Lights and Shadows of New York Life

J >> James D. McCabe >> Lights and Shadows of New York Life

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"There is an evident fear on the part of the ball officials that matters
will proceed too far. They endeavor to prevent the women from being
pulled up into the boxes by laying hold of them and pulling them back, in
which struggle the women are curiously wrenched and disordered, and the
men in the boxes curse, and laugh, and shout, and the dancers, now
accustomed to the spectacle, give it no heed whatever.

"If there is anything in the behaviour of the women that is at all
peculiar to the eye of an observer who is not familiar with the impulses
and the manifestations of them in this class, it is the feverish
abandonment into which drink and other excitements have driven them. It
is not often that a common bawd, without brains or beauty enough to
attract a passing glance, thus has the opportunity to elicit volleys of
applause from crowds of men; and, without stopping to question the value
of it, she makes herself doubly drunken with it. If to kick up her
skirts is to attract attention--hoop la! If indecency is then the
distinguishing feature of the evening, she is the woman for your money.
So she jumps rather than dances. She has a whole set of lascivious
motions, fashioned quickly, which outdo the worst imaginings of the
dirty-minded men who applaud her. She springs upon the backs of the men,
she swaggers, she kicks off hats. She is a small sensation in herself,
and feels it, and goes about with a defiant and pitiless recklessness,
reigning for the few brief hours over the besotted men who feel a fiend's
satisfaction in the unnatural exhibition.

"To particularize to any greater extent would be to make public the
habits and manners of the vilest prostitutes in their proper haunts,
where, out of the glare of publicity, they may, and probably do, perfect
themselves in the indecencies most likely to catch the eyes of men little
better than themselves, but which thus brought together under the
gaslight of the public chandelier is, to the healthy man, like the
application of the microscope to some common article of food then found
to be a feculent and writhing mass of living nastiness. That respectable
foreigners were induced to attend this ball by the representations made
by the managers is certain. That they were outraged by what took place
there, is beyond all doubt. To suppose a man deceived as to the
character of the entertainment, and to go there and mingle with masked
ladies, who for a while ape the deportment of their betters, is to
suppose a sensation for him at once startling; for when the richly
dressed ladies doff their masks, he finds himself surrounded by a ghastly
assemblage of all the most virulent social corruption in our
civilization; dowagers turn out to be the fluffy and painted keepers of
brothels; the misses sink into grinning hussies, who are branded on the
cheeks and forehead with the ineradicable mark of shame; and the warm and
coy pages, whom at the worst he might have supposed to be imprudent or
improvident girls, stare at him with the deathly-cold implacability of
the commonest street-walkers--those in fact who glory in their shame, and
whose very contact is vile to anything with a spark of healthy moral or
physical life in it. If, indeed, they had lain off their sickly flesh
with their masks, and gone grinning and rattling round the brilliant hall
in their skeletons, the transformation could not have chilled your
unsuspecting man with a keener horror. But it is safe to say the
unsuspecting were few indeed.

"At two o'clock this curious spectacle was at its height. All about the
Institute, and on the stairs, and in the cloak-rooms, and through the
narrow, tortuous passages leading to the stage dressing-rooms were vile
tableaus of inflamed women and tipsy men, bandying brutality and
obscenity. The animal was now in full possession of its faculties. But,
just as the orgie is bursting into the last stage--a free fight--when the
poor creatures in their hired costumes are ready to grovel in the last
half-oblivious scenes, the musicians rattle off 'Home, Sweet Home,' with
a strange, hurried irony, and the managers, with the same haste, turn off
the gas of the main chandelier, and the _Bal d'Opera_ is at an end."

VIII. PERSONALS.

The first column of one of the most prominent daily newspapers, which is
taken in many respectable families of the city, and which claims to be at
the head of American journalism, bears the above heading, and there is
also a personal column in a prominent Sunday paper, which is also read by
many respectable people. Very many persons are inclined to smile at
these communications, and are far from supposing that these journals are
making themselves the mediums through which assignations and burglaries,
and almost every disreputable enterprise are arranged and carried on.
Yet, such is the fact. Many of these advertisements are inserted by
notorious roues, and others are from women of the town. Women wishing to
meet their lovers, or men their mistresses, use these personal columns.

