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Prostitutes, Feminists, and the War on White Slavery

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Prostitutes, Feminists, and the War on White Slavery Decades of Reform: Prostitutes, Feminists, and the War on White Slavery By: Jodie Masotta Under the direction of: Professor Nicole Phelps & Professor Major Jackson University of Vermont Undergraduate Honors Thesis College of Arts and Sciences, Honors College Department of History & Department of English April 2013 Introduction to Project: This research should be approached as an interdisciplinary project that combines the fields of history and English. The essay portion should be read first and be seen as a way to situate the poems in a historical setting. It is not merely an extensive introduction, however, and the argument that it makes is relevant to the poetry that comes afterward. In the historical introduction, I focus on the importance of allowing the prostitutes that lived in this time to have their own voice and represent themselves honestly, instead of losing sight of their desires and preferences in the political arguments that were made at the time. The poetry thus focuses on providing a creative and representational voice for these women. Historical poetry straddles the disciplines of history and English and “through the supremacy of figurative language and sonic echoes, the [historical] poem… remains fiercely loyal to the past while offering a kind of social function in which poetry becomes a ritualistic act of remembrance and imagining that goes beyond mere narration of history.”1 The creative portion of the project is a series of dramatic monologues, written through the voices of prostitutes that I have come to appreciate and understand as being different and individualized through my historical research The characters in these poems should be viewed as real life examples of women who willingly became prostitutes. They are a characterization of the women that are referred to throughout the essay. I often find that specific voices are lost in the field of history. This project allows the historical analysis to take place without unnecessarily sacrificing the voices of the women involved. I chose to write poetry, because, “the historical poem promotes micro- awareness of the human and invites a greater contemplation of what virtues we enact as well as our intricate emotional responses.”2 The poetry in my project will help to elucidate the lives of 1 Ibid., 5. 2 Major Jackson, “Poetry and the End of History,” American Poet, 2. 1 the women who worked for the Everleigh Club, eliciting the reader’s emotional responses and connections in a way that a historical essay would not. 2 Introduction: The City and the Sisters The city of Chicago was rebuilt after the great fire of 1871 destroyed seventy-three miles of streets and left nearly 100,000 people homeless.3 Chicago recovered quickly and grew at a rapid rate. William Bross, a survivor of the fire, visited New York City and began to spread news about Chicago, ‘“Go to Chicago now!’ he thundered. ‘Young men hurry there! Old men, send your sons. Women, send your husbands! You will never again have such a chance to make money.’”4 He predicted that Chicago would reach a population of one million by 1900; the city reached the number ten years earlier than his prophecy. Chicago’s future was bright for some time, but it became overshadowed by the vice and corruption that infiltrated the city. The influx of individuals hoping for a better future also led to the creation of one of the nation’s most well known red-light districts: the Chicago Levee. The Everleigh Club was opened in Chicago towards the beginning of 1900 by a very ambitious sister duo. Ada and Minna Everleigh searched far and wide, traveling throughout major cities in the United States, such as St. Louis and New Orleans, meeting renowned madams such as Rose Bailey in New York City and Minnie Stevens in Boston.5 The goal was to relocate from Omaha to a city that needed an upscale brothel, something not so riddled with filth. Their travels were disheartening, since no city seemed quite ready for their plans to elevate the business of prostitution. At the urging of Cleo Maitland in Washington, the sisters visited the brothel of Effie Hankins in Chicago.6 The sisters loved the two-building mansion located at 2131-2133 South Dearborn Street, and after wandering around the premises, they decided to take 3 Donald L. Miller, City of the Century, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 159. 4 Ibid., 169. 5 Charles Washburn, Come into my Parlor (New York: Knickerbocker Publishing Company, 1934), 16-18. 6 Ibid., 19. 