The Bienville Democrat. [volume] (Arcadia, Bienville Parish, La.) 1912-1980, 1919-12-11

law office. was as crowded with
gamblers coming and going all night
from and to enormous gambling sa-
lvens on the second floors on each
side of that street, for two blocks
down, as Canal street usually IS on
Marti Gras Gay. !
The Keno callers and other gam,
bling bankers could be often heard !
On the streets a block away. during
the second Shakespear administration
from 1883 to 1892, this lawless con-
dition was filmed over but was Sc
cretly hardly any better. Lottery
shops were on every corner, three
enormous horse racing pool rooms,
where thousands congregated daily,
invited all corners. Brothels existed
without number on Custom House
street and other streets from Bour-
bon street all the way back. Rows
of vile negro dens with peep holes
in the doors through which vulture
eyes of the worst characters watch
ed for their prey, existed on both
Dauphine and Burgundy streets from
one blockbelow Canal Street, to four
blocks to Toulouse Street.
The present site Of the splendid
| Elk's Home was then an enormous
brothel. The site of the Eye, Ear,
Nose and Throat Hospital was where
Kate Townsend was murdered and
where she was succeeded by others
equally Infamous
There were gambling saloons with
out number. Liquor saloons were
50 common that in St. Patrick's Hall
the Chief Criminal Courts, the First
| City Court and the Registration Ot-
| flee, all shared the same building
with big beer saloon.
But the worst of all, were the con-
cert halls and dance dives which ran
all night; that in spite Of the Sunday
law of 1886, declared constitutional
by the Supreme Court in 1887, ran
all Saturday nights and all Sunday
nights as we'll and were permitted on
the payment of an annual license OF
$4,000, to give shows and indulge in
, practices that would have made So
dom and Ghomorrah blush with
shame.
There were the Crystal Palace. The
Tivoli Varieties, Larry Plants, Eden,
J. P. Becker's, O'Harra's and Wen
gers, among the filthiest being the
. Eden, so called because the Ewes
. employed therein only wore fig leaves
;, and when the fun grew fast and fu
u rious were apt behind curtained box
:. es to drop even these leaves. Ane
Il last but worst of all was the no
d torious Otto H. Sshoenhausen's Roy
al Palace which fourished in all it
IS unmolested glory during the Parke
- regime.
~ These places were situated, one
~ two and three blocks below Cana
- =. Street in the very heart of the Cit
9 : on Royal and Charities Streets
- Schoenhauen at one time occupying
u, the site of the present Monteleon
g hotel, and after the building oppc
~ site same, nearer Canal Street.
ro Schoenhausen had been convicte
~ - before this of the robbery of $1,74O
~ 90 and had served for this crime frol
" 1874 to 1882 in the Penitentiary.S Sc
Supreme Court, State of Louisian;
40 versus O. H. SchOenhausen, 26 al
he nual, page 422.
n On his return from the Penitel
tiary he operated or was intereste
r. IN many of these immoral SHOW
Of which were not only revoltingly il
in decent, but which in part were brot
q els behind the closed curtains OF U
,e- stairs boxes where lewd women pile
r. their trade and enticed men to drll
he and then when they were well drum
On frequently robbed them. The Cor
missioners of Police could not clai
96 ignorance of this. They knew
this before even the petition of t
good women of the City was pr
sented to the Mayor and Council
April 9TH, 1891, as follows:
FROM DAILY PICAYUNE, WE
NESDAY, APRIL 8, 1891
From Mayor Shakespeare's Mesa
ote to the City Council.
ave (The Ladies Protest.)
ok, "Being informed by the New D
ia and the Picayune Of March
1913 that you have granted Messrs.
ter Schoenhausen and L. Plant, p
ats nit to run their Royal street div
ev- known as the Royal Palace and Ed'
,rm after midnight, we the undersign
would respectfully beg your HoI
ted to consider and revoke said pr
out lege.
,rm "But a few weeks since the CO
Or munity was shocked by an expos'
the of the manner in which the propl
tors of the "Royal Palace" and
tied "Eden" conducted their business
this bringing here, through a New Y
the agent, young girls under the ff
ten pretense, that they were coming
was reputable places Of amusement.
the looking over some of these vict
ath it has been further discovered t
can Messrs. Schoenhausen and n
eva placed these girls, upon their arrl
/, or in boarding houses Of bad charac
and that they pay to the land-la'
life certain commission for receiV
y or the girls, and further, that Mes
, he Schoenhausen and Plant pay the
on. men who keep these houses DO
.fter of SIS or Sc for every girl they
On duce to enter tn employment Of
steal Royal Palace or Eden. =
urus "All the girls sent here to Sch(
ius- hansen and Plant are poor, but m
,ere of them are virtuous. Compelled
min wear very scant clothing and fol-
ance to resort to vulgar means to inc
oval men who frequent the dives to Or
first many of the girls lose their VII
;TfyG7.Nil -, g:S