The San Francisco call., 1906-09-22

The night lie or new san FRANCISCO
is centering on Golden Gate avenue in
spite of the efforts Of the residents Of
that section to drive it to other parts
of the city. The repeated declaration
of the police that the tenderloin must
go back to its old haunts has gone
unheeded. There has been no disposi-
tion on the part of either the saloon
men or the gamblers to find a location
among the charred ruins Of Mason
street.
Familiar names and familiar faces
line the boulevard. Blazing lights di-
rect the way to new but seemingly
familiar haunts. The same ragtime
music is heard. In fact. there is little
to distinguish Golden Gate avenue to-
day from the old tenderloin.
The growth of the new quarter has
been rapid. One saloon was followed
by another, and then came the cafes
and the dance halls, then the crowd
of pleasure seekers. Almost before it
was realized Golden Gate avenue had
acquired new and strange population.
The line of saloons extends from Van
Ness avenue to Fillmore street. Each
has some distinctive feature that Is
plannd to draw the trade of the men
and women who turn night into day.
RUN AFTER MIDNIGHT.
Even the midnight restriction on sa-
looms is not effective there. A pretense
at closing Is made when the clock
strikes IL, but long after that hour.
and even until daybreak, the sounds of
laughter and clinking glasses may be
| heard behind barred doors. The free
and easy life Of the new tenderloin is
even more lax than that of the old.
Women are allowed to parade the
street unmolested by the police. Pa
trolmen join the gay throngs in the
cafes, and while still in uniform par
] ticipate in the early morning orgies.
| There are no restrictions and no rules
in this new district. The patrol ser
does his eyes are not keen enough to
discover the 1apses of his men.
Women pickpockets, whose pictures
are in the rogues gallery, walk up and
down the street, pass in and out of the
/ saloons, stop and converse. with men
with no fear of a detective to order
them from the street. The freedom
enjoyed now is like the freedom en-
/ joyed twenty years ago, when Annie
Pickett boasted of her pull" with the
police. The fire has done much to re-
| tard the growth of San Francisco, but
In no place Is the backward movement
so apparent as IN the night life.
It is contended that San Francisco
must have a tenderloin; that a metrop-
oils would be a strange place without
one. The police seem to have accepted
the declaration without question. and
| the men who cater to the vicious have
set about to make one in a place OF
their own choosing.
DEGENERATES UNMOLESTED.
| Among the saloons that line the ave-
nue. are a number of the disreputable
houses The Call has been urging the
police to either close drive away
from the home section of the city. At
! Franklin and Golden Gate stands a
large rooming- house known as Casser-
| ly's. The police class the place as q
transient rooming- house, relying
upon that designations as an answer to
| its reputation for immortality. This is
large, rambling structure containing
more than a hundred rooms, in which
the most vicious class OF women re-
| side.
Gate lodging-house. another one OF the
transient" places which the police
have raided but failed to close. Three
weeks ago Policeman P. J.. Mitchell.
whose efforts to stop gambling have
been failure. undertook to drive the
women from this place. His one raid
did not accomplish much, and the house
| is run as wide open as 1t was before
| A few blocks away stands the house
| of Helen Sherwood. whose willful vio-
| latfon of the law is as well known to
the police as 1t is to her patrons No
effort, or at best only a feeble one, has
been made to correct these evils Cap
tain Mooney must depend largely upon
the reports of his subordinates, and If
they are personally participating in
the vice they are sworn to suppress it
is unlikely that he will receive un-
biased information.
| NO CHECK ON GAMBLERS.
The report that Gene Sutter and Tod
Mcdonald were to close down their no.
torious gambling den at the corner of
Fillmore and Sutter streets seems to
have been without foundation. The