The Jersey City news., 1892-06-13
THE VICIOUS Soups
Again in Full Blast at
Jersey Avenue and Thir-
teenth Street.
FOR GIRLS.
They Are the Resort of Vicious Men,
Brazen Women and Innocent
Children,

At the lots on the corner of Jersey ave-
nue. and Thirteenth streets nightly is In
operation what the parents of the neigh
borhood term that ''abominable nuisance,
the soups" These soups are the regula-
tion kind seen in the excursion groves
and the price Of admission 60 their pleas
ures is five cents. The neighborhood
is very thickly populated one, and on
all sides are large tenement houses. which
pour into the manifold temptations of tho
streets at night swarms of children of all
ages. a
AS result Of the neighborhood, THESE
soups are nightly the occasion of many
scenes which shock those who fear for tho
morals of young girls and those just bios
somtng into womanhood. Saturday night ]
visited the soups to see just what were
the results of Eheir operation.
THE FREQUENTERS.
On all sides of The Enclosure were
swarms of girls of all ages. From little
tots of ten and girls in short dresses,
thirteen and fourteen years of age, to the
banged and hatless brazen young womea
of eighteen and twenty, who chased
young men about the place and were in
turn chased and hugged ard handled with
the greatest liberty in the darkest
CORNERS. to the accompaniment of most
blood cnrdling shrieks. Tho male ele-
ment was made up of LITTLE chaps of nine
and eleven and rather tough srrutting
boys OF fifteen and many young toughs Of
and never wilr' look In their faces.
There were also some evil-eyed, lecher-
Gus looking old animals shufling around
with an eye to opportunities for sights at
the flying girls in the soups. Two or
three attendants at the soups took the
md rfn<SN .
had money passed by their companions
and got into the scuDs. always with fav-
ored boy or young man. In the height of
the excitement when the soups were fly
ing through the air. and there was no es-
cape fot the young girls the young men
usually began to act in "a way which .
chaste muse would not record. Some
times they pretended to loose their
balance and fall against the girls In the
opposite seat, while tney shrieked in
pretended fright and dismay. The men
often pretended1to be friGhtenef at their
falls, ana clung With both arms around
the girls neck.
When the man sat ensthe same side as
the girl he pretended to be bent double
by the movement Of the scups and the
girl would try to put her feet out Of the
soups and call on the young man to stop.
When the swinging was over the girls
cheeks were generally flushed, her. eyes
were strangely alight and she seemed not
at all averse to her companion's most
riotous actions.
ASKING FOR THE PRICE.
One Of the worse features aboNt the
place is the unblushine way in which, the
girls asK for the price of ride. Two
girls were just in front of me, mother
OF whom was more than fourteen
years old. One said to the ether,--
'Mudder told me ] ought 60 be
old lady think. Must think Pm kid
Where can we get the price" She espied
q young man with a flaming rcd Eie and a
diamond the size of hazel NUT in it.
She grabbed him by the shoulder and
ride and I'm broke. Me lady frien' here's
broke too."
"Oh, come off," saia the gallant. Mike.
"rink I'm a sucker, donat yer. I ain't no
Jay, ain't." and with q consciousness Of
his shrewdness Mike walked of. Fhe
saw middle aged fellow watching
them. "Ahr said one of them, watch
ter for a ride" The man snapped a6 the
chance. IF you let me rids.'' hessatd.
The girls conseH ted and soon the three
were flying through the air too quickly to
be seen.
So 1t went all around. No modesty or
timidity. but little children brazen and
bold. Their parents, it is quite plain, are
unable to keep them Ia stuffy tenements
these warm nights, and when once in the
streets. the blazing gasolene lamps at the
soups draw them as moths TO their own
undoing. If one Of the girls seemed tfmid
or hesitated, her companions soon over
came that. and once flying back and forth
she became careless of what was done to
her. as the girls all about her seemed care
less.
Thus nightly the htdeous spectacle
swings its circle and thus nightly some
little girl takes her first step In that un.
even way which ends in woe.