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Davenport Democrat, July 20, 1924HOME EDITION
DRASTIC MOVING DAY HERE IN WAKE OF COSSON LAW
Cleanup "Moving Day" Sad One for Denizens of the Old Underworld.
When the tap of the law was heard on the doors of Davenport's notorious vice resorts of the East End, back in 1909, "respectable citizens' who had boasted that they were eager to give the fallen girl a chance changed color, threw their vaunted altruism to the winds, and barred their homes to the refugees. Mayor G.W. Scott did not wait for Cosson's red-light law, passed by the legislature to become effective on July 4, 1909. The reformers were threatening him, and one evening in June he gave orders to the night police to close every resort in the city. Like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, the order struck the vice element. That night eighty women and fifty men were turned out into the street. For years the city of Davenport had tacitly countenanced gambling and prostitution. a monthly fine was exacted and the women were segregated. This plan was adopted by each succeeding administration and brought to the coffers of the city approximately $20,000 annually.
A Sad Spectacle. One of the saddest spectacles ever witnessed in the city of Davenport was the exodus of the women from the redlight district. Coming as it did without warning, it found the keepers and inmates of these resorts unprepared to move. Thrown out into the streets destitute, homeless and in many cases without sufficient clothing, they were a sight to enlist the sympathy of the hardest hearted citizen who witnessed it. Many of the girls had known no other home for years. When they fell from grace they were ostracized by their family and friends. Therefore, in their hour of trouble they had no one to call upon for assistance. There were no good Samaritans to receive them. The oft-repeated assertion of the moral element of the city that there was no necessity for these girls to remain in the redlight district, that all could secure honorable employment should they so desire, and that the philanthropically inclined people of the city were not only willing but eager to lend them a helping hand while sounding well in theory, did not work out in reality when put to a practical test by the new state of affairs.
"Cleanup" Too Hurried. The general sentiment, or at least the sentiment of the majority of the citizens of Davenport was that the denizens of the redlight district should have been given sufficient time in which to find other employment and new homes, to adopt themselves to a different mode of living, before being turned adrift in a cold and unsympathetic world. That it was no easy task for these girls to secure honest employment after leading the lives they did, was well illustrated in the case of Laura Stoner, an inmate of Mabel Rink's resort at Second and Rock Island streets. The Stoner girl was what is know as one of the better class of girls in the east end, if a classification of them is possible. In other words, she came of a good family, was neat in appearance, and had been an inmate but a short time. Previous to her life of shame, she was employed at one of the Davenport hospitals. Her mother was dead.
Minister Backs Down. When the edict to move out was served on her, she knew not where to go. She had repented of her life of shame, and was desirous of a better life. She therefore decided to endeavor to secure employment in some household. She heard the pastor of one of the fashionable churches of the hill district was in need of a servant. She applied to him and was engaged. She then secured an expressman to move her belongings to what she supposed was her new home. She called at the pastor's residence ready to go to work. He asked her for her references and she told him that she had none. She further admitted to him that she had come from the east end, that she was desirous of leading a better life. He told her that he could not keep her, and that she would have to find employment elsewhere. When the expressman reached the pastors' residence with the girl's belongings he was told not to take them from the wagon. With no alternative left, the expressman hauled the effects to a downtown livery stable, where they remained all day. The experience of the Stoner girl was similar to that of many others. Wherever they applied for work or for lodgings, they were denied them.
A Feast for Shylocks. Many of the girls, when forced out of the resorts, did not possess street clothes. They appeared on the street in the frail gowns worn by them inside, and were to be observed scurrying all over the east end endeavoring to borrow some suitable clothes. Unscrupulous money lenders who feasted on the ill-gotten earnings of the keepers and inmates were very conspicuous in the district, some of them as a last resort settling their loans by taking the personal of the Shylocks demanded the last pound of flesh and the last drop of blood. He charged the women exorbitant rates of interest and became rich on his nefarious methods of doing business with them. Many of the women, when the moving order reached them, crossed the river to Rock Island in the hope of locating there. But the gates of that city were locked to them. The entire police force of that city was on the lookout for them and as fast as they detected them marched them back to Davenport. Not one, as far as is known, was allowed to stay in that city. one girl, with an oil stove under one arm and all the clothing she possessed in the world tied in a bundle under the other arm, headed for Rock Island expecting to make her home with a friend there. She walked across the government bridge and had reached Second avenue when she encountered a policeman who marched her to the bridge and sent her back to Davenport. The second-hand dealers also feasted on the misfortune of the women. They camped in the district, buying the furniture and other belongings at their own price. One dealer bought out the entire contents of four houses for the paltry sum of $150. It is stated that the total furnishings of these four houses had when new cost not less than $2,500. These were but a few of the many sad features of moving day in the red-light district. There were hundreds of others, equally as pathetic, that would record several volumes if published in full.
