Commercialized Prostitution in New York City

ret shows; the second group, operating indirectly, comprises public dance halls, burlesque theaters, amusement parks, and boat excursions. The proprietors of these places

long intermissions for the consumption of liquor; pleasure resorts and excursion steamers, theaters, music halls, and moving

aces which indirectly promote vice. An exception should be made of certain proprietors of danc

ONS, CONCERT HALLS,

nected with saloons: they differ only in the character and grade of enter

3 liquor tax certificates were issued in the Borough of Manhattan under Sub-Division One of the Liquor Tax Law. During the period of this investigation, i. e., from January 24, 1912, to December 15, 1912, the rear rooms of 765 saloons at separate addresses were investigated. Unescorted women, who from their actions

t 22nd to West 49th Streets; on Seventh Avenue and side streets from West 23rd to West 52nd Streets; and on Eighth Avenue and side streets from West 14th to Wes

ved with drinks from the bar. Some of the rooms are large and clean, others small and exceedingly dirty. The ladies' retiring rooms in the most disorderly places are very unsanitary. A report on one of the rear rooms describes it as bein

" soon finds himself in debt to the brewer who set him up in business. The iron-clad mortgage which the brewer holds on the fixtures hangs over the saloon keeper like a menacing hand. He finds that he cannot make any money in the ordinary business of selling liquor over the bar; sales are increased if women of the street are encouraged

is gradually forced to saloons that are less exacting. When the prostitute has secured her customer, she must in certain saloons order fancy drinks. This has to be cleverly done so as not to offend. The girl intimates that she loves to drink wine because it makes her jolly and companionable. If she is personally attractive and well dressed, the man does not object. "You know," she murmurs, "I hate a cheap skate

oons does not appear to obtain as a general practice in Manhattan; but it is understood that women do rece

while a café is established, where food can be obtained as well as drinks. The grade of the entertainment improves a bit further and the place is known as a cabaret show, a poor imitation of the legitimate cabaret show given in respectable restaurants. Besides music, dancing, sometimes of an obscene character, is carried on in the rear room. Dancing is, indeed, cultivated for the express purpose of stimulating the sale of liquor and w

to carry out these robberies. A pimp, becoming acquainted with a stranger, "steers" him "up against" his "gun mol" (a prostitute who is a pickpocket), who aids in the "trimming" process. Sometimes, if the hour is late and they are in the right place, the pimps and their women become so bold as openly to go through the pockets o

st made abundant con

About the tables sit equally well-trained prostitutes. A man who entered at 6.30 P. M., January 26, 1912, and stayed until 8.30 saw the waiters urge the men customers to invite different girls to their tables. Two of the girls were not engaged. As the rule of the place forbade them to go to the table where men were sitting, they enlisted the waiter's aid. Gliding to the table where three men were drinking, he soon succeeded in having the girls invited to join the party. The investigator gained the confidence of the girls with whom he conversed. "A girl must order fancy drinks here when she is treated," said one of them; "if she don't, the manager[73] orders her out and won't let her come in again." Pearl, a girl about twenty years of age, solicited him to go to a hotel[74] no

oney and struck her a heavy blow in the face. She fell to the floor. There was some excitement when this occurred. The girl was advised to have the pimp arrested, but she refused to do so although her eyes were swollen and

ELLANEOU

itutes and their kind use the premises as an adjunct to immoral trade. Such places include restaurants, pool rooms, delicatessen stores, candy shops, hair dressing and manicure parlors, barber shops, cigar stores, palmist and clairvoyant parlors, livery stables, and opium dens. The places in question are usually situated in the vicinity of vice reso

a certain amount of suspicion and treated as an intruder. If he asks for a meal, he is told that the hour for serving meals has p

ndeed a varied group that sit about the tables or lounge idly at the entrance: owners of houses of prostitution, madames and inmates, street walkers, pimps, procurers, gamblers, pickpocke

, discussing profits, selling shares, securing women, and paying out money for favors received. If the walls of this little room could speak, they would reveal many secrets. The value of houses is debated, the income from the business, the expenses of conducting it, the price of shares to-day, or to-morrow, or in the future, if this or that happens. Here is the center of the trade in certain types of houses,-the stock market, where mem

during the month of April, 1912, a stranger entered a "coffee and cake hangout" in East 114th Street.[80] The usual crowd of pimps, crooks, and gamblers sat about the tables eating and drinking. A

n a restaurant on Seventh Avenue[81] to purchase some for her. The stranger with whom she was at the time, moved to pity at her pleading, furnished the money. A bot

on the street or in vice resorts, to plan "line ups"[83] when a "young chicken" is about to be broken into the business, and to buy drugs for their girls and themselves. It is common knowledge t

he imparting of such information is a part of the hairdresser's trade. She is the fount of knowledge on this subject; "swell" madames patronize her place, urging her to send them attractive girls. If the right girls do not come in, she advertises in the papers, using her "parlor" as a deco

present places or if they are not attached to any resort. In either event, she offers to send them to find a place where they can earn more money. One day a woman having her hair shampooed in this parlor actually heard

wanted, experienced. Apply

ets or ordinary crooks. If endowed by nature with large muscles and an instinct for fighting, they become preliminary boxers and gradually develop into the gang members or political guerillas who do such valiant service at the polls on primary or election day. From the ranks of these the pimp is

of age was standing near the entrance of a pool room on Second Avenue one hot afternoon in August, 1912, jauntily puffing a cigarette as a stranger passed with a man who had lived in the neighborhood many years. "See that kid?" said the man. "A young pro

ize the fact that wherever groups of people meet for innocent pleasure or for business, there the prostitute lingers to ply her trade. Such places include subway and railway stations, hotel lobbies, entrances to department stores, ferry slips, and post off