Respectable women have much to annoy them in the street conveyances, and
at the places of amusement. If a lady allows her face to wear a pleasant
expression while glancing by the merest chance at a man, she is very apt
to find some such personal as the following addressed to her in the next
morning's issue of the paper referred to:

THIRD AVENUE CAR, DOWN TOWN YESTERDAY morning; young lady in black, who
noticed gent opposite, who endeavored to draw her attention to Personal
column of --- in his hand, will oblige admirer by sending address to B.,
Box 102, --- office.

If she is a vile woman, undoubtedly she will do so, and that
establishment will deliver her letter, and do its part in helping on the
assignation.

A gentleman will bow to a lady, and she, thinking it may be a friend,
returns the bow. The next day appears the following:

TALL LADY DRESSED IN BLACK, WHO acknowledged gentleman's salute, Broadway
and Tenth street, please address D., box 119, --- office, if she wishes
to form his acquaintance.

Sometimes a man will whisper the word "personal" to the lady whom he
dares not insult further, and the next day the following appears:

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 4 P.M.--"CAN YOU answer a personal?" Fifth avenue
stage from Grand to Twenty-third street. Please address BEN. VAN DYKE,
--- office, appointing interview. To prevent mistake, mention some
particulars.

Others more modest:

WILL THE LADY THAT WAS LEFT WAITING by her companion on Monday evening,
near the door of an up-town theatre, grant an interview to the gentleman
that would have spoken if he had thought the place appropriate? Address
ROMANO, --- office.

It is really dangerous to notice a patron of the paper mentioned, for he
immediately considers it ground for a personal, such as the following:

LADY IN GRAND STREET CAR, SATURDAY evening 7.30.--Had on plaid shawl,
black silk dress; noticed gentleman in front; both got out at Bowery;
will oblige by sending her address to C. L., box 199, --- office.

Young ladies with attendants are not more free from this public insult,
as shown by the following:

WILL THE YOUNG LADY THAT GOT OUT OF a Fifth avenue stage, with a
gentleman with a cap on at 10 yesterday, at Forty-sixth street, address
E. ROBERTS, New York Post-office.

This public notice must be pleasing to the young lady and to "the
gentleman with the cap on." It is a notice that the gentleman believes
the lady to be willing to have an intrigue with him. If it goes as far
as that, this newspaper will lend its columns to the assignation as
follows:

LOUISE K.--DEAR, I HAVE RECEIVED YOUR letter, last Saturday, but not in
time to meet you. Next Tuesday, Dec. 7, I will meet you at the same time
and place. East. Write to me again, and give your address. Your old
acquaintance.

Or as follows:

L. HATTIE B.--FRIDAY, AT 2.30 P.M.

The personal column is also used to publicly advertise the residences of
women of the town. The following are specimens:

MISS GERTIE DAVIS, FORMERLY OF LEXINGTON avenue, will be pleased to see
her friends at 106 Clinton place.

ERASTUS--CALL ON JENNIE HOWARD at 123 West Twenty-seventh street. I have
left Heath's. 132. ALBANY.

The _World_ very justly remarks: "The cards of courtesans and the
advertisements of houses of ill-fame might as well be put up in the
panels of the street cars. If the public permits a newspaper to do it
for the consideration of a few dollars, why make the pretence that there
is anything wrong in the thing itself? If the advertisement is
legitimate, then the business must be."

IX. THE MIDNIGHT MISSION.

With the hope of checking the terrible evil of immorality which is doing
such harm in the city, several associations for the reformation of fallen
women have been organized by benevolent citizens.

