Island of Vice

by Richard Zacks

  32 “You think this is a crime?”: Ibid., p. 4049.

  33 “you thought this trial was a crime”: Ibid., p. 4128.

  34 “sifting” through the charges: “War Declared Against Grant,” NYH, Aug. 4, 1895.

  35 “I would not do it if I were a policeman”: “Grant Not in Favor,” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 4, 1895.

  36 “We deeply regret”: “Police Board Is Split,” NYS; “Col. Grant May Resign” NYT, p. 1; Aug. 4, 1895, NYH.

  37 “If my means permitted it”: NYH, Aug. 4, 1895, p. 4.

  38 “I admit it was wrong”: “Made Up in Secret,” NYW, Aug. 6, 1895.

  39 “Grant is a good-natured, brave … give him a thorough dressing down … Indeed I think he rather likes me and wishes to work with me”: TR to HCL, Aug. 27, 1895, HCL Papers (deleted from MOR I).

  40 “ ‘Saw dust!’ ”: “A Bomb for Roosevelt,” Aug. 6, 1895; NYS, “A Bomb for Roosevelt,” Aug. 6, 1895; NYW, “Sawdust Game for Roosevelt,” Aug. 6, 1895; NYH, Aug. 6, 1895.

  41 “stout, gaudily dressed woman”: “Eakins Trial Ended,” NYH, Aug. 6, 1895.

  42 “throw her down with the niggers”: Ibid., p. 4301.

  43 “To let you alone on the street”: “Charges Preferred Against Captain Jos. B. Eakins,” testimony of Gertie Long, p. 4294.

  44 “have got their fling on these women”: Ibid., p. 4297.

  45 “copper women”: Ibid., p. 4369ff.

  46 “first dirty thing I have ever done”: Ibid., p. 4344.

  47 “the home becomes the scene of a debauchery”: “Attacks Police Methods,” NYT, p. 1; “Roosevelt’s Defiance,” NYW, p. 1, Aug. 8, 1895.

  48 “Never in the memory of any man”: “Roosevelt’s Defiance,” NYW, p. 1, Aug. 8, 1895.

  49 “Never in my life did I receive such an ovation”: TR to HCL, Aug. 8, 1895, MOR I, p. 475.

  50 “Individual members of the police force”: “Wide Open,” NYW, Aug. 12, 1895, p. 1.

  51 “Copper Jim”: Washington Post, “Copper Jim and Brodie,” Aug. 17, 1895, p. 2.

  52 his Evening Sun article: Riis, “Roosevelt’s Tour,” NYES, Aug. 19, 1895. Amusingly different rival accounts (both Aug. 19, 1895): “Roosevelt on a Peseas,” NYW; “Roosevelt on the Bowery,” NY Trib.

  53 “comically untrue”: “Roosevelt On The Watch,” New York Evening World, Aug. 19, 1895.

  54 “we ought not to have the saloons open on Sunday”: TR to HCL, Aug. 22, 1895. Roosevelt and Lodge, Selections from the Correspondence of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge, 1884–1918, p. 165; see also HCL Papers.

  55 “Cleopatra’s needle”: “Roosevelt Labor Lost,” NYW, Aug. 14, 1895, p. 14.

  56 “As soon as we begin to send”: “To Try All Excise Cases,” NYT, Aug. 15, 1895.

  57 “dignity of the court”: “Big Saloon Men Give In,” NYS, Aug. 24, 1895.

  58 “I am deeee-lighted”: Ibid.

  59 “distinct greenish hue”: “Money Came in a Flood,” NYW, Aug. 31, 1895.

  60 “For the child was dead”: “The Law Is Supreme,” New York Evening World, Aug. 26, 1895, p. 4.

  61 “with the Decalogue [Ten Commandments] and the Golden Rule”: “Honesty At The Polls,” NYT, Sept. 4, 1895.

  62 “ ‘biggest man’ in New York today”: Chicago Times-Herald, July 22, 1895.

  63 “You are rushing so rapidly to the front”: HCL to TR, Aug. 31, 1895, Roosevelt and Lodge, Selections from the Correspondence, p. 169.

  CHAPTER 11: THE ELECTION

  1 “one of the half dozen best-known men in the United States”: Boston Daily Globe, May 19, 1895, p. 29.

  2 “When Platt takes snuff, every Republican sneezes”: Mayor Robert Van Wyck before the Mazet committee, quoted in the NYT, May 17, 1899, echoing a New York Daily News cartoon, Oct. 16, 1895.

