DOCSLIB.ORG

The Gershwins' Bathhouse

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Gershwins' Bathhouse The Gershwins’ Bathhouse: Pleasure, Perversion & the Technologies of Sexual Life During the 1893-1929 Era by David Rosen Too much of a good thing can be wonderful. Mae West1 Gershwins’ bathhouse backroom, movie theatre, washroom or comfort station (i.e., “tearoom”); and at a One of the most notorious venues for social gathering and an invitation-only homosexual assignations during the WW-I party. One could say that illicit -- if not era was the Lafayette Baths, located at illegal -- sex was taking place nearly 403–405 Lafayette Street just south of anywhere people could discreetly meet.3 Cooper Square in what is today’s New York’s East Village. The Lafayette was Bathhouses like the Lafayette were a one of a handful of bathhouses that unique sexual venue. The historian catered to an exclusively gay -- and George Chauncey notes, bathhouses mostly white -- clientele, providing a safe “constituted a singular gay environment.”4 environment for sexual encounters as well First and foremost, men came to meet as other forms of socializing. In addition, other men for explicitly physical, if not there were still other baths that overtly sexual, purposes. In catered to a mixed male New York, there were only a heterosexual-homosexual handful of such establishments clientele and tolerated discreet and they tended to serve an sexual encounters. However, affluent, white clientele. And what distinguishes the Lafayette when they met, the men were from the other popular either naked or modestly bathhouses is that on December clothed, making explicit what 29, 1916, the Gershwin family under most public conditions took over its ownership and Ira would have remained and George Gershwin, whose concealed. Equally critical for father was in the bathhouse this clientele, these discreet business, became its managers; settings allowed them to feel at the time, Ira was age 20 and relatively safe from public George was 18.*2 harassment or police arrest. In New York and other cities during this In addition to the Lafayette, other gay period, men and, more infrequently, baths of the era included the Ariston women appropriated a wide variety of Baths (on West 55th Street), the Everard social venues to facilitate homoerotic (on West 28th Street), the Mount Morris liaisons. Such encounters took place in Baths (at Madison Avenue at 125th the privacy of a bathhouse; in an Street), the Penn Post Baths (on West 31st apartment or rented hotel room; in a Street), the Produce Exchange Baths (at 6 tenement basement, stairwell and Broadway) and the St. Mark’s Bath (on St. rooftop; in the civil space of public park, Mark’s Place near Third Avenue). Among deserted street, dock or beach; in the the gay-tolerant baths were the YMCA, the quasi-public venue of a saloon’s Claridge and Stauch’s (on Stillwell Avenue near Coney Island, Brooklyn).5 * George and Ira Gershwin, 1928; Brooklyn College, CUNY. Sex Matters Gershwins’ Bathhouse As one might expect, the men who visited needs. Contemporaneous to this effort, bathhouses engaged in a range of sexual local ethnic, fraternal and religious acts, including fellatio and sodomy. Some organizations as well as commercial seemed to have participated in more entities set up similar bathing facilities. In radical forms of engagement – group and time, some of these operations catered to “public” sex. Chauncey describes an a decidedly gay constituency.8 encounter that took place during the early-20th century in the dormitory and “The baths were also important social cooling rooms of the Ariston Bathhouse: centers, where gay men could meet openly, discuss their lives, and build a Men crowded into the room looking for circle of friends,” Chauncey astutely partners, and one investigator testified that he recognizes. What makes this venue so saw almost two dozen sexual encounters in the important is that it was – and still is -- an room over the course of two hours, with at explicitly sexual terrain of social least one involving more than two men. engagement. Not unlike traditional -- and Although there were no lights in the room, it was partially illuminated by the light of the now nearly extinct -- heterosexual gaslights in the next-door parlor, which brothels and contemporary sex clubs, streamed in through the open door. bathhouses remain a unique cultural Voyeurism and exhibitionism were an venue of self-expression, for the important part of the sexual excitement in the experience of pleasure and the forging of resulting light and shadow: one officer testified community. There, as Chauncey notes, that two men had sex while he stood less that men “created a social world on the basis a foot away from them, and that another eight of a shared and marginalized sexuality.”9 or so men observed the pair while standing against the walls or lying on cots.6 Fin-de-siècle America A decade later Thomas Painter, a future associate to the Kinsey study of male The thirty-five year