Commercialized Prostitution in New York City Part 4

One of the most important of these establishments is a delicatessen store on Seventh Avenue,[79] a notorious and popular place. The little room is crowded with things to eat and drink. Small tables are placed about the vacant places and at these tables sit owners of houses, madames and inmates, pimps, runners, and lighthouses. All the forces for the conduct of the business of prost.i.tution in parlor houses are here, scheming, quarreling, 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 members bid and outbid each other and quarrel over advantage given or taken. The owner of this delicatessen store, a stout and rather handsome man, moves about quietly. Upstairs, his wife, hearty and ample, cares for his home and his children. Now and then the children sit at the tables with wondering eyes and listen. The eldest girl, about seventeen, dressed in white, talks earnestly with a handsome procurer or holds the hand of a madame.

In some of the places here alluded to liquor is sold without a license; in others, gambling is carried on. Poker, stuss, No. 21, pinochle, are played in the rear behind closed doors. For instance, 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 man rose from a table and walked to the rear to a little white door. He tapped gently; the door opened and closed behind him. As it did so, the stranger saw in an inner room men seated about a table.

Elsewhere a lucrative business in the sale of drugs is carried on.

Blanche, a street walker, crazy for morphine at 2.30 A. M., on May 18, 1912, pleaded with a man in 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 bottle of morphine tablets was hastily procured from a well-known pharmacy on Seventh Avenue. s.n.a.t.c.hing the bottle from his hand, she concealed it in her stocking.[82]

The cigar store, the pool room, the coffee and cake restaurant, are the favorite resorts of the pimps. Here they come to make deals for their women, to receive telephone messages from their girls 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 that here gangs are formed and arrangements for robberies or other criminal acts made; here the spoils are divided; guns are hidden when officers come to search, and men beaten who make a "squeal."

The prost.i.tute herself frequents the hairdressing and manicure parlors, popular with her for two reasons: first, because here she makes herself "beautiful" under the hands of the proprietor, and second, because through the operator she learns of resorts where she may earn "better money." The 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 decoy. Her husband--if she has one--may be a thrifty man who mingles with his wife's customers, selling them attractive hats or suits, and other things, and finally acting as their bail bondsman if they are arrested and brought to court. At least one such husband has grown wealthy in the business.

Such a hairdressing and manicure parlor, for example, is conducted on Sixth Avenue.[84] The woman caters only to prost.i.tutes; and part of her business is to find out if any of her customers are dissatisfied with their 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 the proprietor send girls to different vice resorts. She advertises in the daily press for help. For instance, on Sat.u.r.day, April 6, 1912, a daily paper contained the following advertis.e.m.e.nt under "Female Help Wanted":

"Hairdresser and manicure wanted, experienced. Apply ----, ---- Sixth Avenue."[85]

Pool rooms and cigar stores offer peculiar facilities for young boys of the neighborhood to become acquainted with the life of the underworld.

Even before leaving school, boys often frequent them; soon some of them join little cliques and gangs formed by the criminal element. They become pickpockets 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 developed. As neighborhood boys they have little difficulty in securing girls who, like themselves, are adventurous, or already immoral.

It therefore becomes easy either to trap a girl and ruin her, or to "break in" the already immoral girl to a life of professional prost.i.tution under protection.

It is a strange fact, but it is true, that prost.i.tutes often select young men whom they see in front of pool rooms and cigar stores and actually invite them to become their pimps and share the proceeds of their business. A young boy about eighteen years 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 pa.s.sed with a man who had lived in the neighborhood many years. "See that kid?" said the man. "A young prost.i.tute on the avenue has picked him out for her pimp. They grew up together and both have gone on the b.u.m. She was 'lined up' about a year ago by a gang that 'hangs out' in a cigar store on East 14th Street. Since then she has been a regular prost.i.tute."

There is another group of miscellaneous places, different from those referred to above, namely, the natural channels through which the varied life of a great city pa.s.ses. These are freely used by the prost.i.tute.

Attention is called to them simply to emphasize the fact that wherever groups of people meet for innocent pleasure or for business, there the prost.i.tute lingers to ply her trade. Such places include subway and railway stations, hotel lobbies, entrances to department stores, ferry slips, and post office buildings. Prost.i.tutes find these crowded thoroughfares excellent centers in which to solicit or to make "dates."