  3 “such a mixture of good and bad”: NYH, Apr. 16, 1903.

  4 “singularly lacking in political sense of the large kind”: HCL to TR, Sept. 12, 1895, Roosevelt and Lodge, Selections from the Correspondence, p. 177.

  5 “Whoever pushes you up the apple tree”: “Why Roosevelt Loved the Dear Old Bowery,” Box #76, J. F. French folder, TRB.

  6 “tame, thin, indifferent”: “Platt Yields to Rural Statesmen,” NYT, Sept. 18, 1895, p. 1.

  7 “no gag law in this Republican meeting”: “Favors Blue Laws,” NYW, Sept. 18, 1895.

  8 “sentiment to which I am sure every Republican”: Ibid.

  9 “liberty to levy blackmail”: Ibid.

  10 WARNER MILLER STAMPEDES: NYW, Sept. 18, 1895.

  11 “ill drawn and ill considered”: TR to HCL, Sept. 1895 (no date), MOR I, p. 478.

  12 “courageous and enthusiastic support”: Ibid., p. 480.

  13 “You do not realize how you have impressed”: HCL to TR, Sept. 22, 1895, Roosevelt and Lodge, Selections from the Correspondence, p. 179.

  14 “Multiply 252 by 504 and divide the product by 378”: New York City Police Department, Annual Report, 1896, p. 100.

  15 “antecedents”: Ibid., p. 82.

  16 “He must not be a drinking man”: NYH, Aug. 11, 1895; Avery Andrews scrapbook, TRC.

  17 “this officer” and “that officer”: Coleman fight: “Night Sticks for the Police,” NYT, Sept. 24, 1895; “Delehanty Dead,” NYES, Sept. 25, 1895; trial coverage: “Was It Self-Defense?” NYW, Oct. 6, 1895.

  18 “The skull-crushing, bone-breaking night club”: NYW, Sept. 25, 1895.

  19 “more religion in the end of a nightstick”: Cornelius W. Willemse, Behind the Green Lights, p. 35.

  20 “the officer merely crippled the criminal”: Roosevelt, An Autobiography, p. 180.

  21 “easily overpowered”: “Night-Sticks in Use Again,” NYW, Sept. 24, 1895.

  22 “hide in the toilet room or the cellar”: Town Topics, Sept. 19, 1895, p. 10.

  23 “honest enforcement of the law”: Various newspapers, Sept. 26, 1895, including NYW, “Tammany’s Foes Marched Out.”

  24 “brooms, etc.” $41,190.95: M. R. Werner, Tammany Hall, p. 166.

  25 “a bill legalizing counterfeit money”: Ibid., p. 177.

  26 “some old-fashioned people considered”: “Our Kings,” Harper’s Weekly, Sept. 30, 1893.

  27 “mild-mannered, soft-voiced, sad-faced”: William Allen White, “Croker,” McClure’s, Feb. 1901, p. 325.

  28 “I do not think we have impaired our chances”: TR to HCL, Aug. 27, 1895, MOR I, p. 476.

  29 “What a jolly saucy procession”: “ ‘Teddy’ Beamed on ’Em,’ ” New York Recorder, Sept. 26, 1895.

  30 “Prosit!”: “Home Rule Parade,” New York Advertiser, Sept. 26, 1895.

  31 “Wo ist der Roosevelt? Ich wurde ihn sehen”: “Won the Paraders,” NYH, Sept. 26, 1895.

  32 “and other signs of swelldom”: New York Advertiser, Sept. 26, 1895.

  33 “best of all floats … an excellent conceit”: “Reviewed By Roosevelt,” NYT, Sept. 26, 1895.

  34 “Tie those up”: Ibid.

  35 “Good bye, it’s been great fun”: “Parade for Sunday Beer,” NYS, Sept. 26, 1895.

  36 “not in any way responsible for Rooseveltism”: TR to HCL, Oct. 3, 1895, MOR I, p. 483.

  37 “Mr. Lauterbach looks important in N.Y. City”: HCL to TR, Oct. 30, 1895, Roosevelt and Lodge, Selections from the Correspondence, p. 197.

  38 “The cowardice and rascality of the machine Republicans”: TR to HCL, Oct. 3, 1895, MOR I, p. 483.

  39 “A bomb exploding in Tammany Hall”: “For Another Seventy,” NYW, Oct. 2, 1895, p. 1.