period that spans the period from the 1893 Chicago World’s sexuality, described a visit to Stauch’s, a mixed male bathhouse in Coney Island: Colombian Exposition to the 1929 Great “The more direct homosexual expression Depression represents one of the most is reserved for the steam rooms. There, socially disruptive – and sexually in an atmosphere murky with steam – so traumatic -- eras in American history. During this period, the U.S. made its first- murky, indeed, that one cannot see more than a few feet ahead – with benches blush steps to become not merely a around the walls, fellation and pedication modern nation, but an international power as well. It was a period in which the are not at all uncommon. …” Innocently, he adds: “If one stumbles over a pair in country underwent a final, continent-wide the act, one mutters a hasty apology and transformation from a rural agricultural 7 country to an urban industrial nation. The goes on quickly in another direction.” Bathhouses constituted a unique sexual U.S. population not only more than culture. doubled, but was simultaneously recast and restructured. It was recast from a As the irony of history would have it, relatively homogenous white Anglo- American people -- with the enforced these bathhouses grew out a half-century- long movement of socially minded, concentration of the descendants of progressive reformers seeking to better former African slaves in the South and Native people in the West -- into a the life of immigrants and the poor. Given the poor quality of sanitary conditions and heterogeneous multiethnic citizenry. And limited in-apartment toilets and baths, it was restructured from a rural and small- th town country to a class-structured, many municipalities during the late-19 and early-20th centuries built sex- industrial urban nation. These changes segregated public baths to meet people’s forced the nation to face it’s fiercest and most sustained battle over moral order – © David Rosen, 2016 page 2 Sex Matters Gershwins’ Bathhouse a battle in which those advocating more following the WW II – and from which tolerance and greater freedom for sexual there would be no going back. difference and expression were repeatedly thwarted if not momentarily contained. The U.S. was remade between 1893 and 1929. Looking simply at population, in This period can be distinguished by three the forty years between 1890 and 1930, phases, each defined by a number of the U.S. population nearly doubled to over struggles over sexual practice and 123 million from 63 million. As the expression, and each marked by a nation’s population grew, its composition definitive social or political outcome that changed and increasingly concentrated in imposed tougher restrictions on the efforts cities. For example, in 1890, 65 percent to practice and/or express greater sexual of the population lived in rural areas and freedom. The first phase is often referred 35 percent were urban dwellers; by 1930, to as the Progressive Era and took place this balance had been fully recast, with 56 between 1893 and 1910. The period percent now urban and 44 percent rural witnessed the nation besieged by reports inhabitants.10 As the nation’s population of widespread “white slavery,” the grew and its composition changed, an interstate transportation of girls and ever-increasing proportion concentrated in women for the purpose of commercial sex. cities. This transformation was most The outcome of this effort led to the vividly reflected in the major cites. By passage of the 1910 Mann Act. The 1920, for example, the foreign born second period lasted from 1910 and 1919, population of New York, Chicago and and witnessed an enormous change in the Detroit constituted, respectively, 36.1, make up of America’s cities due to the 29.9 and 29.3 percent of the total combined forces of domestic migration population.11 These changes radically and foreign immigration, especially transformed the nation’s character. involving the mixing of different races. The outcome of this phase led to the This profound transformation of the passage of the Volstead Act (1919) nation’s population and urban imposing abstinence. The third phase, concentration was driven by the between 1920 and 1929, witnessed fundamental realignment of the nation’s Prohibition -- the “Roaring ‘20s” -- and the economic order. From a rural, agrarian playing out of the failures of a peculiar country, the U.S. became one of the socio-economic experiment. This phase world’s mightiest industrial nations. From culminated in the unraveling of world a country of yeoman farmers to a nation capitalism and, in particular the U.S. of industrial workers, America became a economy, due to the Great Depression. truly modern society. It was a modernity embodied in the increasing widespread During the period from 1929 to 1945, adoption of technologically innovations.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Old Police Trails in the Town That
