECTION--HABITS OF POLICEMEN--SOME ARE + "HOLD UP" MEN--BLACKMAIL LEVIED--LAW DEPARTMENT--ARRESTS IN 1897-- + POLICE FIX BOUNDARIES FOR CRIME--CHIEF'S TESTIMONY--ANALYSIS OF + ARRESTS IN 1897 IN SECOND POLICE PRECINCT--IN CITY AT LARGE--DIVISION + OF FEES AND FINES WITH MAGISTRATES--POLICE COURTS, CORRUPT--COST OF + POLICE FORCE. + + +The Police Force of the City of Chicago consisted on December 31st, 1897, +of 3,594 men, of which number 2,298 were first-class patrolmen, the +remainder being officers, sergeants, clerks, drivers and patrol-wagon men. +The number of square miles of territory embraced within the city limits +was, and is, 186.4. + +The force is composed largely of men of one nationality or of their +descendants. A large majority affiliates with the same church. Prior to +the passage of the civil service law in 1895, each bi-ennial +administration made the force its own valuable mine in which veins of rich +rewards for its friends and political workers were found. To this force +the aldermanic supporters of the administration attached their henchmen +and ward heelers, and these, in turn, as public officers, looked after the +political welfare of their backers and of the administration these backers +supported. Thus, the political complexion of the force was liable to +change every two years. Notwithstanding the presence of a civil service +law on the statute books under which the force is now supposed to have +been re-organized and re-appointed, its political complexion remains the +same. The organization is dominated by the political party which alone +uses the distinctive title of "Tammany." The civil service law has been +attacked, in behalf of this public force, by officials who were sworn to +sustain it, until through their repeated assaults upon it, its +administration is looked upon as farcical, and its administrators as its +most cunning and relentless foes. + +The duties of the police force are clearly defined in the city charter. +Generally, that instrument provides, "The police shall devote their time +and attention to the discharge of the duties of their stations according +to the laws and ordinances of the city and the rules and regulations of +the department of police, and it shall be their duty, to the best of their +ability, to preserve order, peace and quiet, and enforce the laws and +ordinances throughout the city." + +According to the school census of 1898, the population of Chicago was then +1,851,588. This population is one of the most polyglot of any city in the +world. Each modern language is spoken by some one class of its people. + +The population born of American born parents exceeds that of any other +nativity, being in round numbers 486,000, while the Germans, born of +German born parents, and Germans born in Germany, number in round figures +468,000. Of the Irish 131,000 are American born of Irish parents; born in +Ireland, 104,000, making a total of 235,000. These are the largest +classes, by nativity, of its people, and with the proverbial ability of +the latter nationality to govern and "get there" it supplies the police +force with the largest quota of men, year after year. + +During the years 1897 and 1898 this force, and every man seeking to become +a member of it, was taught by city officials, and by none more +energetically than by the chief law officer of the city administration, +that the civil service law was an especial enemy of theirs, inasmuch as it +abridged their privileges and immunities as citizens of the United States, +and was, therefore, a menace to their rights, wholly unwarranted by the +Constitution of the United States. + +It was accordingly attacked upon that ground by the officers sworn to +enforce it, and, since the establishment of its validity by the highest +courts in the land, its provisions are constantly sought, by them, to be +avoided and defeated. + +The efforts of the commissioners to enforce it were commented on in an +official message by the city's Executive, as if such efforts were in fact +being made, and were part and parcel of an administrative policy; while, +in practice, no possible legal device or illegal invention was allowed to +fail of application by municipal officials to destroy its commands, even +by its commissioners, who announced themselves as its greatest devotees. +No more demoralizing example could have been set before the police force +than the acts of the higher authorities. Such acts have produced the +inevitable result, that, as such higher authorities saw fit to openly +throttle a law they were sworn to enforce, the rank and file of the police +force itself inferred that they, too, could seek to evade, and refuse to +execute, all laws and ordinances which in their judgment affected the +suppression of crime. + +Consequently, that force has become demoralized and corrupt, openly +levying a tariff for revenue and official protection upon all classes of +wrong-doers, below those who commit felonious crimes of the highest grade, +and when the rates are not promptly paid by the protected classes, they +are coerced by arrest into the payment of fines and fees for division +between the justices and the officers. It is a well known fact that a +schedule of prices prevails for police protection, which prices must be +paid for that protection. Gambling houses pay from $50.00 per month +upwards; panel and badger games, $35.00 to $50.00; music halls with saloon +and private room attachments, $100.00; houses of ill fame, from $50.00 +upwards, according to the number of inmates at so much per capita; cigar +store and barber shop gambling games, $10.00; "blind pigs," the unlicensed +vendors of liquors, $10.00 to $30.00, and with permission to gamble, +$30.00 to $50.00; crap games, $10.00 to $25.00; opium and Chinese joints, +$10.00 to $25.00; drug store "blind pigs," $10.00 to $30.00, and prize +fights and cocking mains, a percentage of the gate receipts--usually +one-fifth. + +Whenever a gambling house refuses to pay it is immediately pulled. These +rates of police blackmail and of protective tariff have been sworn to +before public investigations, and inquiry trials, as imposed and +collected. The press has repeatedly commented upon these frightfully cruel +persecutions, reeking with the infamy of the participation by public +servants in a division of the fetid proceeds of the procuress, of the +landlady, of her unfortunate slave, the harlot; of the skin gambler, the +clock swindlers and tape gamesters, and of the operators of massage +parlors, both male and female. + +In one case, tried before the Criminal Court of Cook County, a lieutenant +of the police force was convicted of the crime of exacting money from the +owner of a "blind pig" paid to him by the owner for protection in his +unlawful occupation. Going back a few years, during the World's Fair +period, as high as $2,000, it is said in public print, was paid for +similar protection in a single instance. + +The officer in charge of a given precinct makes the collections, retains +his percentage, passes the remainder on to his next superior, who +withholds his rake-off, and so on until the net profit reaches the highest +police official. A leading city newspaper, in a caustic editorial, +declared that "in Chicago protection means the privilege to commit crime +upon the payment of a sum of money to the police. It has ceased to mean +that the citizen will be guarded against the acts of criminals." So +thoroughly recreant to duty have some of the ranking officers of this +force become, that one of the oldest captains when asked why he did not +close, in his district, certain notorious saloons where depraved women +robbed strangers in wine rooms, replied that "some people would steal in +the churches, and you might as well close churches as close the saloons +for that reason." + +Patrolmen in uniform are found in dives playing cards; and in others +sleeping during the hours of their supposed presence on their beats. They +know the women of the town, the street walkers in the territory they +patrol, the keepers of every vile joint, where the most depraved practices +are indulged in, the houses of ill fame, high-priced and low-priced, the +"Nigger," Japanese, Chinese and mixed bagnios, the policy shops, fences +and schools for thieves. + +All these vice mills and their operators contribute to the policemen's +demand, and thus obtain permission to carry on, in daylight, and at +night-time, their nefarious, lecherous and disgusting crimes and orgies. + +One officer gambled in a saloon with a citizen, lost his money, +overpowered the citizen, recovered his lost money and then robbed his +victim. + +In broad daylight an officer held up a citizen and robbed him of his money +and valuables. When the Chief of Police had this case called to his +attention before a legislative investigating committee, he answered, "I +tried that man yesterday. He got on the police department ten years ago, +and he always had a reputation of being a good officer, and the other +morning he had been drinking some, and, like everything else, became a +little indiscreet and started out to hold up a man and got hold of a few +dollars in that way, and under the impression, very likely, that he would +never be discovered, and, like everybody else, with his good record in the +past, he was discharged and reinstated, because many people vouched for +him, and all said he was an excellent officer, but he stepped by the +wayside and fell, and we had him arrested and discharged." + +Whether the many people who so generously interceded with the Chief of +Police for the retention of a thief as a member of his force were that +thief's fellow pals and hold-up men, was not disclosed; but it may be said +without hazard, that they were not reputable men--if they had any +existence at all other than in the imagination, and as part of the +bewildering policy of an incapable Chief. + +Methods of levying blackmail upon other than the disreputable classes, but +reaching through them, upwards and beyond them, are not only countenanced, +but advised by superior officials and approved by the city's highest +executive. + +On the 5th of November, 1897, a practical stranger in the city was given +the following letter, signed by the Chief of Police, viz.: + + "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: + + The police department is about to issue a history for the benefit of + their relief fund. Kindly make all checks payable to W. V. M., East + Chicago Avenue Station, and any favors shown the bearer will be + appreciated by, + + Yours truly," + +This stranger had been denounced through the press as a fraud and a +schemer, who had been arrested in other cities for obtaining money under +false pretenses, which facts were known to the Chief of Police when his +letter of recommendation was written. The stranger was to receive a +commission of twenty-five per cent on all subscriptions obtained by him, +and the treasurer of the fund, who was selected with the approval of the +Chief, the Mayor, and his principal political satellite, ten per cent. +Some $8,000 were collected under this scheme, one large railroad +corporation subscribing $1,000 and a noted Board of Trade operator $500. +Whence the remainder came rests in conjecture, with a well defined belief +that noted gamblers, and keepers of houses of ill fame, were contributors +to it. + +A legislative committee's inquiries prevented the consummation of the +scheme, but, owing to the speedy departure from the city of the treasurer, +the source of the remaining subscriptions could not be inquired into. + +As a cover to the purposes of this scheme, it was proposed to place these +collections to the credit of the Policemen's Benevolent Association Fund +of Chicago, which, by reason of the failure of a bank, whose officials are +now under indictment for the misappropriation of public funds other than +those of this association, had become badly impaired. This proposal +followed the appointment of the legislative committee of investigation, by +way of preparation to conceal the real purpose of the swindle. That +association repudiated the plan. + +The Chief of Police was asked by the committee of investigation whether he +thought it was the proper thing for him, as Chief of Police of Chicago, +"to give to a man to go out among business men, corporations and +manufacturing establishments of the city a letter telling them that +everything this man did and said you would be responsible for, if you knew +he had been indicted and arrested in different cities of the United States +for defrauding the people out of money on this same identical scheme?" He +answered, "I don't believe it." Immediately he was asked, "Have you heard +A. was arrested a number of times?" and in reply said, "I read in the +newspapers that he was arrested and had trouble in Detroit." Again he was +asked whether A. had given him any information as to the number of times +he had been arrested for getting money on false pretenses, and his answer +was, "I can give you some information on that subject." + +These extracts from the sworn testimony of this official, speak in no +commendatory manner of his sense of official responsibility. They point to +a mind deadened to all sense of the duties of his position; they elevate +him before his force as a conspicuous example for them to follow, in his +disregard of the principles of official decency. In themselves they urge +upon that force, by their silent influence, an emulation of such a +blackmailing course, even though in its accomplishment the assistance of a +swindler is required, and deliberately accepted. + +A brother of the Chief, a member of the detective force, was frequently +found in poolrooms, assisting in their management, and yet the Chief seems +to have been unable to acquire the knowledge that poolrooms were running +wide open throughout the city. He probably knew it as an individual. In +response to a question as to his information on this subject he answered, +that no particular complaints were made--"the newspaper boys often came +around and said there was pool selling going on at different places," and +he presumed "if a desperate effort had been made to look that kind of +thing up, we might have possibly been successful." More open admissions of +official incompetency it would, perhaps, be difficult to make, and no more +flagrant instances could be cited of official degeneracy than are these +extracts from the sworn testimony of a defiant and dangerous public +servant. + +In the attack on the Police Pension Fund, which was established under an +act of the legislature for the benefit of an officer who shall have +reached the age of fifty years, and who shall have served at reaching that +age for twenty years on the force, then be retired with a yearly pension +equal to one-half of the salary attached to the rank which he may have +held for one year next preceding the expiration of his term of twenty +years, or who shall have become physically disabled in the performance of +his duty, there was manifested a degree of moral irresponsibility, if not +of criminality, and a blind adherence to partisanship in defiance of the +laws, seldom found in the history of any municipal corporation, and +unmatched even by the developments of the Lexow committee of New York +City, in matters of a kindred character, inquired into by that committee. + +For the sake of creating vacancies in the ranks of the police force, to be +filled by appointments to be made by the Chief in defiance of the civil +service law, and while that law was running the gauntlet of every +conceivable attack, both open and covert, which could be made upon it by +every department of the city's administration, and by none more virulently +than by the Law Department, a plan was devised and put into execution +whereby officers of all ranks, after years of police service and +experience and in strong physical condition willing and anxious to remain +in their positions, were retired from the force against their protest, +merely to make way for the substitution of new appointees--the political +friends of the Chief and his superior. Men with good records and +physically able to perform their duties were thus forced upon the rolls as +pensioners, to deplete a fund, sacred as a trust, not only for the benefit +of the living and necessitous pensioners, but also for the widows of the +men who had lost their lives in the service and the wives and children of +those who had died after ten years of police duty. One effect, as to the +standing of this fund, was to reduce the balance on hand January 1, 1897, +from $16,837 to $4,543 December 31st, 1897. Thus over $10,000 was raided, +seized and forced upon unwilling pensioners, "still able bodied and +anxious to retain their positions at their full salaries." A more +contemptible exercise of political power and administrative robbery could +not well be imagined. + +The omissions of the police force in the enforcement of the laws, their +acts of commission in evading, attacking and disregarding others, +especially those relating to all night saloons, the source of most of the +arrests for disorderly conduct, where wantonness is displayed, +assignations are arranged, drunkenness aided and brawls engendered, are +blamable, not so much upon the patrolmen, as upon their superior officers. +The patrolmen do as they are told. They report infractions of the law, or +not, according to their instructions. Their eyes are opened or closed, as +the "wink is tipped" to them from above. The men are brave in moments of +danger, fearless in rescuing the inmates of burning buildings, risking +their lives in stopping runaway horses, tender in caring for lost +children, or destitute persons, both men and women, and faithful in the +performance of their duties as members of the ambulance corps. + +During the year 1897 one hundred and eighty were injured while on duty, +and of this number forty-seven were on service in the first precinct, +embracing the business district, the thoroughfares of which are the most +crowded and in which the heaviest fires happen, while only seven were +injured in the second precinct along the "levee"--the tough precinct. +Given proper management, strict discipline and law abiding example, it +could be made, and ought to be made, one of the "finest" forces in the +world. Thugs and thieves, within the past two years, through the +manipulation of the civil service law, have been admitted to its ranks, to +its everlasting disgrace and that of the usurped appointing power. + +The number of arrests in 1897 for those offences from the perpetrators of +which the police are charged with receiving protection money, was less +than in any of the previous years since 1895, notwithstanding the increase +in population, according to the school census, from 1,616,635 in 1896, to +1,851,588 in 1898, an increase in round numbers of 234,000. + +The following is the number of arrests for the years 1894, 1895, 1896 and +1897 for offences as named, viz.: + + 1894. 1895. 1896. 1897. + + Cock fighting ..... 156 69 ..... + + Decoy to gambling houses ..... ..... ..... ..... + + Disorderly 49,072 44,450 50,641 45,844 + + Inmates of assignation houses 53 53 92 14 + + Inmates of disorderly houses 21 105 205 181 + + Inmates of gambling houses 879 1,802 2,535 725 + + Inmates of houses of ill fame 2,516 2,894 5,547 1,531 + + Inmates of opium dens 943 1,112 528 253 + + Keeping assignation houses 17 5 15 19 + + Keeping disorderly houses 39 28 30 139 + + Keeping gaming houses 238 300 310 155 + + Keeping houses of ill fame 174 210 241 648 + + Robbery 1,072 1,099 1,083 1,200 + + Violation saloon ordinance 717 1,283 1,359 559 + +In 1897, as compared with 1896, there was a decrease of 78 in the number +of arrests of inmates of assignation houses, 24 of the inmates of +disorderly houses, 1,810 of the inmates of gambling houses, 4,016 of the +inmates of houses of ill fame, 275 of the inmates of opium dens, 155 of +the keepers of gaming houses, and 800 for violation of saloon ordinances. +That these offenses had not decreased in point of perpetration is a fact, +patent to observation and well known to the people. On the other hand, the +arrests for keeping disorderly houses increased 109, and for keeping +houses of ill fame 407. In the year 1896, when some effort was made to +keep the police out of politics, the total arrests were 13,167 more than +in 1897, when the police force had passed into the hands of a political +machine, which sought to erase the application of the civil law to its +government. In 1896 the inmates suffered arrest, but in 1897 the policy of +arresting fewer inmates and more keepers, except of gaming houses, seems +to have been inaugurated. "The keepers" are more able to pay than the +inmates. For every dollar collected from inmates, the keepers are able to +pay ten, or fifty dollars if necessary. From these figures it is clear +that the practice of assessments for police protection was maintained +principally against keepers in 1897, and that few inmates, comparatively, +refused to pay in that year, while a large number of keepers of immoral +and gambling houses were tardy in their payments, consequently, the former +were not arrested, while the latter were. + +What the figures for the year 1898 will reveal is as yet unknown. + +Not only is crime thus tolerated by the police, but its chief officials +assume, also, to define the boundaries of the districts in which it may be +freely and safely perpetrated. + +The Chief of Police, testifying before a legislative investigating +committee, said: "Now, any fellow who wants to bet on the races or +anything of that sort cannot be allowed to do so this side of Jackson +street, because we don't want this section of the town polluted with this +class of things. We want the boys who have an inclination to bet on horse +races to go south." + +Q. What have you got against the people south of Jackson street? + +A. I like them. + +Q. Is that the reason you wanted that stuff to go down there? + +A. Things are very lively in the lower part of the town, everything has a +thrifty appearance, and everything---- + +Q. You mean south of Jackson street? + +A. North of Jackson--and things up south of Jackson are virtually +dead--there is nothing going on at all, and the stores are all empty. +There is nothing doing, and the property, is depreciating in value, and +the object was to liven things up a little bit. + +That part of the city south of Jackson boulevard to Sixteenth street, and +from State street on the east to the river on the west, embraces the tough +part of the second precinct of the second police district. In the year +1897 of the total number of arrests of women and girls in the city, 17,624 +in number, 8,957, or over 50 per cent, were, as the police term it, "run +in" from this police district. How often the same women were arrested and +re-arrested it is impossible to say, or whether they were "pinched" +oftener than once in the same night. Of this latter number 7,364 were +discharged by the magistrates, but the larger number contributed one +dollar each to the justice for signing a bail bond for their appearance +for trial. In addition, 300 women, known as "women lodgers," were also +"run in" in this district in 1897. Of these unfortunates 1,746 were fined; +140 held to the criminal court; 193 released on peace bonds; 209 sent to +the house of correction; 10 held as witnesses; 10 were insane; 7 +destitute, and 23 were sick and sent to the hospital. Of this total number +of arrests of women and women lodgers, 9,257 in number, in this police +district in 1897, only 2,288, or about 39 per cent were convicted of +offenses by police magistrates, while 61 per cent of them were discharged. + +Of the total number of persons arrested throughout the city in 1897, +83,680 in number, 55,020 were discharged by the police courts, 18,017 were +fined, 4,138 held on criminal charges, and 2,947 bound over to keep the +peace. The remainder were sent to various homes, refuges, asylums and +humane societies. Over 50 per cent of those arrested were discharged. The +percentage of those who furnished bail for their appearance, it is +difficult to ascertain. That the practice exists is too well known to be +proven, that a division of these bail bond fees is made between the +magistrate and the police; the police furnishing the victims, the straw +bailor his signature to, and the justice his approval of, the bond. The +latter collects his fee and divides with the officers, while the straw +bailor exacts his compensation in proportion to the ability of the victim +to pay, then hands over a share to the arresting officers. + +That such persecution should exist in a civilized community is a disgrace +to its civilization, that public officers should, for one moment, be +permitted to engage in such hideous traffic in the liberties of their +fellows, is a scandal upon the administration of justice, and that +executive officers of the law, sworn to its enforcement, should be +ignorant of the infamy of such arrests, or knowingly permit them to be +made, is malfeasance in office, and subversion of civil rights. + +The portion of the fines (not by statute appropriated for other purposes) +assessed upon, and collected from, this class of unfortunates by the +justices, is required by the ordinances to be paid to the city at the +close of each and every month, and is to be apportioned by the city +authorities as the statutes and ordinances require. The salaries of the +police magistrates are fixed by agreement with the city. These magistrates +are chosen bi-ennially after the election of a Mayor, by that officer, +from the appointed justices of the peace, and are generally of the same +political faith as is the appointing authority. The system is a blot upon +the impartial administration of justice. It has become a byword among the +people as a malodorous cesspool. + +From the evidence heard before a legislative committee, that committee +reported "that the present system of justice, or police courts, as run, is +a disgrace to the present civilization. It shows that justice courts will +open in the night time, policemen will go out and drag in men and women, +100 and 200, and even more at a time; that they are refused a trial at +night, required to give a bond for which the justice charges them one +dollar; that professional bondsmen are in attendance who will collect +another dollar, and oftentimes much more, from the poor unfortunate to go +on his or her bond until morning, thus making several hundred dollars +ofttimes in a night to the police justices and other officers connected +with the court, and this is done, as your committee believe, from the +evidence, for the purpose of making money for the police justice, the +professional bondsman, and the police officer in charge of the arrest." + +These magistrates are required to report at the "close of each day's +business," but their night arrests are construed by them as not following +within the definition of "a day's business." The fees arising from them +are not, therefore, reported. + +Civic bodies have denounced in the bitterest terms the evils of this +system, and in a recent mayoralty message to the Common Council, in itself +the hotbed of boodleism, it is said, "The justice shop system with all its +necessarily attendant scandals is about to be wiped out." + +That desirable result awaits legislative action. The general assembly, if +it has any respect for human rights, for commendable municipal government, +for the performance of its sworn duty, will lay aside the struggle in +legislative halls for political ascendancy, and hasten the day when this +festering sore shall have applied to it an instrument of eradication which +it alone can wield. It is proper to add that since the foregoing lines +were written the night fees are better accounted for, under an agreement +between the magistrates and the city by which the magistrates' salaries +are raised, as an inducement to them to be honest. + +The appropriations for the year 1897, for the maintenance of the police +force, amounted to $3,356,910. Other sources of income amounted to +$17,635.03. + +The salary warrants drawn against this fund amounted to $3,290,296.26; for +other expenses, $167,369.63, making a total of warrants drawn of +$3,457,665.89, leaving a deficit of $83,392.84. + +The total income of the city for the year 1897 from saloon licenses was +about $3,000,000. The saloons are, therefore, the policemen's great +financial friends in more ways than one, and largely defray the expenses +of the department. