by Allan Levine
Once that ordeal had ended, Potter’s committee of lawyers and merchants at long last succeeded in bringing charges of corruption and bribery against Fowler, Isaac Harrison, and Bob James. But it took two trials to convict them. At the first, the jury could not come to a decision, despite the testimony of Frank King, whose seeming rise from the grave became a cause célèbre. Potter accused Fowler of bribing at least three jury members—a charge he vehemently denied. Another trial was convened at the end of October and each of the defendants was sentenced to a term of twelve years. As the police took Fowler away to the Tombs in shackles, he vowed that he would never serve two years, let alone twelve. No one in court, including St. Clair, doubted him for a moment.
“Any telegrams from Chicago yet?” asked Tom Fox.
St. Clair looked up from his desk, where he was busy writing. “What’s that?”
“I said did you hear anything from Ruth or Lampson?”
“Nothing today, no. The last I heard was that her new trial was set for the middle of November and that Lampson was confident a plea of self-defense would be successful. He’s assured Ruth and me that none of Piker Andrews’s accomplices in the Chicago police department will be able to testify. And that several, in fact, have been indicted on criminal charges.”
“That’s wonderful news, Charlie.”
“Well, it’s thanks to you paying for Lampson. Any other lawyer wouldn’t have been able to do it.”
“Here, I’ve got a gift for you.” He handed St. Clair a rectangular card wrapped in brown paper and string.
“What the hell is this? It’s not Christmas yet.” St. Clair untied the string. “A rail ticket to Chicago. Thanks, Tom. It’s greatly appreciated.”
“It was Molly’s idea. You know me . . . I can be as mushy as a woman sometimes.”
St. Clair laughed. “Here I’ve a present for you, too. This damn article is done at last.”
“Not a moment too soon, my friend. The issue is going to press in two days. Let me read it through.”
“Take your time. I’m going across the street for a lunch of ale and oysters.” He turned to his colleagues. “Sutton, Molly, it’s on me.”
A minute later the offices of Fox’s Weekly were nearly deserted, except for Peter Stewart, off in a corner at the back of the room drawing a new humorous sketch for Sutton’s story on Victor Fowler’s conviction.
Fox retired to his office. He poured himself a full glass of whiskey from his private stock, lit a cigar, and began to read the final installment of ‘Evil of the Age’ by Charles St. Clair.
Last month Madame Philippe, the well-known abortionist, whose real name is Anna Jacoby, a German Jewess, was nearly hanged for a crime of murder that she did not commit. She had been convicted of killing Miss Lucy Maloney in the case of the so-called “trunk mystery.” Miss Maloney’s body was stuffed into a trunk and shipped to Hudson Depot, where it was subsequently discovered.
Madame Philippe was innocent. However, the question remains—is she innocent of crimes against civilization? Does she deserve the name, Madame Killer?
Miss Maloney had come to Madame Philippe seeking assistance for a pregnancy and child she did not want. And she was hardly alone. In the past twenty-five years, neither Madame Philippe nor any of the other abortionists operating openly in New York City have lacked patrons. Many of those seeking abortions, in fact, have been married women.
Some readers might argue that these women are merely shirking their duties and responsibilities as mothers. It is true that many do suffer from a lax morality and are consumed with the frivolities of the theatre, dancing, and other social activities. They refuse to surrender their personal amusements and interrupt their giddy pleasures to raise children.
Yet there are women who risk their health in childbirth and have no recourse but to seek the services of Madame Philippe and others of her ilk. Countless others struggle with poverty and heartless husbands, too drunk to comfort or properly support them. These women have decided, and justly so, that they are unwilling and not capable of bringing another human being into the world.
It must be conceded that there are indeed far too many unwanted children roaming the streets of the city, orphans left to fend for themselves. They are the next generation of the criminal element that will continue to wreak havoc on our more respectable citizens.
Miss Maloney, however, was neither a married woman nor unhealthy. Instead, she was a single woman in an immoral relationship with a married man—a much more frequent occurrence than most of us would care to admit. Like Miss Maloney, one day these women find that they are with child and then are placed in a desperate predicament. In most cases they have been fooled by the man into thinking he is about to leave his wife, but, of course, this does not happen. Or in other instances, these single women, by no means innocent, are led astray by nefarious characters who promise marriage. These liars and cheats steal the women’s money, possessions, and honor before vanishing.
