Criminals -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Ellison, smooth-faced, high-featured, well-dressed, a Gangland cavalier,
never married. Or if he did he failed to mention it. He was not a
moll-buzzer; no one could accuse him of taking money from a woman. He
lived by the ballot and the bung-starter. In addition once a year he
gave a racket, tinder the auspices of what he called the “Biff Ellison
Association,” and as his fame increased his profits from a single racket
were known to reach $2,000.
At one time Ellison challenged fortune as part proprietor of Paresis
Hall, which sink of sin, as though for contrast, had been established
within the very shadow of Cooper Union. Terminating his connection with
Paresis Hall, he lived a life of leisure between Chick Tricker's Park
Row “store” and Nigger Mike's at Number Twelve Pell.
Occasionally he so far unbuckled as to escort some lady to or from
Sharkey's in Fourteenth Street. Not as a lobbygow; not for any
ill-odored fee of fifty cents. But as a gentleman might, and out of
sheer politeness. The law, as enforced from Mulberry Street, was prone
to take a narrow view of ladies who roamed alone the midnight streets.
The gallant Ellison was pleasantly willing to save night-bound dames of
his acquaintance from this annoyance. That was all.
Who has not heard of the celebrated Paul Kelly? Once upon a time, a
good woman reading a newspaper saw reference to Paul Kelly in some
interesting connection. She began to burn with curiosity; she wanted to
meet Paul Kelly, and said so to her husband. Since her husband had been
brought up to obey her in all things, he made no objection.
Guided by a pathfinder from the Central Office, the gentleman went forth
to find Paul Kelly, his wife on his arm. They entered Lyon's restaurant
in the Bowery; the place was crowded. Room was made for them at a table
by squeezing in three chairs. The lady looked about her. Across, stale
and fat and gone to seed, sat an ex-eminent of the prize ring. At
his elbow was a stocky person, with a visage full of wormwood and a
chrysanthemum ear. He of the ear was given to misguided volubilities,
more apt to startle than delight.
The woman who wanted to see Paul Kelly looked at the champion gone
to sulky seed, listened to the misguided conversationist with the
chrysanthemum ear, and wished she hadn't come. She might have been
driven from the field, had it not been for a small, dark personage, with
black eyes and sallow cheeks, who sat next her on the left. His voice
was low and not alarming; his manner bland but final. And he took quiet
and quieting charge of the other two.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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