Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-30
SIN AND FASHION.
They Fight for Possession of
Washington Square.
THE GENERAL. SIGNIFICANCE
Ola Ma-pis Arch TIA. is to Cost a Quarter
of . Million-A TIue c: Vice Met by
Return Eloyr CT Nod
ish Deceucy.
Special to the Gazette.

NEW YoRr. Nov. GA fight for posses
sion of Washington 30 lara, waged between
fashionable folks and a horde of vicious
ones, is at its height. To-day's develop
ment in the battle raises The question
whether Capt. Brogan, the police
commandment of the precinc$ shall
lyse his place. The contest has been
waved during tie past two Y ars. but ii il
only within month or SO tina it has aS-
suIned hotly belligerent Aspects Washing
ton square used % be Z fashionable quart II
of the town. Alexander L. Stewart built
his first mansion three blocks 10 the south
ward The late Commodore Vanderbilt
stoutlv refused to move his residence
from 4 street just OF the square, and u
number Of ''Old families have stuck per-
sistently % the neighbOrhoOd. However
the extension of business from downtown
northward crowded the inevitable section
of fragrant immortality ahead of il, 50 that
the very house in which Stewart once gave
fashionable entertainments became hcme
of tiambuOyaut indecency. In short three
tides of Washington square were abandoned
utterly by responsibility ten years ago, and
until the present time the most offensive
forms of the citv's vices have conferred
Whereabouts. All the familiar traps for the
mwary, some of them quite unpublishable,
were set there in plenty; the lowest and
most repulsive dives were mamtalned
there aud it came To be an accepted fact
center OF infany.
The first effort at reclamation took the
form OF several new apartment houses i'll
which rooms were let to bachelors only.
Next Mrs Hicks-Lord reconsidered her de-
termination to move away from
her fine house facing the
square, although some of her furni-
ture had been packed already. She called
meeting of representatives OF honored
families, whom, she believed, would prefer
to remain III that neighborhood II
they might do so without rub
bling elbows any longer with So
ciety's outcasts. The result of the
conference was private organization of a
dozen or more wealthy persons determined
upon fight to restore Washington square
to fashiopableness. Their first i'm
pOrtant move was to- start
memorial of George Washington, and
therefore appropriate 10 the square. Lib
eral subscriptions were made, and
wooden, full-sized model was erected in
time for the three days parades
celebrating the centennial anp versary
of Washington's inaugural. This arcA
would be Fifth avenue. if that thorough
fare did not, in name, stop at the pars-a
Passage which at the other side of the
square merges into South Fifth avenue,
a Iudicrous contrast to the fashion
it takes its name. The structure
is beautiful one of marble, and will cost Il
quarter of million when completed. Al
ready it is half built in stone. It's projec-
tors and principal contributors meant
that it should emphasize, and help
facilitating the neighbOrhOOd with ultra
fashionableGeSs. The ''Old families" are
maintaining their residences there, several
deserters have returned, half dozen apart
ment houses Of the finest grade have been
erected. and the battle against vice has
been more than half won.
Now comes an Incidental engagement in
which the police figure badly. The precinct
containing Washington square used to be
more productive of 'contributiCns"-in
other words, payments for immunity from
meriteG prosecution and punishment-than
any other in the city. OF late
years the infamous Tenderloin precinct,
adjacent to uptown hotels and theaters, has
outdone it in that respect. The fashionable
fighters for Washington square have
reached a point now where they mean to
drive out utterly the already decimated
mess of vice. The police have been called
upon to do the work of determination.
II is said they refused polrt blank Next
they made few desultory raids upon the
more notorious resorts. and then did their
utmost by police courts circunlocution to
save Tue dTIcSlSu pclSJiio iioAil Guy
punishment. At this point in the
struggle Police Justice Hogan was en-
listed on the side of the fashionaDles.
and he undertook to thwart the police.
This battle is now on. Police Captain
Brogan's removal from the precinct is de-
manded on one hand. all the influence Of
vice in that neighborhood have rallied on
the other side, and the outcome is little
uncertain, although it looks as though the
outcasts would have 10 give Washington
square back to society"