Vice President King

1895

He Took the Oath of Office Abroad, but Did Not Live to Serve.

William Rufus King, born April 6, 1786, died April 18, 1853, was a vice president of the United States who never served in that capacity and one who took the oath of office on foreign soil, something which can be said of no other executive officer who has over been elected by the people of this country. King was an invalid, but his friends urged him to take second place on the ticket with Pierce in 1852.

Both were elected, but Mr. King's health failed so rapidly that he was forced to go to Cuba some two months before inauguration day. Not having returned to the United States by March 4, Congress passed a special act authorizing the United States consul at Matanzas, Cuba, to swear him in as vice president at about the hour when Pierce was taking the oath of office at Washington.

This arrangement was carried out to a dot, and on the day appointed, at a plantation on one of the highest hills in the vicinity of Matanzas, Mr. King was made vice president of the United States amid the solemn "Vaya vol con Dios" (God will be with you) of the creoles who had assembled to witness the unique spectacle. Vice President King returned to his home at Cahawba, Ala., arriving at that place April 17, 1853, and died the following day. His remains wore laid to rest on his plantation, known as Pine Hills. — Chicago Times.

Ether — Latest Vice in France

1910

Paris. — Compared to the new vice which has broken out in France, that of taking ether, drinking absinthe and injecting morphine are virtues. This most modern vice has already assumed abnormal proportions, probably because the sale of ether is free.

Consumers of ether begin by breathing its vapor. Soon this pleasing effect wears off, then they drink it, The consumption of ether is not confined to any special class of society. It is asserted that 40 per cent of the poorer classes who go to the dispensary of the prefect of police are ether fiends.

Physicians say that a pint and three-quarters is as much as anyone can safely take in a day. However, druggists say that they have customers who use about four times that amount.


Drink Scourge in France

What the French call "alcoholisme" has grown to be a dreadful scourge, and a direful portent for the future of the people. In some parts of France the very medical men must be consulted early in the day if they are to be found sober. — Church Quarterly Review.


"Thank God" for Faults!

Thank God we do not live with saints! We live with people full of faults, and it is excellent, for the faults of others serve us either by imposing a salutary constraint or by the lesson that they give. — Paris Figaro.

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.

"Hoochy-Coochy" Dances Seen Immoral, Performances Under Fire

Portsmouth, OH, 1897

OOCHY-COOCHY

Four Prominent Citizens Say It Is a Moral Dance.

The Mayor Ordered It Stopped and the Four Protested.

Agreed to Modify the Program a Little and Work In a Punch and Judy Performance— Three Suspicious Looking Individuals Who Will Keep Several Days.

One of the spectators at the Oriental dances at Eddie Burns' saloon Tuesday night was Marshal Schmitt. The marshal's opinion of the performance, backed by that of several other spectators, resulted in an order from the mayor next morning stopping the show.

When application was made for a license Monday it was represented to mayor as an ordinary skirt dance. Complaints were made the next day that it was an immoral show, and it was decided to investigate it officially, which was done, with the above result. The dance is an imitation of the Turkish "Ooohy-Coochy" dance introduced at the World's fair and attracted enormous crowds.

Mr. Burns, when sent for, insisted that the show was not an immoral one. The mayor had the opinion of a number of spectators to the contrary. Burns agreed to get six of the best citizens in the city to sign a statement that it is not an immoral or indecent performance. He left and returned an hour later with the signatures of four prominent business men who saw the dance. He finally agreed to modify the program, substitute a regular skirt dance, "Punch and Judy" performance and other similar innocent amusements for the naughty dance.

In the mayor's court Tuesday afternoon some of the parties engaged in the free-for-all fight Saturday night at Ray's saloon, on West Second street, were placed on trial. Five of them were found guilty. Huston, Appler and Shakespeare were fined $3.00 and costs; Justice and McDowell $1.00 and costs.

Two young men, with the appearance of confidence men, were run in Tuesday night by Officer Ingles and slated "on suspicion." They gave the names of Jarvis Lloyd and Ed. Hastings and claim to be from Chicago. They will probably "keep" several days.

