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
You will see all sorts of people at Harry Hill's. The women are, of
course, women of the town; but they are either just entering upon their
career, or still in its most prosperous phase. They are all handsomely
dressed, and some of them are very pretty. Some of them have come from
the better classes of society, and have an elegance and refinement of
manner and conversation, which win them many admirers in the crowd.
They drink deep and constantly during the evening. Indeed, one is
surprised to see how much liquor they imbibe. The majority come here
early in the evening alone, but few go away without company for the
night. You do not see the same face here very long. The women cannot
escape the inevitable doom of the lost sisterhood. They go down the
ladder; and Harry Hill keeps his place clear of them after the first
flush of their beauty and success is past. You will then find them in
the Five Points and Water street hells.
As for the men, they represent all kinds of people and professions. You
may see here men high in public life, side by side with the Five Points
ruffian. Judges, lawyers, policemen off duty and in plain clothes,
officers of the army and navy, merchants, bankers, editors, soldiers,
sailors, clerks, and even boys, mingle here in friendly confusion. As
the profits of the establishment are derived from the bar, drinking is
of course encouraged, and the majority of the men are more or less
drunk all the time. They spend their money freely in such a condition.
Harry Hill watches the course of affairs closely during the evening. If
he knows a guest and likes him, he will take care that he is not
exposed to danger, after he is too far gone in liquor to protect
himself. He will either send him home, or send for his friends. If the
man is a stranger, he does not interfere--only, no crime must be
committed in his house. Thieves, pickpockets, burglars, roughs, and
pugilists are plentifully scattered through the audience. These men are
constantly on the watch for victims. It is easy for them to drug the
liquor of a man they are endeavoring to secure, without the knowledge
of the proprietor of the house; or, if they do not tamper with his
liquor, they can persuade him to drink to excess. In either case, they
lead him from the hall, under pretence of taking him home. He never
sees home until they have stripped him of all his valuables. Sometimes
he finds his long home, in less than an hour after leaving the hall;
and the harbor police find his body floating on the tide at sunrise.
Women frequently decoy men to places where they are robbed. No crime is
committed in the dance hall, but plans are laid there, victims are
marked, and tracked to loss or death, and, frequently, an idle,
thoughtless visit there, has been the beginning of a life of ruin. The
company to be met with, is that which ought to be shunned. Visits from
curiosity are dangerous. Stay away. To be found on the Devil's ground
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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