One of the most interesting of these is "_The Midnight Mission_," which
is located at No. 260 Greene street, in the very midst of the worst
houses of prostitution in the city. It was organized about four years
ago, and from its organization to the latter part of the year 1870, had
sheltered about 600 women. In 1870, 202 women and girls sought refuge in
the Mission. Twenty-eight of these were sent to other institutions,
forty-seven were placed in good situations, fifteen were restored to
their friends, and forty-nine went back to their old ways. The building
is capable of accommodating from forty-five to fifty inmates. The
members of the Society go out on the streets every Friday night, and as
they encounter the Street Walkers, accost them, detain them a few moments
in conversation, and hand each of them a card bearing the following in
print:

[Picture: CARD]

This invitation is sometimes tossed into the gutter or flung in the face
of the giver, but it is often accepted. More than this, it is a reminder
to the girl that there is a place of refuge open to her, where she may
find friends willing and able to help her to escape from her life of sin.
Even those who at first receive the card with insults to the giver, are
won over by this thought, and they come to the Mission and ask to be
received. Many of them, it is true, seek to make it a mere
lodging-house, and deceive the officers by their false penitence, but
many are saved from sin every year. The inmates come voluntarily, and
leave when they please. There is no force used, but every moral
influence that can be brought to bear upon them is exerted to induce them
to remain. The preference is given to applicants who are very young.
Those seeking the Mission are provided with refreshments, and are drawn
into conversation. They are given such advice as they seem to need, and
are induced to remain until the hour for prayers. Those who remain and
show a genuine desire to reform are provided with work, and are given
one-half of their earnings for their own use.

The Midnight Mission is a noble institution, and is doing a noble work,
but it is sorely in need of funds.

[Picture: SCENE IN THE MAGDALEN ASYLUM.]

The other institutions for the reformation of fallen women are the "House
of the Good Shepherd," on the East River, at Ninetieth street, the "House
of Mercy," on the North River, at Eighty-sixth street, and the "New York
Magdalen and Benevolent Society," at the intersection of the Fifth avenue
and Eighty-eighth street. These are all correctional establishments, and
more or less force is employed in the treatment of those who are
refractory. Many of the inmates are sent here by the courts of the city.
The "House of the Good Shepherd" is a Roman Catholic institution, and is
in charge of the Sisters of the order of "Our Lady of Charity of the Good
Shepherd." The other two are Protestant institutions. The "House of
Mercy" is conducted by the Protestant Episcopal Church. The Magdalen
Society is not sectarian. All are doing a good work. The statistics of
the "House of the Good Shepherd" give a total of about 2900 inmates in
twenty-two years. How many of these were reformed, it is impossible to
say. The statistics of the "House of Mercy" are not available, but its
inmates are said to number about one hundred annually. The "Magdalen
Society" has a noble record of its thirty-five years of usefulness. It
is as follows: Total number of inmates, 2000; placed in private families,
600; restored to relatives, 400; left the Asylum at their own request,
400; left without permission, 300; expelled, 100; transferred temporarily
to the hospital, 300; died, 41; received into evangelical churches, 24;
legally married, 20.

L. CHILD MURDER.

On the 26th of August, 1871, at three o'clock in the afternoon, a truck
drove up to the baggage-room of the Hudson River Railway depot, in
Thirtieth street, and deposited on the sidewalk a large, common-looking
travelling trunk. The driver, with the assistance of a boy hanging about
the depot, carried the trunk into the baggage-room, and at this instant a
woman of middle age, and poorly attired, entered the room, presented a
ticket to Chicago, which she had just purchased, and asked to have the
trunk checked to that place. The check was given her, and she took her
departure. The baggage-master, half an hour later, in attempting to
remove the trunk to the platform from which it was to be transferred to
the baggage-car, discovered a very offensive odor arising from it. His
suspicions were at once aroused, and he communicated them to the
superintendent of the baggage-room, who caused the trunk to be removed to
an old shed close by and opened. As the lid was raised a terrible sight
was revealed. The trunk contained the dead body of a young woman, fully
grown, and the limbs were compressed into its narrow space in the most
appalling manner. The discovery was at once communicated to the police,
and the body was soon after removed to the Morgue, where an inquest was
held upon it.

