by Karen Abbott
“The police show little interest”: Chicago Daily News, May 26, 1903.
“Silence is louder”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 193.
INVOCATION
“When I see a reformer”: Lindberg, Quotable Chicago, 127.
“lambs”: Letter to Mary Greer Bell, November 3, 1903, Ernest Bell Papers, Chicago History Museum, box 2, folder 2-10.
“Deal bountifully”: Ernest Bell Papers, box 4, folder 4.
“Lord, help me”: Ibid.
The salary was $50 to $75: Bell Daniels, 34.
his mother named him: Ibid., 3.
“My son, I am building”: Ibid., 5.
“I believe that no greater work”: Ibid., 29.
“no rich American”: Letter to Stanley McCormick, March 9, 1904, Ernest Bell Papers, box 1, folder 11.
“If it be thy will”: Bell Daniels, 32–33.
“It startled him”: Ibid., 30.
“Good women are a thousand”: Ibid., 45.
Carrie Watson, who in her prime: quoted in Longstreet, 118–119.
“saints”: Bell Daniels, 36.
“The wages of sin”: Ibid., 39.
MILLIONAIRE PLAYBOY SHOT—ACCIDENT OR MURDER?
“The Everleighs, as always”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 86.
“I desire to make a statement”: Chicago Tribune, December 2, 1905.
“When young Marshall Field was shot”: Creel, 3.
“the ravings”: Madsen, 173.
“If that vase could speak”: Chicago Tribune, March 6, 1925.
“If you’ve come to inquire”: Ibid.
“stopped to speak to our nurse”: Madsen, 158.
“There was no foundation”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 87.
“I’m in trouble”: Dan Rottenberg, “Good Rumors Never Die,” Chicago magazine, February 1984.
“It is not unlikely”: Ibid.
“Mayor of the Tenderloin”: Asbury, 257.
Chicago’s black population: F. B. Williams, “Social Bonds in the Black Belt of Chicago,” Charities 15 (October 7, 1905).
Chicago Defender: Grossman, Keating, and Reiff, 134.
“Negro Gambling King of Chicago”: Robert M. Lombardo, “The Black Mafia: African-American Organized Crime in Chicago: 1890–1960,” Crime, Law and Social Change 38 (2002).
“Dance halls killed my child”: Chicago Daily Journal, January 9, 1905.
“When vice is segregated”: Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1905.
“fine colored lady”: Broad Ax, September 30, 1905.
“It is the plague”: Chicago American, December 24, 1905.
“Come right over”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 90. Washburn reported that the Pony Moore/Vic Shaw plot occurred about a month after Marshall Field Jr.’s death.
“What do you want”: Ibid., 91.
“We didn’t do anything”: Ibid.
Chief Collins unequivocally declined: Bell Daniels, 42.
cost madams in Custom House Place: Ibid., 41.
“Throw out the lifeline”: Ibid., 39.
PART TWO: FLESH AND BONE, BODY AND SOUL, 1906–1909
MIDNIGHT TOIL AND PERIL
“The ministers thundered”: Chicago Tribune, January 19, 1936.
Bell knew politics, too: Duis, The Saloon, 258–259.
“Mr. Bell”: Bell Daniels, 42.
“ADA, MINNA”: Ernest Bell Papers, box 3, folder 3-13.
“Many thanks”: Bell Daniels, 41.
“Sin Gone to Seed”: Ernest Bell Papers, box 5, folder 5-2.
“Imagine yourself”: Ibid., box 5, folder 5-3.
“Young men, where are your heads?”: Bell Daniels, 44.
“visiting firemen”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 104.
“Truthfully, we were open”: Ibid., 187.
Vernon Shaw Kennedy: Chicago Tribune, October 5, 1906. This article discusses Kennedy’s divorce, including the revelation that he spent the night of August 26, 1906, at the Everleigh Club. Ernest Bell never offered specific dates about his many encounters with the egg tossers, but he did spend extra-long hours in the Levee district on Saturday and Sunday nights (Bell Daniels, 44). August 26, 1906, was a Sunday, and I took the liberty of selecting this date.
“large holder”: Ibid.
“You bring your money”: Bell Daniels, 44.
“Thus saith the Lord”: Ibid., 46.
“tap the resources of God”: Ibid., 49.
ULTRA DÉCOLLETÉ AND OTHER EVILS
“In Chicago our God”: Lindberg, Quotable Chicago, 160.