Belle Medley 'fessed up to the mayor Wednesday that she used bad language in the presence of Edith Turner, Paradise alley. She was fined $4.80.

—The Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, OH, July 31, 1897, p. 1.

Cabaret Girls Tell of Songs and Dances: Sensual, Improper

Chicago, 1913

CABARET GIRLS TELL OF SONGS AND DANCES

They Admit That Songs Are Improper and That Dances Are Sensual

Chicago, April 12. — Agents of the Illinois vice commission late last night and early today brought consternation to the fashionable guests of the two down-town restaurants — Rector's and the States — against whose reputations there rested, no question except the nature of their cabaret entertainments.

While the cabaret was in full blast investigators entered the down-town restaurants and a wine room in the tenderloin at midnight and brought performers, managers and guests to a hotel for interrogation. The inquiry lasted until 2 o'clock this morning.

From some of them the senators drew reluctant admissions that a few of the songs and dances "might be" suggestive and "perhaps had been a bad effect on the diners."

"In My Harem."

A girl singer, crying as she testified asserted she never would sing "In My Harem," a song Lieutenant Governor O'Hara was particularly inquisitive about.

The manager of a well known restaurant said the restaurant business had degenerated into a vaudeville show, and he did not know when it would stop. After investigators and members of a "slumming" party said they had heard an improper song in a place in Twenty-first street, the commission voted to recommend to Mayor Harrison that the cafe's license he revoked. The commission will call the attention of the state's attorney to the testimony of the manager, who said nothing indecent went on.

Senator Beall said he saw girls not more than 15 or 16 years imbibing mixed drinks in the cafe, and some at them were more or less intoxicated.

Mrs. Maud Joseph told of the singing and dances at a downtown restaurant. She said in one dance the performer "might just as well have had no skirts at all."

She stated that a girl did an Oriental dance, wearing pink tights and a "sort of a skirt of black chiffon." She thought the dance was suggestive. She said a couple did a fancy dance, a combination between the "Tango" and the "Apache."

"Was it art or suggestion?" asked the lieutenant-governor.

"There was no art in it."

Free For All Dance.

The performers led a free for all dance on a space made by clearing away tables.

The professional who led the dance said they had tried to eliminate anything which might appear sensual in their act, but admitted they might not have been entirely successful.

"Don't you think that where you see art others might see vice?" asked Mr. O'Hara. "I guess it appeals differently, but I do not see anything obscene about it," was a reply.

O. B. Stimpson, manager of another down-town restaurant, asserted the business had drifted into a show, but he was compelled to put up a first class cabaret to get the trade. He was of opinion that some popular songs have gone too far. He said guests did the "bear" dance in the aisles, between the tables, but that they never got "raw." An entertainer in this restaurant said there was nothing out of the way in the song "All Night Long." "It's all in the way you sing it," she stated. "Some people are so weak minded that they will take up anything."

Time to Revoke.

When the vice commissioners reassembled they received a telephone message from Mayor Harrison saying, "This looks like a good day to revoke some licenses."

The mayor referred to unsavory restaurants which survived when the old segregated district on the south side was closed several months ago. He said he had made up his mind to close two places as a result of testimony at the night session of the commission and would investigate others.

Frank Benent, manager of "Dream Land," where the dancers number from 500 to 1,000 a night, testified that no liquor was sold there, and that "dummy" dancers hired by the management mingled with the crowds to prevent suggestive dancing.

"We couldn't make money if we sold liquor or permitted lewd action," said the witness. "If the dance halls of Chicago want to make money they should work in harmony with this commission." Girls at previous sessions have testified that it was at "Dream Land" they made acquaintances who led them on their first steps downward.

—The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, April 13, 1913, page 1B.