The woman had been young and beautiful, and evidently a person of
refinement, and the post mortem examination, which was made as speedily
as possible, revealed the fact that she had been murdered in the effort
to produce an abortion upon her. The case was at once placed in the
hands of the detectives, and full details of the horrible affair were
laid before the public in the daily press. The efforts to discover the
murderer were unusually successful. Little by little the truth came out.
The cartman who had taken the trunk to the depot came forward, after
reading the account of the affair in the newspapers, and conducted the
police to the house where he had received it. This was none other than
the residence of Dr. Jacob Rosenzweig (No. 687 Second avenue), a
notorious abortionist, who carried on his infamous business at No. 3
Amity Place, as Dr. Ascher. Suspecting his danger, Rosenzweig endeavored
to avoid the police, but they soon succeeded in securing him. His
residence was taken possession of and searched, and papers were found
which completely established the fact that Rosenzweig and Ascher were one
and the same person. Rosenzweig was arrested on suspicion, and committed
to the Tombs to await the result of the inquest. The body was
subsequently identified by an acquaintance of the dead woman, as that of
Miss Alice Bowlsby, of Patterson, New Jersey. A further search of
Rosenzweig's premises resulted in the finding of a handkerchief marked
with the dead woman's name, and other evidence was brought to light all
making it too plain for doubt that Alice Bowlsby had died from the
effects of an abortion produced upon her by Jacob Rosenzweig. The wretch
was tried for his offence, convicted, and sentenced to seven years of
hard labor in the penitentiary.

This affair produced a profound impression not only upon the city, but
upon the whole country, and drew the attention of the public so strongly
to the subject of abortion as a trade, that there is reason to believe
that some steps will be taken to check the horrible traffic.

Bad as Rosenzweig was, he was but one of a set who are so numerous in the
city that they constitute one of the many distinct classes of vile men
and women who infest it.

The readers of certain of the city newspapers are familiar with the
advertisements of these people, such as the following:

A LADIES' PHYSICIAN, DR. ---, PROFESSOR of Midwifery, over 20 years'
successful practice in this city, guarantees certain relief to ladies,
with or without medicine, at one interview. Unfortunates please call.
Relief certain. Residence, ---. Elegant rooms for ladies requiring
nursing.

IMPORTANT TO FEMALES. DR. AND MADAME --- (25 years' practice,) guarantee
certain relief to married ladies, with or without medicine, at one
interview. Patients from a distance provided with nursing, board, etc.
Electricity scientifically applied.

A CURE FOR LADIES IMMEDIATELY. MADAME ---'s Female Antidote. The only
reliable medicine that can be procured; certain to have the desired
effect in twenty-four hours, without any injurious results.

SURE CURE FOR LADIES IN TROUBLE. NO injurious medicines or instruments
used. Consultation and advice free.

These are genuine advertisements, taken from a daily journal of great
wealth and influence, which every morning finds its way into hundreds of
families. The persons thus advertising are all of them members of the
most dangerous and disreputable portion of the community. They do not,
indeed, attack citizens on the streets, but, what is worse and more
cowardly, exert their skill for the purpose of destroying human life
which is too helpless to resist, and which has no protector. These
persons impudently assert that they do not violate the law in their
infamous trade, but it needs scarcely a physician's endorsement to make
plain to sensible persons the fact that successful abortions are
extremely rare. Indeed, the secrecy with which the infamous business is
carried on, shows that its practitioners are conscious of its
criminality. The laws of all the States punish the procuring of an
abortion with severe penalties. That of the State of New York declares,
"The wilful killing of an unborn quick child by any injury to the mother
of the child, which would be murder if it resulted in the death of such
mother, shall be deemed manslaughter in the first degree." The
punishment for this crime is an imprisonment in the penitentiary for _not
less_ than seven years. The law further declares: "Every person who
shall administer to any woman pregnant with a quick child, or prescribe
for any such woman, or advise and procure for any such woman, any
medicine, drugs, or substance whatever, or shall use or employ any
instrument or other means, with intent thereby to destroy such child,
unless the same shall have been necessary to preserve the life of such
mother, shall, in case the death of such child or such mother be thereby
produced, be deemed guilty of manslaughter in the second degree." The
law prescribes as the punishment for this crime an imprisonment of not
less than four years', nor more than seven years' duration.

This is seemingly very severe, but in reality it is not. Now that
science has established the fact that to expel the foetus at any period
of pregnancy is to take life, or, in other words, to commit murder, the
law should make the selling of drugs or medicines for such purpose a
felony, and should punish with great severity any person publicly
exposing or privately offering them for sale. Such a statute, so far
from embarrassing any reputable member of the medical profession, would
be hailed with joy by all; for science has progressed so far, that the
cases in which it is necessary to produce an abortion for the sake of
saving the mother's life are extremely rare. Further than this, it may
be added that the drugs used by these Professors of Infanticide, are, as
a rule, unused by the Medical Faculty.

