Island of Vice

by Richard Zacks

  6 “The complaint is such nonsense”: “Why Police Close Streets,” NYT, Feb. 14, 1897, p. 20.

  7 “We were immensely amused”: TR to Bamie, Mar. 14, 1897, MOR I, p. 585.

  8 “The chief has not felt inclined”: “Conlin Ignores Andrews,” NY Trib, Feb. 17, 1897, p. 12.

  9 “Parker’s fine Italian hand”: Avery Andrews, Citizen in Action, p. 202, NYPD.

  10 “I dislike to be made use of as a missile”: “Conlin Ignores Andrews,” NY Trib, Feb. 17, 1897, p. 12.

  11 “I will not get into a discussion”: “The Bertillon System,” NYT, Feb. 18, 1897, p. 4.

  12 “I have no explanation whatever to make”: “Bearded Roosevelt,” Boston Globe, Feb. 20, 1897, p. 5.

  13 “Take off your hat”: “Hats Part of His Uniform,” NYT, Feb. 19, 1897, p. 3.

  14 “A fight between Teddy and the United States”: Washington Post, Feb. 20, 1897, p. 6.

  15 “substitute carrier”: “ ‘Hats Off!’ They Cried,” NYW, Feb. 19, 1897, p. 12.

  16 “highly insubordinate” “subversive of discipline”: Mayor’s Papers, William L. Strong, microfilm roll #36, NYCMA; “Charges Against Conlin,” NYT, Feb. 25, 1897, p. 12.

  17 “No, I want to kill it”: “Charges Against Conlin,” NYT, Feb. 25, 1897, p. 12.

  18 “areola, radiating, orange, tone dark, periphery”: “On Bertillon’s Lines,” NYW, Feb. 26, 1897, p. 5.

  19 “custody of criminal records”: “Answers Conlin’s Friend,” NYT, Mar. 2, 1897, p. 3.

  20 “galloping waltz” “pedigree”: “Got 350 in This Raid,” NYW, Mar. 6, 1897, p. 1.

  21 “Discharged.” “Discharged.” “Discharged.”: “Calls Arrests Unlawful,” NYW, Mar. 7, 1897, p. 9.

  22 “Oh, go away”: Ibid.; “Newmarket Prisoners Let Go,” NYT, Mar. 7, 1897; see also “Police Captain Sued,” NYT, Mar. 28, 1900.

  23 “You have been in my thoughts day and night”: HCL to TR, Mar. 8, 1897, Roosevelt and Lodge, Selections from the Correspondence, pp. 252–254.

  24 “a little like bawling”: TR to HCL, Mar. 10, 1897, Ibid., p. 254.

  25 “I have no idea what I should do next”: TR to Bamie, Mar. 14, 1897, MOR I, p. 585.

  26 “writ of prohibition”: “Captain Devery’s Trial Stopped,” NY Trib, Mar. 12, 1897, p. 2.

  27 “No more than two members of the board can belong”: “Captain Devery’s Injunction,” NYT, Mar. 13, 1897, p. 5.

  28 “no more vicious system”: Ibid.

  29 “fake” clubs: “Raines Held Up Platt,” NYW, Mar. 11, 1897, p. 5.

  30 “if the Democrats went to Sing Sing”: “Tangle Over Excise,” NYW, Mar. 13, 1897, p. 2.

  31 A DISORDERLY HOUSE: Washington Post, Mar. 15, 1897, p. 4, quoting the Brooklyn Eagle.

  32 “many socialists and anarchists”: TR to HCL, Mar. 19, 1897, MOR I, p. 586.

  33 “I was poked in the ribs”: “Roosevelt Was Hissed,” NYS, Mar. 17, 1897.

  34 “I saw 20,000 gentlemen”: “Bitter Attack on Roosevelt,” NYW, Mar. 17, 1897, p. 3; “Police Methods Attacked,” NY Trib, Mar. 17, 1897.