To date, New York State laws have been limited in curtailing the work of abortionists. Laws implemented more than thirty years ago made abortion after quickening second-degree manslaughter and punishable by up to twelve months in jail. Three years ago, the state legislature also made the death of an unborn child before quickening the same crime. But because the policing of this act has been nearly impossible, few abortionists have been charged or convicted. Advertising abortion services is also now against the law, yet a perusal of any of a dozen newspapers or journals in the city would indicate few adhere to it. If not for this recent incident, Madame Philippe would have continued to do as she pleased.
We have, I would argue, come to an important fork in the road. On religious and moral grounds, abortion is not defensible and all the Madame Philippes should be justly punished. But who is truly to blame for this dire state of affairs? When the moral code that governs society brings shame on a man for seducing a woman, as it shames the woman for succumbing to the man’s enticements, then we shall have true change. On that day, some abortionists may be put out of work.
Reverend Patrick Simpson Ingersoll has urged state authorities to ban all abortion and drive Madame Philippe and her friends from the city. During the next session of the legislature, such a bill is being introduced. Is this the answer?
Recently I had the opportunity to speak candidly with Madame Philippe. I have never hidden my personal dislike of her, and yet I now find myself of two minds on this subject. I can say without hesitation or reservation that she is assuredly not Madame Killer. She has her own reasons for doing what she does and they are legitimate and valid. Despite any riches accrued to her through her work, she has literally saved the lives of countless women.
Where, then, does this leave us? Do women deserve such rights? A right that may be repugnant to some, immoral to others, but often one of life or death. That will be the debate for the years ahead. If the “trunk mystery” and the sad fate of Miss Lucy Maloney has taught us anything, it is that any future discussion or campaigns on this controversial issue are sure to be contentious, divisive, and more than likely bloody and violent.
One final thought in light of recent events and the downfall of Mr. Victor Fowler and his notorious Ring. I have arrived, albeit reluctantly, at the conclusion that “Evil of the Age” is in truth not a fitting label for the abortion crisis in this city and others. That to find the real Evil of the Age one must investigate City Hall, Albany and Washington where greed, selfishness and the quest for ever more power has the potential to corrupt even the worthiest of men.
More about that in a future article.
Charles St. Clair
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
DURING THE TWO YEARS (or more) that this book was being written, I benefited from the sage advice of many individuals. I must express my warmest gratitude to my two literary agents, Hilary McMahon in Toronto and Peter Riva in Gila, New Mexico, who have consistently looked after my best interests. Peter, in particular, took a keen interest in the project, edited an e
arly draft of the novel, and has shown unwavering faith in my work. For that, I am most appreciative.
For the earlier Canadian edition, I thank the great team at Heartland Associates. And for this U.S. edition, I express my gratitude to everyone at Yucca Publishing.
My wife, Angie, our children, Alexander and Mia (and, yes, our devoted beagle, Maggie, my writing companion) have been supportive and encouraging, always reminding me what is truly important in life. To Angie, for being my sounding board-day and night-and for sticking by me for the past 32 years, generally with a smile, I dedicate this book to you with love.
AL
Winnipeg, Canada
December, 2013
AUTHOR’S NOTE
EVIL OF THE AGE is a work of fiction, but it is loosely based on real historical events. William Magear Tweed (1823–1878), Tammany’s chief, ran New York City with his “Ring” in the 1860s and early 1870s. “Boss” Tweed and his cohorts, including Mayor Abraham Oakey Hall, Peter Sweeny, the city’s treasurer, and Richard Connolly, city comptroller, ran New York as their personal fiefdom and stole tens of millions of dollars from the city’s taxpayers.
Tweed himself was president of the Board of Supervisors. He controlled a rich source of patronage as Deputy Street Commissioner and Commissioner of Public Works as well as holding executive positions in banks, railroads, gas, printing, and insurance companies. He was the third-largest owner of real estate in the city. However, he had no involvement in the Crédit Mobilier scandal of the late 1860s and early 1870s—which did lead to the censure of Congressman Oakes Ames and ruined the political career of Vice-President Schuyler Colfax, among others in Washington.
Tweed’s downfall came in August of 1871, when the press exposed revelations about the kickbacks and corruption in the construction of his famous courthouse (at 52 Chambers Street in Manhattan). Found guilty of fraud, grand larceny, and 220 misdemeanor charges, he received a twelve-year jail sentence. He died in prison in April 1878, bankrupt and broken.
As well, in August 1871 a woman’s body was discovered inside a trunk at the Hudson Railway Depot. A subsequent police investigation soon uncovered that the murdered woman, Alice Bowlsby, had been killed by an abortionist named Rosenzweig. As the murder case proceeded, the New York Times ran a series of articles entitled The Evil of the Age which condemned the practice of abortion in the city. Several of the newspaper stories focused on the exploits of the notorious Madame Restell—the real life abortionist after whom Madame Philippe is modeled.