Being well aware then of the penalties to which they are exposed, the
Professors of Infanticide conduct their business with extreme caution.
They have a great advantage under our present legal system. It has been
found by experience that the only evidence by which they can generally be
convicted of their crime, is that of the patient herself. Their
knowledge of human nature teaches them that she is the last person in the
world to ruin her own reputation by exposing them; and their knowledge of
their devilish business teaches them that, if the case does terminate
fatally, death will occur in all probability before an _ante-mortem_
statement implicating them can be made by their victim. A recent writer
thus describes these wretches and their mode of operations:

"Under the head of abortionists, it must be understood there are
different classes. First, there is the one whose advertisements, under
the head of 'Dr.,' are conspicuous in almost every paper which will print
them. Next comes the female abortionists, the richer classes of whom
also advertise largely; and lastly, the midwives, who, when it pays them
to do so, will in some cases consent to earn money by the commission of
this fearful crime.

"First in order, then, the doctor, who styles himself the 'ladies'
friend,' which appellation would be more truthful if the second letter
were omitted from that word of endearment. He is, as a rule, either a
man who has studied for a diploma and failed to pass his examination, or
one who, though he is really an M.D., because it pays better, devotes his
time to this particular branch of his profession, and advertises largely
to that effect; while, in nine cases out of ten, if he attended to a
legitimate branch of his vocation, he would prove worthless and
inefficient. There are many abortionists in New York to-day who live in
first-class style, attend to nothing but 'first-class' cases, receive
nothing but first-class fees.

"These men, some of them at least, are received into fashionable society,
not because of their gentlemanly or engaging manners, nor even yet on
account of their money, but from the fact that they exercise a certain
amount of influence and are possessed of a vast deal of audacity. They
are cognizant of many a family secret that comes under the jurisdiction
of their peculiar vocation; and this fact enables them successfully, if
they like, to dare these parties to treat them any other than
respectfully. There is a skeleton in every house, a secret in every
family; and too often the doctor, midwife, and accoucheur have to be
treated publicly, socially, and pecuniarily in accordance with this fact.
It is such men as these who, by their nefarious practices, have been
enabled to accumulate a large amount of money, that are the proprietors
of private hospitals or lying-in asylums, where the better class of women
who have fallen from the path of virtue may, under a pretence of a
prolonged visit to some distant friends, become inmates, and, after all
traces of their guilt have been successfully hidden, can unblushingly
return to their friends, and be regarded in their social circles as
models of chastity and perfections of virtue.

"Next come the female abortionists, who in some cases transact a larger
and more profitable business than the doctors. There are several reasons
for this, the principal of which is, that a female would, under the
peculiar circumstances in which she is placed, reveal her condition to
one of her own sex rather than to a man. The number of female
abortionists in New York City is a disgrace and a ridicule upon the laws
for the prevention of such inhuman proceedings. True, the majority of
them are of the poorer class, but there are many who are literally
rolling in wealth, the result of their illegal and unnatural pursuits.
The names of many could be mentioned. One, however, will be sufficient,
and, although she has been the most successful of her contemporaries, yet
her card is a good criterion for the rest of her class. Her name, Madame
---, is well known, and needs no comment. Most of the better and most
successful of her kind are in the habit of receiving no less than one
hundred or one hundred and fifty dollars for each case, and often as much
as five hundred or one thousand dollars. The less successful of the
female abortionists, whose practice or business is limited, to some
extent, through lack of funds to advertise the same, are content with
considerably less sums for their services. Cases have been known where
as low as five dollars have been received, and very rarely do they get a
chance to make more than fifty or sixty dollars, which is considered a
first-rate fee.

"The female abortionists in New York are mostly of foreign birth or
extraction, and have generally risen to their present position from being
first-class nurses--in Germany, especially, there being medicine schools
or colleges in which they graduate after a course of probably six or nine
months' study as nurses. The object for which these colleges were
established is entirely ignored by the woman, who, from the smattering of
medical knowledge she obtains there, seeks to perfect herself as an
abortionist."