  35 “were in the habit of visiting churches”: Ibid.; see also “Roosevelt Was Hissed,” NYS, Mar. 17, 1897; “Hot Attack on Roosevelt,” NYT, Mar. 17, 1897, p. 3.

  36 “Edith got hold of the first”: TR to HCL, Mar. 19, 1897, MOR I, pp. 585–587.

  37 “gentlemanly and lamblike Roosevelt”: E. W. Ordway to Charles B. Spahr, undated handwritten note added to TR’s letter to E. W. Ordway, Mar. 23, 1897, TRC MP-2.

  38 “he then thinks himself out of office”: “Admissions by the Police Board,” NY Trib, Mar. 23, 1897, p. 4.

  39 “For a big man, Devery has crawled through”: “How Devery Stood Up,” NY Trib, Aug. 25, 1901.

  40 “If you are at liberty to say a good word”: TR to HCL, Mar. 25, 1897, HCL Papers.

  41 “You know the Mayor makes up his mind”: TR to HCL, Mar. 28, 1897, HCL Papers.

  42 “weak and treacherous”: TR to HCL, Mar. 29, 1897, MOR I, p. 591.

  43 SINBAD HAS EVIDENTLY LANDED: TR to HCL, Apr. 6, 1897, Roosevelt and Lodge, Selections from the Correspondence, p. 266.

  44 “astonished”: TR to Bamie, Apr. 11, 1897, MOR I, p. 593.

  45 “I do not object to any amount of work”: TR to Henry White, Apr. 16, 1897, MOR I, p. 593.

  46 “a municipal affliction” “personal bereavement”: Charles Parkhurst to TR, Apr. 16, 1897, TRP.

  47 “Theodore Roosevelt will have to be obliged”: NYW, Apr. 7, 1897, p. 6.

  48 “What a glorious retreat!”: “Senate Confirms Roosevelt,” NYW, Apr. 9, 1897, p. 1.

  EPILOGUE

  1 “the sporting man was in such good spirits”: “Preparing for ‘Wide Open’ City,” NYH, May 23, 1898.

  2 “utter unscrupulousness” “wide open”: NYT, May 22, 1898, p. 18.

  3 “a fair and impartial enforcement”: “Devery Against a Wide Open City,” NYH, May 25, 1898.

  4 “no more fit to be chief of police”: Steffens, Autobiography, p. 330.

  5 “Teddy’s Terrors”: Morris, Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, p. 614.

  6 “Are you afraid to stand up”: Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders, p. 126.

  7 “Three days I have been at the extreme front”: TR to HCL, July 3, 1898, MOR I, p. 846.

  8 “We’ve been having the devil”: Robert Ferguson to Edith, July 1898, Arizona Historical Society.

  9 “Alone in Cuba”: “Mr. Dooley on Ivrything and Ivrybody,” p. 106.

  10 description of gambling payoffs: “The City’s Crying Shame,” NYT, Mar. 9, 1900, p. 1.

  11 “I have found out one reason”: TR to HCL, Feb. 3, 1900, MOR I, p. 1166.

  12 “Don’t you realize there’s only one life”: MOR I, footnote, p. 1337.

  13 “tactics and methods of intimidation upon respectable citizens”: “Grand Jury Indicts Chief of Police,” NYT, Nov. 6, 1900, p. 1; “Devery Indicted; Roosevelt Forces Orders Withdrawal,” NYW, Nov. 6, 1900, p. 1; “Devery’s Order Rescinded,” NY Trib, Nov. 6, 1900, p. 1.

  14 “obnoxious order”: Roosevelt, Autobiography, p. 312.

  15 “They’re crazy!”: “Devery’s Order Rescinded,” NY Trib, Nov. 6, 1900, p. 1.

  16 “I hope you noticed how I called down [Tammany Boss] Croker”: TR to HCL, Nov. 9, 1900, MOR I, p. 1413.

