The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-04-13
PR0bERS raid.
Chicago CAFES
Vice Commission Hears Wit
nesses Caught IN Net De-
scribe Night Life.
WOMEN ARE HISTORICAL
Wild Scenes When Officers Garry of
Diners to Investigation
in Autos.

Chicago, April 12.-Midnight supper
guests at Chicago's foremost loop res
taurants, restauranteurs and cabaret per-
formers were hailed to the witness stand
this morning to testify regarding the
salacious song and animal dance" cpl
demic that grips those eating places.
Following a spectacular series of mid
night raids that began in Twenty-second
Street and wound up on the North Side
the loop cafe jewellers were put on the
stand by the Senate vice commission to
answer the question:
Are not your suggestive songs and
insinuating dances contributing to the
delinquency of Chicago's young girls?"
The hearing continued long past the
bedtime of even the witnesses, and then
the committee adjourned until o'clock
this morning.
Among the places raided were Roy
Jones place, in the South Side levee;
Rector's restaurant where two women
and six men were taken; the States Res
taurant. State and Monroe Streets,
where two women and six men were
taken, and a North Side hotel, where
couples were followed from a downtown
cafe.
Cafes I'm Uproar.
Rector's and the States were thrown
into confusion by the invasion. Guests
believed the places were being raided.
Women shrieked and men rushed about
in alarm.
When the second batch of jewellers
arrived before the Senators the hearing
room in the Hotel La Sale appeared to
have been converted into a police court
BE seated, ladies and gentlemen" said
Lieut.. Gov. O'Hara, head of the Senate
probers. 1--WE are just looking into the
variations of the latest in indecent songs
and animal dances Just be seated.
Abe Frank, manager of Rector's and
the North American restaurants, said
he put the tango and turkey trot In his
cabaret bill because his patrons wanted
them. They came from Europe to New
York and from New York to Chicago, he
said. He denied that song, 'All Night
Long," had been sung in Rectors, and
declared that he barred I'm My Harem"
and "Goody, Goody, Good
Would Abolish Cabaret.
A. B. Simpson, manager Of the States,
said he advertised dancing in the open
places in his restaurant as 1.-The latest
thing from Paris but he said none of
the dances was indecent. He would be
willing to cut out the cabaret altogether.
he said, if other restaurant proprietors
followed suit. Cabaret performers sal
aries cut a big hole in the profits, he
said.
Senators Ball and Tossey declared
they had visited the Jones cafe and had
seen a woman in an improper dance.
NJ. Blair Coan, investigator for the COM
mittee. made the same statement and
in spite of the declarations of Jack
Carven, manager of the place, Lieut..
Gov. OHara announced that he would
ask Mayor Harrison to close the cafe.
Names Kept Secret.
The names of the prominent women
and men called before the committee
from the downtown resorts will not be
made public. None of the Chicago news |
papers used the real names Of the wom-
en-, but in one or two cases the initials
OF the men were printed. A tentative
agreement was made between the news |