The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-08-15
CBy a Worker Correspondent

(By a Worker Correspondent
On a certain well-known street in
the "city of brotherly love" res
taurant, newly-opened, equipped with
an attractive white curtain strung
across its front window, has this sign
painted in clean letters on the glass:
"Blank restaurant. This is no
Buff A large hand points con-
spicuously to this slogan. To one
initiated into the nature of this par
ticular quarter of the city, this rather
surprising sign is either joke or a
tragedy, according as you wish to
look at it.
Throughout this neighborhood, lin
ing the shabby, dingy streets so char
acteristic of the old parts of Phila-
delphia, are numerous store windows
with one thing in common: curtain,
generally white and clean, covering
the whole front. Sometimes a worn
out sign of Restaurant" or "Store,"
sometimes a few dusty soda bottles
or a fly-specked basket of fruit lend
a fiction which deceives nobody.
Sometimes the white curtain speaks
for itself, unblushing and unashamed
For these places are neither res
taurants nor stores nor anything else
but brothel houses, with the white
curtain serving as their Identified
ton mark. Here at certain hours of
the day you may see bleached-hair,
carm;ned-lipped girls peering out
from behind the curtain or openly
soliciting on the doorstep.
Love Not All Brotherly.
This is the heart of the tenderloin
of Philadelphia. This red-hght dis
trict covers not a few streets but q
very large quarter of that unique,
huge rambling town, that city of over
two millions which is in reality just
an immense village, that city so prim
with its thousands of streets of little,
red-brick houses each with its white,
well-scrubbed stoop, all alike, that
city of Quaker traditions and modern
industrialization, renowned for the
strictness of its Sunday blue-laws and
the corruptness of its politics, which
is Philadelphia.
There are big streets and little in
the tenderloin. There are busy ave-
nues of hotels and restaurants and
there are narrow, dingy back-alleys,
where the little houses are falling in
decay and the brick-paved gutter is
Uttered with filth. In these latter,
generally Negro families live, Negro
workers trying to bring up their chill
dren respectfully in the midst of the
vice, gambling, drink and prostitution
which run rampant on all sides.
Not healthy, honest face does one
see here. Disease and corruption
speak from every bloated, dull, cyni-
cal face. Wrecks and dregs Of hui
mainly" slum proletariat" -thieves,
drunkards, gamblers, pimps, thugs,
doYo-fiends, prostitutes, perverts,
these are the people that live here.
This is the place where manufactur-
ers and detective agencies come to
recruit the strike-breakers and gang
sters they need for their occasional
dirty jobs.
In the midst of this hot-bed of vice
and crime is a little green park. A
beautiful little square with well-kept
lawns, shade trees and graceful
fountain. This square is known as
the "Bum's Retreat" Every available
bench is crowded with the tenderloin
loafers, resting their rotting, diseased
bodies while they exchange their
cynical philosophers of life.
This neighborhood abounds in
"Men's Hotel" -'35 cents a tnight