    OLD POLICE TRAILS IN THE TOWN THAT I WAS PLACE that would have delighted Louis Not all were ii /"k Robert Stevenson, Morgan pirate lairs along the Spanish there was a famous one on tinguished company. Gathered about,, hir-i ¿% Robertson or any of those old sea Main; Cherry Street. were Mrs. Langtry, Harry Parker *H-'th<?n al*- writers was 'The Sailor's Rest,' As to dives* known along Broadway M The Fashion Plate" a sort of divo where in New York could a u Cherry Hill, crimp»s" and to-day you find Fleahag? .Charlotte Carew, of the Henry Irvine com»-, wading house run by 'Mother' Olson." pany; Denman Thompson, of 'Old Homesteac was Francis Bv ARTHUR JAMES PEGLER »rjja speaker Cadell, former Drawings by J. NORMAN LYND fame; Barney Dillon, who sang the comely Oaf York City detective, lately retired after song 'Seven Ages of Shakespeare'; Charlie g_rty-efght years' service. I found him on Mitchell, English ring champion, and hi?r fath¬ ¡porch of his home in Brooklyn. His mood er-in-law, 'Pony' Moore; P. S. Gil more, mana¬ ¿g reminiscent ger of Niblo's Gardon, at that time in its hey¬ «.This woman was a Scandinavian with a day; Colonel Mapleson, «Signor Campanari, fcd record," Cadell went on. "Her place was Emma Juch, Lillian Lehman, Caroline ,-Grau («a favorite haunt of Jerry McAuley, after and Clementine de Veré. Some company! «rd «s a reformed character in charge of "I was on duty at the Brighton onc^night He a when 5_e McAuley Mil-ion.
    [Show full text]
  • American Restaurant Culture and the Rise of the Middle Class, 1880-1920
    TURNING THE TABLES: AMERICAN RESTAURANT CULTURE AND THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS, 1880-1920 by Andrew Peter Haley BA, Tufts University, 1991 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 1997 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2005 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Andrew Peter Haley It was defended on May 26, 2005 and approved by Dr. Paula Baker, History, The Ohio State University Co-Dissertation Director Dr. Donna Gabaccia, History, University of Pittsburgh Co-Dissertation Director Dr. Richard Oestreicher, History, University of Pittsburgh Dr. Carol Stabile, Communications, University of Pittsburgh Dr. Bruce Venarde, History, University of Pittsburgh ii © Andrew Peter Haley iii TURNING THE TABLES: AMERICAN RESTAURANT CULTURE AND THE RISE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS, 1880-1920 Andrew Peter Haley, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2005 This dissertation examines changes in restaurant dining during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era as a means of understanding the growing influence of the middle- class consumer. It is about class, consumption and culture; it is also about food and identity. In the mid-nineteenth century, restaurants served French food prepared by European chefs to elite Americans with aristocratic pretensions. “Turning the Tables” explores the subsequent transformation of aristocratic restaurants into public spaces where the middle classes could feel comfortable dining. Digging deeply into the changes restaurants underwent at the turn of the century, I argue that the struggles over restaurant culture—the battles over the French-language menu, the scientific eating movement, the celebration of cosmopolitan cuisines, the growing acceptance of unescorted women diners, the failed attempts to eliminate tipping—offer evidence that the urban middle class would play a central role in the construction of twentieth-century American culture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Demon of the Orient, and His Satellite Fiends of the Joints : Our
    DurO ifllllllHtlffiSI'Sr LISBARV 3 1924 064 122 678 OLIN V^k^yoUE^^^^ %U- T« . ,»».- -M. *il I'ily # snaSS- APJii^a''^ Sg!_ PRINTED IN U.S.A. Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924064122678 Production Note Cornell University Library pro- duced this volume to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. It was scanned using Xerox soft- ware and equipment at 5S0 dots per inch resolution and com- pressed prior to storage using CCITT Group 4 compression. The digital data were used to create Cornell's replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Stand- ard Z39. 48-1984. The production of this volume was supported in part by the Commission on Pres- ervation and Access and the Xerox Corporation. Digital file copy- right by Cornell University Library 1991. ®0men Uttirmitg Jitatg THE GIFT OF HEBER GUSHING PETERS CLASS OF 1892 /\...Q-.^^.L?v.'r:7 \.\.v'>'\» .T^.T.... 5226 PRESS PROPHECIES. Mail and Expraa, If. Y. The recent exposures of the iniqnities practiced in the "opinm joints " of Cbinatown will lend additional interest to a forthoominB book written by Allen S. Williams, a metropolitan journalist, late of the Times staff. The work will be entitled ''^The Demon of the Orient, and his Satellite Fiends of the Joints : Our Opium-smokers as Thej are in Tartar Hells and American Paradises," and will contain a por- trait of the author, etched from life by Valerian Gribayedotf.
