The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-01
TENDERLOINMUSTC
LOCALITY WHERE PLEASURE FOR.
MERLY REIGNED GIVEN OVER
TO BUSINESS
HOTEL AULIc IS DOOMED
Roster & BiaPs Being Torn Down
to Make Way for Another
Enormous Department
Store.

New York'S Tenderloin is passing Its
days are done.
When the wandering actor returns in a
few weeks to his Broadway haunts he
Is likely to wonder If he has come to
the right town, for there is little but the
sidewalk left of the Tenderloin he former
ly knew. says the Brooklyn Eagle. OF
course, Herald square Is still there and
If anyone ever used it for a landmark
SO Is the Greeley statue, but the ruthless
hand of the wrecker has been laid upon
everything else and nothing but ruin and
| desolation remain.
Business has at last driven out pleasure
In the place where James ]. Corbett once
showed himself to admiring patrons there
is now nothing but an empty, silent
stretch Of rooms. On the spot where he
was wont to tell his admirers how he
disposed of Sullivan, steam drill is hard
at work giving free exhibition CT what 1t
| can do in the way Of knocking holes In
Manhattan rocks.
Childs' restaurant, known gratefully to
many needy seeker after fortune, has
been reduced to it's original brick AMI
wilson g corner drug store-once the IA
Yored rendezvous of sweethearts the
shelter. of street car patrons, and the
emporium for stamps, directories, grease
paint and cold cream to the Tenderloin AT
targets in the hands of the wreckers
Roster & BiaPs-the survivor of many a
financial wreck-has succumbed at last
to foe against which its spirit battle s
In vain: 1t has received it's quietus from
the house wreckers. Daily its walls grow
less. and another three weeks will SCI,
IT'S END. There Is perhaps no place in
toWn-Wlth the single exception of Eden
Musee-petter or more widely known
than this once famous music hall
Inc Hotel Aulic Is doomed. That good
gray wall against which so many aspir-
Ing vaudeville backs have leaned is al
I ready undergoing demolition. and there Ia
deep mole behind it. The story that
] dlsengaged actor fell into the hole the
other night because he took the old
!amlllar place on trust and omitted to
look for the wall before he leaned against
IL causes no amusement in the Tender
loin. The habitues of the Tenderloin are
e SO In, Ihey are past testing. Generations
OF pudding tragedians have leaned
against the Aulic while they gazed upon
thankless world. AS well night they
expect to fall through the solid earth as
through the stanch walls of the Aulic.
sProgress has at least been given the
Wh'p hand and it Is driving what some
people call vice before 1t in a. fashion
| 'haait all the reform societies in the world
cannot equal. The beer gardens chon
houses, music halls and other places Of
amusement with which the old Tender
loIn was filled, have scattered In many
directions and a whole section has moved
Dag and baggage to the vicinity of Long
acre square.
Inc lower class of houses Of amuse-
ment stu hovers around Twenty ninth
, street, west Of Broadway, but it is not
long until these too, must go. Since
BUSINESS mas claimed the ground in this
part OF town for its own it has become
too valuable for concert halls and places
OF this kind. The first step in the direc-
ton OF reform was taken when the
ground was bought for what Is promised
g De the largest and finest department
store In the world. Already the ground
lying between Thirty-fourtn street on
the south, Thirty-ffth street on the
nortn, broadway on the east and the
west wall of Roster & Balls on the west
sWarms with workmen From littie
distance that site, which was once the
center of the Tenderloin. looks like q
great ant hill, with hundreds of ants
running this way and that, each bustlv
cong his own little share of the work.
It IS less than three weeks since ground
was hrst broken there, but already much
mas been done toward getting the ground
ready for building. Over 500 men are at
work night and day. Three big engines
supply power for the drills and cranes
on the Thirty-fourth street side.
Ihere IS another powerful plant on the
lnlfty-n1th street side, where a long Ill
clne has been built to allow the loaded
teams to reach the street The engine
at this point provides power for a cabl.
which is fastened to the tongues of tho
wagons, for the slope is so steep that
unless this help were accorded the horses
could not haul the loads. In dozens of
PAGES no work at all has been done on
.ne SITE and yet, In another eighteen
months, department store, complete IN
every detail. will stand on this ground
ana business will hold sway where pleas
ure once reigned supreme
Inc district winch everyone knew as
the Tenderlo1n, extended from THIRTY
fourth street and Broadway south, north
east and west, the center of gaiety being
on Twenty ninth street, between Broad
way and Sixth avenue. Here the Ro
hemfa. the Cairo Cafe, the Berlin and
the Savoy Concert halls still hold SWAY.
All have altered very much for the bet
ter but still they are doomed. Not far
away is the Haymarket, once noted as
the most disreputable place in the world.
There Is a church service there every
Sunday now. One of the gambling houses
which the vice crusaders could not find
is also in the neighborhood, and though
all these places still hold their own, it is
only a question of time until thew. too.
must make way for business houses.
With three solid blocks devoted strictly
to business right in the heart of the Ten
derloin, it was inevitable that gaiety
should give place to dollars. When Ham
merstein built his big theater on Long
acre Square he was looked upon as a
lunatic for going SO far north. That
: despised site is now the center of the
world II {o
to be one of the southernmost, for the
cry is "northward." The Tenderloin has
followed the theaterS. Nowadays-or
rather. owanights-Longacre Square is
the center of that pleasure-loving whirl
which once made the Tenderloin bright
The big and rather dingy square has
blossomed out In few months until it
aspires to take the place of Herald
Square. 1t is a poor imitation-an imita-
ton that the Tenderloin would not tot
crate if it could help it. 1t is helpless.
however. A dozen times it was warned
that the beer gardens of Broadway were,
to be demolished-that the old-time Ten
derloin was to be wiped out. The people
of the Tenderloin, with their typical care
Flessness, let the warning pass. They
thought the Tenderloin was an institu-
ton, not location. Now they are realiz-
ing that some things don't bear trans
planting. Long as was the warning the
Tenderloin, nevertheless, was caught nap
ping. It's houses of amusement were lit
orally pulled down over it's head.
In the theatrical season the pleasure
seekers on Broadway nightly number over
half a million. but the greatest crowd
has always been between Longacre square
and Twenty-eighth street. In the coming
season there will not be much of crowd
below the Grand opera house. How far
north the crowd will venture in its search