3 the beaten down brothel.7 In a short amount of time they managed to turn one side of the building into a rather extravagant place. The sisters did not foresee any problems when it came to recruiting. They knew it could be handled without the help of others. “The problem of supply and demand, known as white slavery, was a false issue – this they were sure of. Girls didn’t have to be bought and white slavers were unnecessary. Talent, as a matter of fact, came to their door begging for admittance.”8 The white slavery scare that spread news of women being kidnapped and seduced into prostitution would become the major tool used to fight vice in American cities. The scare became more powerful in the beginning of the century, reaching its peak between 1910 and 1913.9 The sisters were right about the issue from the beginning: girls came knocking and begging, and the waiting list stretched on and on. Before they were hired, the girls met with Ada: “I talk with each applicant myself…She must have worked somewhere else before coming here. We do not like amateurs. Inexperienced girls and young widows are too prone to accept offers of marriage and leave. We always have a waiting list. To get in a girl must have a pretty face and figure, must be in perfect health, must look well in evening clothes. If she is addicted to drugs, or to drink, we do not want her. There is no problem in keeping the club filled.”10 In order to be fully prepared for life at the Everleigh Club, the girls had to go through training,11 in which they learned how to handle themselves properly: they must act like ladies, or they would be forced to leave.12 They also received instruction in poetry that would cater to more romantic men.13 The 7 See poems Ada Everleigh Visits the Hankin’s Brothel and Minna Everleigh Visits the Hankin’s Brothel. 8 Washburn, Come into my Parlor, 18-19. 9 Mara L. Keire, “The Vice Trust: A Reinterpretation of the White Slavery Scare in the United States,” Journal of Social History 35, (2001): 5. 10 Ada Everleigh cited in Ibid., 110. 11 See poem By the Time I’m Through, These Girls Will Know Their Balzac. 12 Washburn, Come Into my Parlor, 23. 13 See poem Lillian Gives a Poetry Lesson 4 girls came and went throughout the years that the Everleigh Club was in operation, sometimes to better places, but other times not. The sisters attempted to keep the Everleigh Club scandal free – not always successfully – despite the messes that were being created throughout the rest of the Levee district.14 Not once did they acquire a girl through illegal means. It was the easiest way to keep the club from receiving major trouble and attention. This is not to say that all parts of their operation were conducted legally; everyone in the Levee had to make payments. As Clifford G. Roe, an important reformer and the assistant state’s attorney in Illinois stated, “It is fairly safe to say that wherever houses of vice are operating in defiance of the laws, and most of them are so doing, some one is getting protection money.”15 In the case of the Everleigh Club, the protection money was going out to various vice lords of the levee, including “Big Jim” Colosimo, a Chicago crime lord, Bathhouse John, Ike Bloom, a businessman who owned various nightclubs and dance halls throughout the city, and Hinky Dink Kenna. Bathhouse John, also known as John Coughlin, as well as Michael “Hinky Dink” Kenna were alderman for Chicago’s First Ward of the Chicago City Council. It was actually atrociously high protection fees that discouraged Minna and Ada from giving the brothel a second try after it was shut down in 1911. Despite the fact that the sisters profited around $120,000 per year, $40,000 in fees was way too much for the lords of the levee to ask for so close to the end of their reign.16 This was an intelligent decision, on the part of the sisters, considering that no real protection could have been offered at the time, and the entire district was annihilated soon after. 14 See poem Katie Discusses Her Mistake. 15 Clifford G. Roe, “What Women Might Do With The Ballot: The Abolition of the White Slave Traffic,” National American Women Suffrage Association, 1912. 16 Washburn, Come Into my Parlor, 53 and 139. 5 The Everleigh Club garnered a little too much attention through an advertising scheme called “The Everleigh Club, Illustrated,” that depicted pictures of the inside of the club, and described the general atmosphere and grandeur. This scheme was a little more racy than their previous advertising method.17 A city boy saying, “Looks like you have Babylon in its wildest days in your city, Mr. Mayor”, taunted the Mayor Carter Harrison himself with the pamphlet.18 This proved to be too much of a slap in the face for the mayor, and on Tuesday, October 24th 1911, the Mayor issued a mandate to shut down the Club.19 The Chief of Police John McWeeney warned the sisters, but they ignored his words.
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