At any rate, in this district detection and conviction seemed well nigh impossible. The alley saloon, being off the thoroughfare, has advantages for conducting this sort of an illicit business with far greater safety and with more profit than the saloon which is out on the front street, and hence alley saloon franchises, so far from being undesirable, are eagerly sought by that type of white men who will run a place for that class of trade. In one of these saloons it developed that, in addition to the bar, a dance hall was run by the proprietor. Nightly orgies of half-drunken men and women made this neighborhood particularly objectionable to surrounding residents. One high school girl, who was compelled to leave school on account of her condition, was said to have met her ruin in this place. A member of this committee, who for a while lived next door to this saloon, saw the proprietor go out of the saloon one night about midnight, and apparently put something down by the side of the lamp post on the opposite corner. Shortly afterward a policeman came along and picked it up and went on. At the hearing before the Liquor Board the sergeant and night officer on this beat testified in the strongest terms to the good character of this place. One white business man across the street said that his best customers had been run off by the people who patronized this dive. When the sub-committees made these reports it was decided to undertake the work of cleaning up the lower Druid Hill Avenue neighborhood alone, and to leave the work in the other neighborhoods to a future movement. It was felt that by centering all of their efforts upon the one neighborhood there was more hope of success than there would be from undertaking the work in all of them at the same time. It was decided to make a most earnest effort to secure the removal of the saloons from the alleys and the vicinities of the schools and churches in this lower Druid Hill Avenue district. They decided to make charts and secure pictures showing the conditions in this neighborhood and publish them, as far as possible. A sub-committee was appointed to carry these plans into execution. As the committee progressed in its labor of collecting statistics and came gradually to the point of action, the absolute dependence of the colored people generally upon the mercies of the whites, and the helplessness of the committee acting by itself became more and more apparent. Liquor Boards in the past almost totally ignored the protests of colored churches and colored individuals. Police Boards were but little less inclined to consider their complaints. There had been and still was a general feeling that the colored people were either of themselves so criminal or were so disposed to shield and protect their criminals that they were not taken seriously when protesting against lawlessness and lawbreaking.