Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/313

 THE SALOON IN CHICAGO 299

frequently sung. The evil influence of some of these cannot be overestimated. Then too prostitutes often come here and mingle with the crowd.

A function, which should rightly be a civic one, the saloon has appropriated, and added to the long list of the necessities to which it ministers that of furnishing to the people the only toilet conveniences in large sections of the city. In this respect the ordinary hotel is not better equipped than are the saloons. Moreover, either by their clerks or by signs, the hotels inform the man who habitually takes advantage of them that they are not for the use of the general public. We are behind European municipalities in this respect, and Chicago is especially deficient. Here is a field awaiting the efforts of some public-spirited man, a service by no means small, and one that would directly affect the liquor interests. Not that it will cause any man to cease drinking, but that it will remove a temptation from thousands of men who, of necessity, daily pass the bar which they feel under obligation to patronize. Nor will it longer necessitate the familiarizing of little boys with the evils of saloon life. Such are a few of the attractions which the saloon in the workingmen's district offers to its patrons.

While it is true that a vast army of the laboring men and boys of Chicago find the saloon the best place in their neighbor- hood for the development of their social, intellectual, and physical natures, they find there also things which appeal to their lower natures. Almost without exception the saloons exhibit pictures of the nude ; in the higher-class saloons by costly paintings, in the smaller saloons by cards furnished by the brewing companies. As the saloon is "no respecter of persons," even in the best of them vile persons find entrance. That the youths are here corrupted is too well known. Our table reveals the appalling fact that 34)4 per cent, of the saloons in this district are stall saloons. These saloons have set aside a large portion of the back of the building for private "wine-rooms," which, whether designed for this purpose or not, are used by prostitutes as places of assignation. There may be no definite business agreement between these women and the keepers of these saloons (I doubt