The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- History
As for the other men's reformation, that is as absolutely a piece of
humbuggery as Allen's. Tommy Hadden is playing the pious with the hope
of being secured from trial before the Court of General Sessions for
having recently 'shanghaed' a Brooklynite, and also in consideration of
a handsome moneyed arrangement with his employers--similar to that with
Allen. 'Kit' Burn's rat-pit will also be opened for religious services
on Monday next; but the public need not be deceived in the matter of
his reformation. His motive, like that of the others, is to make money,
and, be it known, that he is to receive at the rate of one hundred and
fifty dollars per month, for the use of his pit an hour every day.
Slocum desired prayers at the Howard Mission, on Sunday last, but it is
understood that he is not to be lionized, because the missionaries are
not willing to pay him a high enough rental for his hall. As for the
general movement carried on in Water street, under the false pretence
that these men have voluntarily, and from purely religious motives,
offered their saloons for public worship, and have, themselves,
determined to reform, very little more need be said. The daily prayer-
meetings are nothing more than assemblages of religious people from
among the higher grades of society, in what were once low dance-halls.
There is an unusual amount of interest displayed at these meetings, and
much good has, doubtless, been accomplished thereby, but it is also a
fact, that there are but a few, and sometimes none, of the wretched
women, or ruffianly, vicious men, of that neighborhood, present. Those
classes are not reached at all, and it is false to say that a revival
is going on among them. The character of the audiences and the
exercises are similar to that of the noon meeting at the Fulton street
Church.
With a view of sounding Allen on various points of public interest,
connected with this exciting affair, the writer, on Thursday, paid a
visit to the devildom of which Allen is monarch, and there saw and
heard some things that are worth the reader's attention. The house, 304
Water street, was easily found. Opening the door that leads from the
Street into the apartment that once served as a bar-room, he (the
writer) asked if Mr. Allen was at home, and he was informed by a lad to
whom the inquiry was addressed, that he was not--he was across the
street talking to Slocum, (the proprietor of a neighboring dance-hall,)
and if the business upon which the visitor had called was important he
would be summoned. Allen was accordingly sent for, and with evident
reluctance he accompanied the lad to the room of which we have spoken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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