“any form of state, local, or police”: Chicago Tribune, October 10, 1906.
“what is deemed objectionable”: Chicago Tribune, October 11, 1906.
“If there is one person”: Chicago Record Herald, October 11, 1906.
“[Kendall’s] whole soul”: Bell, War on the White Slave Trade, 192.
“so aroused the friends”: Roe, The Great War on White Slavery, 447.
purity workers’ trip to the Levee district: Chicago Tribune, October 12, 1906. This article is the source for all names and quotes in this scene.
“We have an interesting case”: Bell Daniels, 53.
Harrison Street court of Judge John Newcomer: Ibid.
“God loves your soul”: Ibid., 56.
He hung a portrait: Ibid., 57.
THE BRILLIANT ENTRANCE TO HELL ITSELF
“The next worst thing”: Ernest Bell Papers, box 2, folder 2-14.
Newbro’s Herpicide: Chicago Tribune advertisement, January 3, 1907.
“These [mission workers]”: Asbury, 254.
It is a penitentiary offense: Bell, War, 406–407.
“Theologians in the inspiration”: Masters, The Tale of Chicago, 281.
“The girls may have been vulgar”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 104.
“two sisters from Virginia”: Bell Daniels, 43.
“It was in this canvass”: Bell, War, 408.
“A Virginia woman”: The Philanthropist, October 1907.
“There’s enough of them little ones”: Chicago Tribune, June 14, 1907.
“draw a chalk line”: Chicago Tribune, February 27, 1907.
“As long as this evil”: Chicago Tribune, October 4, 1906.
In 1880, only 3,800 women: Meyerowitz, 5, 29; Lagler, 103.
THE TRAGEDY OF MONA MARSHALL
“There is not a life”: Roe, The Great War, preface.
“Mr. Roe takes life”: Chicago Tribune, September 27, 1908.
“imperatively”: Roe, Panders and Their White Slaves, 40.
“This is Captain McCann”: Ibid.
A graft investigation in April: Ibid., 177–179.
“useful and upright citizen”: Goodspeed and Healy, 748.
“The day of Mr. Roe’s birth”: Chicago Tribune, September 27, 1908.
“Not a marrying man”: Ibid.
“tall, broad-shouldered”: Roe, The Prosecutor, 5.
“best and dearest”: Roe, Panders, 38.
“I am a white slave”: Lait and Mortimer, 195.
The Thaw-White Case and A Husband Murdering His Wife: Chicago Tribune, May 6, 1907.
“Chicago has come to be known”: Quoted in McClure’s Magazine, May 1907.
“a company of men”: Ibid., April 1907.
“The effect of this single article”: Quoted in Eric Anderson, “Prostitution and Social Justice: Chicago, 1910–1915” Social Service Review, June 1974.
“Instead of receiving their support”: Roe, Panders, 36.
“The walls of this musty old room”: Ibid., 41–42.
The poor woman had been bereft: Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1907.
“I was working”: Chicago American, May 27, 1907.
“Then what happened to you?”: Ibid.
“Did they keep you”: Roe, Panders, 43.
one of Harry’s co-defendants, William McNamara: Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1907; Chicago Daily News, May 27, 1907.
“severe cross-fire of questions”: Chicago American, May 27, 19
07.
“associates in the procuring business”: Roe, Panders, 44.
“I do not know why”: Chicago American, May 27, 1907.
“Don’t you think”: Roe, Panders, 45.
“Yes, sir”: Ibid.
MEN AND THEIR BASER MISCHIEFS
“Upon what meat”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 187.
a year in the Chicago House of Correction: Chicago Inter Ocean, June 2, 1907.
“Half the disorder”: Chicago Inter Ocean, June 3, 1907.
“I have learned to love you”: Bell, War, 225–226; Chicago American and Chicago Inter Ocean, June 1, 1907.
“Don’t speak to me”: Chicago Daily Journal, August 3, 1907.
“happy, care-free life”: Chicago Daily Journal, June 3, 1907.
“There is undoubtedly more actual physical restraint”: Chicago Record Herald, June 3, 1907.
“into pieces” and “send him to the hospital”: Bell Daniels, 57.
heat wave: Chicago Daily Journal, June 17, 1907.
“just like rotten eggs”: Chicago Daily News, June 19, 1907.
“I wish I had you in a closet”: Ibid.
“I hope you like me”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 32.
“When Phyllis finally showed up”: Hibbeler, 106.
