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