Chapter V Living by My Wits
True, my fights with Tommy Gibbons and others had brought me some money, but the social obligations were so many and the celebrations so frequent that, after a short time of plenty, I always found myself “dead broke” and compelled to resort to my “wits” for making a living.
All Chatham street—now Park Row—and the Bowery teemed with “sporting houses,” which offered opportunities to men of my class. In many of these places boxing was the real or pretended attraction.
On an elevated stage from three to six pairs of boxers and wrestlers furnished nightly entertainment for a roomful of foolish men, and—more’s the pity!—women. The real purpose of these gatherings must remain nameless here, but this fact we must note, that all of these “sporting-houses,” these hells of blackest iniquity, were run by so-called statesmen, patriots, politicians, many of them lawmakers, or else by their figureheads.
The figureheads were chosen with great carefulness. To become a proxy owner of a “sporting-house” one had to have a reputation, sufficient to attract that particularly silly and morbid crowd of habitués. Some of the reputations were made in the prize ring, viz: Frank White, manager of the Champion’s Rest, on the Bowery, two doors north of Houston street; Billy Madden, Mike Cleary and other “prominent” prizefighters. A few of them, as Billy Madden and Frank Stevenson, later branched out as backers of pugilists, policy shops and gambling houses.
Reputations made in prisons were also accepted as qualifications, and “Fatty” Flynn, Billy McGlory, Tommy Stevenson, Jimmy Nugent, of Manhattan Bank robbery fame, and other ex-inmates of jails owed their wide popularity and money-making capacity to their terms spent behind the bars. An isolated position of especially luminous glamor was acceptably filled by the famous Mr. Steve Brodie, the bridge-jumper, and greatest “fake” and fraud of the period.
In places where boxing was not the attraction, the vilest passions of human nature were vainly incited by painted sirens, who, by experience and compulsion of their employers, had become perfect in their shrewd wickedness. In front of these “joints”—frequently called “bilking houses”—glaring posters, picturing the pleasures within, were displayed in most garish array.
In addition to these places described, a number of dance-halls, notably Billy McGlory’s Armory Hall, and “Fatty” Flynn’s place in Bond street, completed the boast of the day that New York City was a “wide-open town,” and the “only place in the world fit to live in.”
It was not very difficult for one, accustomed to the environment, to “make a living” in it by his “wits.”
Any one, not minding a short spell of strenuousness, could always get from a dollar and a half to two dollars for “donning the mitts” in the “sporting-houses,” where boxing was the special feature. Others, having neither the training or inclinations to take part in these “set-to’s,” officiated as waiters—“beer-slingers”—and found it more remunerative, if more tedious work.
It seems to be a distinct trait of people who visit these “dives” and “joints” to leave their small allowance of intelligence at the door. Men, who, in their daily occupation, are fairly alert and awake to their interests, permit themselves to be cheated by the most transparent devices of the “beer-slingers.”
To give these fellows a bill in payment of drinks is simply inviting them to experiment on you. Over charging, “palming”—retaining a coin in the palm of the hand between ball of thumb and fleshy part—“flim-flamming”—doubling a bill in a number of them, and counting each end of it as one separate bill—are the most common means of cheating employed. Whenever any of these tricks failed, the money was either withheld or taken away by force, and the victim—the “sucker”—bodily thrown into the streets as a “disorderly person.”
Such were the glories of the “open town.”
Although a recognized factor in the world pugilistic, I was not above seeking occasional employment in these resorts, and it helped me to create for myself another reputation. I did not work in these places for the purpose of study or observation, yet, every night my contempt for the patrons of these “joints” increased.
Men, whose names I had heard and mentioned with awe; men, whose positions and station should have been guarantees of every sterling quality, came there, not once, but night after night, to enjoy that seemingly harmless pastime known as “slumming”—to have a “good time.”
A “good time” in the midst of moral and physical filth; a “good time” in the company of jailbirds, fallen men and women; a “good time” of grossest selfishness, for, over and over again, I have seen men there for whose education I would have gladly given years of my life, and who, by one word of sympathy or encouragement, could have rekindled the dying flame of hope, of self-respect, in some fellow-being, but that word was never spoken, because it would have brought discord into the “good time,” and would have jangled the croaking melody chanted by that chorus of human scum in praise of their host—the “sightseer”—of the evening!
A glorious sport this “sightseeing,” these “good times,” when men of “respectability” and position feast with gloating eyes on all that is vile and look on the unfortunates of a great city as if they were some strange beasts, some freaks in human shape. That almost every creature in these “dives” and “joints” has left behind a niche in the world’s usefulness, or a home, to which his or her daily thoughts stray back, is not considered by the “sightseer.” One does not like unpleasant reflections when at a circus.
Vile, very vile, are the men and women who constitute the population of divedom, but how about the representatives of respectability, who come among them to spend their “good time” with them?
Were I at liberty to give the names of men whom I have seen hobnobbing with the most fearful riff-raff, you would shrug your shoulders and say: “I cannot believe it of them.” Yet, I do not lie.
There is no need for lying, and there is much corroboration, not the least being the conscience of those men.
We want you—you men and women of respectability—to come to these “dives,” but we want you to come for another purpose. Even at this very moment there is a scope for your efforts in spite of all change of administration and Christian endeavor has done for that part of the city. The stamping out of vice is carried on vigorously, but vice is a proverbially obstinate disease.
Only a few nights ago I saw a scene in a widely known pest hole, reeking with stench beyond its very doors, which I can only hint at in describing it.
At one of the tables sat a youth, a mere boy, who had been coaxed into the dirty hole by the persuasion of the wily “barker” at the side door. The boy seemed from the country, his ruddy complexion and “store clothes” indicated it. The drink, which he had been forced to buy, was standing untasted before him. Without being afraid, he kept wide awake and resented all overtures made to him. But he looked too much like an easy victim to escape the usual procedure.