“toboggan slide”: Ibid., 108.
“What are you going to do”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 161.
“How much for a little”: Ibid., 105.
“crusader…noted for his good works”: Asbury, 255.
“well-publicized muck-raker”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 104.
“flexible moralists”: Masters, “The Everleigh Club,” Town & Country, April 1944.
“star actor”: Chicago Daily News, June 19, 1907.
allegations about blackmail: Chicago Daily Journal, June 27, 1907.
“Would it surprise you much to learn”: Chicago Daily Journal, June 26, 1907.
“Of all the evil characters”: Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1907.
“It is a lie”: Chicago Record Herald, June 29, 1907.
“vague” causes in India: Chicago Daily Journal, June 27, 1907.
“work of enemies”: Chicago Tribune, June 21, 1907.
“We were glad to receive”: Bell Daniels, 57.
“The market for white slaves”: The Philanthropist, October 1907.
“gladly quit” and “honest man”: Ibid.
Ben Reitman: Chicago Tribune, June 9, 1907.
“arch-enemies to society”: Roe, The Great War, preface.
the United States government: U.S. Congress, Senate, Importing Women for Immoral Purposes: A Partial Report from the Immigration Commission, 3.
DISPATCH FROM THE U.S. IMMIGRATION COMMISSION
Memo from Marcus Braun, September 28, 1908, folder 38, box 6, page 5, series 3, Bureau of Social Hygiene Records, Rockefeller Archive Center.
MORE IMMORAL THAN HEATHEN CHINA
“The Shanghai is nothing like this”: Hibbeler, 69.
Gaston: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 57.
“The weed”: Duis, Challenging Chicago, 194.
Ethel: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 36.
“sloe-eyed”: Hibbeler, 59.
“There is something”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 58; Dedmon, 268.
For months now: Hibbeler, 59. Hibbeler recounted the story of Suzy Poon Tang but did not specify exactly when she came to work for the Everleigh Club.
“We’ve just received”: Ibid., 70.
“It’s better than looking at the original”: Ibid., 80–81.
he’d lectured representatives from: Lagler, 114–115.
“A great many persons”: Wilson, Chicago and Its Cess Pools, 42.
“All of the fellows around there”: Chicago Daily News, February 10, 1908.
Mona’s return to the flats: Chicago Daily News, May 27, 1907.
allegation about Mona’s stepfather: Chicago Daily Journal, June 29, 1907.
A contradictory version: Roe, Panders, 40.
“There is a remedy”: Chicago Daily News, February 10, 1908.
“more openly vicious”: Chicago Tribune, February 11, 1908.
“We have come”: Ibid.
Arthur Burrage Farwell spoke last: Minutes from the directors meeting of the Midnight Mission, February 11, 1908, Ernest Bell Papers, box 4, folder 4-9.
“Three times”: Chicago Tribune, February 12, 1908.
The Shanghai was: Hibbeler, 60–65.
“I’ve always found it fun”: Ibid., 102.
“What a beautiful ladder”: Ibid., 25.
the Swinger: Ibid., 35.
the Gold Coin Kid: Ibid., 100–104.
“If I pay you well”: Ibid., 64.
clear that Doll loved women: Ibid., 89–90.
“archaic” and “moss covered”: Roe, Panders, 144–145.
his people constituted: Bristow, 177.
Between 1880 and 1900: Irving Cutler, “The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb,” in Holli and Jones, Ethnic Chicago, 133.
“If Jews are the chief sinners”: Quoted in Bell, War, 188.
“The Jew has been taught”: Bristow, 165.
The House passed: Chicago Record Herald, May 6, 1908.
“elated…pioneer state”: Roe, Panders, 153.
THE ORGANIZER
“I know it is repugnant”: Memo from Marcus Braun, September 28, 1908, folder 38, box 6, page 4, series 3, Bureau of Social Hygiene Records, Rockefeller Archive Center.
federal Immigration Act: U.S. Congress, Senate, Reports of the Immigration Commission: Importation and Harboring of Women for Immoral Purposes, 58.
“Curiously enough”: Chicago Tribune, August 2, 1908.
“I am determined”: Chicago Tribune, June 20, 1908.
“I am one of those”: Letter to Clifford Barnes, December 28, 1906, Clifford Barnes Collection, Chicago History Museum, box 1, folder 1904–1909.
feeding their babies beer: Duis, Challenging Chicago, 137.
