Mustn't Ride Wheels to School.

New York, 1895

The teachers in the public schools at College Point, especially those who ride bicycles, are aroused over an order issued by The Board of Education forbidding them to ride their bicycles to school. The board declares that the minds of the teachers are concentrated more upon their wheels than upon their work at school. They further declare that wheeling tends to create immorality.


Burglars at Sag Harbor.

Burglars got into the dwelling of Capt. Robert Hanna, U. S. A., at Sag Harbor, just before midnight Thursday night. Their entrance awoke the servant, who gave an alarm, and the burglars fled. The house was searched and the family silverware was found in a heap in the dining room, ready to be lugged off.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

Slippery Rock War On Vice, Street Walkers, Debauchery

Pennsylvania, 1913

Sun Calls Upon Citizens to Rise in Their Might and Stamp Out Social Evil

Slippery Rock is in sore need of social house cleaning. In it are festering sores of licentiousness which are spreading so rapidly that the clean and whole part of its body is in danger of infection from the loathsome suppuration. The Sun has been importuned by some people to turn on the light of publicity in an effort to stop the growth of social evil in our midst. Still more people have cautioned silence on the ground that publicity of our shame would "give the town a bad name."

We have come to the point where the town, has a bad name because the people who practice lasciviousness have not been rebuked for their crimes against morality and decency. Emboldened by the evident desire to brush and gloss over their rottenness, the lecherous slaves of a brute passion give little heed to the opinions or sentiments of the moral and virtuous majority and nightly practice their soulless and lustful business.

For years a bunch of girls who have forgotten how to blush have been street walkers and dissolutes, loitering on corners and about public places seeking their mates in the hellish business of social depravity. A brood of nameless illegitimate children are the fruits of their shameless crimes. We have all sympathy for the unfortunate girl who falls because of her love and trust in a lecherous and brutal man, but when in brazen disregard of her own shame or the moral rights of her associates, she persists in the practice of her infamy and seeks to draw mere children, perhaps her own fatherless ones, into the life of virtueless debauchery, even the broad mantle of Christian charity is scarcely able to cover her sin. from such a school was graduated the poor girl who paid the penalty of her shame with her life a few months ago and the recital of which calamity in the public press brought a blush to everyone who owned Slippery Rock as a habitat.

But not alone is the street walker to blame for the condition in our town that is a stench in the nostrils of decency. People who enjoy position in the social, business and church life of the community, have so far forgotten man and womanhood, the marital vows and a sense of moral obligation that they have put themselves on a plane with the back alley dissolutes. And their crimes are greater, because they not only debauch their own moral natures, but invade the homes of neighbors, bringing the horror of undeserved shame upon the innocent wife or husband who learns of the detection of her or his unfaithful mate.

After much deliberation and conferring with those who are working for the moral uplift of the community, The Sun has decided that the only way to stop the obscene and vulgar practice is to turn the spotlight on those who are persistently guilty. Hereafter any scandal touching on the social evil will be printed, and with it the names of the participants, be they street walkers, church workers, business or professional people; not because it is scandal, but that the right kind of publicity may warn the passion slaves that their underworld actions will be shown in the broad light of day. Such a campaign will be more dangerous to dissolute husbands and faithless wives than to the unmarried lawbreakers and that is as it should be. — Slippery Rock Sun.

—Reprinted in New Castle News, New Castle, PA, Oct. 31, 1913, p. 10.

Burlesque Queen Dances to Disprove Charge of Indecency

1916

Burlesque "Queen" Edifies Chicago Court as She's "Walkin' the Dog"

Chicago, Oct. 18. — Judge Samuel A. Trude's court in the city hall had all the aspects of a burlesque show for five or ten minutes yesterday afternoon.

A petite brunette stepped to the judge's bench, tossed her head, flashed a smile to the jury, then threw off her heavy outer cloak, and in a trice was "Walkin' the Dog" and doing other syncopated steps about the small enclosure in a dance to a ragtime accompaniment sung by herself.

It was Miss May Mills, leading lady of the "Follies of Pleasure," dressed in her spangled costume of gold and silver, demonstrating the exhibition for which J. H. Herk is on trial on charges of keeping a disorderly house, alleged to have permitted immoral dancing and acting in the Gaiety theater, 531 South State street, of which he is manager.

"Just Walked Like This"

Miss Mills was the star witness for the defense. It is upon her interpretation that the attorneys for Herk hope to prove the charges against him groundless.

"I simply walked like this," said Miss Mills between snatches of the song, as she deftly paced the small enclosure.

"I swayed like this and I waved my arms like that," demonstrating.

She pirouetted in front of the jury box, skirting the fenced enclosure, and brought up with a stamp of her foot, an appealing gesture and a toss of her head.

"Whoopee!"

"Whoopee!" cried some one in the rear of the courtroom, carried away momentarily. A stern bailiff quickly restored him to order. Then the spectators in the courtroom broke into applause, but this, too, was quickly silenced. There were some, however, who did not applaud. They were the members of the Women's Church federation, complainants to the charge, and others allied with the prosecution.

Judge Trude at the beginning of the song and dance was seated viewing the exhibition with becoming austerity. Before it was half over however, he was pacing back and forth behind his chair, his hands folded behind his back, his face beaming in a broad smile.

His opinion of the dance, however, he refused to communicate.

No Jass Band Around

"I'm afraid I won't do very well," said Miss Mills when called to perform. "You see, I have no music."

"Attorneys for the defense will probably whistle for the young lady," suggested Assistant City Attorney Bippus. But this they declined to do.

The name of Chief of Police Healey was drawn into the hearing yesterday. Witnesses for the prosecution testified to making repeated complaints of alleged immorality and lewdness permitted at the theater. No action so far as they knew, they testified, had ever been taken on the complaint.

Tights Shock Copper

Herk, the manager, when called to the stand, told of one complaint which had been brought to his attention. A policeman, he testified, had notified him that he would have to prohibit the wearing of tights by actresses. He saw the chief personally, he said, and complained that such action was discrimination and was told to "go ahead and run the theater as usual."

It is expected the case will be given to the jury this morning.

Mrs. George W. Hall, of 416 West Forty-sixth place; Mrs. J. G. Boor, of 832 Buckingham place, members of the Women's Church federation, and F. A Beale, of 4806 Forrestville avenue, testified to the immorality of the dance of Miss Mills. In their testimony they described the dance in detail, asserted that the costume worn by her was transparent, and that she deported herself offensively. It was to disprove this that Miss Mills gave her "skit." The costume worn by her yesterday, which she asserted was the one used by her in the dance, was not transparent.

—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Oct. 19, 1916, p. 7.

Pretty Girl Serves as Rent Deposit

1920

Legal tender — one pretty girl.

Mrs. J. H. Harrison and her pretty daughter finally found just the right flat in Chicago the other day. The agent demanded a deposit. Hurried search disclosed no cash in two pocketbooks.

"Will I be a suitable deposit?" the girl asked.

She was a deposit for two hours, until relieved as such by a double eagle.



WHITE SLAVE LAW HITS AUTOS

Supreme Court Refuses to Review Case of Convicted Woman

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 18. — By refusal of the Supreme Court to review the case, Federal court decisions holding that the transportation of women from one State to another for immoral purposes comes within the provisions of the white slave act and will stand. The case reached the Supreme Court on appeals from conviction of Ada Griffith of Duluth, Minn.