    [Show full text]
  • Autobiography of a Thief
    SEYMOUR DURST When you leave, please leave this book Because it has been said "Sver'tbing comes t' bim wbo waits Except a loaned book." Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library I The Autobiography of a Thief, The Autobiography of a Thief BY HUTGHINS HAPGOOD Author of "The Spirit of Labor," An Anarchist Woman," Etc. New York Duffield & Company 1914 Copyright, 1903 By FOX, DUFF1ELD & CO. " Oh, happy he who can still hope to emerge from this " sea of error / Faust. " There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake, but thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or hon- our, or the like ; therefore why should I be angry with a man for loving himself better than me ? And if any man should do wrong merely out of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or briar, which prick and scratch because they can do no other" Bacon. [5] CONTENTS. Chapter Page Editor's Note 9 I. Boyhood and Early Crime ... 15 II. My First Fall 34 III. Mixed Ale Life in the Fourth and Seventh Wards 50 IV. When the Graft Was Good . 73 V. Mamie and the Negotiable Bonds . 89 VI. What the Burglar Faces . 107 VII. In Stir 132 VIII. In Stir (Continued) .... 154 IX. In Stir and Out 182 X. At the Graft Again . 202 XI. Back to Prison 228 XII. On the Outside Again .... 255 XIII. In the Mad-House 300 XIV. Out of Hell 332 Editor's Postscript .... 348 [7] Editors Note I met the ex-pickpocket and burglar whose autobiography follows soon after his release from a third term in the penitentiary.
    [Show full text]
  • Out -=Of Mulberry Street
    = O ut - of M ulber ry St r eet Stori es of t en em ent life in N ew York C ity BY Ja c o b A . Riis Auth r of H ow t he O ther H a lf Lives o , “ ” The C hild ren of t he P r etc oo , . C ri ht 1 8 1 8 8 opy g , 97 , 9 , T HE C EN URY C o By T . " mi les WW? Paw P R E F A C E SINCE I wrote How the Other Half Lives I have been asked many times upon what of I a c basis experience, of fact, built that count of life in New York tenements . These stories contain the answer . They are from the daily grist of the police hopper in Mul I berry street, at which have been grinding for twenty years . They are reprinted from of the columns my newspaper, and from the magazines as a contribution to the di scussion v of of the li es and homes the poor, which in recent years has done much to better their lot, and is yet to do much more when we a ll (fih r have come to understand each e . In of this discussion only facts are value, and fe these stories are true . In the w instances in whi ch I have taken the ordering of events own s e into my hands, it is chiefly their uen c e w I q ith which have interfered . The I facts themselves remain a s found them .
