On June 26, 1912, five pimps were playing cards in a restaurant on Seventh Avenue. The day was very hot. During the afternoon the girl[142] who is "hustling" for one of them[143] came into the restaurant wearing a heavy velvet suit. The wife of the proprietor asked: "What are you doing, wearing a suit like that in this kind of weather?" She replied that though she was bringing home eight, ten, and twelve dollars every night, she could not afford a new dress. "He needs it for gambling," she said, pointing to her pimp. Leaving the table in anger he deliberately slapped her in the face: "Didn't you pay $32 for that suit?" he said. "What more do you want?" Another[144] frequents a restaurant in Second Avenue.[145] He is twenty-nine years of age, smooth shaven, with a scar on his face. Before he became a pimp he was known as a "pool room shark." He smokes opium, snuffs cocaine, and plays stud poker. With men of his kind he is not very popular: they declare that he cannot tell the truth, that for a "shell of hop" he would kill a dozen Chinamen, and for a nickel would "frame up" his best friend. "Just an ordinary, every day, common pimp," they say,--"can't borrow a dollar and lives on nothing but the money his woman earns." Hearing of places where business is better, owners and pimps ship their "goods" about in hope of larger profits. The women remit their earnings, even if separated hundreds of miles. For example, Fanny, a woman belonging to a notorious pimp,[146] formerly solicited on Third Avenue. A year or more ago Fanny was brought into court, charged with street walking. She was sentenced to not less than three months nor more than five; after a month she was released, according to her pimp, who declared that it had cost him $500 in lawyers' fees, etc. Thereupon he sent Fanny to Butte, Montana, whence at the end of one week she sent him $150. On June 21, 1912, the pimp complained that Fanny was then sending him only $150 per month. He was sure that she was "holding out on him," for he knew that she made at least $100 a week. Sophia, belonging to an equally well-known cadet,[147] whose own parents try to secure women for him, reached New York from New Orleans late in June, 1912. Her pimp and her brother met her at the station. To the former's utter surprise she declared that she was "through" with him. A quarrel ensued; the pimp was worsted and had to abandon his claim to the girl,--one of the occasional cases, already referred to, in which the girl throws over her pimp. (4) MADAMES The women who run houses have as a rule risen from the ranks. They were once street walkers or parlor house inmates who possess unusual business talents. They have learned the secrets of the trade; they know the kind of inmates to get, and where to get them. They know how to deal with customers and how to make them spend money.