The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-12-13
SoDlNI FROM MINNEAPOLIS
HAS REEN RUNNING THE RESORT
WITHOUT APPARENT POLICE
MOLESTATION.
THE RoUGE-PAINTED DAMsELs
Sell Beer mt Elevated Prices to
Young Men and Old
Alike,

naked ugliness, or be masked under
the rouge-pot, rustling silks, fiounces,
tights and tinsel.7 is never anything
but vice The bedizened streetwalk-
er is recognized and easily avoided. II
importunate, she incontinently finds
herself behind unwelcome stone walls.
The house with a letterless advertise
ment in colored lights is not entered
unwittingly or by one against his will.
Yet vice in low form, in thin gauzed
disguise, will f1out tawdry skirts and
disport immodeSt legs beside a main
thoroughfare of the city, and, through
this f1imsy veil, lure the unwary and
the curious from the way of morality,
and no red light will point a warning
finger nor an Indifferent law stretch
forth hand to turn him from the first
step down the path which leads to ruin.
A man was passing along East Sew
enth street about o'clock the other
night. noisy band played bad music
In an open lobby just off the pavement,
and posted on either side of the door
way were flash pictures of women in
tights and suggestive attitudes. AS
he stepped up to the Office and asked
for a ticket, he noticed that there was
a ladies entrance" on the one side,
and a gentlemen's on the other, and
it seemed to him that if ladies visited
the place, it could surely not be very
bad. So he had bought ticket to the
gallery, where he thought he should
be less likely to be seen or recognized,
If by any possibility an acquaintance
should be present, and went up stairs.
He paid 25 cents for the ticket, while
he could have got one for the pit for
ten; and he wondered at this, because
in other theaters to which he had gone,
the seats on the floor of the house cost
the most, and those among the gods"
less. He did not know until after he
had reached the gallery that the eX-
ira charge of Is cents was for the felic-
ity Of having a goddess in pink tights
sit on one's knee and join him in
glass of beer or wine or whisky, which
.cestm25 cents, and the price of which
would be or Is cents in the pit.
There We're tables with small chairs
saround them and men with hats on,
smoking and drinking beer and whisky
with women in tights and loose dresses
sand slippers, heavily rOuged, beside
Ethem. The women were the actresses,
and one of them came over and invited
him to a seat. He went to one Of the
small tables and at her request ordered
a glass of claret for the girl and a cigar
for himself, paying the gallery price
Of SO cents. The cigar was the viIest
quality of tobacco which could be call
ed by the name. The girl got a brass
check for 10 cents, her commission Of
20 per cent on the purchase.
The performance Eegan with an
"act" which consisted largely of songs
of wide range from the simply vulgar
to the sentimental, some contortion
work and tricks by a trained dog. But
nobody in the gallery seemed very
much interested in the performance
AT all events, it could with difficulty
be heard, by reason Of the loud talk
and laughter though at the close OF
each specially. there was consider
able applause. and some of the men
shouted in a manner meant, no doubt,
to convey a sense Of an appreciation
Which they could hardly have felt,
seeing that they had been paying no
attention to the performer. The ac-
tresses who were not in this act re-
manned in the gallery, drinking and
talking with the men. He noticed one
of the latter, who had apparently
drank a good deal. lean over and kiss
his female companion affectiOnately
several times AfterwaFd a number
way and when he asked the girl where
they were going, she said under the
stage, where there were a number or
private wine rooms There had been
private boxes also in the place at one
time, but they had been compelled to
take them out.
Then she left him to do her turn
and shortly reappeared on the stage
below, where she sang a song to :.
man in the audience, which contained
@ request that he would come to her.
and be folded to her bosom.
He waited until she returned tC the
gallery and then she remarked that
she was thirsty again and he bought
a small bottle of beer at fifty cents
He asked her where she lived and she
told him she had room in the build
ing-nearly all the girls had-with a
little painted thing, whom she pointed
out. No; she didn't have to go outside
to reach it; there was stairway lead
ing UP from behind the gallery. There
was also a stairway there which led
down to another private wine room
She had to leave him then, but would
he give her a quarter to buy a mice
chicken sandwich for she was hun
cry?
Another girl came and sat down be
side him. After she had drank some
beer, she asked him would he care
to go down to the wine room
and because she was big and
heavy and he. was not, he
sat upon her knee. He bought some
more beer and asked many questions
about the place. Yes, there were com
Portable rooms, not like this, which
had only a couple of chairs and q
table in it with curtain for door
but with beds in them and so on, where
the girls sometimes took the men. She
did not sleep in the place, though
some of the fourteen girls in the "com-
pany' did; bat he could go with her t.
see one of the comfortable rooms il
he liked and after the show was over
at midnight, he might accompany hel
home.
Another small bottle Of beer was or
dered and she took her 10 per cent bras
commission. check and tucked it in tn
top of her stockings, which reached ia
above the knee.
He did not think he would stay an,
longer that night; perhaps he Nigh
come again. They returned to the gal
lery Before the footlights the orches
ira was still playing. A girl in pinl
tights was singing, Just to Please tn
Boys" Another girl sang Come Bacl
to Erin" A stout blonde in the gal
lery was talking in a coarse, hiccough,
voice to fellow "artiste" about TIL
hard work and late hours. The air wa
close and heavy with tobacco and wit
the reek of spilled beer. The woman
spoke to him again:
elf afr,1y