Davenport Democrat, July 20, 1924HOME EDITION
DRASTIC MOVING DAY HERE IN WAKE OF COSSON LAW
Cleanup "Moving Day" Sad One for Denizens of the Old Underworld.
When the tap of the law was heard on the doors of Davenport's notorious vice resorts of the East End, back in 1909, "respectable citizens' who had boasted that they were eager to give the fallen girl a chance changed color, threw their vaunted altruism to the winds, and barred their homes to the refugees. Mayor G.W. Scott did not wait for Cosson's red-light law, passed by the legislature to become effective on July 4, 1909. The reformers were threatening him, and one evening in June he gave orders to the night police to close every resort in the city. Like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, the order struck the vice element. That night eighty women and fifty men were turned out into the street. For years the city of Davenport had tacitly countenanced gambling and prostitution. a monthly fine was exacted and the women were segregated. This plan was adopted by each succeeding administration and brought to the coffers of the city approximately $20,000 annually.
A Sad Spectacle. One of the saddest spectacles ever witnessed in the city of Davenport was the exodus of the women from the redlight district. Coming as it did without warning, it found the keepers and inmates of these resorts unprepared to move. Thrown out into the streets destitute, homeless and in many cases without sufficient clothing, they were a sight to enlist the sympathy of the hardest hearted citizen who witnessed it. Many of the girls had known no other home for years. When they fell from grace they were ostracized by their family and friends. Therefore, in their hour of trouble they had no one to call upon for assistance. There were no good Samaritans to receive them. The oft-repeated assertion of the moral element of the city that there was no necessity for these girls to remain in the redlight district, that all could secure honorable employment should they so desire, and that the philanthropically inclined people of the city were not only willing but eager to lend them a helping hand while sounding well in theory, did not work out in reality when put to a practical test by the new state of affairs.
"Cleanup" Too Hurried. The general sentiment, or at least the sentiment of the majority of the citizens of Davenport was that the denizens of the redlight district should have been given sufficient time in which to find other employment and new homes, to adopt themselves to a different mode of living, before being turned adrift in a cold and unsympathetic world. That it was no easy task for these girls to secure honest employment after leading the lives they did, was well illustrated in the case of Laura Stoner, an inmate of Mabel Rink's resort at Second and Rock Island streets. The Stoner girl was what is know as one of the better class of girls in the east end, if a classification of them is possible. In other words, she came of a good family, was neat in appearance, and had been an inmate but a short time. Previous to her life of shame, she was employed at one of the Davenport hospitals. Her mother was dead.
Minister Backs Down. When the edict to move out was served on her, she knew not where to go. She had repented of her life of shame, and was desirous of a better life. She therefore decided to endeavor to secure employment in some household. She heard the pastor of one of the fashionable churches of the hill district was in need of a servant. She applied to him and was engaged. She then secured an expressman to move her belongings to what she supposed was her new home. She called at the pastor's residence ready to go to work. He asked her for her references and she told him that she had none. She further admitted to him that she had come from the east end, that she was desirous of leading a better life. He told her that he could not keep her, and that she would have to find employment elsewhere. When the expressman reached the pastors' residence with the girl's belongings he was told not to take them from the wagon. With no alternative left, the expressman hauled the effects to a downtown livery stable, where they remained all day. The experience of the Stoner girl was similar to that of many others. Wherever they applied for work or for lodgings, they were denied them.
A Feast for Shylocks. Many of the girls, when forced out of the resorts, did not possess street clothes. They appeared on the street in the frail gowns worn by them inside, and were to be observed scurrying all over the east end endeavoring to borrow some suitable clothes. Unscrupulous money lenders who feasted on the ill-gotten earnings of the keepers and inmates were very conspicuous in the district, some of them as a last resort settling their loans by taking the personal of the Shylocks demanded the last pound of flesh and the last drop of blood. He charged the women exorbitant rates of interest and became rich on his nefarious methods of doing business with them. Many of the women, when the moving order reached them, crossed the river to Rock Island in the hope of locating there. But the gates of that city were locked to them. The entire police force of that city was on the lookout for them and as fast as they detected them marched them back to Davenport. Not one, as far as is known, was allowed to stay in that city. one girl, with an oil stove under one arm and all the clothing she possessed in the world tied in a bundle under the other arm, headed for Rock Island expecting to make her home with a friend there. She walked across the government bridge and had reached Second avenue when she encountered a policeman who marched her to the bridge and sent her back to Davenport. The second-hand dealers also feasted on the misfortune of the women. They camped in the district, buying the furniture and other belongings at their own price. One dealer bought out the entire contents of four houses for the paltry sum of $150. It is stated that the total furnishings of these four houses had when new cost not less than $2,500. These were but a few of the many sad features of moving day in the red-light district. There were hundreds of others, equally as pathetic, that would record several volumes if published in full.
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