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + ALL NIGHT SALOONS--CHARACTER OF--THIEVES, THUGS AND PROSTITUTES + IN--VISITORS--COUNTRY BUYERS, TRANSIENTS, DELEGATES, YOUTH AND OLD + AGE--WOMEN IN--CHARACTER OF--BASEMENT SALOONS--SCENES IN--PRIVATE + ROOMS--SCENES IN ALL NIGHT SALOONS--DANCING--MUSIC--MORNING + HOURS--ROBBERIES, ETC., PLANNED--GIRLS ENTRAPPED--YOUNG MEN + RUINED--QUARRELS--RAIDS--DRINKING--SURROUNDINGS OF--HOUSES OF ILL + FAME--ASSIGNATION HOUSES--SLUMMING PARTIES--FADS--SALVATION AND + VOLUNTEER ARMY--INMATES OF--HOW MANAGED--PRACTICES IN-- + SUPERSTITIONS--LUCK POWDERS--SOURCES OF SUPPLY--PATRONS OF-- + WHOLESALE HOUSE ENTERTAINERS--POLICE PROTECTION--DISEASES-- + ATTEMPTS AT REFORM--PEOPLE INDIFFERENT. + + +The breeding ground of disorder and crime is to be found in the all night +saloons. + +Despite the stringent ordinances prohibiting the "open door" after +midnight, in the most dissolute districts throughout the city, along the +streets and avenues of the north, west and south divisions, under ground +and on its surface, these dens invite the depraved of both sexes to enter, +remain, dissipate and carouse through the night. Murders, robberies and +assaults are the necessary outcome of the unlimited drinking, the ribald +language, the senseless jealousies, and the heated passions of the motley +crowds which are at all times the fascinated patrons of these joints. A +more rigid rule has recently been applied to the larger of the down town, +or business district, basement saloons. Music is prohibited, and the +closing midnight hour respected. These are but the depots for the all +night saloons. When they close, the gathered crowds of dissolute women +dissolve and betake themselves to the after midnight haunts, there to +continue their calling--the solicitation of male visitors for drinks, +meals and the ultimate purpose of their solicitation--prostitution. The +male frequenters of these resorts belong to all classes of society. The +"steady" visitors are thieves, thugs, pickpockets, gamblers, variety +actors, "rounders," that large and constantly growing class in great +cities which is ceaselessly observing the shady side of life, "seeing the +elephant," and not infrequently becoming intimately acquainted with the +beast, and pimps, who fatten upon the sinful earnings of abandoned women, +whose fondness for their masters increases in proportion to the violence +the masters visit upon their slaves. The transient custom is comprised of +not only the old rounder, but also of those of younger experience, +bursting, or not far advanced, into manhood; those who with a wide +knowledge of the ways and wickedness of the world, more than their years +warrant, are out for a "good time;" the observer of those ways; the +"chiels" who are among them taking notes; clerks, cabmen and their +"hauls;" the country buyer under the guidance of the entertainer of the +wholesale house with whom the buyer is dealing; the delegates to +conventions, out to view the town; the passer through the burg who has +heard of the lights and shadows of Chicago; the swallow-tailed youth, and +the middle-aged gentleman fresh from escorting to her home the virtuous +female companion of the evening's entertainment, the melodrama, the opera, +or the social function. The women range from the one who has just +"started out" to the most despicable and depraved member of the sex. The +former is the observed of all observers, the object of conspicuous +attention, and a veritable prize to be won by the most dashing attack and +the most liberal offer. She is under the tuition of her female guide, who +instructs her "what she has to do that she may not be raw in her +entertainment." + +The basement saloons in the down town district with their brilliant +electric lighting equipment, their reflecting mirrors and hardwood +finishings, combine, in most instances, the facilities of the rum shop and +the restaurant. + +Here, from noon hour of the day until midnight, come and go the "sporty" +women, who have not yet reached the lower degree of a brothel, the +"roomers," "the cruisers" of the street, the so-called keepers of manicure +parlors, baths and dressmaking establishments, all bent upon a "mash" in +its broadest sense, or a "pick up" of any male greenhorn, or sport, who +can be ensnared by their wiles. Maintaining a semblance of decorum, they +pass the earlier hours of the evening in drinking with the "guests" and +in flitting about from table to table, with which each place is abundantly +supplied. The conversation is loud, and at times boisterous. Its subject +matter is beyond repetition in polite circles. Lecherous glances, +libidinous gestures, open invitations, characterize the behavior of the +audience. Sometimes personal liberties are attempted, but invariably +suppressed by the management. From the private rooms come sounds of +hilarity, and the intermixture of words of protest, inducement and +vulgarity. The withdrawals of couples are marked, and their early return +and ruffled appearance suggest patronage of not distant "hotels," where no +questions are asked. Generally, as the midnight hour approaches, the crowd +decreases, signs of intoxication increase, and the exodus to the all night +resorts is about completed as that hour is struck. + +When the downtown basement resorts close, the profitable work of the all +night joints commences. The attendants in them are joined by squads from +the more pretentious and less favored half-night competitors. These +resorts, as a rule, are all equipped with private rooms, and many of +them, in summer, have a so-called garden attached. Some have vaudeville +performances to attract crowds, which end after the midnight hour. Many +have a "Ladies' Entrance," but most visitors pass through the bar to the +sitting room beyond. The so-called music of the cracked piano and strident +male voices now commences, and the hat is passed around by the artists and +performers, for contributions for payment for their services, the "house" +paying nothing for such services, but permitting the artists to "work" the +crowd. Boys of sixteen, and under, join in the gaieties as buck, wing and +jig dancers, and also pass the hat. As the hours lengthen, as the liquor +begins its effect, freedom of action enlarges, and restraint is removed. +Those attitudes at table indicative of respectability are abandoned for +others hinting at the widest license, or actually, which is not +infrequently the case, illustrating that license, so far as familiarities +of the person are concerned. The dance begins, with all its contortions of +the body derived from the couche-couchee exhibitions of the World's Fair +times, enlarged upon by the grossness of the two-step waltz of the slums. +Strolling bands of negro musicians, scraping the violin and strumming the +guitar and mandolin, or the home orchestra, composed of these dusky +minstrels, add their alleged harmonies to the occasion, and, with nasal +expression, roll of coon songs in the popular rag time, with their +intimations of free love, warmth of passion and disregard of moral +teachings. At times, with assumed pathos and mock dignity they warble a +sentimental song with some allusion to "Mother," "Home," or "Just Tell +Them That You Saw Me." The spree goes on, with fresh additions from the +bagnios. Women with the most repulsive signs of prolonged dissipation, of +advanced disease, with the upper parts of the body exposed, not perhaps +more than is customary at a fashionable charity ball, join in with +salacious abandon. These women, in the phrase of the Bard of Avon, belong +to the class of the "custom shrunk," of one of whom a Roman satirist +wrote: + + "* * * but now, + That life is flagging at the goal, and like + An unstrung lute, her limbs are out of tune, + She is become so lavish of her presence, + That being daily swallowed by men's eyes + They surfeit at the sight. + She's grown companion to the common streets-- + Want her who will, a stater, a three obolo piece, + Or a mere draught of wine, brings her to hand! + Nay! place a silver stiver in your palm, + And, shocking tameness! She will stoop forthwith + To pick it out." + +As the morning hours draw nigh blear-eyed men and women in all stages of +intoxication, creep to their holes to sleep away the day for a renewal of +their orgies when darkness again falls. + +In these all night saloons robberies and burglaries are planned, and +hold-ups arranged for. To them young girls are enticed when homeward bound +from summer gardens and midwinter balls. Plans are laid for their ruin +through drink, and the excitement of an experience new to them, which hide +from their view all danger signals. Women are beaten and stabbed in them. +Here young men begin their careers of dissipation, of lechery, and, +perhaps, of crime, amid surroundings so contrary to the examples of home +life, that before they are aware of it, they have become hopelessly +enamored of what is termed a sporting life. + +The flippantly spoken word provokes a heated reply, a jealous woman, +surcharged with drink, precipitates a squabble that swells into a free +fight, a free fight brings an indiscriminate firing of revolvers, and the +consequent death--the murder--of some of the rioters follows. Then, and +not until then, do the police raid the place. For a few weeks it is kept +under the ban, but gradually the law's grip is relaxed, signs of the old +life revive, and soon the same scenes made more joyous and boisterous at +the "new opening" are again enacted, to run the same course until another +felony is committed, and another temporary closing of the doors enforced. + +That the all night saloon where such depravity is permitted to hold sway +is a menace to the peace, the sobriety, and the safety of the community, +is a self evident proposition. + +A minister in one of his sermons said, "The police wink when you call +their attention to the fact that hundreds of saloons are running wide open +all night. It is after midnight that the majority of the crimes are +committed, and yet these places are allowed to run after hours, and have +the protection of the police." + +The beardless boy and the habitual drunkard are, alike, supplied with +drink without question. The former is flattered by being called "a dead +game sport," and the latter tickled with the oft-bestowed title of "old +sport." + +Many of these notorious dens are located in the midst of a forest of +houses of ill fame. The depraved inmates of these houses, partly clad, are +the most indecent visitors to the all night saloons. Perched upon the bar, +or peering out from the private wine rooms, they shout their infamous +language at the visitors, with invitations to indulgence in the most +bestial of practices. + +Slumming parties, composed of respectable men and women whose morbid +curiosity has been aroused by tales of the inconceivable vices forming the +night-life of the demi-monde, are not infrequently found "going down the +line" dropping into the houses of prostitution, viewing the bar, the +private rooms, the dance hall, the crap games and the vicious +surroundings of the all night pest holes. To slum has, in a measure, +become a fashionable fad. Its purpose is, not to carry into these haunts +the example of a better life, but to cater to a dangerous spirit of +inquiry, upon the principle that excitement, even though it be found in +the midst of the garbage boxes of vice, is relished now and then by the +best of mankind. The only indication of a world outside, in which +Christian principles prevail, is occasionally to be found, when some of +the women garbed in the simple uniform of either the Salvation or +Volunteer Army, engaged in rescue work, or in scattering a hopeful word, +through the medium of their publications, pass among the crowd, receiving +in most instances respectful attention, and, at times, but rarely, a jeer +from some drunken sot or wrecked woman. + +The houses of ill fame, whose stained glass windows with suggestive female +figures in the nude advertise the abode of the scarlet woman, are as +luxuriously furnished as is the home of the wealthy and respectable +citizen. These "creatures of sale," as Shakespeare puts it, are as +clearly distinguished in public as members of the demi-monde, as if the +Julian laws were in operation in Chicago. In early Rome, under these laws, +the courtesan was compelled to dye her hair blue or yellow. Like the +Grecian courtesan whose distinctive mark of her calling was blonde hair, +the strumpet of today generally favors a fashion coming down from the past +ages. The passer-by of these abodes of sensuality is invited by open +solicitation or unmistakable gesture to enter them, especially by the more +degraded of the women. A studied decorum is maintained in some of the +parlors of the older establishments, presided over by a proprietress +advanced in years, plentiful in wealth, and dictatorial in management. +Harsh rules are prescribed for the maintenance of the condition of slavery +into which the girls have fallen. Debts to the house tie them to it by +bands too strong to be easily broken, in what are termed the aristocratic +branches of this nefarious trade. These women are none the less free from +indulgence in unnatural practices than are those of houses of reputed +lower degrees of depravity. White and colored alike revel in the same +scenes of carnality which, fragments of history state, prevailed in the +declining days of Rome and of Greece. The inmates of the lowest of these +houses, both in dress, or in the absence of it, and in deportment, follow +the habits of the Dicteriades, or low down prostitutes, of Piræus in the +time of Pericles. Their appearance in the reception parlors in a state of +nudity, and their filthiness in practice is a renewal of the habits of the +Lesbian lovers of the fifth century; or of the flute players of the +Athenian banquets, accounts of whose indecent dancing and depraved ways +are found in the most erotic chapters in ancient literature. From them +come the terms applying to the devotees in these days of sodomitic +indulgence, forming part of the slang of the neighborhood where they live +a debauched and beastly existence. + +The superstitions of the Grecian and Roman courtesan are carried into the +beliefs of those of modern days. What the philters or love charms were to +the former, luck powders are to the latter. They are known along the levee +as "Sally White's Brand" and "Sally White's Mixed Luck." The former is +regarded as particularly lucky. It is a compound of "Sally's" own +prescription, and is secretly sprinkled on the floor, at stated periods, +as luck is sought after, or is burned in a room and the fumes inhaled. The +latter is a mixture of perfumed oils and is used in the bath. The women +are the frequent buyers of Sally's prescriptions, avoiding purchasing on a +Friday. + +The sources from which come the supply to the ranks of courtesans, whether +inmates of the aristocratic, the middle, or the lowest grades of their +temples of vice, are many, various and damnable. Aside from the mere +desire to gratify passion, which medical writers maintain constitutes but +a small percentage of those who join the army of prostitutes, attributable +to an innate sense of virtue in the modern woman, cabmen, in spite of the +municipal ordinances, have been known to drive women entering the city to +these brothels on the pretext they were hotels. The procuress is at work +all the while. + + "Thou hold'st a place for which the paind'st fiend + Of hell would not in reputation change. + Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every + Coistril that comes inquiring for his Tib; + To the choleric fisting of every rogue + Thy ear is liable; thy food is such + As hath been belched on by infected lungs." + +The department stores, in which starvation wages are paid to girls and +women, who are subjected to the attentions of designing men, invited to +lunch, induced to drink; whose love for dress and whose vanity are worked +upon; those whose want of education in the relations of the sexes brings +about their speedy fall; the servant turned out from her employment ruined +by her employer or his son; the seamstress; the victims of unhappy +marriages and cruel homes; those compelled by poverty or necessity, and +who support dependent relatives; the "chippies" of modern days; the +massage parlor graduates; all contribute their distressed quotas to this +ever increasing tribe of prostitutes. + +It gathers in recruits from the overflow of the assignation houses, which +are scattered over this city in astonishing profusion. They are found in +boulevard castles and in back alley huts. They do not differ in character +from those of all cities. Through them come the cast-off women, who, +having satisfied the temporary infatuation of their seducers, find +themselves victims of false promises, and the graduates from homes wrecked +by the discovery of their daylight intrigues. So relentless a warfare is +waged upon these private, and in some instances most exclusive, resorts, +by the lynx-eyed police, that in the year 1897, nineteen keepers of such +places were arrested! Some improvement is noticeable in their suppression +from the fact that in 1894 seventeen, in 1895 five, and in 1896 fifteen +keepers were arrested! Interference with this style of accommodation is, +therefore, possible in Chicago, at or about the time of the arrival of the +millennium! + +Singular to say there are moralists who assign the prostitute a position +of usefulness in modern civilization. One of the most distinguished of +English writers, in tracing the effects of Christianity upon mankind and +its beneficent influences in social life, says: "Under these circumstances +there has arisen in society a figure which is certainly the most +mournful, and, in some respects, the most awful upon which the eye of the +moralist can dwell. That unhappy being whose very name is a shame to +speak, who counterfeits, with a cold heart, the transports of affection, +and submits herself as a passive instrument of lust, who is scorned and +insulted as the vilest of her sex, and doomed for the most part to disease +and abject wretchedness, and an early death, appears in every age as the +perpetual symbol of the degradation and the sinfulness of man. Herself the +supreme type of vice, she is ultimately the most efficient guardian of +virtue. But for her the unchallenged purity of countless happy homes would +be polluted, and not a few, who in the pride of their untempted chastity +think of her with an indignant shudder, would have known the agony of +remorse and of despair. On that one degraded and ignoble form are +concentrated the passions that might have filled the world with shame. + +She remains, while creeds and civilizations rise and fade, the external +priestess of humanity, blasted for the sins of the people." + +The entertainer of the wholesale house who conducts his country customer +to see the sights of the town, whenever and wherever such sights are to be +seen, "where everything goes," pays the expenses of the round of +debauchery from the fund provided by his firm; while from the floating, +passing, male visitors, no less than from the resident male dwellers, +young and old, rich and poor, come the thousands of dollars which go to +the support of the lewd woman of the town, from the street walker, up +through the mistresses and the shady wives, to the best dressed and most +brazen wanton in the palaces--the "swell" houses so styled. The +unrevealable indecencies which attend these infamous resorts are within +the knowledge of the police, under any and every municipal administration. +At times their pressure upon these unfortunates is heavier than at others. +The necessity of raising campaign funds, the personal wants of the +blackmailers of the police force, the revenges to be gratified for some +jealousy aroused, or favor refused, all contribute to increase the weight +of oppression. Meanwhile, in the absence of municipal regulations, which +seem abhorrent to the average American mind as a recognition of the +legalization of vice, diseases are wide spread, until, in the language of +a distinguished physician, the most destructive of them have reached the +blood of "the best and noblest families of the land." Lecky, in his +History of European Morals, speaking of the horrible effects incident to +the non-regulation of houses of this character, says: "In the eyes of +every physician, and, indeed, in the eyes of most continental writers who +have adverted to the subject, no other feature of English life appears so +infamous as the fact that an epidemic, which is one of the most dreadful +now existing among mankind, which communicates itself from the guilty +husband to the innocent wife, and even transmits its taint to her +offspring, and which the experience of other nations conclusively proves +may be vastly eliminated, should be suffered to rage unchecked, because +the legislature refuses to take official cognizance of its existence, or +proper sanitary measures for its repression." + +The protests of Christian organizations and of societies for the +suppression of vice seem to be in vain. The city ordinances prohibiting, +for instance, the employment of females in massage parlors patronized by +men, and others, intended to keep the conduct of all manufactories of vice +within limits, if not to accomplish their suppression, are not attempted +to be enforced. + +Some mitigation of the evils of police aggression has been brought about, +as has been observed, by placing police magistrates under a salary +sufficiently large to induce them to partly abolish the practice of +wholesale midnight arrests, with their consequent fees and bailors' +exactions. These fees are now accounted for more rigidly and paid over to +the city, whether they are the result of daylight or midnight arrests. +These evils are not, however, wholly eradicated, nor will they be, until +an aroused public sentiment shall give as much attention, public service, +and personal endeavor, to the attainment of that most desirable end, as is +given to the building of an armory, the establishment of lake front parks, +Greater Chicago, the passage of revenue bills, and the defeat of the +attempt to obtain public franchises without compensation to the granting +municipality. + +Whatever will tend to create wealth for the individual, to increase the +volume of trade, or add to the attractiveness of the city in the +improvement or adornment of its public parks, the energetic and pushing +citizen aids with his personal services, and abundant wealth. Its moral +attractions receive, in so far as the repression of villainy and of +disgusting vice is concerned, but little, if any, personal or pecuniary +assistance from the people. At a recent meeting of the Law Enforcement +League, a clergyman, who had freely given his time and services in behalf +of the objects of that association, begged for the paltry sum of $250 with +which to carry on the work. It was received by contribution from his +audience after repeated appeals. Had it been a meeting for stock +subscriptions to some corporation promising large returns, or for the +purpose of building a monument to some former day hero, or author, the +appeal would not have had to fall upon the ears of the people repeatedly. +The request would have been granted upon its first presentation. "This +work," said the preacher, "cannot be carried on by sympathy, or applause, +or resolutions, or expressions of good will. There is nothing but hard +cash that counts in the practical work of enforcing the law." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + RE-ELECTION OF MAYOR--FALSE ISSUE UPON WHICH RE-ELECTED--VICES IN + CHICAGO--"BLIND PIGS"--PROTECTED BY POLICE--WHERE SITUATED--HOW + CONDUCTED--CLASSES--DRUG STORES, BAKERIES, BARNS--REVENUE TO + POLICE--LOCATED NEAR UNIVERSITIES--LIEUTENANT OF POLICE CONVICTED FOR + PROTECTING--COCK FIGHTING--BUCKET SHOPS--WOMEN DEALERS--POOL + ROOMS--POLICE PLAY--PULLING OF, FARCICAL--VIEWS OF CHIEF OF POLICE-- + PLAYERS--LANDLORDS--BOOK MAKING--ALLIANCE BETWEEN, AND POLICE AND + LANDLORDS--NEW YORK AND CHICAGO--CHICAGO POLICE FORCE WORST--HOLD UP + MEN--METHODS--VICTIMS--POLICE SLEEP--MAYOR'S FELICITATIONS, APRIL 11, + 1899--ACCOUNTS OF HOLD UPS, SAME DAY--CLASSES OF HOLD-UP MEN--STRONG + ARMED WOMEN--STREET CAR CONDUCTORS ROBBED--ICE CHEST AND OVENS FOR + PRISONS--HAIR CLIPPERS--PROTECTION TO CRIMINALS--"SAFE BLOWERS' + UNION"--FAKES--PANEL HOUSES--BADGER GAMES--NUDE PHOTOGRAPHS--OBSCENE + LITERATURE--CONFIDENCE MEN--DIPLOMA MILLS--GAMBLING--WOMEN'S DOWN TOWN + CLUBS--SEXUAL PERVERTS--OPIUM JOINTS. + + +That public opinion can be aroused on any question deemed of importance to +the municipal welfare finds abundant confirmation in the history of +Chicago, and that that opinion can make itself felt at the polls has but +recently been most remarkably demonstrated. Admittedly deficient, both by +friend and foe, in public assemblages called in behalf of its retention in +power; permitting the violation of the law, in all its departments; openly +consenting to the unrestrainted lechery of the debauched classes, the wide +open running of gambling houses, pool rooms and disorderly houses; aiding +by its refusal, or neglect, to stop the levying by the police of +protection rates upon poker rooms, crap games, pool rooms and dens of that +class, the pitfalls and snares set for the young men of the town; +assessing for political purposes the keepers of disreputable resorts of +all kinds, and the employes of the city under civil service rules in +defiance of a law sternly prohibiting that demoralizing practice; an +administration appealed to, and received, the support of nearly a majority +of the whole people, upon one fictitiously dominant issue, under which all +others were adroitly sheltered and wholly hidden from view. + +That issue which concerned the people as an incorporated body, rather more +than as individuals, was practically non-existing. The power to invade +the rights of the people had been destroyed by State legislation. In the +absence of new legislation, the extension of railroad franchises is now an +impossibility, except under the terms of the existing charter. No +legislation can be obtained in enlargement of such municipal power, until +the next general assembly shall have convened in January, 1901, unless a +special session should be called for that particular purpose, the +probability of which is too remote to be considered. Meanwhile the new +administration which will be carried on for the next two years by +practically the same men as for the past two years, can find no refuge +behind an issue of supposedly overwhelming importance to hide its neglect +of others, which affect, if not directly, yet indirectly, the financial +interests of the city. Those matters, to which the administration of the +city must now give its attention, concern the purity of municipal +legislation; the proper enforcement of the laws in all departments of the +city government; no interference in matters of education; no attempt at +the control of the civil service commission in the strict enforcement of +the law creating it; the proper letting of contracts, and the preservation +of pay-rolls from manipulation and fraudulent swelling. The purity of +municipal legislation is assured by the election of a number of aldermen +whose records as citizens warrant the prediction that they, joining with +an already trusty minority, for the ensuing year at least, will conserve +public rather than private interests, guided by the promptings of each +individual conscience. There will be no opportunity to filch from them for +party ends, or for personal advancement, due public acknowledgment of +their integrity and ability. But the enforcement of the laws governing +municipal administration in its several departments; the proper +disbursement of its appropriation funds for street improvements, scavenger +service, street and alley cleaning, public buildings and parks, etc.; the +management of the school-board by its own officials, free from political +suasion; of the civil service commission along the lines contemplated by +the law free from party dictation, and the elevation of the police force +to the plane of its non-political duties, for the prevention of the +spread of vice and indecency, the repression of crime, the protection of +life and property, are all matters, the non-attention to which can no +longer be excused upon the theory of the necessity of first destroying an +attempted private seizure of the public streets, a theory which