  17 VIVE LE ROI: Bigelow and Lodge to TR, Sept. 14, 1901, Murakata, Selected Letters, p. 183.

  18 “drop them all into the river”: “Fat a Virtue in Devery’s Eye,” NYH, Oct. 31, 1903.

  19 “What animal comes from the bushes”: Aaron Hoffman, My Policies, Library of Congress typescript (1915).

  20 “efforts were crowned with entire success”: Roosevelt, Autobiography, p. 175.

  21 “fanatical gusto”: TR mentioned in “Devery on Vice,” NYT, Aug. 17, 1901.

  22 “The New York police force … did not reform”: Lincoln Steffens, “The Real Roosevelt,” Ainslee’s, Dec. 1898.

  23 “Devery was always on trial for something”: “William S. Devery,” NYT, June 23, 1919, p. 12.

  24 “Devery’s generosity was well known”: “ ‘Big Bill’ Insolvent at Death,” NYT, May 4, 1929.

  25 “I wish about forty police captains would die”: “Bingham Wishes 40 Captains Would Die,” NYT, Apr. 14, 1908.

  26 “by furnishing drinks or a good supper”: Report on 245 W. 39th Street, Lillian Wald Papers, Box #91, Rare Book Room, Butler Library, Columbia University.

  27 “Amateur Competition”: Lothrop Stoddard, Master of Manhattan: The Life of Richard Croker, p. 166.

  28 “There are no better men anywhere”: Roosevelt, Autobiography, p. 194.

  29 “all that I had warred against while Commissioner”: Ibid., p. 310.

  I. MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS

  Arizona Historical Society, Tucson, AZ. Letters of Robert “Fergie” Ferguson.

  Butler Library, Columbia University. Lillian Wald Papers, Society for the Prevention of Crime papers.

  Houghton Library, Ha
rvard University, Cambridge, MA. Theodore Roosevelt Collection, including extensive memorabilia, letters, photos, articles; Henry F. Pringle’s research notes for his biography of TR; Avery D. Andrews’s scrapbook and memoir.

  Library of Congress. Theodore Roosevelt Papers (microfilm), Society for the Suppression of Vice blotters.

  Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Papers of the Shibles family (1890s New York City police officers); “Trial Transcripts of the County of New York, 1883–1927” (extraordinary collection including more than 3,000 New York City trial transcripts).

  Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. Papers of Henry Cabot Lodge, including TR letters.

  Morris Library, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL. Frederick D. Grant letters.

  New York City Municipal Archives. Mayor’s Papers, especially microfilm roll no. 36, William L. Strong’s Police Department letters; court records; minutes of Andrew Parker trial.

  New York Police Department Museum Library. Draft of Avery Andrews memoir (Citizen in Action); police artifacts, including early Bertillon cards.

  New York Public Library. “Committee of Fifteen” papers.

  Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, New York. Transcripts of interviews with Roosevelt family members including his sister Anna and daughter Alice; journalist Ethel Armes’s TR anecdotes; J. F. French interviews with politicians; Edward Bourke’s reminiscences.

  Census and genealogical data obtained from www.ancestry.com.

  II. MAGAZINE ARTICLES

  Andrews, Avery D. “The Police Control of a Great Election.” Scribner’s, February 1898.

  Comstock, Anthony. “Pool Rooms and Pool Selling.” North American Review, November 1893.

  Leary, John J., Jr. “Roosevelt on Prohibition.” McClure’s, November 1919.

  “The Madison Square Garden Weather Vane: The Huntress Diana.” Scientific American, December 26, 1891.

  Matthews, Franklin. “The Cost of Tammany Hall in Flesh and Blood.” Harper’s Weekly, October 13, 1900.

  ———. World’s Work. “Character of American Police,” October 1901.

  Posner, Louis. “I Remember 300 Mulberry Back When!” Spring 3100, March 1962.

  “Progress of the World.” Review of Reviews, June 1895.

