Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-15
CRIB DISTRICT WIDE
OPEN In HEART OF
CITY OF LOSANGELES
POLICE PROFESS DENSE IGNORANCE
Saturnalia of Crime Exists Within Stones Throw
of Business SectiOn-Festering Dens of Vice
EncrOach on Homes of Workers-Scenes
Witnessed by Children More Horrible
Than Pictured in Dante's Inferno

tie Of penny-in-the-slot piano coughed
and sputtered its hideous tintinnabu-
lation, as though, intoxicated like the
occupants of the house, it was having
some gigantic spree all of its own.
To turn from North San Pedro to
jackson is but to cross the street, past
a pool room patronized by Japanese,
past saloon patronized by every one
and into the very heart Of the district.
| Old-style cottages, many of them
with flowers in the yard or great palms.
dying like their owners of the fetid
breath Of the neighborhood, face the
dusty, filthy little street.
On the north side of the street the
district Is most thiclzly populated, sim
ply because there are more houses
! there.
For almost the entire block to the
right side Of the street long. low line
of shacks marks the heart of the dis
trict. Some months ago these places
were barricaded and warnings put upon
the front door, but like the Sunday
saloon ordinance, there was always a
way to get around the law, and the
occupants simply made front door of
the back entrances of the novels and
visitors went up an alley to gain en-
frances to the houses.
Police Are Inactive
The vigilance of the police soon re-
laxed and the front doors again bore
the same old signs. Last night sheets
of red paper pinned in the transoms
above the doorways shed the proverbial
crimson glow upon the streets and tho
scum Of the city swarmed in the door
ways.
One house alone seemed to be re-
spectacle. 1t was pointed out as the
only decent habitation on the street
But all lights were out at the place,
while barred doors, shutters and CRATES
showed that the inmates feared the
residents of the street.
i Along the edge of the sidewalks,
STOPPING among the shrubbery or
watching cautiously from behind lamp
posts, great ugly negroes and red-faced
white men, sentinels and lookouts for
their women, watched for danger and
stood handy in case any trouble should
appear.
At the adobe the lights were ablaze
and the shrill treble of the half-drunkcn
occupants sounded high. The entrance
was from the side of the house and
all doors and windows were open.
| Tn I,a frNr n
headed creature swung one slipper in
air and screamed her welcome to the
negroes and Japanese in the yard in a
wheezing voice. The whisky whose
slave she had long been had been un-
kind to her and her voice came in pitt
full yelps like a dog choking over a
bone. Beside her sat girl whose child
ish beauty had scarce been obliterated
by the withering hand of dissipation.
She paid little or no attention to the
visitors and pretended to read.
Gives Horrible Details
Then came the endless chain of hutS.
all built with a party wall and some
of them having no partitions at all, so
that the place resembled long cattle
shed.
The resorts each had a small porch
In front of them, and in a dozen places
the Chinese, Japanese, negroes. cholos
and white men of the lowest character
were standing in line six to ten deep
to enter the place. They stood in line
and the doors opened and closed regu-
larly
At one place a very young girl with
a dainty pink silk dress entertained the
half-drunken guests with song which
contained theme of most question
able character. Her dress was abbre-
Waited deeply at the neck and hem and
she kicked one small slipper skyward
in an effort to tip the gas jet.
From all sides came shrieks of fiend-
fish laughter, mingled with the oaths
and drunken shouts of men and women.
The lights still winked forth their
bleary welcome, and like shadowy
forms of the other world, the figures
of men and women moved silently from
one place to another.
Police In Ignorance
AS for the police department. it has
never heard of the place.
Chief Auble made the following state
ment last night: II have not heard
there were any cribs on that street.
have received no report Of their exist
ence
"If receive any report of that char
acter SHALL ACT IMME7 EATELY
AND CLOSE THEM"
II have never heard there were any
cribs in that district nor any houses
Of that character" said Captain Broad
head. II have received no report at all
Of their existence"