St. Paul daily globe., 1889-05-14
The Reform Administration
About to Make a Radical
Move.
GR0omerS" to Be Driven Out
0f Business Blocks and
COrralled.
4 Medical Inspection and
Strict Police Regulation
Contemplated.
Liquor Selling to Be Licensed
or the Fine System Re-
t scinded.

The passage of an ordinance at the
last council meeting to define any pun
nish prostitution has aroused renewed
interest in what the reform adMinistra-
ton may be about to do to cOunteract
the social evil. The ordinance is quite
severe, and provides that women con-
victed of the offense defined may be
sent to the workhouse for ninety days
or mulcted of s1OO. The ordinance
is aimed at the women who
inhabit blocks and who are technically
known to the police department as
''rOOmerS." The city is infested with
them at present, their demoraliZing
presence is denied to very few buildings
down town, not even to those, as was
charged at recent meeting of the
orthodox clergy, which are rented by
the saints of the church. These wo-
men are good paying tenants.
prompt i'll their payments, and
do not hound their landlords
night and Gay for improvements. and
for that reason, perhaps, the deacons
wink at their wickedness and take them
in. The roomers have always been a
trouble to the police, because there are
always on the force enough strictly vlr-
tuOuS officers to take 4 violent personal
interest in routing them out of their
nests and into court. They haven't had
much success in reducing their number,
however, as fines have been light and
the fallen women after searching about
for more retired location returned to
their nefarlOus vocation. and
THE VOICE OF THE ''CHIPPY"
was unsubdned in the land.
Now it is rumored there is great
scheme on in the police depart
ment. This is no less than a
plan to corral all the women in cir
cumseribed territory, exterminate
the roomers by a severe and persistent
system Of fines and impr .sOnments. and
when the camp has been formed and
enclosed, to establish system of police
surveillance more severe than ever be-
fore. The police commission has al
ready canvassed informally the question
whether the madameS ought not to be
compelled to
TAKE OUT LIQUOR LICENSES
At present they pay 10 license, and
the old system of police court fines has
fallen almost into innOcuOus desuetude.
Whether to make them pay 81, 900 a
year or to receive the fines is the prob
lem that is agitating the minds of some
of the commissioners. In all prObabil-
ity one or the other course will soon
be- adopted. The other point of the
runOred reform is more novel. 1t
is to be nothing less than an inspection
of the inmates of the houses, an inspec-
tion ON the hoof, SO to speak. The gen.
eral health of the women will be in
quired into by competent physicians,
ana those found to he i'll need OF medical
attendance will be ordered oil to hos
pital. That is not short of what is said
TO be proposed.
IT is NOT A SENTIMENTAL. ATTITUDE
toward the evil, but has practical side
which is of value. Whether the houses
are to be allowed to retain their present
location is another phase, of the ques-
ti0n that has to be considered.
Tile Union Depot company has
secured large part of the
ground they cover, but the union
depot, in the light of recent negOtia-
tiOns, is not a certainty. Whether the
new owners will quietly suffer the
madames to continue to reside on the
river front remains to be seen. Some of
the landladies take lively interest in
this question, and as one of them naiveIy
said a few days ago she would like to
see it settled, because if they were to
be allowed to remain where they are,
she wanted to put up building that
would be credit (?) to the city, but she
didn't propose to invest money on an
uncertainty"