  40 “Down with Tammany. Down with Platt”: “Dr. Parkhurst on Platt,” New York Evening Post, Oct. 7, 1895; “A Fusion Ticket,” NYW, Oct. 8, 1895, p. 2.

  41 “We insist that every citizen is entitled”: “Fusion Comes Hard,” NYW, Oct. 7, 1895.

  42 “I’m no Tammany man”: “Fusion with Croker,” NYW, Oct. 9, 1895.

  43 “The attitude of the Germans”: TR to HCL, Oct. 11, 1895, MOR I, p. 484.

  44 “I can’t help writing you”: Ibid.<
br />
  45 “to meet it or run away like cowards”: “Miller Unmuzzled,” NYW, Oct. 16, 1895, pp. 1–2; “Opposes Home Rule,” NYT, Oct. 16, 1895, pp. 1–2.

  46 “ ‘I don’t care a rap for the consequences’ ”: “Giving Tammany a Boost,” NYW, Oct. 18, 1895, p. 1.

  47 “Why, of course, it would not be due to that”: “Roosevelt up to Date,” NYW, Oct. 20, 1895, p. 4.

  48 “was terribly angry”: TR to HCL, Oct. 18, 1895, MOR I, p. 486.

  49 “crank vote”: NYH, NYT, Oct. 21–22, 1895.

  50 “It has been an awful struggle”: TR to HCL, Oct. 20–23, 1893, MOR I, p. 490.

  51 “The Germans behave very badly”: HCL to TR, Oct. 23, 1895, Roosevelt and Lodge, Selections from the Correspondence, pp. 192–193.

  52 “Thank Heaven there is only one week more”: TR to Bamie, Oct. 27, 1895, MS Am 1834, TRC.

  53 “I have made the police force work like beavers”: TR to Henry White, Oct. 28, 1895, MOR I, p. 492; see also Theodore Roosevelt, “Taking the Police Out of Politics,” The Cosmopolitan, Nov. 1895.

  54 “mattress vote”: TR to HCL, Oct. 29, 1895, MOR I, p. 493.

  55 “for the good of the service”: “Blues Shifted,” New York Advertiser, Oct. 30, 1895, p. 1; “Many Police Votes Lost,” NYW, Nov. 6, 1895, p. 5.

  56 “danced the war dance of the great eastside” “spank”: “Urchin Terrors Raided,” NYW, Nov. 6, 1895, p. 5.

  57 “Weather Prediction”: NYS, Nov. 5, 1895, p. 1.

  58 “It looks as if the godly are on top”: NYW, Nov. 6, 1895, p. 4. (On p. 1, the paper contradicts itself, stating “6 p.m.”)

  59 colossal tower of Pulitzer’s World: Architectural historians cite 309 feet as the height of the World’s office building; the newspaper staff cited 375 feet. (Ornaments and flagpoles graced the top.) The statue of Diana stood 341 feet off the ground, atop Madison Square Garden tower, which also featured ornamental details.

  60 “characters were made to perform absurd feats”: “News Promptly Given,” NYT, Nov. 6, 1895, p. 8.

  61 “a kaleidoscopic jumble of stale cartoons”: “The World Had the News,” NYW, Nov. 6, 1895, p. 4.

  62 “returns as yet are not unfavorable”: “How Returns Were Received,” NYT, Nov. 6, 1895.

  63 “the folly of the Good Government Clubs”: Ibid.

  64 “I did it!”…“substantial for Roosevelt”: “News Promptly Given,” NYT, Nov. 6, 1895, p. 8.

  65 “riotous hilarity”: “And the Tiger Howled On,” NYW, Nov. 6, 1895, p. 4.

  66 “Teddy Roosevelt … became bewildered at the figures for Tammany”: Tammany Times, Nov. 11, 1895.

  67 “thugs” over the “quarreling psalm-singers”: Town Topics, Nov. 14, 1895, p. 11.

  68 “But for the exasperating effect of Mr. Roosevelt’s”: NYW (quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Nov. 6, 1895).

  69 “gigantic foghorn”: “A Word With Mr. Roosevelt,” NY Trib, Nov. 7, 1895, p. 6.

  70 “another year of his Puritanical administration”: “Roosevelt and M’Cook,” NYW, Nov. 7, 1895, p. 3.

  71 “most orderly and honest election”: “Law Must Be Enforced,” NYT, Nov. 7, 1895, p. 13.