HE ST

During the period of this investigation, street walking has been most co

est 68th, and the side street

o West 45th, and the side stre

, from West 24

, from West 59t

Avenues, from West

8th to 9th, and between

h, and from East 99th to East 137th, an

from East 14th

ower East Side around Al

M., 12.30 A. M., 12.45 A. M., and 1.55 A. M., eighty-four street walkers were seen accosting men at different places on Broadway from West 34th to West 65th Streets. This number does not take into account prostitutes who were merely promenadi

and 8 to 9 P. M., fifty-five prostitutes were seen soliciting men between West 24th and West 29th Streets. In most instances the destination of these couples was hotels

LIC DAN

given in 47 different dance halls in Manhattan from January 24 to June 24, 1912. Ninety-six reports were made of conditions in these dance halls by three investigators, two young men and a young woman, who worked independently. In some instances they reported on

were more or less objectionable, 59 wholly so. At all but 3, intoxicating liquor was sold; at 61, min

he was solicited by 53 men; men investigators, reporting

se clubs and organizations in New York City, and the chief feature of the year's activity is the giving of a ball which all the friends of the members are expected to attend. Their membership lists are made up of cliques or gangs of young boys and m

rodies, or verses. These latter intimate the character of the proposed frolic. They all appeal to the sex interest, some being so suggestive that they are absolutely indecent. During the progress of a dance i

"half-time" dancing, and protect innocent girls from the advances of undesirable persons. The duties of the special officer are difficult to perform. If he interferes too much, the dancers go to some other place where they enjoy more freedom. As a result, the honest proprietor who endeavors to conduct a respectable hall loses patronage, while t

club[92] occupied the hall at the same address, with the same special officer in attendance. Suddenly, when the dancing was in full swing, the officer hurriedly rushed among the dancers and told them to "cut it out" as three detectives had just come in and he did not want to see the

obscenity. Young girls have been seen to yield themselves in wild abandon to their influence, and have been carried h

women acted as bartenders. By actual count, one hundred girls and boys were intoxicated. Many of the drunken girls were sitting in corners of the hall on the laps of their equally intoxicated partners, who were hugging and

hibition in company with the proprietor of the hall. After the officer left, a detective in plain clothes and another officer in uniform came in. The proprietor escorted them to the bar

th blood. The woman investigator, who had been a nurse, took charge of the girl and summoned a physician. A doctor[98] with an office in East 4th Street, sewed four stitches in the girl's lip and charged her five dollars, which was to include two future visits. T

er said that several madames of houses of prostitution and their inmates were there also. The program of this dance is a veritable directory of "gamblers," "gun men," "strong arm guys," pimps, doctors, lawyers, and politicians.

ts of commercialized vice are usually well-dressed, well-mannered, and introduce themselves politely and easily to strangers. They often pretend love at first sight and exhibit marked devotion, by which girls are deceived and to which they too often yield. Clever subterfuges are sometimes employed: a pretended drummer states that he has "sample shoes" or "sample dresses" at his room: "If they fit, they are yours," he says. When the seduction of the girls is accomplished, they are put on the street, and their ruin is complete. These "powers that prey" are a constant danger in public dance halls and find there easy quar

SION BOAT

ities to ply their trade. The excursion boats between New York and Albany, Bridgeport, New Haven, Providence,

bout eighteen years of age. Two girls, apparently seventeen years of age, rented stateroom No. 11, where they remained all day and were visited by four different men. When the boat returned to New York the girls went ashore and boarded a car on East 23rd Street. One pretty little girl on th

as the boat for New Haven was about to leave the dock, two prostitutes who solicit in a café on West 44th Street[104] came aboard. A street walker who solicits on Broadway and has a home in the Bronx took the trip to New Haven on August 25, 1912. Six prostitutes were soliciting

tions. He offered to introduce two men to two girls. On August 8, 1912, a colored porter on a boat for Providence, Rhode Island, told a man that a "wise young girl" occupied stateroom No. 68, and that she would re

nt of men and boys drinking at the tables. The girls are paid very low salaries, and therefore depend upon making extra money from prostitution. The waiters aid in securing customers and receive commissions from the girls on the stage for this service. In some concert halls the girls have signs which they use to indicat

rls sing and dance in a concert hall at another popular amusement park. They are divided into two shifts, each shift working a stated number of hours during the afternoon and night. One of the singers was recognized by a man who had seen her in a house of prostitution in a city in Pennsylvania; one of

he heading "Public Dance Halls." Here young and thoughtless working girls and boys often yield themselves to th

ators under the date of July 15, August 5, July 20, July 12, etc. Not infrequently boys and girls of sixteen and seventeen are involved in these affairs,-and cases implicating still younger children are reported. The