has gone +to its destruction by the repeal of an obnoxious law, under which seizure +might have been accomplished. + +So far as the suppression of vice is concerned, the initial duty of +municipal administration is the education of the police in their duties as +imposed upon them by law. For years, under every administration, with +infrequent, feeble attempts at reform, that force has been rapidly +becoming a fleet of harveyized steel battleships, sailing under the +flaunting flag of vice, fully armed, and loyally serving the kings of the +gamblers, the queens of the demi-monde, and their conjoined forces of +thieves, confidence men, cappers, prostitutes, philanderers, etc., etc. It +is not in the least fearful of public opinion. If wealth can snap its +fingers and cry aloud "The public be d--d," so can the force laugh in its +sleeve, and, aping wealth, echo "To hell" with the public. + +It is not different in Chicago from what it is in New York. The temporary +disappearance from the "Tenderloin" of many of its flagrant vices, and the +supposed purification of the police force following the astounding +revelations of the Lexow committee, have given way under the ceaseless and +insidious assaults of criminal and vicious influences. A New York journal +recently said: "The reports to the Society for the Prevention of Crime +show that the city is in worse condition than ever before. No paper would +dare print all that is done openly in dens of vice that are tolerated by +the police. The reports seem almost incredible; they show that with few +exceptions the police force is corrupt from top to bottom. Gambling +houses, disorderly houses and dives of the worst description flourish +openly, a regular schedule of rates has been established which the police +force charge for protection. + +The flagrancy of crime which brought about a political revolution five +years ago exists today as it did then. In some ways there is even less +attempt at concealment than there was in the ante-Lexow days; in others +the vice and immorality is more hidden. But it is here, and instead of +there being one "Tenderloin" ulcer on the city there are now four, each +fully as extended as was that old hotbed of vice." + +What the police force of New York was before the investigation of the +Lexow committee, so the police force of Chicago then was; and what the New +York force is today, so is the Chicago force. A new investigation is about +to begin in New York city. Watch its revelations day after day. Change the +names, and for every police infamy revealed, every unspeakable vice +disclosed, every violation of law recorded, their counterparts can be +found in Chicago, intensified, not modified. + +The crimes which these "coppers" should, but do not, give their services +to repress, are numerous, if minor in character. In flagrant cases of +commission arrests may follow, and often do. It is the unused means of +prevention deadened by the purchased indifference of the officers, that is +the most glaring of police sins. + +The location of "blind pigs," or those places in which liquor is sold +without a license, both within prohibition districts as well as without +them, must either be known to officers traveling beats whereon they +flourish, or such officers are too ignorant to belong to the ranks. It is +not ignorance of the officers that prevents their suppression. Superiors +are paid a price for non-interference. The patrolman follows his orders, +permits the illicit traffic to be carried on by those who pay that price, +and reports only those who do not pay it, but who seek to conduct the +prohibited business without contribution to the permissive fund. + +In the most respectable settlements of the city, in the very heart of +prohibition districts, in which there would be spasms of protest and +whirlwinds of indignation if it were even suggested that the lines +separating the prohibitive from the non-prohibitive districts should be +abolished, are to be found the highest grade of the breed of "blind pigs." +They are the brilliantly lighted, well arranged, and aristocratic types of +the modern drugstore, where, as the evening shades descend, a band of +friendly Indians assembles to discuss the events of the day, conduct wars, +shape the destinies of nations, and draw their inspiration from spiritus +fermenti op., a drug commonly known, however, as whisky, when obtained +without a prescription at the bar of the ordinary licensed saloon. These +whisky jacks express amazement at the want of proper regulation of the +sale of liquor, while aiding in its unlawful traffic. They are typical +Archimagos; high priests of hypocrisy and deceit. They are the open +mouthed reformers who shout for a rigorous application of the law for the +regulation of saloons outside of their own prohibition districts, for the +maintenance of prohibition within those districts, and who wink at their +own infractions of the license laws, behind the prescription case--their +private bar. + +This form of attack upon the license law exists all over the city, more so +perhaps in prohibition districts than without them, but each drug store, +as a rule, has its patrons from whom a yearly revenue is derived by the +accommodating and equally guilty proprietor who vends his drinks without +compliance with the law. + +The other class of "blind pigs" owes its existence to a prearranged +bargain between a policeman and the members of that class, who, for the +entertainment of friends, and the turning of a penny, embark in the +business without fear of arrest. As the sale of liquor for use upon the +premises as a beverage is lawful when licensed, every combination to evade +a license is not only an evasion of the penalties of the license law, but +it is a conspiracy to rob the city of a portion of a large revenue, +sufficient almost to support the police force. The city is thus plundered +by its own servants who take its place in fixing the amount of the +license, and who appropriate it when collected to their own use. + +Some of these institutions are to be found in the rear of bakeries, in the +costly barns of the wealthy classes with coachmen as bartenders, and at +the gates of the silent cities of the dead. + +They are a fruitful source of revenue to the police, and, consequently, +difficult of discovery, since their patrons must be well known as +non-squealers, and the police are too loyal to turn informers. + +They exist in surrounding country towns and in classic neighborhoods, in +Evanston and Hyde Park particularly. Both of these localities are the +seats of institutions of learning; the Northwestern University at the one, +and the University of Chicago at the other. + +A Lieutenant of Police was arrested for extorting money for protection +from the keeper of a blind pig in Hyde Park. It developed, in the course +of his trial, that he was to pay part of the insurance premium to a +brewery company. To such an extent has this blackmailing scheme gone, that +its proceeds are distributed not alone among patrolmen and superior police +officials, but also to brewing companies united in a trust affecting the +price and the quality of the poor man's beverage. + +The national pastime of the Filipinos is of common occurrence in Chicago, +and escapes the watchful eyes of the police, although its uniformed +members pass the door of the saloon with which the principal pit is +connected. The entering crowds, and the crowing of "birds," never fail to +announce the on-coming of the main, except to sightless eyes and deafened +ears. No underground or out of hearing place is selected for these +exhibitions of cock fighting. They are held in the rear of saloons, or in +barns or stables connected therewith by covered ways of approach. One +geographical division of the city is generally pitted against the other. + +Usually the indignant police, even with early information of the time and +place where and when this inhuman amusement is to be held, arrive upon the +scene when the fight has ended, the lights extinguished, and the sports +scattered. Although the city council possesses the charter power to +prevent these disgraceful combats, that power remains unacted upon, and +the offense falls within the definition of disorderly conduct, the penalty +prescribed by ordinance, upon conviction for that offense, being a fine of +from one to one hundred dollars. + +Bucket shops have nearly disappeared from the public gaze. They are, +nevertheless, still carried on in secret, for the purpose of enabling men +and women to gratify their natural propensity for gambling. The active +efforts of one man, having the courage of his convictions and with the +support of a commercial organization, which is the only competitor of +these gambling concerns, have kept them in comparative subjection. Yet, +such is the resistance made by them, that this man, aiding also in the +discovery and punishment of gambling in general, ran the risk of the +destruction of his life, his home, and the loss of the lives of his +family, by the explosion of a bomb thrown at night into, or against, his +house, by some miscreant or miscreants, with the evident intent of +"removing" him as an impediment to the transactions of their murderous +employers. + +The police, after much effort to discover the perpetrators of the outrage, +finally dismissed it from further examination, upon the theory that this +man had himself "put up the job," to accomplish the destruction of his +wife and children, and of his own life. Through this heroic man's efforts, +together with those of a fearless and outspoken clergyman, as in New York, +and not by reason of police assistance, but in spite of police resistance, +the convictions in the criminal court, in the past year for gambling, are +wholly due. The latest accessible reports show that in the year 1897 the +number of places closed during the two preceding years was one hundred and +forty-six, and that at the end of 1897 there were twenty-nine still in +existence, including tape games and fraudulent brokers' haunts. These +institutions possess a peculiar fascination for women. Three of them, +patronized wholly by the female sex, were found under one roof. Of the +leading one, a writer in a city daily newspaper, in a vivid description of +its general surroundings, said: + +"The atmosphere of the rooms is stifling and poisonous. The odor is rank +with the effluvia of bodies, which, in many cases, present the appearance +that would justify the belief that they have been strangers to the bath +for weeks. To go into these rooms out of the fresh outdoor world is to +almost suffocate at first. * * * The effects are plainly visible in the +faces of the women. They had, with few exceptions, leathery, sallow skins, +drawn and tense features, hard lines about the mouth, and wrinkles between +the eyes, while the eyes themselves had acquired a restless, half cunning +expression, composed of cupidity and uncertainty. As for their nervous +systems they are wrecks. Take the hand of any woman in those rooms, +especially if she has just made an investment, and the nervous vibration +is plain--her hand quivers, her whole body is tense, her bulging eyes fix +themselves on the board." + +Alluding to the men who hang around, furnishing "pointers," and looking +for an invitation to a fifteen-cent lunch, one of the speculating women +said of them, "These men are the lowest creatures who come up here; most +of the women are respectable, but these men are lazy, dirty, ignorant and +infinitely low, and all they are after is to get money and a free meal out +of women." + +"The ages of the women range from twenty-five to seventy years. The older +women peered anxiously through their spectacles at the board and whispered +quietly to a companion; wisps of ragged gray hair escaped and waved below +the little black bonnet. Heavy, thick-soled shoes stuck out from the hem +of the modest black gowns; they grasped worn silk reticules in their +nervous fingers, and got out the small sum which, in most instances, they +did not have the nerve to invest." + +Describing the condition in life of these women, the reporter was told +that some had been wealthy, and were now poor through speculation; while +"more than two-thirds are the mothers of families and are eking out a +little income, in many instances supporting an idle, worthless man, who +should himself be out in the world earning a living." + +"If they make 75 cents a day it is a big day for them," said the +reporter's informant. "How little you realize the state to which many of +these women are brought! Many of them are almost penniless. Frequently +they come here in the morning and borrow money with which to begin the +day's operations." + +Pool rooms, as a general rule, run wide open; occasionally they are +"closed for repairs" caused by a police raid, forced by some flagrant +outrage against the law. They flourish in the most public places, with no +restriction upon admission to any visitor. The daily races all over the +country are posted on large black boards covering the walls, with a list +of the horses entered and a minute of the odds which will be given or +demanded by the house, from which the room's judgment of the "favorite" +can be ascertained. + +The money is handled openly, bet openly, and paid openly. City detectives +assist in their management, and "play the races." Raids contemplated by +the police are tipped off to the managers, and when the officers arrive +the game has closed. + +The incidents attending an actual pull are in the main more laughable than +impressive. The "hurry up" wagon takes its load away, and before many +moments have elapsed the same faces are seen again returning to the one +attractive spot in their daily lives. These rooms are munificent +contributors for protection. They pay from $600 to $1,000 per month. They +hold back telegraphic messages of the results of races until their +confederates have placed bets. They are patronized by women of, +apparently, all classes. In one raid eighteen women were captured, fifteen +of whom claimed to be married. All of them, of course, gave fictitious +names; three had babies in their arms; three claimed they were wives of +policemen; a few were well dressed, and all were undoubtedly devotees of +gambling, sporting women who fancied they had discovered the way to lead +an easy and money-making life. + +The following extract, taken from the examination of the head of the +police force of the city, will show the view entertained by that official +of the nature of his duties, in this regard. + +Before the senatorial committee appointed January 6th, 1898, to +investigate scandals in connection with the police force, its Chief was +interrogated and answered as follows, viz.: + +Q. How many pool rooms have you pulled, how many men have been arrested +and convicted for pool selling since you have been chief? + +A. I understand one fellow has been found guilty and fined $2,000. + +Q. But he was arrested by the Sheriff of Cook County, indicted by the +grand jury because the police would not do it? + +A. I don't know whether it was because the police would not do it, or +because they could not do it. + +Q. Well, it was because they did not do it. Do you mean to say that you, +as Chief of Police, with 3,500 sworn men---- + +A. Don't say 3,500 men. It is 2,500 men; don't make it quite so strong. + +Q. Do you say to this committee, that with 2,500 sworn men in this city +you are powerless to stop the public running of pool rooms in this city? + +A. I will say that I am powerless to stop a man from making hand books, or +selling pools confidentially to his friends. + +Q. Do you know of any pool rooms being conducted in this city during the +months of October, November and December? + +A. I don't know of my own knowledge; I never was in one. + +Q. Did any of the 2,500 men ever report anything of that kind to you? + +A. I never had any definite report on that subject. + +Q. They were giving the people a liberal government? + +A. Yes, things were running very easy. + + * * * * * + +Q. I will get you to state if it is not a fact that a large number of pool +rooms were running openly with telegraph operators in the place, pools +were being sold, money paid, and everything running at full blast? + +A. I never was present; I don't know anything about it. + +Q. Was there any complaint to you of that kind of thing being done? + +A. No particular complaint at all. The newspaper boys often came around +and said there was pool selling going on at different places. + +Q. Could not the police of the city of Chicago as readily have found these +people who have been fined for gambling as the Sheriff? + +A. Well, I don't know. I presume if a _desperate effort had been made to +look that kind of thing up we might, possibly, have been successful_. + +Through these resorts, which offer inducements for betting on distant +horse races, the confidential clerk, the outside collector for business +houses, the employes of banks, young men in all grades of employment +involving the handling of the funds of their employers, together with the +men of moderate salaries, working men, and the large number of sports who +live by their wits, are assisted in a downward career, until defalcations, +destitution in homes, and a still more acute phase of living on one's +wits, are reached, followed by flight, arrest, conviction, imprisonment, +the breaking up of homes, and the necessity for the resort of the broken +sport to the tactics of the hold-up man. + +Yet they are tolerated, until their shameless management becomes a public +scandal. Then follows a pull, a period of purification of very slight +duration, and again a slow start. Speedily again they are in as full +gallop as are the horses whose names they post, and as around the race +track the horses go, so around the vice track the pool rooms go. The +losing patrons pass under the wire at the end of their foolish struggle to +win, some to the penitentiary, some to despair, and some to suicide. + +The keeper and the landlord who knowingly permits his premises to be used +for the selling of pools, are, under the laws of the State of Illinois +enacted into an ordinance by the Municipal Code, guilty of a misdemeanor, +and are liable to punishment by imprisonment in the county jail for a +period not longer than one year, or by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or +both. + +The police make no complaints to justices for arrests, nor to their Chief, +according to his testimony. The keeper pays a high rent, while the +landlord, perhaps some sanctimonious deacon of a church, who thanks God +that he is not as other men are, accepts his monthly returns with unctuous +satisfaction, shouts his amens louder, confesses his sins more meekly, or +excuses his violation of the laws of the state with a more emphatic shrug +of his shoulders and a more fervid rubbing of his hands. + +Book making, "in which the betting is with the book maker," and pool +selling, in which the betting is among the purchasers of the pool, they +paying a commission to the seller, are both denounced by the statute, and +the court of last resort of the state. + +The unholy alliance between the police, the keeper of these law breaking +and despicable haunts, and the conscienceless landlord, could be summarily +dissolved. The police could be made the enemy of both. Their warm +friendship for, and silent participation in the profits of, the +partnership, can be destroyed by an executive order which needs but to be +issued, with no possibility of an early revocation, to be implicitly +obeyed by the sellers and "bookies." If not obeyed, then drastic measures +within the power of the police to employ should be applied. As these lines +are written, some evidence is visible of action by the police. A raid has +been made! The inspector, under whose order it was conducted, said, "The +sooner these men begin to learn that I mean what I say, the better it will +be for them. I want my officers to understand, also, that they will have +to be more vigilant." Threatening words, such as these, are common +utterances by police officials, but heretofore as their echo died away +their fierceness disappeared. No administration could lay claim to higher +praise in any city in the land than that its police force is the guardian +of the people's rights, the stern foe of crime, and the relentless +suppressor of vice and indecency through the enforcement of the laws +created for that suppression. + +If this is done in Chicago, a few of the devil's aids in the diffusion of +wickedness will disappear from sight so completely that Asmodeus would +vainly tear off the roofs of the houses in a search after proofs of his +demoniacal power. + +While the police force is so closely leagued with pool rooms, and +subjected to the power of the money their keepers are willing to pay for +permission to carry on their demoralizing business, it is a matter of +impossibility to destroy them. Vice works incessantly; the means for its +destruction are employed spasmodically. New York City furnishes an +astonishing instance of the political power exercised by a combination of +the law breakers. + +The Lexow committee demonstrated the almost total depravity of an officer, +charged with a command over its "Tenderloin." + +The city labored and Greater New York was born. It would seem that greater +crime and greater political power in the criminal classes were born at +the same birth. That officer became Chief of Police of the expanded +metropolis. He had been indicted under the scathing revelations against +him made by the Lexow committee, and yet despite the evidence of his +depravity, and the protests of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, he +was, through the power of politics and crime, foisted upon the new +municipality as the ranking officer of its police organization. The result +was inevitable. New York, the greater, is now declared to out-Satan New +York, the lesser. A new committee is probing into its police management. +At the outset of its proceedings it wrung from this officer replies so +self condemning as to stagger one's faith in the possibility of such a +quality as obedience to official oath in a police officer. + +The Chief was asked: Q. Perhaps you can tell how it is and why it is, that +even while this committee is sitting in session here, the pool rooms are +open all around us, and I have in my pocket money that my men won in the +pool rooms? + +A. Perhaps some of my men have it, too. They are looking after it just the +same as you are. + +Q. But the pool rooms are running? + +The Chief did not answer, but complained to his questioner that he had not +been informed of the facts "officially." + +The examination then proceeded as follows, viz.: + +Q. Do you mean to say, as Chief of Police, with the men and money at your +command, you can't close the pool rooms? + +"No," replied the Chief, "we do the best we can, as we did when you were a +Commissioner." + +"I closed the pool rooms," shouted his questioner. "You did not," retorted +the Chief; "they were alleged to be, on reports of commanding officers, +then as now." + +"Yes," said the questioner, "but there was some fatality about that +business, if you know what I mean." + +"Some forced fatalities," sneered the Chief. "Well, sir," said the +questioner, "here are three great evils of importance--gambling houses, +pool rooms and policy shops--and you cannot recall from your own +recollection--you who are in charge of the enforcement of the laws--a +single arrest in any one of these classes of crimes within a month. What +do you do for your salary as Chief?" + +A. "I look after the force as a whole; I look after all reports that come +in touching all matters of the kind you refer to and all kinds of crime." + +The questioner called the Chief's attention to a newspaper and some +advertisements it carried. In spite of the questioner's declaration that +the paper was a Tammany organ, and that all Tammany men were supposed to +buy it and read it, the Chief declared that he never had done so. The +questioner made the Chief a present of a copy of the paper, and asked him +to read over the massage advertisements. The Chief thanked him and said, +"I will attend to these places because I do not believe in such disguises +for disorderly houses. Such places are usually in tenement houses and +flats. I will attend to them and drive them out." + +"Will you make the same pledge about pool rooms," demanded the questioner +quickly? + +"That I cannot promise," replied the Chief. + +"Why can't you promise it?" asked the questioner. + +"Because they conduct that sort of business in places where we can't get +at them, and you know it, but I will try and stamp it out." + +Chicago and New York methods quite agree, with the advantage in favor of +New York. In the latter city, the Chief of Police "will try" to stamp pool +rooms out. In Chicago, the Chief, in his reply to similar questions, said: +"While a man may come to my office and give information that a certain +individual is violating the law somewhere and it is a trivial offense, I +do not pay so much attention to it as I do when a report reaches my office +that a man has committed a serious crime, such as murder, that a serious +crime has been committed on the outside. I should naturally abandon that +part of it, and take up the more serious offense, and I have been looking +up serious crimes, such as burglary, robbery and the hold-up people, and I +have made a desperate effort to suppress that." + +It was in this connection reference was made by the committee to the fact +that one of Chicago's policemen had shortly before been arrested for +holding up a citizen and robbing him in the daylight hours, which called +forth the reply already quoted in these pages to the effect that this +particular star had been tried, that he was a member of the police force +for ten years, was a good officer, but got drunk and became a "little +indiscreet." For this he was dismissed from the force, but reinstated +because "many people" vouched for him. It seems almost incredible that +that man is today a member of Chicago's police force; yet such is the +shameful fact. + +Without the aid of the telegraph, the daily newspaper and the race cards, +pool rooms and book making could not survive. They are the means of giving +vitality to this form of gambling. The telegraph furnishes the press with +"events" all over the country, upon which pools and books are made up. The +news of the result of a particular race is flashed by wire at once from +the race track to the pool rooms all over the land. There is scarcely a +daily newspaper in any city that does not devote a page of its issue to +sporting events. Many of them have their "forms" or "forecasts" of races, +which are the guesses of their sporting men as to the probable results of +each race to be run on a particular track. The race card is distributed +every evening throughout the city; to cigar stores, saloons and billiard +halls. It contains the "results" of the day, together with information as +to the entries for the following day's races. Through these sources the +sporting community keeps in touch with the world. + +A Chicago afternoon newspaper upon the occasion of the opening of a race +track in an adjoining state presented in its issue its "Form of Today's +Races." To those unacquainted with the lingo of the track its guesses are +delightfully humorous. + +Predicting the possible result of the first race, the form says: "B. L. +looks the best of the lot on paper. If the trip from the east did not take +the edge off H. S. he should win easily, as he showed considerable +sprinting ability in his last out. L. P. has a burst of speed which may +put her inside of the money and with a good boy up is worth a show bet. +The others are a poor lot and of uncertain quality, so that the finish +will probably be B. L., etc." Of the second it remarks: "Of these +youngsters which have started C. has been the most consistent and is +undoubtedly the best, but T. is rounding too rapidly and may run ahead of +the mark. F. A. is a sprinter, but if pinched does not like the gaff. M. +E. and M. are green ones, and this is the first time they have faced the +barrier, so there is no line on them. C. T. and F. A. should be the order +of the finish." It says of the third race: "M. is a soft spot, and, if +fit, she should win as she pleases. It looks as if the real race should be +for the place and the show money, and will likely be between M. and A. H. +and T. are also partial to the going, but as the latter has not started +recently, T. should be the better if any of the others named are +scratched. The result will likely be M. A., etc." Of another, a colt race, +its forecast is, "H. is such a good colt that he looks like a 2-to-5 shot +in this bunch, and that will be about what the books will lay against him. +Of course, he has dicky legs, but the soft undergoing will undoubtedly +suit his underpinning. The finish should be H. K., etc." The final race is +thus placed in the form: "At the best this is a bad lot, and hardly worthy +of doping, as so much depends on the jockeys and start that any one of the +probable starters has a chance to get the big end of the purse." + +To this necessity has journalism come at last! While it urges the +suppression, in thundering tones, of all manner of gambling, it is driven, +by the necessity of competition, to aid the most injurious of gambling's +many attractive methods. Another Chicago newspaper, the columns of which +every morning contain the world's news of sporting events, said a short +time ago, editorially: "Chief K----'s assurance that he will do his best +to suppress gambling will be accepted in good faith. He has made a start +in that direction, and the farther he goes the more plainly he will see +that for the police to suppress gambling is a mere matter of lifting their +hands. Gambling of the sort that the police department is expected to +suppress does not flourish save by the connivance of police officers. It +is quite true that to extirpate the vice of gaming is beyond the power of +the police. Nobody has expected them to do that. While the board of trade +and the stock exchanges remain open one form of the vice will be practiced +publicly beyond the reach of the police. And so long as cards and dice +boxes are to be procured, degenerate human nature will practice the vice +in secret. But the police can stamp out the open and flagrant practice of +gambling in forms inhibited by the law as easily as they can wink at it. +It is a matter of saying "Yes" or "No." A poolroom or a policy shop may +open now and then, but it will quickly shut again if the police are in +earnest." + +The assistance derived from the telegraph and newspaper by the gambling +fraternity is commented upon by a modern writer, his subject being "The +Ethics of Gambling." He remarks, "But it is time to emphasize the fact +that the real supports of the gambling habit in its present enormous +extent are the telegraph and the newspaper. Half the race courses in the +country would be abandoned almost immediately if newspapers were +forbidden to report on betting, and if telegraph offices declined to +transmit agreements to bet, or information which is intended to guide +would-be bettors. How this is to be done it is not for me to say. My +present object and duty are exhausted in pointing out the fact that the +national life is being deeply injured, the State seriously weakened by the +wide spread of the gambling habit, and further, that this habit in its +present extent and intensity, is nourished most by the daily press and the +telegraph. It must certainly be in the power of the State to deal with +this, the most potent instrument by which the gambling fiend fights his +way into home after home throughout the length and breadth of the +country." + +"Hold up" men find Chicago their least dangerous and, perhaps, their most +profitable field of operations. In all the various forms of this robbery +upon the street in day or at night time, or in raiding saloons and stores, +it is merciless in its methods. Robbery accomplished, brutality follows. +The criminals who resort to it at night, not satisfied with acquiring +their victim's property, usually knock him unconscious with the butt end +of a revolver, with a billy or sand bag, or blind him with cayenne pepper, +and in that hapless condition leave him to be found, no matter what may be +the state of the weather. This form of criminality is a winter's +occupation. It is occasionally, but rarely, followed in the summer months. + +Women are held up in the streets at midday, in the evening when returning +home from labor, on the street cars, and at the doors of their own homes, +and within them. No class is exempt from the attacks of these marauders. +The poor suffer with the rich. They are of such frequent occurrence that +it is believed not one-fourth of their number is reported to the police. +The inefficiency of the force to prevent them is proverbial, and that +inefficiency finds much of its origin in the utter disregard of the rules +of the department requiring patrolmen to travel their respective beats. +The discipline of the force in this respect is nothing; it is worn away by +abrasion. + +The colder the night and the warmer the nearest saloon or kitchen range, +there will the patrolman be found. In the former case he is merely +dreaming of his duty; and in the latter, he is engaged in a terrific +struggle between love and duty. Some back door of a house of ill fame is +open to him for shelter, for wine, and oftentimes for food. The +good-hearted landladies of these abodes know full well that one way to +reach the patrolmen stationed in their neighborhood is through their +stomachs, not because they are officers, but because they are men. In +localities away from the bagnios, some servant girl, friendly to the +"copper," protects him from the inclemency of the weather. To her he gives +his time and his devotions at the city's expense. If on some, or on any +winter's night, an observation flight could be taken through the air, and +over the city, by the Chief, that official would believe his occupation +was gone; for, except here and there as some of his subordinates were +wending their way at the appointed hour to a patrol box to report, he +would fancy he was a general deserted by his army. Closer inspection +would, however, reveal to him that never an army had such comfortable +winter quarters as has his. While the patrolman thus enjoys his siesta, +or indulges in his love making, the hold up man lies in wait on the +unguarded beat, to slug and rob the first belated wayfarer whom he may +confront. + +The number of hold ups in Chicago in the year 1898, it is believed, +exceeded in number those of any two large cities in the United States +combined. The press, in fact, claims that their number was greater than in +all of the cities of the United States. They were of almost daily +occurrence. They are just as numerous, and just as ingenious and murderous +in design, since the continued administration was inaugurated, as before. + +In the morning edition of the daily press of April 11th, 1899, the +re-elected Mayor's felicitations to the council in his annual message +delivered on the previous evening were published in these words: + +"The people of Chicago have reason to congratulate themselves on the +successful manner in which the police department has coped with crime. It +is acknowledged on all hands that Chicago is a singularly good place for +thugs and thieves to avoid, and this notwithstanding the fact that the +size of the police force is utterly inadequate." + +The evening papers of the same date report the following as examples of +how the thieves and thugs avoid Chicago: + +"L. was arrested early yesterday morning for alleged participation in a +daring hold up, which occurred near the corner of Van Buren and State +streets about an hour before. A cab containing Mr. and Mrs. L. B., who +live on Pine street, and Mrs. C. D., of North Clark street, approached the +curb. As the three occupants alighted four or five men rushed at them. One +drew a revolver and shouted: "Hands up." The other made a dash at Mrs. D., +who displayed some valuable jewelry, and snatched a watch worth $225 and a +diamond ring valued at $125. The highwaymen then disappeared around the +corner." + +"Attacked by Three Negroes.--Stanton Avenue police are looking for three +negroes who held up Albert T., of 37th street, at 33rd and Dearborn +streets last night and relieved him of $4.00 and a watch. T. was standing +under the shadow of a building at the corner when three negroes +approached him. One of them drew a revolver and threatened T., while the +other two searched him. Many people were passing at the time, but the +party escaped all notice in the deep shadows." + +"As Thomas L. and Joseph S. left Ald. K.'s saloon early today, S. says he +was robbed of $2.45--all the money he had." + +"Robbed in a Saloon.--August J., bound for Minneapolis from Finland, came +to Chicago last evening. He met a woman, and the two went to Samuel M.'s +saloon on State street, where J. claims the woman held him up at the point +of a revolver and took all his money--$25. J. reported the matter to the +Harrison street police, and Officers C. and S. arrested Albert B., the +bartender. He was arraigned before Justice F. today on a charge of being +accessory to robbery. The woman has not been arrested." + +Following this, two men boarded an outgoing railroad train at night, and +at one of its stopping stations captured a passenger who was standing on +the rear platform of a coach, dragged him away, robbed him of a small sum +of money, a lady's gold watch, took a plain gold ring from his finger, +then bound and gagged him and threw him into an empty freight car near by. + +Within three weeks after the publication of this effusive compliment to +the police, a citizen sent the following communication to an evening +paper, which, together with the comments of that paper upon it, is here +inserted, as the best criticism of the Mayor's optimistic view of the +efficiency of his police force: + +"April 26, 1899.--Editor the J.: Not fewer than 15 flats and residences in +the district bounded by West Adams street, Kedzie avenue, Homan avenue and +Washington boulevard have been plundered recently. The thieves reside at +----, a fact well known to the police, but all the efforts of the +suffering tax payers are unavailing in having them arrested. + +"The police authorities will not act. The rascals have been at their +present abode (----, first flat) since early last autumn. Their landlord +is (well, I won't mention his name) well known. + +"Our community has become so terrorized that no one dares remain out after +dark. Can't you assist us in our troubles? The police don't act. + + "RESIDENT OF THE DISTRICT." + +The comments of the paper read as follows, viz.: + +"The author of the above is a well-to-do West side manufacturer. He says +in a note which came with this communication: 'Do not under any +circumstances couple my name with it. We are all afraid of our lives, +believing that the thieves are so desperate that they would murder any one +disclosing their method and abode.' + +This is the district in which George B. Fern and Cora Henderson met their +deaths under such mysterious circumstances. + +Here is a partial list of the happenings of recent date in this one +neighborhood, the first four named cases being within one business block: + +GEORGE B. FERN, dry goods merchant, 1393 West Madison street; found in his +store with bullet hole in his head, mask and revolver with one chamber +empty at his side; police say he committed suicide; coroner's jury +returned a murder verdict; the grand jury also declares it was a case of +murder. + +CORA HENDERSON, blind woman, 1385 West Madison street; found dead in her +house, hole in her skull; murder theory worked upon by police; later +theory advanced that she might have met her death by a fall. + +F. W., tailor, West Madison street; robbers drove up to his store in broad +daylight while he was eating in a restaurant next door and intimidated +clerk with revolver, loaded in tailor's cloth, drove away. + +W. H. D., West Madison street, grocer; hole drilled in his safe; burglars +scared away when D. came to open store. + +MRS. FRANK W., Washington boulevard, house entered; $200 stolen. + +MRS. MARGARET D., Washington boulevard; house entered; $200 worth of +property taken. + +MRS. WARREN F. H., Warren avenue; house entered; $500 worth of property +taken. + +MRS. CHARLES C., Washington boulevard; hearing a noise at her front door, +went onto the porch; a burglar who had been trying to force an entrance +into the second story dropped at her side, revolver in hand; he escaped, +frightening off pursuers with his revolver. + +DR. F. F. S., West Monroe street and Homan avenue; two men attempted to +hold him up in his office; frightened away by the arrival of a patient. + +PROF. CHARLES E. W., Chicago Piano college; chased by mounted foot pad. + +MRS. ELIZABETH H. T., M. D., Warren avenue; swindled out of $60 by men who +had a 'sure thing' on the races. + +JOHN V., West Monroe street; swindled by same game. + +WILLIAM H. P., bookkeeper for C. S. & Co., West Monroe street; house +robbed. + +HERMAN W., West Monroe street; house robbed of diamonds, jewelry and +silverware; Mrs. W. coming home, encounters robbers as they were leaving; +they politely raised their hats and walked on. + +H. S. B., real estate, West Adams street; candidate for president of M. +club; house robbed. + +ARTHUR W. C., Illinois Credit Company, West Adams street; house robbed. + +JOHN G., grocer; attempt made to swindle him out of $100 by men with 'tip' +on races. + +The above list was obtained by a brief canvass of the neighborhood. + +The house given as the abode of the "thieves" is situated right in this +neighborhood, which is one of the best residence districts. It is a gray +stone structure and is said to be owned by a well known West side +politician. In this place lives at least one of the men who have swindled +numerous West side residents of this district by means of the 'tips' on +the races. These men, it is said, have operated successfully for a year, +few of their victims making complaint on account of the unenviable +publicity the affair would thus attain. This gang, too, has headquarters +in a West Madison street block within a few doors of the Fern store. + +This neighborhood is included in the Warren avenue police district. None +of the officers at this station, or any of the Central station detectives +familiar with the case, believes that the 'jockeys' have anything to do +with the 'holdups' and robberies of flats, and laugh at the idea advanced +by the author of the letter to The J--." + +The names and addresses of these victims are printed in full in the +newspaper referred to, but for obvious reasons they are not used in +reproducing the article. + +Immediately following the publication of this startling list of crimes, a +grand jury submitted to the court the following report. The reader can +harmonize, as best he may, this official statement, with that of a +lighthearted and self satisfied Mayor who controls, or does not control, +as one's thought may elect, the Chicago police force. + +"In closing our work the members of the jury desire to report to your +honor some slight comment on the various matters which have been brought +to our attention during our session, and to submit for recommendation to +the proper authorities suggestions that may check the amount of crime +which has been brought to our notice. + +"Our city seems to be the asylum of habitual criminals of all classes, who +have terrorized the people to an alarming degree. We would particularly +call attention to several instances within our knowledge where persons +have been found dead, investigation made by the proper authorities, +verdicts rendered according to the evidence with recommendations by the +coroner's jury that the guilty be brought to justice. These deeds wherein +the perpetrators in several instances have not been detected are largely +due to the fact that this city is made an asylum for habitual criminals, +and we strongly recommend that every measure be taken to close the gates +of the city to such people. + +"Were the statute of the state regarding the arrest of vagabonds more +strictly enforced by the proper authorities the number of habitual +criminals at large could be largely reduced and Chicago made a less +attractive place of residence for this class. The law itself is broad and +ample in its provisions. Places under the guise of saloons, duly licensed, +are merely rendezvous for thieves, murderers and prostitutes, and +notwithstanding the fact that such vile places are well known to the +authorities they are permitted to continue without molestation. The +defilement of our youths of both sexes should receive the severest penalty +of the law. It is our duty to protect and guard the manhood and womanhood +of the young. + +"The continued violation of the ordinance fixing the closing hours of +saloons is a great factor in the number of crimes committed in the city, +and we earnestly recommend a strict enforcement of the ordinance." + +Apparently, a few of these criminal gentry regard Chicago as a safe field +for their labors! + +Boys in their teens, men and women, both black and white, the latter of +the strong armed class, comprise this coterie of criminals. The strong +armed women, generally negresses, have the developed muscles of the +pugilist and the daring of the pirate. They entice the stranger into dark +passage ways, that innocent stranger, so unfamiliar, but so willing to be +made familiar with the wickedness of a great city, who seeks out its most +disreputable quarters and scours its darkest byways, to report to his +mates, on his return to his country home, the salacious things that he has +heard of, and a few of which he witnessed. In these dark and dangerous +ways the strong armed women garrote and rob their victims, or they entice +the innocent, but lustful, stranger to their rooms, and there, through the +panel game, or by sheer strength or drugged potations, appropriate the +innocent stranger's valuables. Mortified and humiliated, the stranger +usually has nothing to say to the police of the affair. Then the +emboldened strong armed women go upon the street in couples, and rob in +the most approved methods of the highwayman. Alone, one of these notorious +characters is said to have pilfered to the extent of $60,000. She was, and +is, a terror to the police force. Released from the penitentiary not long +ago, she is now undergoing trial for a fresh offense. Approaching a +commercial traveler from behind, she is charged with having nearly +strangled him, and then robbed him of his money and jewelry. + +"Only one man ever got the best of E. F.," said detective Sergeant C. R. +W., of Harrison street station, who had arrested E. F. frequently. + +"Once she held up a cowboy and took $150 from him. He came up to the +station hotfoot to report the robbery. We were busy and a little slow in +sending out after E., whereupon the cowboy allowed he'd start out after +her on his own hook. He met her down by the Polk street depot, and the +moment he spotted her he walked right up close to her and covered her with +two six-shooters. + +"You've got $150 of my money, now shell out nigger," he said. + +"Go and get a warrant and have me arrested then," replied the big colored +woman, who wanted time to plant the coin. + +"These are good enough warrants for me," returned the cowboy +significantly, as he poked the revolvers a trifle closer to her face. +"Now, I'm going to count twenty, and if I don't see my money coming back +before I reach twenty, I'll go with both guns." + +"When he reached eighteen, E. weakened. She drew out a wad and held it out +toward him. But the cowboy was wise and would not touch the roll till she +had walked to the nearest lamplight under the escort of his two guns and +counted out the $150. Then he let her go and came back to the station and +treated." + +Conductors of street cars are often the victims of the hold up men. Here +in Chicago they invented the plan of placing the saloonkeeper in the ice +chest, while the looting of the place went on. In another instance a baker +was imprisoned in a hot oven. Women in their homes are thrust into +closets, gagged and bound, while their houses are ransacked and their +property stolen. + +The want of an energetic police is the cause of the prevalence of such +abominable offenses as hair clipping, or the severing from the heads of +young girls upon the public streets their braids of hair. One of these +perverts was arrested and excused himself upon the ground that it was a +mania with him, and that the temptation to cut off the braids of hair from +every young girl he met, was almost irresistible. If detectives, instead +of lounging around their daily haunts for drinking purposes, loafing in +cigar stores, and playing the pool rooms, were mingling with the crowds +upon the streets, offenses of this character would be nearly impossible, +although this particular weakness seems to lead its impulsive perpetrators +to less crowded thoroughfares, and selects the hours of going to and +returning from school, as the most favorable parts of the day for its +gratification. It may be prompted by a morbid desire, but it is none the +less a serious offense, which, as yet, the criminal law has not defined, +and has therefore not provided a proper penalty for its punishment. No +evidence, so far as it is known, has yet been adduced to show that the +braids of hair are ever sold to dealers in that article, such as wig +manufacturers, etc. If such evidence should be forthcoming, the ingenuity +of the average criminal for the discovery of new methods of despoliation +will receive additional confirmation. + +One peculiar method of protection to the criminal classes is in vogue. A +new thief arrives in the city; his arrival is noticed by a detective and +the fact reported to headquarters. The thief is invited to visit the +Chief. Upon his appearance, permission is given him to remain, provided he +"does not work his game" within the city. He can plunder all the +neighboring towns he may select, but the price of his remaining in +security in Chicago is, that he shall be good and gentlemanly to its +people. The "Safe Blowers' Union" has its home in Chicago, from which it +radiates, as the spokes of a wheel, to the circumference of its limit of +operations. It is a trust; a protective association. It pays for the +privilege. It attacks the country bank, blows it, in the silence of the +night, to pieces with dynamite if necessary, and murders if interfered +with. It returns with its loot to the city, makes its dividends among its +membership, police included, and awaits the pressing necessity for a +renewal of its suburban raids. It is under the king's mighty shield, the +king of the criminals, over whom he reigns with leniency, and whose gifts +he accepts with condescension. + +The fakes of a great city are beyond enumeration. There are fake +information bureaus, fake advisory brokers, fake safe systems of +speculation, fake music teachers, fake medical colleges, fake law schools, +fake lawyers, fake "Old Charters for Sale," fake corporations, fake relief +and aid societies, fake preachers and fake detective agencies. The latter, +and the street fakers, are friendly with the police. So are the fruit +vendors, and the all night lunch counters on wheels. The latter stand +where the officers say they shall stand, and the location once found, the +officers at once become landlords. + +As to private detective agencies, without reference to agencies of an +established local and national reputation, they are principally +constituted of thieves, pickpockets, blackmailers, and porch climbers. + +In the trial of a case before the Criminal Court of Cook County, a few +months ago, a witness acquainted with their inside history, swore that +there were men connected with these fake organizations who would commit +murder for $50. They enter into conspiracies to ruin the private character +of men and women in divorce cases, and for blackmailing purposes. Three of +these hounds were lately convicted of conspiracy in less than one hour, by +a jury in the same court. These three worthies comprised the entire +agency. Their punishment was fixed at imprisonment in the penitentiary. +They were employed in getting revenge on a man, who was supposed, by their +employer, to have been the cause of his discharge from his commercial +position. In getting this revenge they fell upon their shadow, pummelled +him with great severity, and badly injured him. So grievous was the +offense, that the State's Attorney demand no less a punishment than the +jury awarded. + +They manufacture testimony in divorce proceedings, at the suggestion and +upon the request of the parties willing and desirous of cutting the +matrimonial tie; or, upon the instigation of one of the parties, they will +endeavor to entrap and compromise the other. They revel in the destruction +of the character of a good woman, as the vulture revels in the foulness of +a carrion. The man of wealth must be on his guard against their attacks, +for they would as lief magnify his peccadillos into felonious crimes and +attempt his plunder by blackmail, as they would accept the earnings of the +Mistresses Overdone, the exhausted bawds, whose pimps they are. + +Theirs is only another but a more vicious form of depravity than that +practiced by the panel house keepers, who send their single workers upon +the streets to entice men to their abodes, where they are met by the +expert workers of the game. While thus entrapped, and indulging in the +sensuality which aids so readily in his allurement, the adroit "creeper" +enters the room through a movable panel, or by some other prearranged +method of ingress, and takes the watch, the coin, or "any other old thing" +of value, found about the removed and scattered clothing of the greenhorn. +The police are as well acquainted with these "single workers" as they are +with the street walkers. They know their haunts, and their fields of +labor. The hotels, and places where crowds are gathered in the early +evening, attract the "single workers" as the most promising ground for a +successful capture. + +"Badger games" are not infrequently played in Chicago. Such as are +successful are generally kept from the police records, through the +preference of the blackmailed subjects to say nothing about them, in dread +of their personal exposure. A man, generally one of means and standing, is +marked for conquest. The first class hotel is the scene of operations of +the female in the case. Fashionably dressed, handsome, with jewels for +adornment, she strikes up a flirtation with the selected person. Fool +like, as most men are in the case of handsome and well gowned women, he +responds to the invitation, an acquaintance is formed and an assignation +made. The place is of the woman's selection and known of course to her +paramour, styled her husband. The room is entered, compromising situations +reached, when, suddenly, the indignant husband appears, the woman screams +in terror, and a storm rages. It is calmed by the payment of the price +demanded for concealment, and the "sucker" escapes with a load removed +from both his pocketbook and his mind. + +A noted instance of this kind happened to a wealthy and prominent +merchant, whose indiscretions in the acceptance of inducements for sexual +enjoyment held out to him by a stylish and beautiful woman, and his +blindness in not observing his surroundings, enabled the fake husband to +photograph him in _flagrante delicto_. Under threats to distribute the +pictures it is reported he paid $10,000 for them and the negative. This is +a fact easily susceptible of proof. One at least of these proofs did not +accompany the package he received, which was supposed to contain all of +the pictures. + +Photographing from the nude is not the fad of the harlot alone. Women +infatuated with their shapes begin with the exposure of a beautiful foot, +arm or well rounded bust, then a leg, etc., etc., until they stand before +the camera almost in _puris naturalibus_. These pictures are taken for +pure self admiration, the love of self study and comparison with the forms +of celebrated actresses, or the paintings of the masters, famous in art +for their conceptions of the perfect woman. They differ from those obscene +pictures designed for sale, for which purpose the depraved couple are +photographed in situations, attitudes and conditions, natural and +unnatural, which appeal to the grossest instincts in man, and shock, also, +the moral sense of every one not in himself a sexual pervert. + +The latter are eagerly sought after, are quite salable, and are carried +about the persons of fast young men about town, with intent, upon +opportunity, to influence the passions of women. They are the solace of +the aged sport, who, having lost all recollection of the ordinary affairs +of his youth, still fondly retains the memory of the amours of his younger +days, and of the orgies of his middle age. Then recalling with sadness the +first appearance of the lamentable indications of his decline, he +contentedly yields the passing of his power--"sans teeth, sans eyes, sans +taste, sans everything." + +These are the men, who, if they had lived in the early days of the Roman +Empire at or about the date of the Floralian games, would have been the +principal patrons, or, if at the time of the prevalence of the +Bacchanalian mysteries, the prominent members, of societies organized for +the purpose of gratifying unnatural desires; or if they had been Romans in +the declining days of that empire would have figured as the most frantic +and most lustful of the worshippers of Priapus. + +The methods of the vendors of obscene literature are innumerable, and all +are formed along the lines of extreme caution and cunning. They are keen +judges of human nature, quick to detect the inquisitive stranger, or the +sporting gent of the town, and adroit in introducing their filthy stock. +The purchaser is more than liable to be swindled in the deal, as the fakir +requires immediate concealment of the purchase, which, when examined by +the vendee in the quiet of his own room often turns out to be a harmless +work resembling only in the binding the supposed purchase. + +The confidence men, who invite the incoming visitor to view the scene of +the great explosion on the lake front, and suggest trips to other places +where startling events have not occurred, discover, by skillful +questioning, the weaknesses of their dupe. They arouse his innate, but +dormant, wish to take a chance at some game that seems to him certain of a +rich return. He is easily induced to play and allowed to win a small +stake, merely to excite greater interest and establish the conviction that +he can "beat the game." Naturally he plunges ahead, until the moment +comes, set by his trappers, when he is cheated, robbed and goes "flat +broke." The dupe may, or may not, report his loss to the police. If he +does, and it happens to be one of consequence, detectives may be detailed +to search for the swindlers; but if the loss is small in amount, however +important to the loser, the dupe is more likely to be laughed at than +aided by the officers of the law. + +To this class belong cabmen who rob drunken men, and "divvy" with the +police; commission houses, which secure consignments of goods for sale by +false representations; grocery grafters, who solicit throughout the +country orders for groceries, claiming to represent wholesale houses, ship +an inferior grade and collect C. O. D. at the prices charged for the +superior grade; Board of Trade sharks, who "welch" their clients' money by +charging up fictitious losses, when the figures will not appear to lie; +the false claimants for personal injuries alleged to have been caused +through the negligence of wealthy corporations, such as street car lines, +manufacturing companies and rolling mills, or by the city, from defective +sidewalks, unguarded street excavations, etc., etc.; bakers who sell +unlabeled and underweight bread; the gold brick and gold filings sharper; +the electric and mining stock swindler, and the advertiser seeking a +governess to accompany himself and family abroad. These men have +"irresistible tendencies" to work their several games. They cannot help +it, they say. Like kleptomaniacs, or "Jack the Hair Clipper," they are +impelled by nature to the commission of their crimes. In their own +judgment they ought not to be punished, because they are the victims of +defective brains. But they are just as cunning as the hair clipper, just +as conscious that they are law breakers as he was when he mailed to the +Chief of Police in his own words the following note, enclosing some of the +braids of hair he had clipped from the head of a young girl, viz: + + "A clue for J. K.'s cheap skates. Will send more when I get cheap + stuff like this. + + Jack." + +Of this same class are men who conduct "diploma mills" and make doctors, +especially in one day. They sell their parchments as freely as a +saloonkeeper does his beer, and then claim that because a college confers +distinctive degrees upon men of prominence, without a course of study and +examination, they are justified in launching doctors by the score upon +unsuspecting communities, "without study and examination," to discredit +the medical profession, and send men, women and children to premature +graves. Like McTeague, who acquired his knowledge of dentistry from the +seven volumes of "Allen's Practical Dentist," they obtain their knowledge +of diseases from quack publications, newspapers and magazine articles. +They use nothing but "the purest of the earth's productions in their +treatment, and no minerals or poisonous materials of any kind are ever +permitted to enter your system." Their prices range from "one dollar up." +"A positive guarantee is given in every case treated, so you have nothing +to risk in any way. Your money back on demand if not satisfied." They can +wash kidneys so clean, that if you are a woman and have not extended your +arms in years, after taking the first box of kidney pills you "can raise +them, and twist your hair," and after the second, "dress yourself, perform +your household duties," and "life will again take on a bright hue" for +you. Bald heads respond to the "remarkable effects" of their discoveries, +with joyful alacrity. Gray hair goes into hiding, and "thick and lustrous +eyebrows and eye lashes" blossom forth on one application, as lilac bushes +do in the spring time at the first touch of the warmth of the sun's rays. +Their remedies are "no longer experiments, they are medical certainties." +They "create solid flesh, muscles and strength, clear the brain, and make +the blood pure and rich." For humanity's sake, distinguished Mayors, +ex-Mayors, city treasurers, scholars, soldiers, ex-state senators and +senators, representatives, lawyers and judges, lend their beaming +countenances, when fully restored to health, for the uses of these quacks, +until the daily press has become a portrait gallery of rebuilt and +revitalized men, who, if disease had the clutch upon them they so +felicitously describe--in the stereotyped words of the quack--ought to +have been dead, buried and mourned long ago. These distinguished men in +American life, are merely selling their faces for promotion purposes, much +as the titled Englishman sells his title. + +Of all the sources of police graft, in addition to pool rooms and policy +shops, gambling is the most prolific. There are in Chicago over 7,000 +saloons and nearly 2,000 cigar stores. The number of gambling houses +proper is unknown, but the list swells into the hundreds. The saloon and +cigar stores have as a general rule a gambling annex. Gambling houses +proper, as known some years ago, have no longer the permanency they then +had. Roulette and faro, especially, are sleeping, and awaken only at +infrequent intervals. The negro game of craps, and the national game of +poker, particularly stud poker, have become the substitutes for the wheel +and the lay out. In two-thirds of the saloons and cigar stores poker and +stud poker are played, and in many of the saloons, especially the all +night variety, the crap table is part of the necessary equipment. It is +estimated that poker games are in progress in over eight thousand of the +saloons, cigar stores, barber shops and bakeries, every night, while +gambling houses with the roulette and faro barred, add over one thousand +to the number. Craps are shot even at the doors of some of the theaters. +All this is known to the police, tolerated by the police, and taxed by the +police. Take the average cigar store for illustration. In the rear are +rooms neatly fitted up and supplied with three or more poker tables. The +rake off to the house goes on just as in the regularly equipped gambling +house. The games are played by men of all classes in life below the +society men and men of wealth, who get their amusement at the club. The +clubs all forbid poker, but the tabooing order is "more honored in its +breach than its observance." In the cigar stores and saloons, workingmen, +artisans, clerks, and the loafing skin gambler, participate in the game. +The latter is quickly spotted, and placed under the ban. The proprietor +requires the games to be square, in so far as he can control them. The +losses of the cigar store players are more severe upon them than are +those of the gamblers who play for higher stakes. The wages of the +workingman, clerks and artisans are their only gambling capital. They have +no bank accounts to draw upon. The home suffers; wife and children are the +indirect victims. Theirs is a cash game. When wages are exhausted, the +unearned wage is mortgaged to the loan "sharks." These greedy and +heartless wretches lure the clerk earning a fair salary to borrow from +them at reasonable rates, and upon a "strictly confidential" basis. The +employer is not to know of the transaction. The clerk is soon in the +shark's strong jaws. He must pay what is demanded, or the employer, the +rules of whose establishment forbid dealings with the "shark," will be +made aware of the violation of his rules, and the clerk's embarrassment +commences. Rather than risk discharge from his position, and to escape +from the "shark" jaws, the frightened clerk pays in monthly installments +double the amount of his loan, plus a sum for a fee to an attorney who was +never retained. All this is so much blood money, flowing from the wounds +made by the "shark's" sharp teeth. + +The minor is not prevented in the cigar store joints from gaming any more +than he is prevented from drinking at the saloon bar. Nightly, over this +vast city, young men are succumbing to the terrible fascination of gaming. +Nightly, temptations, almost irresistible, are preying upon their minds. +The honesty of their intentions is gradually undermined, and almost before +they awaken to a realization of the truth, they have committed some theft +and commenced a downward career. Men who filled high positions of trust +and earned large salaries are today inmates of the state penitentiary, led +away by the fascination and excitement of the gaming table. The evils of +gambling, the intensity of the love of the average man for indulgence in +its exhilaration, the wide spread use of it in the home, the club, the +stag parties, and so on down to the lowest joints in the slums, have been +the themes of every writer who attempts to depict the daily life of great +cities. + +It exists in the form of prizes in progressive euchre parties, in social +gatherings, in the raffles of the church fairs, the voting for the most +popular man or woman, as city or county stenographer, popular firemen or +policemen; in guessing contests in the solution of puzzles; or wherever +the element of chance enters into the affairs of life, from which +amusement is sought to be drawn. Whether it is a wheat deal on the board +of trade in which millions are involved, or the cast of the dice by +newsboys and boot blacks in the alleys and upon the sidewalks of the city, +the controlling passion is there--the passion for gain at the whim of +chance. Judgment may prompt the wheat deal, but unless judgment promises +large profits the incentive to engage in the manipulation of the markets +is absent. The possible toil and mental worry is overlooked in the hope of +great gain without correspondingly prolonged labor. Millions fly away in +great gambling speculations as easily and as swiftly as the penny of the +newsboy takes its flight from one to the other of the inveterate little +gamblers, to be found among these sharp witted waifs of the street. It +goes on in billiard halls, where "hap hazard" is openly played; at saloon +bars where the loser at dice "pays for the drinks." It is to be seen in +beer halls, summer gardens, among well dressed people who carry the dice +with them, of the usual size, or smaller, with fancy box-guard, and who +"shake" for the drinks and dinners, not so much as a matter of gambling, +as for the zest it gives to their party, or their outing. It controls +political picnics in the fakers' attractions that follow them, and in the +prizes offered to the winner, of boys' and girls', women and fat men's, +races, or for which artistic cake walkers and ragtime dancers compete. +Civil and criminal trials are even chosen as events upon which to place a +wager. The frequency of elections, the daily horse racing contests +throughout the world, base ball games in season, prize fights between +professionals, club athletic contests, policy shops with their daily +drawings, and lotteries, all arouse the cupidity of the seeker after quick +gains without physical labor. "Bet you five" settles many a mathematical, +historical, political or economic proposition, contrary to the truth. + +Races, accompanied by the usual retinue of book makers, are conducted by a +wealthy club, many of whose members are leaders in civic bodies formed +for the betterment of local government, and consequently for the +suppression of vice. Grand juries report month after month their inability +to obtain the co-operation of the police in gathering evidence against +gamblers and landlords whereon to found indictments. Each grand jury when +empanelled hears from the bench the monotonous song "Gentlemen, bucket +shops exist, investigate them," together with such musical accompaniment, +as may be added by the judge, in the way of moralizing upon their +wickedness. + +Fashionable women have their down town clubs. There they meet, smoke +cigarettes, take their drinks from the sideboard "just like men," gamble +for excitement, lose their pin-money and diamonds with the abandon of a +virgin, "willing to be rid of her name." + +The vice and fascination of gambling are so well known and understood by +great merchants that they employ a corps of detectives to keep watch over +their confidential employes, whose movements are the subject matter of +daily reports to their employers. The bond companies, which insure the +honesty of clerks and managers entrusted with the handling of money, +receive from their spotters the earliest reports of the actions of +employes indicative of living beyond the yearly salary paid them by the +houses with which they are connected. + +Gambling, although condemned by all moralists as a degrading vice, is +recognized by some as aiding the development of certain qualities of +immeasurable service in the intensity of the struggle for business +existence prevailing in the aggressive commercialism of this age. Lecky +asserts: "Even the gambling table fosters among its more skillful votaries +a kind of moral nerve, a capacity for bearing losses with calmness, and +controlling the force of the desires, which is scarcely exhibited in equal +perfection in any other sphere." Whatever may be the meaning of the phrase +"controlling the force of the desires," it is certain that among the young +men of today, in all classes of society, the desires for intoxicants and +sensuality are past control when associated with gambling. In its most +seductive forms its principal aids are the gilded saloon, and the harlot's +enslaving smile. The necessity for means with which to gratify aroused +passion in both respects, comes through contact with the gaming table; +hence, the houses of ill repute, assignation houses and the innocent +looking "Hotel" nestling in the middle of the down town business blocks, +are the direct allies of the gambling hells in the development of +crime--in adding to, rather than in "controlling" the force of the +desires. "Sensuality," said a distinguished writer, "is the vice of young +men and of old nations." Another, tracing the effects of gaming on human +passions, wisely observes, "the habit of gambling is very often allied +with, and is even an incentive to, the practice of other vices, whose +darkness is beyond dispute. The ordinary aspect of a return from a race +meeting will fully confirm this. There we find that drunkenness, +licentiousness and gambling go hand in hand, a well assorted trio whose +ministry to separate passions is not inconsistent but consistent with +mutual incitement and co-operation in the destruction of the honor and +purity and strength of men." + +While gambling is not now conducted "openly," a word which has reference +only to the maintenance of down town establishments in which faro and +roulette were formerly played, it is conducted under police protection all +over this city in forms more inviting, more disastrous to the embryotic +gamblers who patronize it, than if the large establishments were in full +operation as of yore. The latter could not invite the younger class of +gamblers to enter the play, because of their lack of capital; the smaller, +widely scattered, and police guarded, cigar store and saloon games, accept +smaller sums of money, parts of a dollar, for a stack of poker chips, from +the anxious entrant to the game. Prior to the last election a leading +evening newspaper accused the city executive with farming out the slum +district to two aldermen of unsavory reputation, with leave to them to +extort money from gaming houses, high and low, within its limits, for +their personal benefit, in consideration of their opposing, in the +council, the passage of ordinances relating to the extension of street car +privileges. Its condemnation of this bargain was severe, and yet, later +on, it was the most persistent of that executive's supporters for +re-election. + +The coon gamblers, thieves, thugs and pimps were all on the staffs of +these aldermen. They followed these worthies into the campaign, under the +leadership of the eminently respectable newspaper referred to. Inspired by +such leadership "Spreader," "Sawed Off," "The Cuckoo," "Book Agent," +"Deacon," "Grab All," "Duck," "Shoestring," "Scalper," "Humpty," "Hungry +Sid," "Seedy," "Talky," "Whiskers," "Noisy," "Fig," "Old Hoss," "Slick," +"Ruby," "Sunday School," and "Mushmouth," captains in the corps of sports +felt themselves respectable, led their followers from the barrel and +lodging houses with a rush to the polls, and achieved a startling victory. +Over all this horrible saturnalia of vice, the colors of the police force +float in token of protection. The brave men of that force, morally +degraded by the obedience they are compelled to yield to unworthy +superiors want merely the opportunity to perform their full duty, not only +as patrolmen but as patriotic American citizens. The time when they will +be permitted to do so seems far distant, unless an aroused public opinion +shall speedily pronounce against the further continuation of a policy of +protection to crime and debauchery supported by the men chosen to war +unceasingly with both. + +The dens of the sexual pervert of the male sex, found in the basements of +buildings in the most crowded, but least respectable parts of certain +streets, with immoral theaters, cheap museums, opium joints and vile +concert saloons surrounding them, are the blackest holes of iniquity that +ever existed in any country since the dawn of history. A phrase was +recently coined in New York which conveys--in the absence of the +possibility of describing them in decent language--the meaning of the +brute practices indulged in these damnable resorts, and the terrible +consequences to humanity as a result of unnatural habits--"Paresis Halls." + +No form of this indulgence described by writers on the history of morals, +no species of sodomy the debased minds of these devils can devise, is +missing from the programme of their diabolical orgies. In divine history +we read of the abominations of the strange women of Israel, with their +male companions, in their worship of Moloch, Belphegor and Baal, and of +the death penalties pronounced by Moses against the participants in them. +To suppress the brutish immorality, and prevent the spread of disease +arising from it, the Jewish law giver put to death all his Midianite +female captives except the virgins. Profane history tells of the infamies +of the Babylonian banquets, of the incestuous and "promiscuous combats of +sensuality" of the Lydians and the Persians; of the Athenian Auletrides, +or female flute players, who danced and furnished music at the banquets of +the nobility and wallowed in the filth of every sensual indecency, and of +the polluted condition of Roman life, prior to, and as the Christian era +dawned, but in all the untranslatable literature of eroticism no +description of the debaucheries of the ancients, if freely interpreted +into English from the dead languages in which they are preserved, could +depict the nastiness these yahoos are reported as having introduced into +our midst, and rendered more hateful and disgusting by the squalor of +their underground abodes. The young are lured by them, ruined in health +and seared in conscience. The very slang of the streets is surcharged with +expressions, derived from, and directly traceable to, the names of these +unmentionable acts of lechery. + +Not content with the private and crafty pursuit of their calling, they +must flaunt it in the faces of the public and under the very eyes of the +police, in a series of annual balls held by the "fruits" and the "cabmen," +advertised by placards extensively all over the city. At these +disreputable gatherings the pervert of the male persuasion displays his +habits by aping everything feminine. In speech, walk, dress and adornment +they are to all appearances women. The modern mysteries of the toilet, +used to build up and round out the female figure, are applied in the +make-up of the male pervert. Viewed from the galleries, it is impossible +to distinguish them from the sex they are imitating. Theirs is no +maid-marian costume; it is strictly in the line of the prevailing styles +among fashionable women, from female hair to pinched feet. The convenient +bar supplies the liquid excitement, and when the women arrivals from the +bagnios swarm into the hall, led in many instances by the landlady, white +or black, and the streets and saloons have contributed their quotas, the +dance begins and holds on until the morning hours approach. The acts are +those mainly suggestive of indecency. Nothing, except the gross language +and easy familiarity in deportment, coupled with the assumed falsetto +voice and effeminate manners of the pervert, would reveal to the +uninformed observer what a seething mass of human corruption he is +witnessing. As the "encyclopedia of the art of making up" puts it, "the +exposed parts of the human anatomy" usually displayed in fashionable +society are counterfeited so perfectly, the wigs are selected and arranged +with such nicety, the eyebrows and lashes so dexterously treated, and the +features so artistically touched with cosmetics, as to make it very +difficult, at first glance, to distinguish between the impostor and the +real woman. The big hands and tawdry dresses, the large though pinched +feet and the burly ankle, betray the sex of the imitating pervert. + +No reason, except that the police are paid for non-interference with these +vice pitted revels, can be given for their toleration. The city's +officials are either in collusion with their projectors, they are +incompetent, or are the willing tools of these stinking body scavengers. +These beasts look with disdain upon the votaries of natural pleasures, and +have an insane pride in their hopeless degradation. + +The opium joints are closely related sources of iniquity to the pervert's +haunts. Under one of the worst of the all night saloons, conducted by a +politician of the first ward, who belongs to the party of the Bath House +and Hinky Dink, and who "touched" the Hon. Richard Croker of New York for +a small loan, the largest of these execrable cellars is protected. It is +but a step from the wine rooms of the saloon to the solace of the pipe. +The depraved of both sexes in those moments when despair seizes them, when +some recollection of childhood, or of home, arouses in them the dormant +good still remaining in their hearts, when, as they look into the future, +they can discern no ray of hope, but are appalled at the frightful end +which must be theirs, shut out the horrors of their situation in life by +seeking a paradise built upon "the baseless fabric of a vision." In this +joint, since reference to it was written, a man died from the effects of +smoking the pipe. The woman who accompanied him, the bartender and the +keeper of the joint were placed under arrest. The police expressed +amazement at the revelation of the existence of the joint, as did the +proprietor of the saloon. It was, of course, closed, and a number of other +like resorts were then raided. Press comments upon this death appeared as +follows: + +"In spite of the fact that there are plenty of laws against them, opium +dens and objectionable grogshops are among the hardest things in the world +to exterminate. The only reasonable explanation for this is that their +proprietors must have influence with officers who are employed by the +people to execute the laws. 'The police close these places,' said an +officer despairingly, referring to dens like that in which the man Adams +died Sunday night, 'but they spring up again in a day.' + +"The police seem to be downcast over it. Yet the causes of the 'springing +up' are as plain as the nose on one's face, and the means of removing them +as evident as one's hand. + +"Access to the den in which Adams died was had through the delectable O. +saloon, operated by S. V. P., and the den itself was rented by V. P. The +levee statesman says he had no idea his basement was used for an opium +den. He thought the procession of drunken and dazed men and women who +tottered through his saloon and went down his basement stairs all night +were going for their laundry. + +"V. P.'s statement is entitled to as much consideration as the guileless +protestations of the gentleman who is caught with the chicken under his +coat. V. P. is responsible for the opium den and as soon as the law lays a +hand, in earnest, on the landlord the opium dens will cease 'springing +up.' + +"The police knew that an opium den was running in V. P.'s basement. They +had been amply warned of it. If they had raided the place a few times and +sent the proprietor and inmates to the bridewell it would have stayed +closed. + +"There is a little virtue in sticking to one's native vices. Western races +come honestly by drunkenness and gambling. But why tolerate the deliberate +importation and cultivation of this strange oriental bestiality? This +ingrafted vice must make its own soil. Why should the police treat it so +leniently? A hundred-dollar fine for every person found in an opium joint +and a modicum of police activity, with the demanding of a strict account +from the guilty landlord, will quickly put a damper on the opium dens. +Every month that they are tolerated they get a firmer root." + +These resorts are patronized by others than the fallen women and the +criminal classes. Like slumming, it is a fad "to hit the pipe just once" +by some adventure seeking people in other walks of life. The habit of +opium smoking is easily acquired, and, when acquired, the smoker becomes a +slave to its use. There are between two and three hundred of these smoking +rooms in Chicago. The number of persons addicted to smoking opium cannot +be stated with accuracy. Estimates vary from ten to twenty thousand, the +number probably lies between these two estimates. In the Chinese quarters +the penetrating odor of opium smoke is plainly perceptible and is thrown +off from the garments of passing Chinamen, or is detected as one enters a +restaurant or laundry presided over by the oriental. The "dope" soon +affects the complexion, and the features wear a dejected appearance. The +movements of the victims are listless, almost lifeless. In the saloon +referred to, a constant procession of men and women, old and young, come +and go up and down the stairway to the region below. It is not guarded +with any degree of care, because it is protected from the law's +aggression, except occasionally, when by way of diversion it is pulled. +Then its patrons get a quiet tip to keep away, consequently few occupants +are found. The old pipes and a small quantity of the dope are graciously +permitted to be borne away in triumph by the officers. New supplies are +provided, and the baleful business resumes its accustomed routine. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + COMMON COUNCIL--BOODLERS--BRIBERS--COUNCIL OF 1899--POWERS OF--MISUSE + OF--PRICE OF VOTES--PASSAGE OF BOODLE ORDINANCES--PUBLIC WORKS + DEPARTMENT AND BUREAUS--ILLEGAL CONTRACTS--STREET REPAIRING, + ETC.--CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION--HISTORY OF--PRESENT BOARD TOOLS OF + MAYOR--EXAMINATION BY--EXAMPLES OF--ATTACKS UPON LAW--SPECIAL + ASSESSMENTS--ASPHALT RING--FIRE DEPARTMENT--COUNTY GOVERNMENT--INSANE + ASYLUM--SALE OF "CADAVERS"--CONTRACTS--SHERIFF'S OFFICE--JURY + BRIBERS--JUDGES--REVENUE LAW--TAX DODGERS--TOWN BOARDS--CORONER'S + OFFICE--PRESS TRUST--CIVIC SOCIETIES--BERRY COMMITTEE'S + REPORT--BAXTER COMMITTEE--OPENING TESTIMONY--CONCLUSION. + + +For a generation the Common Council of Chicago has been governed by a +majority of "boodlers." Aldermen have been, in that period, fairly +representative of the wards by which they were elected. The various +nationalities, clustered together in such a manner as to give rise to the +naming of a ward according to the nativity of its inhabitants, such as +Polish, Swedish, Bohemian, German, Irish, etc., have selected as their +representatives in the Council, men who, as a rule, in private life were +honest. Their selection was usually upon strictly party grounds. The +"independent" voter, in municipal elections, is a growth of quite recent +years. The class appears to be increasing with great rapidity and to be +finding a means of concentrating its strength at the polls. + +As honest as an alderman may be when he first takes his seat, he soon +finds himself surrounded by influences which appear to exert a fascinating +power over him. He must elect to be for or against the gang. Prior to the +allowance of a yearly salary the temptation to join the gang was +heightened by the promising returns, in a pecuniary way, which the gang +could almost guarantee the incoming member. An alderman "once prepossessed +is half seduced" and, since it is almost axiomatic that the total +seduction of a prepossessed alderman is a mere matter of time and +opportunity, the fall always comes when some high spirited, progressive, +and perhaps, God-professing citizen, offers from his purse a goodly +compensation to the gang for the grant of some public privilege. Thus the +public privilege is seized upon by the aldermanic gang as a private +privilege which it disposes of to the broad-clothed briber at a price +satisfactory to its members. The bribers are found in that sanctified +element of the community which attends church under the pretext of fearing +and worshipping God. + + "But yet, O Lord! confess I must, + At times I'm fash'd wi' fleshly lust; + An' sometimes, too, wi' worldly trust + Vile self gets in! + But thou rememb'rest we are dust, + Defil'd in sin." + +On secular days, its leaders, the accomplished, in thieves' parlance, the +"slick" bribers, whisper their temptations into the ears of public +servants willing to become their private tools, like the devil in the +garden of Eden, "who squat like a toad close to the ear of Eve." + +The "gang" spots its man with remarkable foresight, and year after year +its power to manage public affairs to its own private advantage has +become more and more felt by the public. + +For the first time in a generation, in this year 1899, it is believed an +honest majority is in control of the council. The pleasurable fact is that +the majority was elected upon a non-partisan basis, the recommendations of +a civic body, as to the honesty and capacity of the candidates in the +several wards, having been acted upon by the voters in preference to those +of party nominating conventions. + +It is, however, too early to predict a new era in the history of the +council. "All signs fail in dry weather," and at this moment there are no +indications of an approaching shower of "boodle." The street car franchise +question is drowsy and will not be awakened until the corporations +controlling the lines are ready to do so. That they will not do so until +some legislation is enacted in 1901, is too apparent to require an effort +to prove. For one year at least there is a majority in the council which +will, it is hoped, protect public rights; and it is also hoped that in +1900 this majority will not only be retained, but also greatly augmented. +Projects may be hidden which in the near, or not distant, future, will +come forth to plague the consciences of a number of newly admitted members +and put their integrity to the severest of tests. + +The power of the Common Council, as confided to it by legislation, over +the affairs of two millions of people, is too immense to be wielded by a +single ordinance making body. Under our form of municipal government it +controls the finances and the property of the city, regulates licenses to +sell liquor and to carry on various classes of business, such as +auctioneers, distillers, grocers, lumber yards, livery stables, money +changers, brokers, junk stores, billiard, bagatelle and pigeon-hole +tables, pin alleys, ball alleys, hackmen, draymen, omnibus drivers, +carters, cabmen, porters, expressmen, hawkers, peddlers, pawnbrokers, +theatres, shows and amusements, and many other classes of occupations. + +Its power over the uses to which the streets may be applied is, in one +sense, limited; in another almost unlimited. While limited by the charter +to the power to lay them out, open, widen and improve them, prevent +encroachments and obstructions thereon, lighting and cleansing them, its +power to regulate them is almost unlimited. "To regulate" the use of the +streets is a broad power, and while several distinct grants of power of +regulation are contained in the statute, such as preventing the throwing +of ashes and garbage upon them, their use for signs, sign posts, awnings, +etc., the carrying of banners, placards, advertisements, etc., therein, +the flying of flags, banners or signs across them from house to house, or +traffic and sales upon them, nevertheless, the uses to which they may be +applied in the way of business enterprises for advertising purposes, are +as numerous and as varied as the minds of the originators of the schemes +are original and unique. + +For the right to use, therefore, in a given way in a given ward, the +"gang" alderman long ago established and still maintains a schedule of +rates. They are graduated from the insignificant charge for permission to +"string a banner," or establish a fruit stand, up to the highly +respectable "rake off" demanded for the use of them for switch tracks, or +street railway purposes. It is not so many years ago that a leading +morning newspaper furnished the public with some information on this +subject, upon the occasion of the passage of an ordinance granting +valuable privileges to a railway corporation. Four members of the council, +not the "Big Four" of olden times, but the modern "Big Four" leaders of +"de gang," were said to have received for their manipulation of the +ordinance, and the organization of their followers for its support, the +quite comfortable sum of $25,000 each. Their supporters were to receive +$8,000 each for their votes, while the "go between" received $100,000 and +a few city lots. The standard price per vote for valuable franchises is +$5,000, yet in a pinch of private necessity, a few votes can be commanded +at lower figures. The contingency of a possible veto is provided for, so +that in that event one-fourth must be added for the second vote to pass +the measure over the veto. Thus it has gone on not only with respect to +street railway grants, but also for electric lighting, telephone +conduits, gas pipes, private telephone wires and that long list of uses +devised by business men for the advertisement of their personal interests. +The peanut stand privilege, the fruit stand privilege, the bootblack +privilege, the banner privilege, all pay cash to some "gang" alderman, as +do the policy rooms, pool rooms and saloons with wine room privileges. + +It is an amusing, as well as an instructive sight, to witness a meeting of +the council upon an occasion when some well announced "boodle" ordinance +is called up for passage. The plan of campaign has all been arranged +beforehand, and the floor leader selected to command the movement. Let it +be an ordinance for granting the right to a street railway company to lay +down its tracks, and operate its line, in a given street. The +preliminaries have all been gone through with, the signatures of property +owners verified, and the price to be paid for favorable votes agreed upon. +When the ordinance is taken up its opponents are generally in a +disorganized condition. There is among them, as a general rule, no +coherence of opposition. The main object to be attained, viz., the defeat +of the ordinance as it is presented, is lost sight of in the effort "to +make records" by the introduction of amendments, reflecting some +individual idea of the member who offers it, without having submitted it +to his associate opponents for their judgment. Consequently they disagree +among themselves and fall to fighting each other, thereby weakening their +opposition. Meanwhile the "gang" sits smilingly by, under instructions to +vote down all amendments. When one is offered, of comparative +unimportance, the quick-witted lobbyists of the corporations, Jew and +Gentile, convey a tip to the leader of the "gang" that the amendment "is +all right," "quite agreeable," "will be accepted," etc., whereupon the +gang's leader obligingly informs the chair that it is his profound belief +the amendment is a very proper one, and it is graciously accepted. The +opposition having some little encouragement, present other amendments, +which are, of course, defeated. Sometimes debate is permitted. If the +speeches could be reported verbatim and the words spelled out as +pronounced, it would make Mr. Dooley reflect on the style of modern +oratory, as presented by the "mimber from Archey Road." The question +coming to a vote upon the passage of the ordinance, the roll call begins. +From the "Bath House" on the right comes, on the first call, the familiar +"Aye." That response is repeated by every member of the gang without +explanation, and in a stolid way, indicating contempt for public opinion. +The measure is now out of the way. Preparations are made for the next. +Settlements have to be made and everybody satisfied before new matters +involving "boodle" can be presented. Occasionally there is a loud "kick" +by some slow-witted member who fails to secure his full share of the +"swag," but he is usually placated in some manner best known to the +combination, and business goes on in the old way. The division and +distribution of the "boodle" are matters of great secrecy and adroit +management. It is forced into the pockets of some, or finds its way into +them in mysterious ways. It is discovered under a plate at a restaurant, +or under a pillow at bedtime; but it seldom passes into the open hand, +held rearwards, as the caricaturist pictures the "boodler." + +A newspaper thus spoke of the members of the council belonging to the +party it represents. "The average ---- representative in the city council +is a tramp, if not worse. He represents or claims to represent a political +party having respectable principles and leaders of known good character +and ability. He comes from twenty-five or thirty different wards, some of +them widely separated, and when he reaches the City Hall, whether from the +west, the south or the north division, he is nine cases out of ten a +bummer and a disreputable who can be bought and sold as hogs are bought +and sold at the stockyards. Do these vicious vagabonds stand for the +decency and intelligence of the party in Chicago?" + +This is a picture drawn a few years ago, but it correctly sketches a +number of the hold over members of the present council, and a few of the +old timers re-elected. + +The new members of the council, one-half in number, are committed, by +their ante-election pledges, to the policy of refusing the grant of +privileges to individuals or corporations without compensation to the +public. Whatever of benefit the public may derive from this policy, it is +not quite clear that it will operate as a preventive of "boodling." The +ingenuity of the "boodler" combines the cunning of the sneak thief, with +the boldness of the highway robber in devising the ways and means to find +and secure his "stuff." It is a matter of congratulation that the boodling +species is dwindling away from the public view. How long it will remain in +concealment depends upon how long the independent voter wishes to keep it +concealed. + +The department of the city government to which is committed the control of +its public improvements consists of a number of bureaus. The Commissioner +of Public Works controls, as part of his executive department, the City +Engineer, Superintendent of Streets, of Street and Alley Cleaning, of +Water, of Sewerage, of Special Assessments and of Maps. When it is +considered that this means the care and management of 1,111 miles of +improved and 1,464 miles of unimproved streets, 112 miles of improved and +1,235 miles of unimproved alleys, making a total of 3,924 miles of +streets and alleys, the letting of contracts for their repair, improvement +and cleaning, and all the details of engineering, sewerage and water pipe +extension bureaus, involving the expenditure of millions of dollars, the +vastness of the public interests entrusted to the Commissioner may be +realized. Under every administration the department is assailed for +frauds, stuffed pay rolls, favoritism and boodling. The administration now +in power (and which has been in power for two years) has not escaped +criticism. Powerful as that criticism was, and founded in truth as it was, +it apparently did not affect the minds of a majority of the voters. +Contracts were let by this administration, in direct violation of the law +which provides for a letting to the lowest bidder, after advertising for +bids, where the amount is in excess of $500. Yet a political favorite, who +was himself at one time spoken of as a probable appointee to the office of +Commissioner, but who stepped aside, as it is charged, as the result of a +deal, obtained thereby a contract for street repairs amounting to +$230,000, which was never advertised for, but let to him privately in such +a manner so that the vouchers in payment were drawn in sums less than $500 +each. So grossly evasive of the law was this transaction, that it involved +the stoppage of payment of the warrants by the Comptroller of the city. A +re-measurement of the work was ordered by him. This developed the +astonishing fact that, even if the contract had been properly let, there +was nevertheless an overcharge, swindling in its nature, to the extent of +$60,000. The Comptroller was, therefore, compelled to withhold his +sanction to the payment of the vouchers. In some manner, however, they +were paid after some slight reductions were made. This was a blow at the +sterling integrity of the Comptroller, whose public services in thoroughly +reorganizing his office, and placing it on a business basis, and whose +devotion to public interests cost him his life, are the only conspicuous +acts, free from shame, egotism, or corruption, of an administration to +which he loaned the strength of his good name, and upon which he shed the +splendor of his ability and personal honor. He will be long remembered as +the one oasis in a desert of maladministration. Both in private and in +public walks Robert A. Waller lived an honorable life. He died mourned by +all who knew him. + + "His life was gentle, and the elements + So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up + And say to all the world: This was a man!" + +The attempt to let the contract for the use of a tug for service to the +cribs, or water intakes, in the lake, was another breach of the law so +flagrant, as to attract public attention for a time. Its consummation was +prevented by the threat of court proceedings, which, at once, led to the +insertion of an advertisement for bids. But here again fraud was +attempted. The specifications were so drawn as to call for boats of +certain dimensions, exact compliance with which was almost impossible, +except to one towing company to which originally the contract was about to +be let without a bid. This company's bid was $13,000; the lowest bid was +$3,500. Still the city authorities hesitated to award the contract to the +lowest bidder, but public opinion, and the known ability of the bidder to +fulfill his contract regardless of his boats' dimensions, compelled the +letting to him, thereby saving to the city the sum of $9,000. Vouchers +about which there was a doubt as to their legality, have been paid to a +contractor, who was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers, but who +resigned the appointment immediately, it is said, for business reasons, or +because he could not be assigned to a pleasing command. These vouchers +amounted to $50,000, and their payment, it is rather uncharitably said, +induced the gallant contractor to become an independent voter. There is no +difference between the manufacture of an independent voter in this manner, +and his manufacture by putting him on the pay-roll without work. This +method seems to have been adopted by the public works department of the +city government, following, perhaps, an old precedent. + +The purchase of water meters, under specifications with which only one +company could comply, and the laying of water pipes without letting +contracts in a lawful manner, are notorious instances of unblushing +frauds committed by this department. It is almost incredible that a dynamo +should be bought in parts, so that it could be purchased from a friend, +and paid for in sums less than $500; yet this was done. Thus a piece of +machinery having a fixed price as a whole, was not only purchased +illegally, but paid for in such a manner that its price, as a whole, was +doubled when bought in pieces. So it was with other electrical apparatus; +so it was with the protection to fire hydrants. Instead of advertising for +bids for the work of shielding the fire hydrants from the severity of the +winter's cold, they were divided up into companies like those of a +regiment of soldiers, each having its contract commander, who received his +pay on vouchers each calling for less than $500. The present commissioner +is an old politician, who has held several official positions. It is but +just to say of him, that, with the general public, he bears a good +reputation. His political enemies are not by any means complimentary in +their allusions to him, those particularly in the ranks of his own party. +He is energetic, self confident, amiable, and a particularly able bluffer +when occasion demands it. Without being profound he is efficient, and +without being remarkably efficient, he is not at all valueless. + +The Civil Service Commission has reached its present age, nearly five +years, after suffering all the diseases incident to poor nursing. It is +not by any means a vigorous child as yet, but as it gains in strength it +will perhaps grow in wisdom. When it recognizes the fact that the people +permitted it to be born, it will also recognize the further fact that its +parents require of it obedience to their wishes. They demand the +enforcement of the Civil Service Law as it is written, for the public good +and not for partisan advantage. They would impress upon the commission the +conviction of their belief that without a properly administered civil +service law, municipal government is a menace to republican institutions; +that without it the experiment of municipal ownership of "public +utilities" is hazardous, and that the increasing intelligence of the +people and their wider knowledge of the science of government have taught +them that the political maxim, "to the victors belong the spoils," is a +relic of the barbaric days of politics, in which wide open primaries, +stuffed ballot boxes, captured polling places, and thugs were the +governing elements of elections. + +The civil service law was placed upon the statute book at the instance of +those who had made the study of municipal government a duty, and who from +that study realized that the growth of great cities, in population, +material wealth and industrial development, demands commensurate changes +in the manner of governing such communities. The basic principle of the +law is the elimination of the spoils system, and the substitution of the +merit system. The banishment of the professional politician, that +individual who lives upon the spoils of office, is a result certain of +accomplishment under the proper administration of this beneficent statute. +Foreseeing this result, the professionals in all parties united against it +and have sought, and are still seeking, to undermine its provisions and +destroy its utility. + +The law was put into operation by a board of commissioners not one of +whom had ever been an active party man. No body of men ever met for the +performance of a public duty, who were less tainted with partisanship than +were these gentlemen. They studied the law carefully, and acquainted +themselves with its text and its spirit. Their selection was satisfactory +to the public, and was a guarantee of honest endeavor to place the affairs +of the city under the control of the law's terms, in all the departments +to which those terms applied, and which could be brought within the +classified service. They formulated adequate rules, after consultation +with able men familiar with the workings of the federal civil service law. +Open to criticism as some of these rules were as being more theoretical +than practical, nevertheless they were built upon the basis of selection +by merit alone, regardless of politics, and were adapted solely to that +end. For two years it adhered to the law, enforcing against the party to +which the majority of the commissioners belonged a rule which required +that no person holding an office which fell within the classified service +could take an examination for that position without resigning the +position. The law continued to work during 1895 and 1896 as smoothly as +new machinery can. In the Spring of 1897 a new city administration came +into power of a different political complexion from that under which the +law was placed in force. It was then found, to the amazement of the +public, which, however, in the hurly-burly of life soon subsided, that +these commissioners were incompetent. One placed his resignation in the +hands of the Mayor and was almost immediately appointed to the office of +comptroller by that officer. The efficiency of his service in his new +office, and the quality of his character, have already been referred to in +these pages. + +Suddenly the same Mayor addressed the late associates of the Comptroller +as follows, viz.: "You will please take notice that I have elected to, and +I do hereby remove you from the position of Civil Service Commissioner in +and for the City of Chicago for the following causes. First: You are and +have been in your performance of the duties of said office incompetent. +Secondly: In the performance of said duties you have been guilty of +neglect of duty." A new commission was appointed, which proceeded to +reverse the rule above referred to, whereupon nearly all the employes of +the city were discharged. No examinations having been held for these +positions there was no eligible list from which to select their +successors. Consequently, in such a case, appointments were made under a +section of the statute to fill the vacancies for sixty days, during which +time examinations were held to obtain an eligible list. These appointments +were, of course, all made from the Mayor's party. He could not do +otherwise in view of the public utterances he had made during his +campaign, when he said if he retained any employes appointed under a prior +administration of a different political belief, "it will only be for +menagerie purposes." + +When the examinations were held and a list certified, it was found that in +every instance the sixty day men passed at its head. Such a uniformity of +results was in itself evidence of a disregard of the law. From the highest +position for which examinations were held, down through all grades, to +the lowest, such as barn men, the sixty day man was always marked up to +the head of the list. + +During the years 1897 and 1898, no less than seven different persons were +selected as civil service commissioners, until a board was found willing +to act upon the Mayor's interpretation of the statute. One instance of the +abuse of the law will suffice to show the methods resorted to, for the +purpose of selecting a party man to fill a vacancy in office. An +examination was held of applicants for the position of "foreman of street +lamps repairs." The man who passed at the head was a sixty day man. At +thirteen years of age he became a sheet metal worker's apprentice, and +with the exception of a short period when he was engaged in keeping a +saloon and made a failure of it, he continued to follow that occupation. +He is a heeler for one of the most notorious of the aldermanic gang. It +will be observed in contrasting the questions asked him, and those asked +his superior, an applicant for the office of Superintendent of Street +Lamp Repairs, that a lower degree of educational qualifications is +required of the Superintendent, that of his subordinate, the foreman of +the gang of repairers. These questions were propounded to the foreman, +viz.: + +"If the hypothenuse of a right angle triangle is 35 feet and the base 21 +feet, what is the altitude? + +At 30 cents a square yard what is the cost of lining with metal a cubical +room 13 feet long? + +If it takes eight men five and one half days to make 100 lamps, how long +will it take six men to make 350 lamps? + +A building is 302 feet high; the walk and court measure 90 feet; what is +the length of a straight line running from the top of the building to the +opposite curb? + +At 25 cents a square yard what is the cost of a sheet of iron sufficient +for the construction of a cylinder pipe closed at both ends 28 feet long, +the diameter of whose base is 28 inches? + +What is the capacity in gallons of a sphere 15 inches in diameter? + +If 24 gallons of water flow through a 2 inch pipe each minute how many +gallons will flow through a 3 inch pipe under the same conditions? + +What is the length of the diameter of a circle whose area equals 1,386 +square yards? + +Name the materials used in the construction of a street lamp? + +Name three essential qualifications requisite for a foreman?" + +A street lamp could not be repaired, as a matter of fact, by a person +unable to answer these questions! This truth must be apparent to any +unbiased mind! + +All the other applicants could answer the last two questions only, simply +because they were honest; but the metal worker answered them all, and was +marked 100, although he had not been at school since he was thirteen years +of age, and does not appear to have been much of a student since that +time. + +The Superintendent's examination ran as follows, viz.: + +"What are the duties of Superintendent of Lamp Repairs? + +What experience have you had to qualify you for this position? + +How many lamps should a tinner complete in a day? + +How many signs should an etcher complete in a day? + +If a special assessment were levied and confirmed, what would your duty be +to secure the erecting and lighting of the lamps? + +On what part of the city property should those posts be set? + +If posts were to be erected how would you determine what class of posts +would be required? + +What is the general duty of Superintendent of Lamp Repairs regarding +repairs to lamps?" + +The attacks on the civil service law come from all sources. A party +convention in 1898, in its platform said, "We pronounce the Civil Service +Law inefficient, mischievous and hostile to the regnant principles of +popular government. We demand its repeal." + +The next convention of the same party resolved: "We pledge the ------party +to the strict enforcement of this, the Civil Service Law." + +The Mayor's consistency and that of his party are identical. If the two +removed commissioners were incompetent and neglectful, so must the third +have been, and yet that equally incompetent and neglectful commissioner +was appointed to an office, the very highest in the gift of the Mayor. + +Acting upon the demand of his party for the repeal of this law, the +Corporation