Crime -- Illinois -- Chicago; Police corruption -- Illinois -- Chicago; Political corruption -- Illinois -- Chicago
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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