Before he was aware of it, a woman had dropped into the chair on the other side of the table. At least more than fifty years of age, the toothless wretch assumed the coquetry of a young girl.
The gray hair, devoid of comb or ribbon, hung in straggling strands to her shoulders. The front of her dress was unbuttoned. Still, this witch of lowest depravity, lulled her Lorelei song, hoping to transfix the gaze of the boy—young enough perhaps to be her grandson—by the leer of her bleary eyes.
I do not dare, and if I dared, could not tell you the horridness of this scene, yet it was only a detail in the grander spectacle, the “good time,” seen and enjoyed nightly by thousands of the “better” class.
Forerunners of the eventually coming overthrow of “open” vice made themselves felt during some of the more important elections and for a few weeks preceding election day the ukase was sent out by the mysterious hidden powers: “Lie low for a while.”
These periods of restriction, while not welcome, did not involve great hardships for us, the “sports” of the Bowery. If the blare of the wheezy cornet and the thumping of the piano had to be silenced for the time being, there were other channels in which the services of the men, who did not care, could be utilized.
One of the most flourishing industries carried on was the confidence game in its many guises.
“Ah, all the ‘easy marks’ go up to the Tenderloin now,” is the cry of the few remaining Bowery grafters. Then it was different.
The Bowery was famed from Atlantic to Pacific for what it offered. Every day a new consignment of lambs unloaded itself on this highway of the foolish and miserable, to be devoured by the expectant wolves. The recognized headquarters of the wolves was at the corner of Pell street.
A few among them were men of some education and refinement, but the most of them were beetle-browed ruffians, who seemed ill at ease in their fine raiment, the emblem of their calling.
To get the stranger’s money many means were used.
Sailors, immigrants, farmers and out-of-town merchants were approached in most suitable manner, generally by a claim of former acquaintanceship. To celebrate the renewal of their old friendship it was necessary to adjoin to the nearby gin-mill. Here, the stranger, the “refound old friend,” would not be permitted to spend one cent of his money—“dear, no, you’re my guest.”
Next move: The two reunited friends—the wolf and the lamb—are joined by a third—“an old friend o’ mine,” says the wolf.
The newcomer sings one of the many variations of the old, old theme. He has just won a lot of money at a game where no one can lose; or has a telegram promising beyond a doubt that a certain horse was to win that day; or has a hundred dollar bill, which he wants to change; or is broke, and offers his entire outlay of jewelry, watch, studs and rings, each one flashing with fire-spitting jewels, for a mere bagatelle of fifty dollars; or offers to bet on some mechanical trick toy in his possession, trick pocketbook or snuff box, and loses every bet to the wolf—but not to the lamb; or offers to take both, wolf and lamb, to a “regular hot joint,” hinting at the beautiful sights to be beheld there, which, in reality, is a “never-lose” gambling device.
Should the lamb prove impervious to all these temptations, the pleasing concoction called “knock-out drops” is introduced as most effective tonic.
Sometimes there is a slip in the proceedings, and the lamb “tumbles to the game” before he is shorn. This is entirely against the rules of the industry, and cannot be permitted without being rebuked. Therefore, the confidence industry was always willing to draw its apprentices from the class in which muscularity and brutality were the only qualifications.
Other industries, now much retrograded, were the “sawdust,” “green goods” and “gold brick” games. All these games were vastly entertaining to all, and vastly profitable to some. Besides, in their lower stages, and technically inside of the law, they gave employment to many young men, who, like me, were unwilling to use their strength in more honorable occupation, preferring to be the slaves of crooked masters and schemes.
Those were not all the ways in which a well-known tough could earn an honest dollar. To our “hang out,” sheltering always a large number of choice spirits, frequently came messengers calling for a quota for some expedient mission. We were the “landsknechts” of the day, willing to serve any master, without inquiring into the ethics of the cause, for pay.
Electoral campaigns in this and other cities furnished much employment. Capt B——, of Hoboken, a notorious “guerrilla” chief, was a frequent employer. During a heated contest in a small town near Baltimore, he shipped fifty of us to the scene of strife to “help elect” his patron. Five “Bowery gents,” in rough and ready trim, were stationed near each doubtful polling place, and, somehow, induced voters, unfriendly to their master of the moment, to keep away from the ballot boxes.
Local primaries and conventions, regardless of politics, could never afford to do without us. To-day we would fight the men, who, to-morrow, would pay us to turn the tables on our masters of yesterday.
Still, we were loyal to our temporary bosses. We offered our strength and brutality in open market. We asked a price, and, if it was paid, we did our “work” with a faithfulness worthier of a better cause. That this was so is proven by the fact that not only John Y. McKane, the “Czar of Coney Island,” recruited his police force from among us, but even reputable concerns, like the Iron Steamboat Company, and others, engaged men of our class to preserve order and peace at designated posts.
A number of railroad companies and detective bureaus, in times of strikes, invited us to aid them in protecting property and temporary employees, but, for some reason or other, these offers were never greedily accepted.
Among the rest of these unlisted occupations must be mentioned playing pool and cards. I do not mean the out-and-out experts of these games hung around to win money from unwary strangers. Quite a number of the more “straight” saloons on the Bowery did not object to having about the place a crowd of fellows who were fair players of pool or the games of cards in vogue. If, by any chance they lost a game, the proprietor would stand the loss, and, if they proved exceedingly lucky, he would give them a percentage of the receipts of the game.
It is rather difficult to enumerate all the different ways in which a man, who had to live by his “wits,” could make a living on the Bowery. They were many and variegated in their nature. It was a saying of the day that all a man had to do then was to leave his “hang-out” for an hour to return with enough money to pay his expenses for the day.