The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-07-03
DISTRICT STEPPED
| IN VICE and crime
Notorious All Over the World AS
Center of Murders, Robbers, Sui.
cides Hourly Reported-Twenty
Six Saloons in the Block.

CHICAGO, July 3.-The last vestige
of Fourth avenue has disappeared in
the demolition Of row of tumbledown
shacks on the west side of the thor.
oughfare. 1t has been called "the wick
eldest block in the world" by no less
an authority than William T. Stead,
the English editor.
Workmen during the last few weeks
have been razing the twenty-five or
thirty frame buildings, and a nam
moth printing establishment is to oc-
cupy the site. Two old structures at
146 and 14S remain, because the own
ers would not sell at the price offered
by Mrs. John Jay Borland. Her offer
for the property was $1,000 foot, at
which figure she purchased about 500
feet between Harrison and Polk
streets.
Officially the street has not been
called Fourth avenue in twenty years,
1t was changed to Custom House
court, and recently to Federal Court,
by which it will be known in the new
city directory.
| First Called Buffalo Street.
Originally it was called Buffalo
street, but the name was changed to
Fourth avenue after the close of the
Civil War, and that unsavory name
still clings to it despite the two
changes In nomenclature it has nuder-
gone.
During the winter of 1893 when Edi-
tor Stead avs procuring material for
his book, IF Christ Came to Chicago. 4"
he said in newspaper interview that
Fourth avenue, between Harrison and
Polk streets, was without doubt the
wickedest block in the world"
What Montmartre was to Paris,
Fourth avenue was to Chicago. For
more than third of century it was
STEPPED in vice and crime.
Murders and suicides were of fire.
quent occurrence in those days, and
robberies in the panel houses that
flourished on the avenue" were re-
ported hourly to the police.
There were at one time twenty-six
saloons on the west side of the "aven-
ue' in the block given over to vice.
No other spot in the world, not even
the Bowery in New Work, could ap-
proach Fourth avenue for the number
of drinking resorts in one block
Fortunes were made and lost on the
old street, and most of those who left
with their thousands either died broke
or committed suicide. More than one
denizen of the street died in the poor
house after squandering fortune.
Old Fourth avenue was not always
the thoroughfare of vice and crime.
In ante-bellum days, when it was call
ed Buffalo street, it was peopled by
some of the best families of that pc
riod.
Among the city's most prominent
business men there are a number who
were born on Buffalo street, but they
are not proud of their birthplace. One
of the leading members of the bar was
born ON the old street, and so was a
physician of national reputation.
Invaded After Great Fire.
After the great fire that swept Chi |
cago nearly forty years ago, Buffalo |
street was invaded by resort keepers, |
who drove the decent element away. |
With the coming of this class to the |
treet the name was changed to Fourth |
avenue and there is not corner of
he earth where Fourth avenue has
lot been heard of.
One of the famous places on the
treet was the saloon of Tom Curley
which for years was headquarters for
,rize fighters. 1t was here that John
:. Sullivan spent most of his time
rhen he visited the city, and many
be drinking bout he INDUCED in at
Iurley's. It is traditional that the
lightly Sullivan hod $1,000 bill
own on the bar one night after win J