Evening star., 1940-10-06
Gem of the Prairie
By Herbert ASbury. NeJ
York: Alfred A. KnOpt.

Mr.. Asbury subtitles this work.
AN Informal History of the Chi
cago Underworld" The phrase can
not but give one pause. What, one
asks oneself in stunned contempla-
ton, would q formal" history be?
Certainly, it could hardly be more
frank-or more appalling.
No one, of course. would take up
q history, informal or the reverse,
on this particular subject with an
expectation of being waited along
by sweet perfumes. Probably there
is no modern city which has ever
surpassed Chicago in corruption;
Mr.. Asbury himself, who has already
written up the French Quarter OF
old New Orleans, the Barbary Coast
and New York's gangdom. states
that there has been none which
equaled it. Yet, however well
reader may be prepared in intellec-
tual comprehension for unsavory
revelations, he is certain to find the
cumulative effect of the narration
dizzying. 1t should be emphasized,
Of course. that the volume Is not
history OF Chicago: 1t deals only
with the underworld" Of the city
the districts consecrated to crime
and vice. 1t makes no study OF
the progress OF the town In un-
criminal pursuits. Yet so vast is the
picture OF Chicago's world OF crlml-
nality, and-worse-so closely was
this subworld tied up with Chicago's
city government, that one can easily
come to the conclusion that 1t has
been a vital part OF the city's Or
ganism. 1t has been. apparently.
like a malignant growth situated 50
close to a body's heart that 1t could
not be removed. Recognized or not,
Chicago's underworld has been. as
Mr.. Asburt makes abundantly clear,
as much a part Of Chicago as the
city's churches, schools or programs
OF betterment.
And, indeed, he is able to show
that it antedates all these fairer as
poets. Chicago seems almost to have
been born with an underworld. The
present book begins with the slab
town" days at the opening Of the
10Th century, when the city was
tiny trading post on the banks OF
a stream known to the Indians as
the "Chicagou" or "Checagou,"
which, as Mr.. Asbury helpfully re-
marks. was the aboriginal for bad
smell" In 1927. Congress authorized
the building Of canal to connect
the Mississippi River with Lake
Michigan, and the town was
launched. AS early as 1888. we find
ordinances being passed ito abate
gambling and disorderly
conduct" Mr.. Asbury's book then
covers the next 90 years, up to the
capture of Al Capone by Federal
agents in 1881. and all that time
gambling and disorderly
conduct fourished in condition
which gave little evidence that they
ever were abated to any serious
degree.
Reformers hoped that the great
fire would cleanse the town Of its
evil population. observes Mr.. As
bury. But their hopes were fruit
less. Chicago had already made
its fatal tie-up between crime and
politics, and as fast as the reform
ers organized, their enemies did
the same, and did 1t more effectu-
ally.
Coming to the gang wars Of re-
cent memory, the book gives q
pretty comprehensive account Of the
shifts of power under the various
leaders. The vision, If such it can
be called, of the modern tie-up
between bootlegging. vice and the
protection racket 1t attributes to
Johnny Torrio, Capone's forerun-
ner. And 1t Is in this period, Of
course, that police collaboration with
the criminal element reached its
great high. To illustrate this, Mr..
Asbury quotes q question md AN
swer wheeze which, he says, was In |
common circulation: Who'll carry
the Forty second and Forty-third?"
"O'Banion, in his pistol pocket"
AS to the future, the book makes
no prophecies. But perhaps it Is
worth mentioning that the word
racket" in its criminal connota-
ton. was current in Chicago as early
as 1876. NC. r.