Italian population was approaching: Dominic Candeloro, “Chicago’s Italians: A Survey of the Ethnic Factor, 1850–1900,” in Holli and Jones, Ethnic Chicago, 230.
“We no longer draw”: Francis E. Hamilton, “Restriction on Immigration,” Forum 42 (December 1908).
“syndicate of Frenchmen”: Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1908.
“French Em”: Asbury, 269.
The French had introduced: Langum, 18.
Alphonse and Eva Dufour: Bell Daniels, 62.
“They show that they have been drilled”: Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1908.
spies in Sims’s office: Chicago Daily News, June 20, 1908.
Springfield race riot: Chicago American, August 17, 1908. This riot prompted the formation of the NAACP.
William Donegan: Ibid.
His sixty-nine-year-old mother: Chicago American, August 18, 1908.
“unavoidable”: Chicago American, August 19, 1908.
lived with his mother: Chicago Tribune, September 27, 1908.
Madam Eva Dufour posted bail: Chicago Daily News, October 31, 1908.
“It is only necessary”: Edwin Sims, “The White Slave Trade of Today,” Woman’s World 24, no. 9 (September 1908).
“the roses he found blooming”: Hibbeler, 90.
“I’ve made mistakes all my life”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 162.
IT DON’T NEVER GET GOOD UNTIL THREE IN THE MORNING
“The Tribune has come out”: Lindberg, Quotable Chicago, 198.
“Let’s all go”: Hibbeler, 29; Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 73.
“Entertaining most men”: Dedmon, 253.
“the Derby”: Asbury, 278.
“the party for Lame Jimmy”: Wendt and Kogan, 153.
“reign unrefined”: Ibid., 154.
“Give it to me”: Chicago Tribune, February 1, 1894.
“We take it over”: Wendt and Kogan, 154.
“a Saturnalian orgy,” etc.: Ibid.
“don’t never get good”: Chicago T
ribune, February 15, 1900.
“screecher”: Chicago Tribune, December 22, 1902.
“It is the best”: Chicago Tribune, January 7, 1903.
“charity, education”: Chicago Tribune, December 12, 1906.
“God bless all the little”: Chicago Tribune, May 16, 1909.
quit his job: Chicago Daily News, June 21, 1907.
“Mr. Farwell is the generally recognized type”: Ibid.
“Garbage Farwell”: Wendt and Kogan, 268.
“a little of the bunk”: Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1907.
“The annual orgy”: Chicago Tribune, December 2, 1908.
“A real description”: Wendt and Kogan, 269.
“They don’t need anyone sleuthing around after me”: quoted in Duis, The Saloon, 129.
OUR PAL: From the Vic Shaw Family Album.
“The gents with whiskers”: Chicago American, December 5, 1908.
“There’s a 4-11 fire”: Washburn, Come into My Parlor, 161.
“Mercy, a hundred”: Will Irwin, “The First Ward Ball,” Collier’s, February 6, 1909.
“Seventy-five tickets?”: Ibid.
“nightly duty”: Chicago Tribune, December 9, 1908.
“If you dare to go”: Chicago American, December 8, 1908.
newly elected state’s attorney John Wayman: Chicago Daily News, December 2, 1908.
“We won’t let parents”: Wendt and Kogan, 272.
At 8:20 on the evening: Chicago American, December 14, 1908; Chicago Tribune, December 14, 1908.
“You can draw your own”: Chicago Tribune, December 14, 1908.
“tone”: Ibid.
“Mariutch, she danca”: Wendt and Kogan, 273.
“Seems to me”: Ibid.
“feminine element”: Chicago Tribune, December 14, 1908.
“They’re here!”: Richard T. Griffin, “Sin Drenched Revels at the Infamous First Ward Ball,” Smithsonian, November 1976.
Al Capone’s first job: Chicago Tribune, March 16, 1949.
“too old and feeble”: Chicago Tribune, July 20, 1952.
“So close was the press”: Wendt and Kogan, 276.
“Gangway”: Chicago Tribune, December 15, 1908.
“mighty little suit”: Ibid.
“It was usually me”: Chicago Tribune, March 15, 1949.
“I intend to stay”: Chicago Tribune, December 15, 1908.
She winked and beckoned: Ibid.
“Why, it’s great”: Wendt and Kogan, 280.
“The Hon. Bathhouse Coughlin”: Chicago Tribune, December 15, 1908.
“Pour champagne, cul”: Wendt and Kogan, 279.