The San Francisco call., 1896-07-24
THEIR HOMES IN
CHINESE DENS.
How Fifty White Women
and Girls Spend Their
Lives.
SOME IN THEIR TEENS.
Society for the Suppression Of
Vice Will Be Asked
to Act.
DIRECT VIOLATION OF LAW.
Dens Scattered Through the Streets
and Alleys in China.
DIRECT VIOLATION OF LAW.

An investigation made yesterday dis
closed the fact that about fifty white
women and girls are living in various dens
in Chinatown in plain violation OF law.
The matter will Immediately be brought to
the attention of the Society for the Sup
preston of Vice.
So debased are the lives these women
are leading and many of them girls in
their teens at that, that the region where
this illicit traffic is carried on might well
be called "In Darkest Chinatown" The
principal districts in which this de plorabe
Waverly and Oneida places, Brooklyn
alley and Sacramento street.
The law in reference to the matter is
very plain-so plain that it will be an easy
task to fix the blame on the persons re-
sponsible. Order No. 2191, given in "gen-
ersl orders of the Board of Supervisors"
reads as follows:
Section 1. No person shall, in that portion
of the City and County of San Francisco
bounded by the north side of Cslifornia street,
east side of Powell street, west side of Kearny
street and the north side of Broadway. keep
or maintain or become an inmate of or visitor
to or shall in any way contribute to the support
of any disorderly house or house of i'll fame,
or knowingly to let or underlet or transfer the
possession of any premises for use by any per-
son for any of the said purposes, or to permit
any premises to be occupied or used by any
person or persons for any of such purposes
after he shall have otice of such occupation
and USE.
Sec. 2. Any person violating any of the
provisions of this order shall be deemed guilty
of misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof
be punished by fine of not less than $3.50,
nor exceeding $1,000, or by imprisonment not
less than three months, nor exceeding six
months, or by both such fine and imprison-
ment-
Despite this stringent order of the board,
it is a notorious fact that there are white
women and girls now engaged in the
business placed under the ban.
Many of these women, especially the
young girls, do not make the dens a per
manent residence. They go to them early
in the evening and leave about midnight
On whom the blame for this infamous
traffic will fall is not known, but it is un-
derstood that the Society for the Suppress
sion of Vice will endeavor to check the
evil and bring those directly responsible
to punishment.
The attention of the investigators was
first brought to the subject by policeman
whose regular beat is in that district. but
even he did not know the extent of the
evil. Many of the houses are we'll known,
others have been bat recently established,
but they are but carelessly hidden-the
carelessness being the result of long inn
munity.
They are not confined to the narrow
streets of the center of Chinatown, either,
for more than one of the infamous places
may be found on the outskirts of the
quarter, and close to where respectable
people live. There are more of the places
than any one has any idea OF, and when
the Society for the Suppression of Vice
gets to work, it will have lots to do.