  Ralph, Julian. “Theodore Roosevelt, a Character Sketch.” Review of Reviews, August 1895.

  Ruhl, Arthur. “The Caliph and His Court.” McClure’s, October 1901.

  Steffens, Lincoln. “The Real Roosevelt.” Ainslee’s, December 1898.

  Stein, Harry H. “Theodore Roosevelt and the Press: Lincoln Steffens.” Mid-America, April 1972.

  “Theodore Roosevelt and the Problem before Him.” Leslie’s Weekly, October 10, 1895.

  Wheatley, Richard. “The New York Police Department.” Harper’s New Monthly, March 1887.

  White, William A. “Platt.” McClure’s, December 1901.

  III. SELECTED MAGAZINE ARTICLES BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT (ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY)

  “Machine Politics in New York City,” Century, November 1886.

  “Six Years of Civil Service,” Scribner’s, August 1895.

  “The Enforcement of Law,” Forum, September 1895.

  “Closing the Saloons on Sundays,” McClure’s, October 1895.

  “The Issues of 1896,” Century, November 1895.

  “Taking the New York Police Out of Politics,” Cosmopolitan, November 1895.

  “The Ethnology of the New York Police,” Munsey’s, June 1897.

  “Municipal Administration: The New York Police Force,” Atlantic Monthly, September 1897.

  “Roll of Honor of the New York Police,” Century, October 1897.

  “Reform Through Social Work,” Fortnightly Review, December 1901.

  “The American Woman,” Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1905.

  IV. BOOKS

  Allen, Frederick L. The Lords of Creation. Chicago: 1935.

  Anbinder, Tyler. Five Points: The 19th-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections and Became the World’s Most Notorious Slum. New York: 2002.

  Anon. Life in Sing Sing by Number 1500. Indianapolis, IN: 1904.

  Asbury, Herbert. Sucker’s Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America. New York: 1938.

  Baker, Paul R. The Gilded Life of Stanford White. New York: 1989.

  Bartlett, D. W. Cases of Contested Elections in the House of Representatives, from 1865 to 1871, Inclusive. Digest of Election Cases. Washington, DC: 1870.

  Bayor, Ronald, ed. The New York Irish. Baltimore: 1996.

  Beer, Thomas. Stephen Crane: A Study in American Letters. Garden City, NY: 1923.

  ———. The Mauve Decade. Garden City, NY: 1926.

  Berman, Jay S. Police Administration and Progressive Reform: Theodore Roosevelt as Police Commissioner of New York. New York: 1987.

  Biographical Directory of the State of New York. New York: 1900.

  Birdseye, Charles. Revised Statutes, Codes and Laws of the State of New York. New York: 1889.

  Bishop, Joseph B. Theodore Roosevelt and His Time Shown in His Own Letters. 2 vols. New York: 1920.

  Blum, John M. The Republican Roosevelt. Cambridge, MA: 1954.

  Board of City Magistrates. Annual Report. New York: 1897.

  Breen, Matthew. Thirty Years of New York Politics Up-to-Date. New York: 1899.

  Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A Visitor’s Guide to the City of New York on the Occasion of the Return of Admiral Dewey. Brooklyn, NY: 1899.

  Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac. Brooklyn, NY: 1897.

  Brooks, Van Wyck. The Confident Years: 1885–1915. New York: 1952.

  Brown, George W., Jr., ed. General Ordinances of the City of New York under the Greater New York Charter. New York: 1901.

  Brown, Henry C. In the Golden Nineties. Hastings-on-Hudson, NY: 1928.

  Brown, T. Allston. A History of the New York Stage, from the First Performance in 1732 to 1901. 3 vols. New York: 1903.

  Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth. London: 1889.

  Buk-Swienty, Tom. The Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the World of Immigrant America. New York: 2008.

  Burne-Jones, Phillip. Dollars and Democracy. New York: 1904.