Counsel began his attacks upon it by a multiplicity of +opinions calculated to gradually remove it from the statute book. +Ordinances were passed in accordance with these opinions, creating new +heads of departments and exempting them from the civil service rules. +Positions, filled by civil service appointees, were abolished. The same +positions were re-created under a new name, filled by a sixty day man who +was then examined, and certified to the head of the list. The police +department, the city treasurer, and other branches of the local government +which have attempted by judicial proceedings to emasculate the civil +service law, have in every instance been foiled by the decisions of the +Supreme Court. + +The Special Assessment Bureau of the board of public works, has for many +years, in conjunction with the alderman, had the origination and passage +of ordinances for paving streets, laying sewers, sidewalks, drains, water +supply and service pipes, etc. Under a law recently enacted, and now in +force, all ordinances originate with a board, named the Board of Local +Improvements. The right of petition on behalf of the property owners, is a +feature of the new law which smiles at the property owner, while it "winks +the other eye." It holds out a hope, as do other provisions of the law, of +reduced assessments, but, so far, the practical benefit to the owner of +real estate has not been made apparent. Since the year 1861 and including +the year 1897, the enormous sum of $90,402,790.44 has been levied upon +real estate for the payment of public improvements. During the year ending +December, 1891, the amount levied was over six millions of dollars, and +during the following year ending December 31, 1892, just preceding the +World's Fair, the assessments reached the sum of over fourteen millions of +dollars. Reference has already been made to frauds in the letting of +contracts for street improvements. They are split up and let to favorites +without advertising, so that each payment will fall under $500, although +the improvement may be a mile in length. The asphalt ring is just as +potent as ever. It fights every effort of other dealers in asphalt to +procure a contract and it generally succeeds in foisting upon the people +its quality of asphalt at a higher price than that offered at a lower +price, by other bidders, perhaps equally as good in quality and which has +been successfully used in other cities. Failing recently to stampede the +board, the ring accepted contracts at a figure submitted by its +competitors. This, however, is a familiar trick of trusts, and will last +for a very short period of time, unless the board manifests a disposition +to consider the merits of the material of competing contractors. The ring +will not abandon its struggle so easily. It is powerful, uniting in its +behalf the combined efforts of politicians of all parties, who are +connected with the asphalt corporations as stockholders and officers. The +Board of Local Improvements not long since made the announcement that it +was preparing to levy special assessments during the coming year to the +amount of $10,000,000. The people may weep and protest, while the +contractor smiles and urges. + +The one department of the city government, unsurpassed by any of its kind +in the world, is the Fire Department. The officers and men are of the best +material, of the highest courage, and serve under the strictest +discipline. They are fire fighters, not politicians. Their chief is a man +of independence of character, honest, taciturn, a strict disciplinarian--a +general in command of a corps of which he is justly proud. He tolerates no +political interference with his men. In this respect, particularly, he is, +always was, and always will be sustained by the entire community. Any +attempted management of the department which would tend to lessen its +efficiency meets with the chief's stern resistance. Aside from his own +moral and physical courage, his admirable sense of duty, and the fact that +the public honor him and support him, he has the powerful assistance of +the board of underwriters in any case of damaging intermeddling with his +command. Knowing his worth and the merits of his department that +intermeddling would bring, instantly, a threat of the rise in insurance +rates from this board, a threat which would touch the pockets of many +property owners, and consequently one which would solidify them in support +of the chief. He shares with his men the dangers of their calling. The +gallant men, who during the past year lost their lives in saving the +property and lives of others, testified by their sacrifice to the +hazardous nature of that calling. A recital of the heroic deeds of those +men would not be surpassed by the stories of gallantry in the field of +battle with which the pages of American history are replete. While Dennis +J. Swenie's strength holds out he will command his famous batallions to +his own honor, and to that of the city of which he is so faithful and +loyal a citizen. + +Even the possibility of his being supplanted in his command, which +appeared recently in the failure to reappoint him at the first opportunity +afforded the Mayor, aroused the people to a united protest, which, +indications prove, was timely and effective. The omission to send his name +to the council with the first of the Mayor's appointees, may have been, as +it was claimed "accidental," but it is nevertheless the belief that that +omission was in the nature of a test of public opinion. If so, the power +of public opinion retained him in command, despite political purpose to +the contrary. + +With the exception of this department all the others of the city are +merely run on political lines, as adjuncts of the political party in +power, notwithstanding the civil service law. The abuses of that law may +become fewer in number, not through any merit of the present board, but +because it has about exhausted itself in filling all the offices with men +of one political faith by means already explained. + +The departments of the County government under a feeble civil service law, +different from that applicable to the city, are conducted in the same +manner as those of the city for the benefit of machine politicians and +their regiments of ward and township workers. They are as corruptly +managed as those of the city government. + +The institutions at Dunning for the insane and the poor, are generally +managed by ward politicians, whose appointments are in the nature of a +reward for party services, or rather, services to some particular boss. +Recent reports of grand juries note some improvement in their conduct. On +the whole, however, they are regarded in the nature of spoils by the ring +of party loafers, whose views of government consist, mainly, in doing the +greatest good to the greatest number of the ring. + +The traffic in dead bodies, or "cadavers" goes on, as it did when exposure +came about a year ago through detected shipments to the State of Missouri +for the use of a medical college in one of the towns of that state. These +pauper dead "escape," in the language of the employes, from the "killer" +ward in which they are stored, a place selected to lay out a corpse suited +for the dissecting table. It has been a matter of more than rumor and +given currency by the press, that subjects for the dissecting table are +selected before the breath has left their bodies. This statement finds +more or less verification in the disclosures of the Missouri case before +alluded to. + +Contractors for county supplies pay a percentage of their prices to a +county ring, and, consequently, a poorer quality of food, fuel and +medicines, is furnished to these institutions than the contracts call for, +which cost the contractor an additional sum by way of boodle to obtain +them. + +The sheriff's office has had a standing shame for many years in the cost +of dieting prisoners. The county board allows the sheriff for dieting, +twenty-five cents a day for each prisoner confined in the county jail. The +cost of a day's dieting is estimated not to exceed ten cents, according to +the greed of the sheriff. From this one source alone the sheriff's office +is regarded as one of the most lucrative offices in the county. The excess +above the actual cost is clear profit to the sheriff. + +Some of the bailiffs of the courts have been discovered within the past +year as jury bribers, willing to take any side offering the most +lucrative terms. The principal in this disreputable business fled, and +now an unseemly quarrel is raging between the city's detective department, +and the sheriff's and state attorney's office as to which was to blame for +that escape. + +The judges of the Courts of Cook County are men of integrity. Some are +able jurists, but of late years the standard for judicial qualifications +has been, through party machine nominations, considerably lowered. These +judges are charged by the law with some duties the nature of which is +purely political. Thus, the selection of justices of the peace for the +city, the poor man's court, is confided to them. No scandals, so far, have +attended the exercise of this duty, but their selections have not, as a +general rule, earned the confidence of the people. "J. P." means nowadays +one who will give judgment for the plaintiff. The evil practices, the +frauds and swindles, which have their origin in the system now prevailing +for the conduct of justice courts, has given rise to strenuous efforts to +reform them by state legislation. This will ultimately be accomplished. +While the members from the rural districts, in each recurring state +legislature, are difficult to manage, in the one session of their term in +the lower house in matters affecting a large city, nevertheless, when +fully informed, they have granted such remedial legislation to Chicago for +which its civic bodies have made timely application. + +A new revenue law has just gone into operation, designed to abolish the +inequalities of taxation which grew up and were fraudulently fostered +under the repealed law. What its effect will be it is difficult to +predict. The personal property holders, those with long lines of stocks, +bonds, valuable house furnishings, large bank accounts, and concealed +wealth, are very likely to feel unkindly towards the stringent provisions +of this law. They have been evading their just share of taxation for +years. They are today the most ignorant of the many people calling at the +assessor's office to make out and verify under oath their respective +schedules, simply because it is so many years since they were called upon +to pay a personal property tax, that they have forgotten all about the +form. + +The holders of large real estate interests, who, for years, have been +paying assessors to exempt them from assessment, or reduce their +valuations, are, also, most probably confronted with the impossibility of +escape from paying their proper share of general taxes. This iniquitous +system has been denounced in the press for years. A year ago a town +assessor was convicted of the offense, and heavily fined by the court. The +tax evaders are as vicious a class in a community as are sneak thieves. +Their payment to assessors to lower their valuations is the worst species +of corruption. The payrolls of the town assessors present the most +conspicuous instances of corruption to be found in any department of the +county, or city, government. Many men are carried on their pay rolls and +paid from five to ten dollars per day who never do one moment's work in +the making of the assessment. They are simply being nursed for political +purposes. In one of the wealthiest towns a payroll fell under the writer's +observation, which showed a clear steal of $2,200 for a period of two +weeks only. These officials designated a personal friend to whom all +money was paid. One-fourth of these payments were handed over to the +"solicitor" who brought in the "business," one-fourth to the "friend," and +the remaining one-half went to the assessor. Men in high station in +national and state councils, state and national committeemen, city and +county officers, lawyers, politicians and sporting men were engaged in +this business of boodling, throwing upon the owners of small real estate +interests more than their fair share of the burdens of taxation. In an +address delivered in this city by an ex-President of the United States, he +said that as Lincoln had declared this country could not exist half slave +and half free, so he declared "it could not exist half taxed and half +free" from taxation, that the sin of tax evasion was a new danger to the +integrity of the Republic and that its evil lay in the "evasion of just +taxation by the rich, and the consequent thrusting of an extra burden on +the poor." The corporations engaged in the manufacture of gas, in the +management of traction companies, of live stock exchanges, of packing +companies, railroads, steel companies, sleeping car builders and +merchants owning large landed properties, have had their agents regularly +employed in procuring a reduction of their valuations for assessment, who +were nothing more nor less than bribers. Whether these crimes will be as +freely attempted under the new law remains to be developed, but some of +the distributors of personal property schedules are again playing their +old trick of taking money from the poor under promise of returning them as +non-holders of taxable personal property. An arrest of one of these +robbers, who had accepted one dollar from each of a number of women has +been made. The men elected as assessors and as members of the board of +review are men of good character and able judgment. The only indication of +danger is that a political boss who has lived and thrived at the public +crib and whose political methods have always been unscrupulous has been +appointed chief clerk of the board of review. His salary is large enough +to keep him out of temptation, if he has not forgotten the ways of the +righteous. He was an expert "adjuster" in politics. In assessments the +"adjuster's" occupation should now be gone. The difficulty lies in +teaching an old adjuster new tricks. The old system of assessment for +general taxation was denounced by an official of the county as "nothing +more nor less than a gigantic legalized swindle, reeking in corruption, a +harbor for 'grafters,' 'petty thieves,' and 'sharks,' and an enormous, +unnecessary and galling burden on the tax payers, the expense of which has +no justification in reason and should have none in law." + +The new system abolishes but one of the evils of the old. In place of town +assessors, a board of five assessors is established whose work is subject +to review by another composed of three members. Their labors are, in turn, +passed upon by the State Board of Equalization, before which for years +railroads and other corporations have had their adjusters, agents or +brokers, and before which they will continue to appear and accomplish, as +they always have accomplished, the placing of the lowest possible +valuations upon railroad properties, and a reduction of capital stock +valuations. The board of assessors now values all the real estate in Cook +county in place of the assessors in the separate towns within the county. + +These towns, six of which are wholly within the city limits, are, through +their officials, plunderers of the public, robbing the funds of the towns +by increasing their salaries out of all proportion to the services they +are required to render, and which could well be dispensed with to the +greatest advantage of the people. In the year 1898 they cost the treasury +$395,411.55. Absolutely nothing is apparent as the result of this looting +of public funds. They occupy, in the business parts of the city, expensive +offices, which are open for public use not to exceed four months in the +year, and afford, for the remaining months, club accommodations for the +hangers on of the political crooks who manage party affairs. Card playing +and gambling are their principal occupations. In the division of the +proceeds of the robbery, the justices of the peace participate. They are, +by virtue of their offices, members of the town board. Their services are +not worth ten dollars per annum, but they receive compensation ranging +from $200 to $500 per annum. + +As illustrating the tendency of these town boards, from which the +assessment of property for taxation has now been taken away, the following +are the valuations of real estate and personal property for the past three +years as equalized by the state board. The foundation for the assessments +was laid by the town assessors. It will be observed that, notwithstanding +the increase in population, the value of real estate and personal property +has been steadily declining. The decline is a measure of the boodling +propensities of the assessors. Their percentage of award "no fellah can +find out." + +VALUATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT. + + 1896. 1897. 1898. + Real estate $195,684,875 $184,632,905 $178,801,172 + Personal property 34,959,299 33,594,167 29,601,393 + Population, school census 1,616,635 1,851,588 + +The value of the taxable real estate in Chicago, according to these +figures, decreased in two years $18,883,703, and the value of taxable +personal property $5,357,906. During the same period the population +increased 234,953. As wealth and population increase in Chicago, values of +property decline. At ten per cent of its cash value, which is the basis +adopted by assessors for years for taxation value, taxable real estate in +Chicago is, in round numbers worth $1,788,000,000. + +It is impossible to average the per cent paid for reductions in valuations +to the assessors. Of the eighteen millions in reduced valuations in 1898, +as compared with 1896, it is safe to say five millions were purchased. As +the rate of taxation was between nine and ten dollars on one hundred +dollars the amount of taxes paid by those who should not have paid them +was $500,000. The assessors were "not working for their health," but for +about fifty per cent of the taxes saved to their principals, with the aid +of the friend and the agent who brought the business, or say about +$250,000 of "graft." + +The coroner's office is also one which not infrequently gives rise to +scandals. There are open charges made that some of the juries, called by +that official, have found exonerating, instead of incriminating, verdicts +for a money consideration in the division of which the office +participated. An unseemly quarrel between the coroner and the police +revealed the fact that both have favorite undertakers to whom the bodies +of those meeting sudden death from accident, or otherwise, are taken. In a +dispute as to which should control a corpse a most painful truth became +public that it was carted about from one undertaking establishment to +another, and that even the law was invoked to obtain possession of it by +means of a writ of replevin. + +The office of the recorder of deeds is one of the most important in the +county affairs. Generally speaking it is well conducted, although its +records are not as presentable to the eye as are the books of a +first-class mercantile firm. Female labor is employed mostly in recording, +i. e., spreading an instrument at large upon the records, while male labor +keeps up the tract books, indices, etc. The employes of both sexes are +favorites of political bosses. The abstract branch of the business of this +office is a sublime failure. For years it has cost the county a large sum +of money to make good the deficiency--expenses largely exceeding earnings. +Its abstracts cannot compete with those of private corporations, which +employ experts in that business, and pay them in proportion to their +ability, merit alone being their recommendation. The abstract makers +employed by the county are shiftless and incompetent. The Torrens system, +or the registration of titles, will, in time, but not for many years to +come, supersede the abstract system, but not until the public shall have +gained more confidence in its merits than it has yet acquired in +recorder's abstracts of title. + +It was not the purpose of these pages to pursue inquiry into the +corruption existing in both the municipal and county governments. The +primary intent was to refer to the vices and crimes which prevail by +reason principally of police partnership in their joint proceeds. Both +governments are corrupt, and appear to be so because the people consent +they shall be corrupt. The lessons the public learn from day to day, +through the columns of the press, are forgotten. When election day +approaches a revival of the facts through the press is then charged to +political trickery, and its charges of maladministration are disregarded +as being invented for party purposes. The press condemns while the evils +are prominent, then it condones, and becomes the subservient and truculent +supporter of the men who permitted vice and debauchery to attain its +stalwart growth. The people believe there is a trust press, banded +together to obtain favors through school leases, bank deposits of public +funds and personal appointments in return for services to be rendered +their municipal benefactors. The only non-member of the trust is the organ +of the street car corporations and such exposes of villainy as it may +present are set down as means to an end--the effort to obtain public +privileges without compensation to the city. Newspapers, therefore, in +municipal affairs no longer lead public opinion. They cannot again become +its leaders until they free themselves from the suspicion of conserving +their own interests by the sacrifice of those of the public. The greatest +of them delivered but feeble blows during the recent mayoralty campaign, +while the lighter weights, who were fighting for a candidate for renewed +honors, had been for two years most unmercifully pounding him for his +persistent assistance rendered to the vicious classes, in their indulgence +in crime and debauchery. + +The various civic societies formed for the improvement of municipal +government, pay attention solely to matters removed from the insidious and +ceaseless advances of crime, close their eyes to evidences of disease +apparent on the body politic, and merely dream of higher ideals. They +leave to one society the task of the suppression of vice. They give to it +neither sympathy nor pecuniary assistance. It begs its way in meetings of +its sympathizers, warns the community of the prevalence of crime and +indecency, but the community rushes on in the business struggles of the +day from year to year, trusting--as it always has trusted--in its public +servants for the full performance of their sworn duties--a trust so +constantly violated that municipal government has become merely the +synonym of the rule of the criminal classes. + +A special session of the Illinois Legislature was called by the Governor +in 1897. Among the subjects included in the call was one suggesting the +passage of an act "to establish boards providing for non-partisan police +in all cities of the State containing over 100,000 inhabitants." Pursuant +to the recommendations of the executive's message, a resolution was passed +by the Senate for the appointment of a committee of seven members of that +body, which recited the recommendation of the Governor; that a bill had +been introduced providing for the establishment of non-partisan police +boards in all cities containing the necessary population; that charges and +scandals had arisen in regard to the management of the police force in +Chicago, and that the committee be clothed "with full power to act" and to +investigate "fully the subject" and report its findings as early as +possible to the Senate at the special session. + +The committee consisted of one people's party, one democratic senator and +five republican senators. From the moment of its selection it was branded +as a partisan committee, appointed not so much to obtain information +which would enable an unbiased judgment to be formed upon the merits of +the proposed bill as to accumulate political capital for the use of the +republican party. The committee proceeded with its investigation, and on +February 10th, 1898, submitted its report, which was adopted February +15th, 1898, by a vote of thirty-three republicans and one democrat, eight +democrats voting in the negative. The only democrat voting in the +affirmative was a member of the reporting committee. + +On the last day of the special session, no legislation having been enacted +on the subject of the proposed bill, a resolution was introduced providing +for a continuance of the committee, which recited that it had "unearthed a +most deplorable state of affairs in the management and control of the +police force of Chicago," and that "the most flagrant violations of the +civil service law have been brazenly practiced by those in authority in +control of that police force." Nothing resulted from the latter resolution +continuing the committee. + +The report covered the investigations of the committee into the +operations of the civil service law, and the manner of its enforcement, +finding that it was a plaything in the hands of the party then in power, +and an object of constant and premeditated attack. It also found the +grossest abuses in the management of the police pension fund and in the +workings of the police force as an organization. That crime was protected +and lewdness tolerated by it, and that in fact it was a powerful ally of +the criminal classes, and practically made an unofficial livelihood off +unfortunate women of the town, thieves and their fences, gambling resorts +and their keepers, and the patrons and keepers of the all night saloons. +It found the Chief of Police was cognizant of the facts, and yet took no +steps to correct them. That Chief from whose testimony quotations appear +in these pages, was re-appointed to command the police force for the next +two years. + +The findings of this committee made but little, if any, impression upon +the public mind. There were no revelations as to the condition of criminal +affairs, and the relations of the police therewith, which were new to the +people, with the possible exception, perhaps, that it was not known how +utterly inefficient and irresponsible the Chief of Police was. From that +moment every newspaper has, if not demanded, at least suggested his +removal from office. In this respect it but voices the sentiments of the +entire community. It is a paradox why, in the face of this public feeling, +a majority of the people supported for re-election the staunch friend of +the dishonored head of the police force, unless upon the hypothesis that +he would not continue to be a part of the new administration. If so, the +hypothesis soon failed. The Mayor thought he would "hold him for a while." + +The lesson to be learned from the failure of this committee's report to +attract public attention to the prevalence of criminality and obscenity in +Chicago as fostered by the police force is this, that an investigation +concerning the methods of government of a city administration controlled +by the Democratic party, without a kindred investigation of the methods of +a county administration controlled by the Republican party is too +partisan to suit the sense of fair play and of justice entertained by +every American citizen. It matters not that the order for the +investigation had reference only to the passage of legislation for the +regulation of the police force in cities of a certain population, and +that, therefore, the scope of the inquiry was limited by the terms of the +order. Perhaps it was as broad as it could have been made, under the +governor's call, which, by the provisions of the constitution fixed the +subjects upon which only legislation could be enacted in special session. +Either the call should have been broader, or this particular subject +matter should have been omitted from it, and left for the regular +session's consideration. Then all matters pertaining to the manner of +conducting both city and county affairs could have been investigated free +from the delimitations of an executive call. Nevertheless, the fact +remains that the report of the Berry Committee, as it was called, is a +stinging indictment against the police force of Chicago, which sooner or +later must be tried at the bar of public opinion. It will, in a measure, +have blazed the way for a new committee of inquiry, whose sittings have +just commenced, in so far as the police department is concerned. + +The Baxter Committee was formed under a resolution of the Senate. It +consists of five republican and two democratic senators. The resolution +refers "to the management and control of the police affairs" of Chicago, +and "the conduct of the municipal government thereof, in reference to the +expenditure of public money and the enforcement of the law in its several +departments." This language would limit the scope of the committee's +inquiry to city affairs only. The resolution, however, closes with words +granting authority to the committee for a "full, complete and perfect +investigation of any and all the said subject matters herein named, and +such other subjects as they may deem wise and prudent to investigate in +the interests of good government." + +If this committee is wise it will not confine its efforts to ascertaining +how the city government is managed. It will command public approval if it +will extend its inquiries into the affairs of the county government as +well. This the community will demand; with less it will not be satisfied. +The great mass of both parties is concerned with what will be of the most +advantage to good government, not with what will be to the greatest +advantage of either party. Hence, if this inquiry has in view a partisan +purpose its sessions will merely reproduce tales of the street familiar to +the ears of the people, and with which the legislature has been familiar +for a decade. To associate these crimes and debaucheries with one +administration will in one respect be unfair, because they have progressed +under other administrations as well, but it can emphasize the one great +and astonishing truth, that never in the history of the city has a police +force been permitted to become the bed-fellow of these monstrous evils, to +protect them and contribute to their overwhelming power, in such a +shameless, openhanded and defiant manner as it has in the past two years, +as it is still permitted to do, and as it will probably be permitted to +do, for the next two years. + +That committee will find nothing in these pages unknown to the observing +citizen. The great mass of the people read and forget. These evils are +hinted at herein, and gathered together. They may impress those who are +unaccustomed to taking notes of passing events. That the growth of crime +in Chicago, and the prevalence of bestiality is not generally believed by +the majority of its people is a self-evident proposition. It would be an +insult to their intelligence and virtue to assert they knew the facts. It +is not a criticism of their intelligence to say they do not know the +facts. It is rather to their credit that in the pursuit of their business, +the care of their homes, and the cultivation of their morals, they judge +the great community in which they live by their own standard, and firmly +believe that as they know themselves to be good citizens, they believe +their fellow men are likewise good citizens. While they rest in this +conviction vice is eternally at work, immorality undermining and crime +attacking the power of government, capturing one and then the other of its +strongholds, until today the criminal classes constitute the balance of +power in every city election, and can handle it as they may choose, by +the mere concentration of the voting strength of the keepers of eight +thousand saloons and their hangers on. + +The appointment of a comptroller and corporation counsel acceptable to the +public, both being men of sterling integrity, and known ability, is merely +a partial promise of reform. The new comptroller is a worthy successor to +the deceased Waller, while the new corporation counsel takes his office, +with a reputation for probity and legal acumen which are guaranties that +neither will be used in an attack upon the people's laws. But the police +department and the public works department are still under the same +direction. They give no promise of departing from the protection of +criminals on the one hand, nor the illegal letting of contracts on the +other. Both of these are inviting fields for the Baxter committee to +explore, and when they shall have thoroughly done so, if they shall turn +their attention to county affairs, they will probably find pastures just +as prolific of the rankest of weeds. + +The Baxter committee began its hearings on the 18th day of May, 1899. Its +opening witness confirmed the truth of many of the facts set forth in +these pages. He paid protection money for keeping a gambling house, until +the demands for a contribution to a campaign fund became too exacting, +when he was "told he had better quit." "As an ounce of prevention is worth +a pound of cure," said the witness: "I quit." + +He testified that gambling was going on everywhere a few days before the +committee began its work, named a number of the resorts, and related some +of his losses in a few of the games in which, although a professional +gambler, he was "skinned." + +Officers were found in them, and protection to the games openly boasted +of. The club organization, it develops, is the gambling idea of evading +the laws, the theory being that none can gamble unless they are members. +The practice seems, however, to be that every man is a member who will not +squeal. Houses of disrepute were visited, and the indecencies alluded to +in foregoing pages witnessed by the sergeant-at-arms of the committee. +His testimony in this respect was too realistic for publication. + +A member of a recent grand jury submitted a list of all night saloons he +had visited, and found doing business, between the hours of one and five +o'clock in the morning. The list contained the names of forty-six saloons, +located on eleven different streets. His information was not as startling +as was the fact that his joint feat of pedestrianism and absorption of +drink is, perhaps, unequalled in sporting or drinking records. He drank in +each of the places visited--total drinks, forty-six in four hours. Length +of route covered four miles; width, about one-half mile; square miles +traversed--two! Can any sprinter, carrying the same weights, surpass this +achievement? + +The witnesses so far called before the committee are mostly from the +detective force, and from among lodging house keepers. Their replies are +evasive, and when not so, their memories are clouded. All they had ever +known of the subjects upon which they are interrogated had fled from their +recollection. "I don't remember," avoided many a pitfall. + +The methods of the committee do not impress an observer as having been the +result of much consultation or careful preparation for their work. There +is an apparent indifference on the part of some of its members to reaching +results, or to remaining steadily in the pursuit of the purposes for which +it was organized. Political influences are undoubtedly at work to shorten +the lines of its inquiry, and the length of the days it shall devote to +their development. This investigation is not wanted by local politicians +of either party. It rests with the committee alone to determine whether +its work shall be well done or not. To maintain the dignity of the State +is their first duty, let their investigation reveal what it may and strike +whom it will. + +A people who voluntarily submit to taxation for the construction of such a +stupendous improvement as the drainage canal costing $28,000,000, who +apply their surplus water fund to the building of a complete system of +intercepting sewers, who compel the abolition of the murderous grade +crossings, through the elevation of railway tracks, all for the +improvement of the sanitary condition and safety of their homes and lives, +are entitled to the best protection the state can give them against the +domination of criminals and debauchees, even if the management of its +police force should thereby be placed in the hands of state agencies, or +under some other supervision which will compel it to dissolve its +relations with vice, and prevent it from utilization for political ends. + +Submission to the exactions of trusts, in the shape of telephone and gas +companies, does not require them to submit to a trust of criminals and +police officials. The element to which it is estimated $70,000,000 is +annually paid in Chicago for its drink bill, must be so regulated, as that +it shall cease to furnish the balance of power in elections, to exercise a +baneful influence over the police, to ruin the young, to encourage +debauchery, and breed criminals. A municipal government that cannot, or +will not, control these vicious agencies, will ultimately be condemned by +a public-spirited people, if they can be, as they sooner or later will +be, persuaded to devote a few hours, taken from their business or +pleasure, to a vigorous uprooting of a system under which such iniquities +can be born and develop to such menacing proportions. There must be an +awakening to the fact that + + "They say this town is full of cozenage, + As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye, + Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind, + Soul-killing witches that deform the body, + Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, + And many such like liberties of sin." + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +From the daily press a few accounts are culled, and added by way of +appendix, as to the perpetration of crime and the habits of the police in +connection with it. + +The Baxter Committee unearthed the following account of the degree of +protection afforded to citizens by police officers, and the easy-going +indifference with which the Chief of Police regarded the affair when it +was first called to his attention. + +On the night of March 3d ult. a woman returning from a drug store was +stopped by two detectives and charged with soliciting men upon the +streets. She denied this offensive charge, told where she had been and +where returning, and showed a bottle of medicine she carried as +confirmatory of her statements. This happened about 8:45 o'clock. She was +then within twenty feet of the entrance to the house in which she lived. +Notwithstanding her denial, the officers went to the house with her. One +of them then said, "I'm an officer; open this door!" Another woman with +whom the arrested woman was boarding asked, "What is the matter?" One of +the officers replied, "This woman was on the street soliciting," to which +the boarding house keeper replied, "You are mistaken." "Well," said the +officer, "if you want to stop her give me $15," and the reply was, "She +has no money to give you or to any one." The boarding house keeper, +thinking the men were common thieves, then whispered to the accused woman, +"Go with them and I will follow you." The officers took their woman to a +corner and into a saloon, where they compelled her to give up a pair of +diamond earrings for ten dollars which were handed to her by the +bartender. The boarding house woman followed, and prevented the detectives +from obtaining the ten dollars, but finally they grabbed the bill from the +accused woman's hands. The women were then released and returned to their +home. Taking a sealskin sack with them they returned to the saloon, and +were handed the diamond earrings, but not without leaving the sack in +their stead. The women saw the detectives return, and drink at the bar, +paying for their tipple with the money they had snatched from the hand of +the one. + +While the parties were wrangling on the street a police sergeant and two +officers in uniform passed. One of the women cried out, "Here are two men +robbing this woman!" The sergeant replied, after observation, "I have got +nothing to do with this." One of the women asked, "What are you for?" Then +the sergeant, having discovered the men were detectives, said to one of +them, "They are all right. Get what you can." The sergeant then left. + +The women now demanded that the detectives show their badges of authority. +They were shown. Demand was then made that a patrol wagon should be +called. This was denied, but accidentally one came along the street +returning to its station. When the accused woman caught sight of it she +fainted. The boarding house keeper raised such commotion that one of the +detectives said, "For God's sake, shut that woman's mouth up or she will +make us trouble!" They then ran away. + +The next day the boarding house woman called on the Chief of Police and +told the whole story. He referred her to the Lieutenant at the station of +the precinct in which the indignity occurred. To him the entire facts were +given, and written down by the desk sergeant. The men were there +identified. + +On the following day one of the detectives went to the women's house, +accompanied by a brother-in-law, whose wife was a personal friend of the +boarding house woman. The detective had a copy of the woman's statement as +she had made it at the police station. He begged for mercy, crying, "he +had nothing to say for himself." He piteously pleaded he had a mother in +the hospital, a mother-in-law who was dying, and three small children to +support. Suggestions were made, and the woman's feelings worked upon so +that she was induced to leave the city. + +Meanwhile the boarding house keeper made a statement at another police +station, in which she suppressed the facts as to the diamonds and the +money. She was asked to appear before the police trial board, and +refused. Thereupon the charges against the detectives were dismissed. + +It developed before the Baxter Committee that the Chief of Police had been +told all the facts. The papers got hold of an account of the affair, and +the Chief called upon the boarding house keeper. In the course of his +conversation, this woman trying to protect the officers through her +aroused sympathy, was asked by the Chief, "What about those diamond +earrings and sealskin sack?" The woman answered, "If you don't know, I +don't." He then asked, "Didn't you tell that to me?" She answered, "If you +can't remember, I can't." She was then questioned by the Chief whether +these officers were begging her to quash the matter, whether they were +offering her money for that purpose, etc. + +The Chief stated the reporters were hounding him to death, when the woman +asked him "why he did not show her statement?" He replied it was locked +up, "if they want any information they can get it from you." + +One of the men is still a member of the detective force. The other +resigned and went into the saloon business, and appeared before the +committee entering a partial denial of the woman's story. The knowledge of +the Chief of all the facts was fully shown before the committee. +Notwithstanding this, he does not appear to have taken any steps to keep +the matter before the trial board, or to institute any other proceedings +to bring these detectives to punishment. + +This is not at all surprising in the face of the fact that this officer +is, as is shown in court proceedings, a veritable czar in his own +estimation. + +The following account is taken from the _Chicago Democrat_ of May 27th +ult. A similar report of the case is contained in the other dailies. + +"Judge Brentano held, this morning, that Chief of Police K. did not have +the power to have a man restrained of his liberty at his (K.'s) request. +The decision was brought about on the hearing of a petition for a writ of +habeas corpus filed by Attorney F. A. D. for the release of Edward H., who +was arrested last Monday morning at Twenty-ninth and State streets on +account of the shooting of Officer James S., which resulted from an +attempt of a number of officers to enforce the +disarmament-of-colored-people policy of the Chief of Police. + +"The man had been confined in the county jail, and the return of the +sheriff, when the prisoner was brought into court, read: 'Edward H. has +been detained in my custody at the request of J. K., Chief of Police for +the city of Chicago.' Judge Brentano evinced great displeasure when he +read the return of the illegal detainment of the prisoner. 'A man,' said +the court, 'cannot be held at the simple request of K. or any other +person. K.'s word is not sufficient to keep any man in custody. I won't +tolerate any such actions, for if the man was guilty of shooting an +officer, or committing any other crime, Mr. K. has had sufficient time and +knows how to take the proper steps to punish the prisoner.' + +"'The court certainly would not allow this man his liberty when he is +under arrest and has not been booked or complained against before a +justice of the peace owing to the neglect perhaps of such a high official +as Mr. K.,' remarked the assistant city prosecuting attorney. + +"'I certainly would, regardless of whose neglect it is,' said the court. +'The prisoner is discharged.' + +"No witnesses were heard, the prisoner being discharged on the ground that +it was shown in the return of the sheriff that H. was simply being +detained to please Chief K. + +"Attorney D. had witnesses in court to show that the prisoner had been +beaten and injured by the police who arrested him, both before his arrival +at the Twenty-second street station and after he was installed in a cell +at that place. + +"Prisoners who were in the station at the time H. was taken there were in +court to testify that the officers who had charge of the prisoner beat and +struck him in such a manner that they thought H. would be killed. + +"The prisoner's face and condition in court were the best evidences of the +treatment he had received. + +"Both of his eyes are closed, swollen and discolored to such a degree that +they stand out in bold contrast to his own color, which is a dark copper. +Two gashes, each six inches long, on the top and front of his head bear +testimony to the means said to have been used by the officers in carrying +out their chief's new disarmament policy. + +"It is also alleged that the prisoner was confined in a dungeon cell while +he was in the custody of the Twenty-second street police. + +"After his discharge the injured man had to be helped to the elevator by +two of his friends because of his injuries. The names of the officers who +assaulted the prisoner were not obtainable, for the reason that the +prisoner had not been booked and the officer making the arrest had not +signed any complaint." + +Two observations will arrest the attention of the average reader. They +must naturally occur to his mind. First, What sort of a Sheriff is he who +will keep a man in jail, without a proper commitment? Second, What kind of +a lawyer must he be who will suggest to a court the propriety of depriving +a man of his liberty, without due process of law, at the mere request of +such "a high official" as the Chief of Police? + +The return of the Sheriff in this case to the writ of _habeas corpus_ +should have been treated as a contempt of court. + +Pool rooms are operating as of yore. The _Daily News_ of May 27 ult. +contains the following, viz.: + +"The saloon of J. H. D. at E. and N. C. streets was converted into a pool +room yesterday afternoon at the time the ticker began to record the +winning horses in the races at the various tracks throughout the country. +A dozen men assembled in the barroom where the ticker was located and +placed bets, while a number of women sat in the back rooms and also +chanced their money. + +"The women's wants were looked after by a young man who answered to the +name of 'Dude.' After each race he carried them the slip printed from the +ticker showing the winners and handed their money to those who had been +lucky. During the interval between the races the schedule of the next race +was discussed by all who intended to place money, and 'Dude' would come +from the rear room with a handful of bills to place on some race by the +women. + +"On the inside money was passed over the bar indiscriminately and a clerk +was busy keeping track of those who placed bets. From the conversation +which passed between those in the barroom one might judge that he was in a +genuine poolroom, where the interference of police was not to be feared. + +"All the men present merely gave their initials when they risked their +money, and these were carefully preserved on paper until the ticker +decided whether the money was lost or won. The man who passed as 'Dude' +had charge of the pools apparently, and all the money which was placed +went through his hands. After taking it he would call the initials of the +man placing the bet and then hand the money to the man behind the bar." + +The ticker was presided over by a large, smooth-faced, well-dressed man +and anything which came over the machine which was not a report on a horse +race was of no interest. The reports of the score at the various ball +games were soon shown the waste basket, while the lists of the horses +which earned places were preserved and hung on hooks after they had been +carefully inspected by those present. + +A number of stylishly dressed women were seen to enter the place, and, +according to information furnished the _Daily News_, women have been in +the habit of visiting the D. saloon for some time for the purpose of +placing bets on the races. Two young women came from the direction of L. +S. avenue about 4 o'clock and entered the place apparently as though it +was nothing new to them. + +"The 'ladies' entrance' is on the E. street side. The rooms for women are +arranged in the east half of the double-flat building on E. street, while +the saloon faces on C. street. + +"J. H. D., who conducts the place, came in yesterday afternoon while the +betting was at its height, and, bedecked in diamonds, walked leisurely +behind the bar and, picking up a Racing Form, turned to the 'boys' and +asked how 'things were going.' He was told the winners in the races which +had been reported during his absence and seemed pleased with what was told +him. + +"The saloon is known as 'D.'s O. P. C.,' and has been conducted at this +place for the past five or six years. The license for the place is in the +name of Mrs. J. H. D. It is said that D. was formerly in the saloon +business here, but sold out and went to New York, where he put on a +vaudeville show and sunk several thousand dollars trying to make it pay. +He finally failed, it is said, and came back to Chicago and reopened his +saloon. + +"At the Chicago avenue police station nothing was known apparently of the +gambling at the D. saloon on the races. Capt. R. said that he told a +couple of his men some time ago to watch the place, but he said they had +reported nothing irregular. The captain seemed surprised when he heard of +how affairs were, and Inspector H. was apparently very indignant at the +thought that anything of the sort was going on in his district. He at once +gave the captain orders to send a couple of men to the place and if +anything was found to be going on there to stop it." + +The result of the visit of the Inspector's officers is thus stated in the +_Tribune_ of May 28th ult. Its headline is suggestive, in view of the +particulars given in the _Daily News_ of the occurrences by its reporter. + +"REPORT NO GAMBLING." + +"A report that a poolroom was being conducted in the saloon of J. H. D., +E. and N. C. Streets, was investigated yesterday by Detectives B. and R., +who visited the place at 3 p. m., and reported no gambling existed there. +It was said that during Friday afternoon bets on the races were accepted +in the saloon and that men as well as women frequented the place." + +The newspapers contribute evidences of the absence of crime in Chicago, +and of police operations as follows, viz.: + +From the _Daily News_ May 27th ult. + +"Officers from the Attrill street police station are scouring the west +side in an effort to apprehend burglars who created havoc in the vicinity +of Humboldt Park boulevard and Western avenue during the early morning +hours of yesterday. Among the residences visited by the night prowlers +were those of: (Here follows a list of eleven burglaries.) + +"In addition burglaries at the following places in the immediate +neighborhood have been committed within the last few days: (Here follows +a list of four burglaries.) + +"One of the burglars rode from house to house on a bicycle. Two revolvers +dropped by the visitors were found in the yard of the E. residence. The +territory suffering the nightly raids is embraced in the suburb of +Maplewood, and citizens have armed themselves in their own defense, +asserting that police uniforms have not been seen on the streets concerned +for weeks." + +From the _Democrat_ May 27th ult.: + +"Burglars forced an entrance into the store of the Guarantee Clothing +Company, State street, last night and stole nearly $1,000 worth of goods. + +"Apparently the thieves took their time, and the police say they must have +used a wagon in removing the goods. Persons living in the flats above +heard nothing unusual during the night, and the police are unable to +comprehend how the thieves could remove the great amount of property +without attracting attention. + +"This morning a clerk opened the front door of the store. It looked as +though a small cyclone had passed through the establishment." + +This burglary took place between two police stations, from neither of +which it was far distant. It is probable that if one officer had gone over +his beat just once that night, its perpetrators would have been caught in +the act. Some neighboring saloon was, perhaps, more needful of police +protection! + +Some tremendous effort is being made, however, to suppress policy shops +and clean out all night saloons! Witness the following, viz.: + +From papers of May 27th ult.: + +"Detectives D. and D. of Chief K.'s office raided a policy shop in the +basement of the building at 6 Washington street last night and destroyed +the fixtures of the place and confiscated the sheets, records and other +paraphernalia. + +"The shop was in a small room under the sidewalk and was reached through a +barber shop. S. H., the police say, was the agent in charge of the place, +and represented the O. R. & G. company of Fort Erie, Canada. No arrests +were made, but Chief K. says the place will remain closed." + +"Two hours after midnight Sergt. M. and Officers M., O'B., H. and F., +from the Harrison street police station, raided the C. L. saloon at State +street, arresting sixty inmates. The majority of these were boys. There +was one man with gray hair and wrinkled face. + +"Shortly before the police court convened at 9 o'clock the entire crowd +was marched into Inspector H.'s office and from there to the courtroom, +where the cases were disposed of by Justice M. Every sort of a plea +generally used in court was brought into play by the defendants. Some +cases were dismissed, while other prisoners were fined $25 and $50. The +police claim about half of those arrested were criminals. + +"The arrests were made because of the large number of complaints against +the saloon." + +The raid on the policy shop belongs to the spasmodic line of operations of +the police. Fifty of them could be made if some mysterious reason did not +exist why they are not made. + +The saloon referred to belongs to the all night class, and is one of the +most notorious of the kind. It has been protected in the past, and still +would be if it were not for the fact that "a large number of complaints" +have been made against it. These are not new to the police. They have been +made before, but something must be done for appearance sake while the +Baxter Committee continues its probing! That this place was a resort for +criminals is not a recent discovery by the police. They always knew it. + +To cull the press for proofs of the truth of the charges made in the +foregoing pages, would result, in a few days, in the reproduction of a +mass of evidence on the total inefficiency of the police force. Such as +are here given are examples of the many the scissors could find. + +The reader can multiply them, in his mind, ten fold in a week's time, and +then reach a result far short of the facts. + + +The whole story of the alliance between the police, the saloons and the +justices is told in the following cartoon taken from the Daily News of +June 23, 1899. + +[Illustration: CAUGHT COMING AND GOING.] + +THE DIVEKEEPER (to Harrison street police officer)--"I've got my dollar a +head out of them. Now you can drive them into court and give the justice +his chance." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chicago, Satan's Sanctum, by L. O. Curon + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42830 *** |