  72 “every single [newspaper] has attacked me”: TR to Bamie, Nov. 10, 1895, Roosevelt, Letters from Theodore Roosevelt to Anna Roosevelt Cowles, 1870–1918, p. 162.

  73 “The political outlook is rather discouraging”: Ibid., Nov. 16, 1895.

  CHAPTER 12: CRACK UP … CRACK DOWN

  1 “I have got the screws on pretty tight now”: “Putting on the Screws,” NYT, Dec. 3, 1895.

  2 “a humorous race prone to look upon the Italian as a ‘dago’ ”: “Bootblacks Alarmed Again,” NYS, Dec. 2, 1895.

  3 “He has grown several years older in the last month”: Bigelow to HCL, Akiko Murakata, Selected Letters of Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow.p. 84.

  4 “I am anxious about him”: HCL to Bamie, Dec. [no date], 1895, Lillian Rixley, Bamie: Theodore Roosevelt’s Remarkable Sister, p. 89.

  5 “Call the roll”: “Capt. Eakins Has to Go,” NYW, Nov. 27, 1895, p. 3.

  6 “as gross an act of injustice as … a Massachusetts witch burning”: New York Mercury, Nov. 30, 1895.

  7 “The board is striving to attract”: “Charges Preferred Against Captain Jos. B. Eakins,” p. 36.

  8 “they should never be fined; they should be imprisoned”: Roosevelt, Autobiography, pp. 196–198.

  9 “would remove three-quarters of the present force”: New York Recorder, Nov. 28, 1895.

  10 “Don’t, don’t”: “Her Night of Horror,” NYW, Dec. 6, 1895; “Sent Her to the Workhouse,” NYH, Dec. 6, 1895.

  11 “I’m a good girl, judge”: Ibid.

  12 “Me no see her home”: “Mott Sticks to His Decision,” NYH, Dec. 7, 1895, p. 3.

  13 “walking out in the night and a street walker”: Ibid.

  14 INNOCENT LIZZIE SCHAUER: NYW, Dec. 6, 1895, p. 3.

  15 “wayward and incorrigible”: “Lizzie Schauer on the Island,” NYH; “Lizzie on the Island,” NYW, Dec. 8, 1895; “Her Sad Life Story,” NYW, Dec. 9, 1895, pp. 1–2.

  16 death of Gen. William Wells: “39 Grove Street Raided,” NYS, Dec. 8, 1895.

  17 “and fill it with negroes at $5 a month”: Grove St. brothel information, New York Press, Vices of a Big City, pp. 37–39.

  18 “hat manufacture”: “39 Grove Street Raided,” NYS, Dec. 8, 1895, p. 1. See also (all Dec. 8, 1895): “Raided After 35 Years,” NYW; “Raided It After Thirty-Five Years,” NYH; “Triumph for the Police,” NYT.

  19 “decided blond”: “Pretty Women Faint in Court,” NYH, Dec. 9, 1895, p. 7.

  20 “the house was pulled”: “Mrs. Street in Court,” NYT, Dec. 9, 1895.

  21 “I can stake my life on Lizzie Schauer’s character”: “Lizzie on the Island,” NYW, Dec. 8, 1895, p. 2.

  22 “a loathsome disease”: Ibid.

  23 “nothing more difficult to determine than virginity”: Dr. Nicolas Venette, Tableau de l’amour conjugale, p. 95.

  24 “I order that she be discharged”: “Miss Schauer Free,” NYH, Dec. 10, 1895.

  25 “If the officers arrested her without cause”: “Lizzie Schauer’s Arrest,” NYS, Dec. 12, 1895, p. 9; see also “Conlin Backs Up His Men,” NYW, Dec. 15, 1895.

  26 “Oh mama, you don’t believe the charge”: “ ‘May Daly’ Discharged,” NYS, Dec. 10, 1895, p. 5.

  CHAPTER 13: CHRISTMAS: ARMED AND DANGEROUS

  1 “I would rather welcome a foreign war!”: TR to Bamie, Jan. 19, 1896, MOR I, p. 510.

  2 “Jewseph Pulitzer”: The Journalist, July 12, 1884, p. 1, as quoted in Pulitzer by J. M. Morris.

  3 “gold-ridden, capitalist-bestridden, usurer-mastered future”: TR to Bamie, Nov. 13, 1896, MOR I, p. 566.

