Commercialized Prostitution in New York City

by George J. Kneeland

Finally, bartenders and waiters in disorderly saloons often act as agents for the procuring of customers: indeed, they are not seldom the pimps of the women for whom they act. Customers entering the saloon to drink are directed to the tables where their women sit or receive the business cards of the houses where their women are to be found.[17] Out-of-town visitors are not infrequently “steered” by hotel porters and clerks.

With the exception of the relatively small number of “exclusive establishments” already alluded to, the resorts here dealt with—something approaching one hundred and forty of them—were at the period of this investigation notorious and accessible. The advertising devices above described were openly employed; and visitors procured easy entrance at most places. External order is, however, usually preserved. Madames and inmate rarely and then very cautiously solicit trade from windows, doors, or stoops of their houses, as they did in former years. They do, however, practise this method to some extent at the present time, especially in connection with some of the one-dollar houses on the side streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.

The sale of wine and beer plays an important part in the prosperity of the parlor house. Deprived of this adjunct, business falls off to an alarming extent. There is no difference of opinion among owners and madames as to the importance of the sale of intoxicating liquors. Especially is this true in the five-, ten-, and twenty-dollar houses, frequented by a more pretentious type of customer. In such places a small bottle of wine is sold for five dollars. A “round of drinks,” namely, a pint of beer served in very small glasses, brings two dollars. Very little wine or beer is sold in the one- or two-dollar parlor houses in New York City at the present time.

In the more exclusive parlor houses “circuses” or “shows” are also given by way of stimulating business. These exhibitions are too vulgar and degrading to be described. Suffice it to say that men have been known to spend fifty and seventy-five dollars for such exhibitions. So also, obscene books, photographs, etc., are sold or exhibited.

One more fact must be emphasized in connection with business management: alcohol is needed to keep the inmates to their task; but even more essential from the business standpoint are drugs. The girl must be kept gay and attractive; her eyes must look out upon the world of business bright and unfaltering. She must smile and laugh and sing and dance, or she becomes a “has been,” a “poor money maker,” and so in danger of losing her “job.” Is it any wonder that she becomes a drug fiend as well as a drunkard?

In the preceding account I have aimed to give certain general characteristics of the parlor house. By way of making the picture somewhat more vivid I shall briefly describe a few houses of each of the three types with which the account deals, namely, the fifty-cent house, the dollar house, the five-and ten-dollar house.

A well known place in Worth Street[18] is a fair sample of the cheapest establishment,—a frame building, four stories in height. The investigator who entered at 4.30 P. M., April 12, 1912, picked his way through a basement where a cobbler sat at his work. After climbing two flights of stairs he found himself in a large, loft-like room formerly used for manufacturing purposes. The rooms where prostitution is carried on are partitioned off by means of curtains. The only furniture in the receiving “parlor” are old leather couches and chairs. The curtains over the windows are of dark, heavy material, almost shutting out the light and air. The entire interior is in a condition of decay, a fit setting for the use to which it is put. Three of the five inmates were present, scantily dressed and all claiming to possess health certificates, issued by the house doctor.

In the parlor of a three-story house in Hester Street,[19] investigated at 1 P. M. on April 15, 1912, there were three inmates awaiting customers. A lighthouse, named Angelo, stood on the stoop, beckoning to passers-by to enter. Angelo is about thirty-five years of age, a short, heavy man, with a black mustache; a cap sits upon his mass of black hair. The man is well versed in the art of “pulling” customers into the house for which he works. As men approach, he motions with his head and right thumb toward the door, and, at the same time an expressive look comes into his watery eyes. In the rear of the house is a large tenement building and little children were playing and running through the hall at the time.

In one of the houses of this type a large wooden bench was placed against the wall of the receiving parlor. Business was very brisk at the time the investigator entered. The bench was full of customers crowded close together, while others, who could not be accommodated with seats, stood about the room. At the foot of the stairs which led to the bedrooms above, a man was stationed. Every time a visitor came groping his way down the stairs, the businesslike and aggressive announcer would cry out, “Next!” At the word, the man sitting on the end of the bench nearest the stairs arose and passed up. As he did so, the men on the bench moved along and one of the men who were standing took the vacant seat.

Of the three grades of parlor house, the one-dollar establishment predominates in Manhattan. Eighty of them were discovered during this investigation. They differ from the fifty-cent houses just described only in the somewhat better character of their surroundings. One of them on Sixth Avenue[20] was visited at 12.45 A. M., March 1, 1912. A little woman admitted the investigator to the receiving room, where sat nine inmates, all scantily dressed. At 9.30 P. M. on March 6, 1912, another investigator counted eighteen inmates at this same address; during the evening of October 8, 1912, still another investigator visited this house and counted ten inmates. The house is one of the most prosperous in the business; it is well advertised and has a large list of customers.