The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1895-05-02
The City's Dens Of Iniquity.

The public must rejoice that the
Grand Jury is on the trail Of those
violators of the law, the concert dive
keepers, whose presence in this city
is as pestilence. They are q source
of constant evil to the community
and should be suppressed with as
little delay as possible.
The Item has laid bare the infamy
of these dens and all good citizens
are wondering that they should have
ever been tolerated.
The Item has demonstrated that,
as revenue producers, they would be
insufficient, even did their proprietors
pay the license imposed by the State
and city, and as matter of fact, only
one of these has done so, though the
others continue to keep open and ply
their disgraceful calling. Therefore,
we see that not even the very sordid
argument that the dives are beneficial
in a financial way can be urged with
any reason, and the horrid fact stares
us in the face that they are mere
crime breeders, hellish agencies, hot
beds Of vice and corruption. Their
proprietors grow rich and obese upon
the follies of man and the frailty of
woman. They poison the lives of
thousands that they may put money
in their purses and live upon the fat
of the land. What care they whether
men.turn thieves, embezzlers, forgers,
to retain the smiles of sirens to whom
they have become. abject slaves !?
What boots it to these terrestrial
Satans that they cause the loss of
countless women's souls? What they
want is gold, no matter how it is
made. Lost to all shame and honor,
they think no more of trafiicking in
human flesh than of smoking a cigar.
They have selected it as a commodity
which can yield big gains, and outside
of the price it brings they care
nothing.
No man with a spark of human
nature in his bosom can enter these
Internal resorts without blushing with
shame at the indignity there placed
upon the female sex; and indignity
that proceeds from woman herself,
trained and tutored to its commission
by the vile wretches who run the dens.
There we find women bedizened in
skirts that scarcely reach the knee
and in waists so low that they might
as well be without any. Some are
old enough to be thinking of the
grave, others so young that one mar
wells how iniquity could have reached
them.
And the proprietor all the while is
walking about urging the woven to
make victims of the male visitors, or
sitting down engaged in the same
fash himself, inducing the men to
drink his vile wines and liquors, for
which he charges robber prices, and
concocting fimfam and other plans
by which he will possess himself Of
every dollar in possession of the
luckless wights who enter the dive.
These are the places which have
Aourished among US for years, be-
cause authorized by the law to be
opened, in consideration of certain
sum of money, out Of which they have
swindled the authorities, however, by
not paying it
And as these places do, in sin and
vice, during the week, so do they on
Sunday. There is no cessation of
their iniquities at any time. For the
proprietors and employees sin and vice
are privileged to run riot every day
of the week, every day Of the year.
And now to the Grand Jury do the
people look for wiping out Of these
stains upon the name Of the city, and
the people implore the Grand Jury to
spare no pains to accomplish this. If