  Burns, Ric, and James Sanders. New York: An Illustrated History. With Lisa Ades. New York: 2005.

  Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: 1999.

  Butler, Richard J. Dock Walloper: The Story of “Big Dick” Butler. New York: 1933.

  Byrnes, Thomas. Professional Criminals of America. New York: 1886. Reprint New York: Lyons, 2000.

  Byron, Joseph. New York Life at the Turn of the Century. New York: 1985.

  ———. Photographs of New York Interiors at the Turn of the Century. New York: 1976.

  Cahan, Abraham. The Rise of David Levinsky. New York: 1917. Reprint 1993.

  ———. Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of Yiddish New York. New York: 1896/1898, reprint 1970.

  Campbell, Helen, Thomas Byrnes, and Thomas W. Knox. Darkness and Daylight: Lights and Shadows of New York Life. New York: 1891, reprint 1896.

  Carlisle, Robert J., ed. An Account of Bellevue Hospital. New York: 1893.

  Carlson, Oliver. Brisbane: A Candid Biography. New York: 1937.

  Caroli, Betty B. The Roosevelt Women. New York: 1998.

  Cashman, Sean D. America in the Gilded Age: From the Death of Lincoln to the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. New York: 1984.

  Citizens Union. Touchin’ On and Appertainin’ To Mr. Deputy Commissioner Devery. New York: 1901.

  Clarke, Joseph I. C. My Life and Memories. New York: 1925.

  Collier, Peter. The Roosevelts: An American Saga. With David Horowitz. New York: 1994.

  Collins, Percy [Price Collier, pseud.]. America and the Americans from a French Point of View. London: 1897.

  Committee of Fifteen. The Social Evil: With Special Reference to Conditions Existing in
the City of New York. New York: 1902.

  Conboy, Kenneth. The Reforming Impulse: Theodore Roosevelt and the New York Police. Master’s thesis, Columbia University, 1980.

  Corry, John A. A Rough Ride to Albany: Teddy Runs for Governor. New York: 2000.

  Costello, Augustine E. Our Police Protectors: History of the New York Police. New York: 1885.

  Crane, Stephen. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Tales of New York. New York: reprint 2000.

  ———. The New York City Sketches of Stephen Crane. Edited by R. W. Stallman and E. R. Hagemann. New York: 1966. [Articles on opium dens, Tenderloin, bicycles, etc.]

  ———. Stephen Crane: Letters. Edited by R. W. Stallman and Lillian Gilkes. New York: 1960.

  Czitrom, Daniel, and Bonnie Yochelson. Re-Discovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-Century New York. New York: 2007.

  Dalton, Kathleen. Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life. New York: 2002.

  Dash, Mike. Satan’s Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption and New York’s Trial of the Century. New York: 2007.

  Davis, Richard Harding. The Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis. Edited by Charles B. Davis. New York: 1974.

  Dilworth, Charles, ed. The Blue and the Brass: American Policing 1890–1910. Gaithersburg, MD: 1976.

  Dolan, Jay P. The Immigrant Church: New York’s Irish and German Catholics, 1815–1865. Baltimore: 1975.

  DuMaurier, George. Trilby. New York: 1894.

  Dunlop, M. H. Gilded City: Scandal and Sensation in Turn-of-the-Century New York. New York: 2000.

  Dunne, Finley P. Mr. Dooley in Peace and War. Boston: 1914.

  Einstein, Lewis. Roosevelt, His Mind in Action. Boston: 1930.

  Emmet, Thomas. Incidents of My Life. New York: 1911.

  English, T. J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: 2005.

  Feaster, Patrick, and David Giovannoni. CD liner notes. Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings from the 1890s. Archeophone Records, 2007. [Excellent notes accompanying fascinating CD]

  Flexner, Abraham. Prostitution in Europe. New York: 1920.

  Gallagher, Thomas. Paddy’s Lament: Ireland, 1846–1847, Prelude to Hatred. New York: 1982.