    [Show full text]
  • Valentine's Manual of Old New York, 1919
    Gc 974.702 N421V 1919 704945 ISENEAUOGY COUUECTION Gc 974.702 N421V 1919 i£U»;» T Ch^ Ajflhe SUTTON (& CO. S DISPATCH LINE SAN FEANCIS€0 f T » » » T » ANBREW JACKS Cf \^'M, K*'« »l«l >.,-;< »N., \r;iHf,.r, Is receiving cargo at Pier 19 If. R.. 1 ... I «M <• % I III N I < \ • SUlTl^ON & LiK, JO 00 u III 61., cor. Wuii. - .-,. ;iiiil , I i!.!- r.idc iii.oiir^i a( H;<- i.nv.-.t t.h. an: di'-jiali liiil ijui< k<-r it\ i.iii. > ffin ><^ \'<>rk tu >au l-i^u<f»<-'> 1850. Advertising card in colors which created the craze for "chromo cards'" that raged in New York in the 80s. , VALENTINE'S MANUAL OF Old New -York. VOLUME in NEW SERIES 1919. Edited By HENRY COLLINS BROWN. New York 1919. Valentine's Manual Inc. \5East^"' St. Copyright. 1918 by Henry Collins Brown. Press of The Chauncey Holt Comp.^ny New York City i Mtvtl^nntB nnh Mutinns at mh ^m 10rk iv tI|iB volume ie afffrtionatelg 5 briirateii H- 704915 PARK ROW PRESENT SITE OF WORLD BUILDING CONTENTS Page RETROSPECTIVE 1 MEMORIES OF OLD NEW YORK BY MEN STILL LIVING.. 27 RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD SIXTH AVENUE. Walter C. Reid 27 THE BEINHAUER GARDEN FARM, NOW THE SITE OF THE TWIN VANDERBILT HOUSES ON FIFTH AVENUE. William S. M. Silber 44 OLD CHELSEA. Robert Hall S3 BEEKMAN STREET, THE OLD PAPER MARKET OF NEW YORK 69 REMINISCENCES OF THE FIFTH WARD. H. T. Lutz 80 THE CLIPPER SHIPS OF OLD NEW YORK 94 SOME OF THE FAMOUS FLIERS 106 THE CITY GOVERNMENT Ill MR.
    [Show full text]
  • A Class-Politics Appreciation of Martin Scorsese's the Gangs of New York
    FILM REVIEW The Hands That Built America:A Class-Politics Appreciation of Martin Scorsese’s The Gangs of New York BRYAN D. PALMER What is your money-making now? What can it do now? What is your respectability now? Where are your theology, tuition, society, traditions, statute-books now? Where are your jibes of being now? Where are your cavils about the Soul now? ‘Song of the Broad Axe’, 142–6. Walt Whitman, Chants Democratic , II The mean streets of New York have seldom been meaner. 1 Blood does not just run in them, it gallops, spilled by blades and bludgeons that slice and crack the bodies of the past in a violence that is at once ritualised and reverential. Martin Scorsese’s The Gangs of New York , a $120 million epic inspired by Herbert Asbury’s 1928 ‘informal history’ of the same name, 2 commences with a ctitious 1846 gang battle in the Paradise Square, heart of the infamous Five Points district of lower Manhattan, pitting Bill ‘The Butcher’ Cutting and his Protestant ‘Know Nothing’ nativists against the Irish Catholic immigrant forces of Priest Vallon and the Dead Rabbits. Historical hurt: ‘The blood stays on the blade’ This opening scene of gore and mayhem, in which the white snow is soon stained various shades of red and pink, sets the cinematic stage, with the victorious Butcher withdrawing his knife from Vallon’s chest, affording an opportunity for the close-up gush of spurting blood, a kind of Scorsese ‘money shot’. ‘Ears and noses are the trophies of the day’, proclaims Cutting to the triumphant nativist ranks as the defeated Dead Rabbits stand oddly subdued, the entire combative lot looking, many commentators have remarked, as if they stepped off a set cast midway between 1 This paper was rst presented to Toronto’s Marxist Institute in February 2003, and the author is grateful to the audience for its critical comment.
    [Show full text]
  • Out of Mulberry Street; Stories of Tenement Life in New York City
    OUT OF MULBERRY JACOB -A- RI IS THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ENDOWED BY THE DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETIES '^ie%*» UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL llllllllllllllllllll 10001095761 This BOOK may be kept outJTW^^^WElJltS ONLY, and is subject to a fine of Fiy& CENTS a day thereafter. It is DUE on the DAY indicated below: JAN 2 1 2006 AUG IP M 1 1 '&a JUN 15 ^9' MA? 24% FEB2 5 1997 J/ ? 4 1998 ' ' I.J : J|j|g272004 JANl72056 Merry Christmas in the Tenements. 'I ^^^ 0^ Out of Mulberry Street Stories of tenement life in New York City v/^. n By CxeU' Jacob A. Riis Author of " How the Other Half Lives," "The Children of the Poor," etc. New Y The Centa 1898 '"-t<^«Arsu>'\^ Copyright, 1 8 97> 1898, By The Century Co. The DeVinne Press. CONTENTS PAGE Merry Christmas in the Tenements ... 1 'T WAS Liza's Doings 47 The Dubourques, Father and Son .... 60 Abe's Game of Jacks 67 A Little Picture 71 A Dream of the Woods 73 A Heathen Baby .80 He Kept his Tryst 86 John Gavin, Misfit 91 In the Children's Hospital 96 Nigger Martha's Wake 106 A Chip from the Maelstrom 114 Sarah Joyce's Husbands 118 The Cat Took the Kosher Meat .... 122 Fire in the Barracks 126 A War on the Goats 129 Rover's Last Fight 135 When the Letter Came 142 vii I viii CONTENTS PAGE The Kid 147 Lost Children 151 \ The Slipper-maker's Fast 162 J Paolo's Awakening 166 The Little Dollar's Christmas Journey .