In recreating life in New York City during this era, I relied on a number of contemporary sources. Among them, Edward Crapsey, The Nether Side of New York, or, the Vice, Crime and Poverty of the Great (New York: Metropolis, 1872); and James D. McCabe, Lights and Shadows of New York Life (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1970-originally published 1872); George Ellington, The Women of New York (New York: New York Book Company, 1870); Gustav Lenning, The Dark Side of New York Life and Its Criminal Classes (New York: Frederick Gerhard, 1873); and the New York Times for the summer of 1871. A section of Chapter Twenty-Three was based on an article by H.H. Kane, “A Hashish-House in New York: The Curious Adventures Of An Individual Who Indulged In a Few Pipefuls Of The Narcotic Hemp,” in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (1883) vol. 67, 944–949.
Essential as well was Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), a brilliant historical survey—and winner of the Pulitzer Prize-by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. Other key reference sources used included: Alexander B Callow, The Tweed Ring (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966) and James C. Mohr, Abortion in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).
Elsewhere, the fictional Reverend Patrick Simpson Ingersoll’s speech is an adaptation of a passage in Henry Ward Beecher’s article “Economy in Small Things,” in Plymouth Pulpit, IV March-September, 1875 (New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1892), 463–64. Ingersoll’s sermon is an adaptation of Anthony Comstock’s Traps for the Young (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967–originally published 1883), 238.
GLOSSARY
bottlehead: A nineteenth century slang term for a fool or drunkard.
canon sheep: A play on words to denote blind obedience. ‘Canon’ denotes religious law, while ‘sheep’ convey the idea of blindly following a leader.
cerate: A thick ointment consisting of a fat such as oil or lard mixed with wax, resin and other ingredients.
Crédit Mobilier: A construction holding company set up by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1864. It was awarded the contract to build the railway west to California. As part of a scam later revealed in the press and congressional hearings, the company charged Union Pacific millions more than the actual cost of the construction. But that money, about $23 million, was paid to Crédit Mobilier’s select key investors, who also owned Union Pacific. In short, the railroad’s other numerous investors, who did own shares in Crédit Mobilier—as well as the federal government which had given Union Pacific funds—were bilked out of money by the executives of Union Pacific who were supposed to protect them. Congressman Oakes Ames, who became head of Crédit Mobilier in 1867, made Crédit Mobilier shares available to congressmen at a low rate. These were the same politicians who voted funds to Union Pacific to cover Crédit Mobilier’s inflated fees.
Douglas, Stephen Arnold, (1813–61). US legislator, congressman and senator, he drafted the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), giving settlers the right to determine whether their territory would be free or slave-holding. Short and thick-set, with remarkable oratorical skills, he was nicknamed “the Little Giant”. His senatorial campaign of 1858 featured a famous series of debates with Abraham Lincoln and he ran unsuccessfully for president the year before his death.
Douglass, Frederick (originally Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, 1817–95). An American abolitionist, he was born a slave in Maryland, escaped from a Baltimore shipyard and changed his name. He settled in Massachusetts and became an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He lectured on slavery in Britain, where money was collected to buy his freedom. In 1847, he began his own paper in Rochester, NY, and later was an author of several books. He held various public offices, and served as US minister to Haiti in 1889.
hansom cab: named after its designer, Joseph A. Hansom, this was a covered, two-wheeled carriage with the driver’s seat situated above and behind the passenger’s compartment.
laudanum: A highly addictive liquid form of opium. In the nineteenth century it was prescribed as a painkiller, often mixed with alcohol and other ingredients, without regard to its dangerous side effects.
roorback: A “roorback” is a political slander, especially an allegation that backfires. During the American presidential campaign of 1844, the Ithaca Chronicle in New York State printed some alleged excerpts from an imaginary book called “Roorback’s Tour through Western and Southern United States in 1836.” It contained malicious and false charges against Democratic candidate James K. Polk, specifically that he was a brutal slave owner. The charges were reprinted in other Whig Party—an American political party of the nineteenth century—newspapers. Polk was nevertheless elected president.
Tammany Hall: New York City’s Tammany Society controlled the local Democratic Party and civic government during the late nineteenth century. It was notorious for its corruption and graft. As of 1830, the Society’s headquarters was in a building on East 14th Street called “Tammany Hall,” which also came to denote the organization.
ALLAN LEVINE
Allan Levine is an award-winning internationally selling author and historian based in Winnipeg, Canada. He has written eleven books, including the Sam Klein Mystery Trilogy. His most recent non-fiction book is Toronto: Biography of a City.
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