Pimps and procurers also frequent such places to "pick up" adventurous girls who are alone or in pairs, out for pleasure or excitement.[86]

(3) THE STREETS

The streets of Manhattan are openly used by prost.i.tutes for soliciting.

During the period of this investigation, street walking has been most conspicuous in certain localities which may be roughly described as follows:

Broadway, from West 27th to West 68th, and the side streets from West 26th to West 64th;

Sixth Avenue, from West 16th to West 45th, and the side streets from West 25th to West 31st;

Seventh Avenue, from West 24th to West 42nd;

Columbus Avenue, from West 59th to West 66th;

Columbus and Eighth Avenues, from West 99th to West 125th;

Second Avenue, from East 8th to 9th, and between East 12th and East 14th;

Third Avenue, from East 9th to East 28th, and from East 99th to East 137th, and the side streets to Lexington Avenue;

Irving Place, from East 14th to East 15th;

Houston Street, on the lower East Side around Allen and Forsythe Streets.

Of all these thoroughfares, Broadway is most freely utilized for soliciting. During the nights of March 7, 11, 14, 19, 20, and 21, 1912, at the hours of 8.30 P. M., 9 P. M., 10 P. M., 11 P. M., 11 to 12 P. M., 11.30 P. M., 12 A. M., 12.15 A. 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 prost.i.tutes who were merely promenading or those who were lurking in the shadows of the side streets. Reports of a similar character could be given for the months of April, May, June, July, August, September, and October, 1912, showing that solicitation on Broadway was continuous.

Sixth Avenue is another favorite resort for street walkers. On September 17, 18, 23, 25, 26, and 28, 1912, at such hours as 4 P. M., 4.30 P. M., 6.30 P. M., 7.15 P. M., and 8 to 9 P. M., fifty-five prost.i.tutes were seen soliciting men between West 24th and West 29th Streets. In most instances the destination of these couples was hotels on two corners of West 28th Street. The same general conditions as described regarding solicitation on Broadway and Sixth Avenue exist in other sections of the city.[87]

(4) PUBLIC DANCE HALLS

No places of amus.e.m.e.nt are so filled with moral dangers to boys and girls as certain public dance halls in New York City. A conviction to this effect, long held, has been strengthened as a result of a thorough and comprehensive investigation of 85 public dances 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 the same dance without knowing of the presence of one another, thus removing all doubt regarding the facts as presented. No special dances were selected for observation, the investigators having been sent to those which were publicly advertised from time to time.

Of 75 different dances reported between January 24 and June 24, only 5 are characterized as decent; 11 were more or less objectionable, 59 wholly so.

At all but 3, intoxicating liquor was sold; at 61, minors were present; at all but 2, the investigator concluded that the attendance was largely disreputable.

A woman investigator reported 31 dances, at 22 of which she was solicited by 53 men; men investigators, reporting 80 dances, were solicited 47 times by 43 different women.

The proprietors of the dance halls in question have "open dates," on which their halls may be rented by social clubs or other organizations for the purpose of giving an "affair" or a "racket," as a ball is sometimes called. There are hundreds of these 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 men who come together because of some mutual interest, sometimes for worthy motives, but very often as a cover for disorderly and even criminal purposes. Between some of these groups there is great rivalry, at times leading to fights and disturbances.

The usual method of advertising dances is by distributing "throw aways" or small colored cards on which are printed, not only the name of the group giving the dance, but also the choruses of popular songs, parodies, or verses. These latter intimate the character of the proposed frolic. They all appeal to the s.e.x interest, some being so suggestive that they are absolutely indecent. During the progress of a dance in St. Mark's Place,[88] a young girl, hardly above seventeen years of age, presented a boy with a printed card advertising a ball soon to be held. When the card is folded, it forms an obscene picture and t.i.tle.

During the past few years aggressive measures have been taken by different reform organizations aiming to bring about a more wholesome atmosphere in connection with public dances, especially those attended by poorer boys and girls. Proprietors have been induced to employ special officers to attend the dances and keep order, prevent "tough" and "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 the disreputable owner makes all the profit. Again, the young people who attend these b.a.l.l.s know immediately when a person different from themselves appears in the hall. At once the dance becomes modest and sedate and the visitor goes away to report "that while conditions are not what they should be, yet on the whole there is great improvement."