    [Show full text]
  • My Mamie Rose the Story of My
    MY MAMIE ROSE THE STORY OF MY REGENERATION OWEN KILDARE CHAPTER I. THE KID OF THE TENEMENT. Many men have told the stories of their lives. I shall tell you mine. Not because I, as they, have done great and important things, but because of the miracle which transformed me. If lives may be measured by progress mine may have some interest to you. When a man at thirty cannot read or write the simplest sentence, and then eight years later is able to earn his living by his pen, his story may be worth the telling. Before beginning, however, the recital of how I found my ambition awakened, let me make my position unmistakably definite. I am not a self-made man, having only contributed a mite in the making. A self- made man can turn around to the road traveled by him and can point with pride to the monuments of his achievements. I cannot do that. I have no record of great deeds accomplished. I am a man, reborn and remade from an unfortunate moral condition into a life in which every atom has but the one message, "Strive, struggle and believe," and I would be the sneakiest hypocrite were I to deny that I feel within me a satisfaction at being able to respond to the call with all the possible energy of soul and body. I have little use for a man who cloaks his ability with mock modesty. A man's conscience is the best barometer of his ability, and he who will pretend a disbelief in his ability is either untruthful or has an ulterior motif.
    [Show full text]
  • To View the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
    NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 10024-0018 (Oct. 1990) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking “x” in the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If an item does not apply to the property being documented, enter “N/A” for “not applicable.” For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer to complete all items. 1. Name of Property historic name The Bowery Historic District other names/site number 2. Location street & number The Bowery, from Chatham Square to Cooper Square [ ] not for publication city or town Manhattan [ ] vicinity state New York code NY county New York code 061 zip code 10003, 10009, 10011, 10012, 10013 & 10018 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this [X] nomination [ ] request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements as set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property [X] meets [ ] does not meet the National Register criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant [ ] nationally [X] statewide [ ] locally.
    [Show full text]
  • Danger! a True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations, by William Howe and Abraham Hummel
    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations, by William Howe and Abraham Hummel This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations The Veil Lifted, and Light Thrown on Crime and its Causes, and Criminals and their Haunts. Facts and Disclosures. Author: William Howe Abraham Hummel Release Date: February 29, 2008 [EBook #24717] Language: English Character set encoding: PDF *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANGER! *** DANGER! A TRUE HISTORY OF A GREAT CITY'S WILES and TEMPTATIONS THE VEIL LIFTED, AND LIGHT THROWN ON CRIME AND ITS CAUSES, AND CRIMINALS AND THEIR HAUNTS. FACTS AND DISCLOSURES BY HOWE & HUMMEL. BUFFALO: THE COURIER COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1886 (Scanned by someone at Lehigh University, OCRed/proofread/formatted by DIzzIE, Carriage return mule: Gaz, Direct all correspondence to DIzzIE, xcon0 @t yahoo d0.t c.0m Copy-text page scans available at: www.dizzy.ws/dangerscans.zip and www.rorta.net/textfiles/dangerscans.zip) PREFACE. It may not be amiss to remark, in explanation of the startling and sensational title chosen for this production, that logic has not yet succeeded in framing a title-page which shall clearly indicate the nature of a book. The greatest adepts have frequently taken refuge in some fortuitous word, which has served their purpose better than the best results of their analysis.
    [Show full text]