  4 “He has a perfect right to speak”: “Gathered About Town,” NYT, Feb. 15, 1897.

  5 “purely American”: Ibid.

  6 “Pick out about forty”: James Bronson Reynolds, “Meeting an Emergency with the Mailed Fist,” Ethel Armes anecdotes, TRB.

  7 “longest beaked noses on the force!”: Ibid.

  8 “I am going to assign you men”: Ibid.

  9 “great bulk of the Jewish population”: Roosevelt, “The Ethnology of the New York Police,” Munsey’s, June 1897, p. 398.

  10 “Down the main aisle passed the agitator”: Reynolds, “Meeting an Emergency.”

  11 “Rector Hermann Ahlwardt, the noted anti-semite”: “Eggs for Herr Ahlwardt,” NYW, Dec. 14, 1895.

  12 “round, fat, good-natured, shiny-faced”: “Jew Baiter in a Tumult,” NYS, Dec. 13, 1895, p. 1.

  13 “can you find a single Jew?” “Go down to the eastside”: Ibid.

  14 “roar of rage”: “Eggs for Herr Ahlwardt,” NYW, Dec. 14, 1895.

  15 “Any one else would have thrown straight”: “Eggs for Herr Ahlwardt,” NYT, Dec. 14, 1895.

  16 “I am neither afraid of Jews”: Ibid.

  17 “Some of my most intimate friends”: “No Welcome for Ahlwardt
,” NYT, Dec. 7, 1895.

  18 MECCA OF OUTLAWS: NYW, Dec. 16, 1895, pp. 1–2.

  19 “tried to make a Puritan”: “Mayors Talk of Reform,” NY Trib, Dec. 18, 1895; “Strong’s Confession,” NYW, Dec. 18, 1895; “Mayor Strong’s Experiences,” NYS, Dec. 18, 1895; “Three Mayors Dine,” New York Advertiser, Dec. 18, 1895.

  20 “laughed louder and longer”: “Reformers in a Verbal Clash,” New York Recorder, Dec. 18, 1895.

  21 “The World printed a list of criminals”: “Mayor Strong’s Experiences,” NYS, Dec. 18, 1895.

  22 Professional Criminals of America: The borrowings abound between “Mecca of Outlaws” and the book.

  23 “The mayor is just sick of Teddy”: “The Mayor Only Jested,” New York Mercury, Dec. 19, 1895.

  24 “rather gloomily”: TR to HCL, Dec. 23, 1895, MOR I, p. 502.

  25 “Don’t imagine that I really get very blue”: TR to HCL, Dec. 27, 1895, MOR I, p. 503.

  26 a center diamond the “size of a hazelnut”: “Theft of Burden Jewels,” NYT, Dec. 29, 1895, p. 1; “One Thief or More?” NYW, Dec. 30, 1895; “No Clue to the Gems,” NYW, Dec. 31, 1895.

  27 “the police system has permitted the existence”: “Theft of Burden Jewels,” NYT, Dec. 29, 1895.

  28 “Ted Roosevelt is going about the country”: Washington Post, Dec. 31, 1895.

  29 “We are having a great deal of anxiety with our detective bureau”: TR to Bamie, Dec. 29, 1895, Roosevelt, Letters from Theodore Roosevelt, p. 167.

  30 “worked through the squeal of some thief, or ex-thief”: William Howe and Abraham Hummel, Danger! A True History of a Great City’s Wiles and Temptations, p. 111.

  31 “They are just as much in the dark”: “How to Stop Our Epidemic of Crime,” NYW, Dec. 1, 1895, p. 21.

  32 “The sweet-tongued orchestra in the belfry”: “Welcome the New Year,” NYT, Jan. 1, 1896; “By By ’96 Howdy ’97,” NYW, Jan. 1, 1897, p. 2 (for similar celebration).

  33 “I don’t see what else I could have done”: TR to Bamie, Dec. 22, 1895, Roosevelt, Letters from Theodore Roosevelt, p. 167.

  CHAPTER 14: I AM RIGHT

  1 “I asked him if we’d be legislated out of office”: “Roosevelt on the Rack,” NYW, July 8, 1896; “Mr. Roosevelt a Witness,” NYT, July 8, 1896; “Parker Again Testifies,” NY Trib, July 8, 1896; “Parker Hearing Closed,” NY Trib, July 8, 1896; “End of Parker Hearing,” NYT, July 9, 1896.