Judge Plays Racy Society - Thorkildsen Case

1920

Judge Plays Racy Society

Decree In Borax King Divorce Case Excoriates Social Conditions Among Wealthy

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 24.-—The decision of Judge Works in the famous Thorkildsen divorce case, read from the bench at the conclusion of a sensational trial lasting twenty days, mercilessly flayed not only both principals in the case but as well most of those who figured in the case as members of the fast society set to which the Thorkildsens belong. He awarded Mrs. Thorkildsen the degree, $30,000 as her share of community property, $15,000 alimony payable in sixty monthly installments and $10,000 attorney's fees, roughly one-tenth of what she asked in a money way.

"The court's opinion embodied a terrific excoriation of social conditions such as were described in the case and which he declared were largely the fruits of alcohol and of great wealth in the hands of persons who do not know how to use it. Aside from the financial findings the court's rulings on the disputed points were as follows:

There were no acts of cruelty such as were mutually charged, except the one involving the transmission of diseases, as both principals were inordinate consumers of alcohol and "wallowed in the same trough."

He was the "donor" of the ailment which figured so extensively in the case.

Mrs. Thorkildsen's suit was filed in Good faith and she was not guilty of desertion.

He was guilty of misconduct with Mrs. Agnes Smith.

Both sides expressed themselves as satisfied with the findings.

Following is Judge Works' opinion:

In an experience of twenty-eight years at the bar and on the bench, I have never known the air of a courtroom to be burdened with the recital of such a mass o£ shocking and unprintable testimony. The columns of the newspapers of the city have been filled daily with startling stories of facts brought out at the trial, but the genius of newspaper management notwithstanding the frankness of the press of today, has balked at a reproduction of the real details of the evidence.

A faithful report of the trial would have made the vulgarities of Rabelais and Laurence Sterne seem, by comparison, like the pruderies of Jane Austen or the prosiness of Henry James. The personification of vice and licentiousness stalks through the pages of the record that has been made here. We who have worked together for these four weeks have heard from the witness stand, in a crowded courtroom, things of which one would hardly think, in the secret recesses of his own soul, without turning out his lights and locking his doors.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 24, 1920, page 2.

He Walloped 8 Men, But the Ninth One...

1920

"Thought a Mule Kicked Me," Man Tells Judge Next Day

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thomas Fisher, a railroad brakeman, drank something and entered the lists. He met eight men. He hit seven men. Seven men hit the sidewalk and the eighth fled when Fisher's fist missed his nose and knocked his hat into the street.

Another was approaching out of the darkness.

"I'm a wild man," announced Fisher, "and I'm looking for a person named Dempsey."

"I'm G. E. King of the vice squad," replied the newcomer, "and I'm looking for wild women, but maybe I can accommodate you."

"I was going fine until a horse kicked me," Fisher told Judge John M. Kennedy the next day in the North Side Court. "It was the first drink I ever took, judge, and it was some of this prohibition whiskey."

"It wasn't a bad night's work," returned the court. "Discharged."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, page 1.

Men's Names Shield in Vice Raids, Women's Names Published

Kingston, New York, 1916

MEN SHIELDED IN CITY VICE RAIDS

Women Protest at Action of Police — Publication of One Woman's Name Led Daughter to Leave City for Shame of Exposure

Poughkeepsie women are making a spirited protest because the police in making raids on certain alleged disorderly hotels in that city gave out the names of the women taken but withheld the names of 59 "gentlemen" who were permitted to go. Because of the publication of the name of one of the women in the affair, her daughter who is a young woman of refinement and a member of the Y. W. C. A., was so humiliated that she has disappeared and all efforts to locate her have failed.

Miss Mary Hinkley, president of the Women's League for Civic Education, who led the discussion, pointed out as ridiculous the excuse she said was offered by the district attorney shielding the men, "that many of the latter were respectable and in danger of losing their positions." When some one brought up the argument that the families of the men must be protected, it was asked, "What of the families of the women; what of the case that has just come to light?"

"We are disgusted at this periodic revelation," Miss Mary Hinkley said, "We must clean up the dirt once for all and be thoroughly assured that after one case has been brought to light, paraded to the public gaze and rectified, that another won't be found again and the endless tragedy repeated over and over."

—The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston, New York, June 29, 1916, page 2.