A social club[89] gave a ball on the evening of March 23, 1912, at a hall[90] in East 2nd Street. The dancing was very suggestive. The special officer[91] was entertaining a police sergeant, but neither made any effort to regulate the actions of the dancers. The next afternoon another 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 place closed up. A girl, apparently thirteen years of age, was dancing at the time and the officer put her off the floor, loudly declaring that the proprietor did not allow young girls to dance in the hall. Things resumed their former aspect, however, as soon as the detectives retired.

Wine, whisky, and beer, freely sold in connection with certain public dances, are responsible for much vulgarity and obscenity. Young girls have been seen to yield themselves in wild abandon to their influence, and have been carried half fainting to dark corners of the hall and there, almost helpless, have been subjected to the most indecent advances.

A political organization gave a ball at a resort[93] in Avenue D, February 16, 1912. Wine, champagne and beer were sold from a bar located on the north side of the hall or served at tables. The waiters were men, while three 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 kissing them. The same conditions, with variations, have been observed in other dance halls where liquor was served and where the intermissions between the dances were extended so as to give all an opportunity to buy drinks.

At a ball given by another organization[94] in an East 2nd Street resort[95] on March 1, 1912, the dancing was exceedingly vulgar and suggestive. A police officer watched the obscene exhibition 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, where they were served. Then the host entertained his guests by pointing out the girls whom he considered to be the most adept; and the three men pa.s.sed comments upon their cleverness.

A crowd of pimps, gamblers, pickpockets, and "strong arm guys" attended a dance given on March 30, 1912.[96] Here a pimp named Daniel[97]

deliberately struck his girl in the face with his fist. She fell to the floor and was carried to the dressing room covered with 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 st.i.tches in the girl's lip and charged her five dollars, which was to include two future visits. The doctor offered the investigator fifteen dollars to help him with a case that night, and five dollars extra if she would accompany him to his room. Nor was this the only immoral solicitation that the woman investigator was subjected to in order to get the facts.

A man who was shot to death not long ago, a "gun man," gave a dance on March 29, 1912, for his own benefit. It was a great event. "Three of the foremost gamblers were present," a man proudly declared, and, with equal pride further said that several madames of houses of prost.i.tution 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. Some of the names are very familiar. They made a motley crowd--all with mutual interests. Many in this remarkable gathering came together and paid large admission fees at the door because they feared the gambler who gave the dance.

The occasions above described are not utilized only by hardened profligates: young girls, some perhaps innocent, others, if not entirely innocent, at any rate not yet wholly depraved, and young men not yet altogether vicious attend the gatherings in search of amus.e.m.e.nt and change. Some of the girls who frequent these public dance halls reveal their loose morals by their manners and actions, but many are innocent working girls who seek legitimate recreation. The sinister element is the pimp who attends with the coldblooded purpose of finding new subjects of debauchery and of subsequent exploitation for gain. These agents 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 quarry. The girls who refuse to be inveigled are often so ostracized that they must unbend, if they wish to partic.i.p.ate in the fun. Dances and refreshments are withheld until the "wall-flower"

comes round. Examples can be cited: a model who earns $18 a week, one-half of which she gives her father;[99] an embroidery worker,[100] making $10 a week; the head of stock in the shoe department of a Sixth Avenue store;[101] a department store girl earning $6 a week.[102] With these working women, pimps and professional prost.i.tutes freely mingle. Forty professional prost.i.tutes were counted at one dance given on March 10, 1912.[103]

(5) EXCURSION BOATS AND PARKS

In addition to the places already mentioned, the prost.i.tute and her exploiter take advantage of other opportunities to ply their trade. The excursion boats between New York and Albany, Bridgeport, New Haven, Providence, Block Island, etc., are often used for a rendezvous.

Occurrences of a highly suspicious character are abundant:

August 25, 1912, three couples left the boat bound for New Haven because they could not secure rooms: this, in spite of the fact that it was a day trip. On an excursion boat bound for Montauk Point on July 28, 1912, two young couples occupied staterooms 19 and 21. The girls appeared to be about 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 ash.o.r.e and boarded a car on East 23rd Street. One pretty little girl on this excursion was accompanied by a woman who appeared to be her mother.

The girl became friendly and offered to make a "date" with the investigator. She lives on DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn. There were two others, living in Harlem, evidently working girls, who were also willing to make "dates."