The San Francisco call., 1899-10-01
CHIEF LEES IS
PERPLEXED At
EVERY POINT
Unable to Cope With
an Evil.
BOAST OF NYMPHIA SCHEMERS
DARE THE POLICE TO STOP THE
TRAFFIC.
~
BOAST OF NYMPHIA SCHEMERS
The Chief, Placed Between Two Fires,
Is Forced Into Inactivity and
Subterfuge to Evade Re-
sponsibility.

The Hotel Nymphia has become an af-
frighung nightmare to Chief Of Police
Lees. Whichever way the venerable head
of the Police Department turns, he must
face a complication that he cannot SIM
plify. If he closes the notorious estab-
lishment he will be forced to shut the
doors Of every similar resort in the city,
and that Is task that he is unwilling
and unable to undertake. If he permits
the Nymphia to continue its traffic he
brings down upon his head the condem-
nation Of people who cannot tolerate open
and disgusting vice without protest.
If the perplexed Chief takes the hazard
Gus. stand of claiming that social vice is
inevitable in a large city and should be
concentrated, then to be consistent he
must force all of the scattered resorts to
mobilize within a certain district.
However the Chief may act, he cannot
meet the conditions which face him. If
he attempts to please the church element
and decent people he will offend the other
element and increase the mass or diff
culties that already surround him. The
Chief therefore has come to the conclu-
sion that he viii let the situation take
care of itself and as developments come
look for an opening to escape. He has
done nothing and intends 10 do nothing.
That is the explanation of his activity.
The controversy reached climax at the
last meeting of the Police Commission
subject
Lees had shown something of a disposi-
ton to respect the wishes of the decent
people who protest against the existence
of a moral ulcer in their midst. What
ever view may be taken Of the case, these
people are Tighteously up in arms against
the plague spot. When the members of
the Twinkling Star Company.those genial
gentlemen who earn their bread by
traffic in human fesh-heard that the
Chief was contemplating a raid upon
them they sent a letter to the Police
Commissioners.
This letter is the thorn in the Chiefs
side The members of the Twinkling Star
Company are brutally frank in an admts-
sion Of their loathsome business. They
insist, however. that if the Chief of Police
close the Hotel Nymphia he must also
close every other similar resort in the
city or submit TO the natural imputation
of being prejudiced in favor Of some. And
more than this. to add trouble to the dis
tress of the Chief, the Nymphia outfit
pledges itself to assist the police in every
possible way to close the other houses
and drive the inmates away.
This the Chief cannot do, even II he
wanted to do so. The Twinkling Star
Company pretends no decency in its prop
OSitiOn 1t realizes very thoroughly that
1t is in a disgusting business and has
made its proposition to the authorities
simply as club 1t maintains that as
long as the traffic in which, through
agents. it has engaged is not legalized,
licensed and conditioned no discrimination
can be shown. This contention would
possess absolutely no merit were 1t not Tor
the fact that the Chief of Police cannot
close the other establishments which Of
fend the public as seriously as the Hotel
Nymphia.
What the outcome will be IS a matter of
conjecture. The obnoxious hotel may be
closed on the ground that it is in bad
sanitary condition, but the issue will
never be thoroughly met on this basis
The Chief. with that exquisite tact of
shifting responsibility from himself is
giving the health authorities full swing
to do as they please, but whatever they
do must be by necessity only a temporary
relief. Meanwhile the decent residents Of
the district in which the vile hotel is
situated are crying to the police to save
them and their children from daily scenes
of fragrant vice