Red Light District (1898? From NYC or Texas?)

[Barry Popik]

What does everyone (OED revision? HDAS?) have for a "red light district"
entry? The term was popularized in 1900 when New York City police cracked
down on the "red light district" in the lower east side. However, 1898
citations appear to come from Texas.
...
...
...
 http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/red_light_district/
 Entry from August 25, 2007
Red Light District

The origin of the term "red light district" is unknown. The term "red light
district" is cited in New York City, Houston and San Antonio in the year
1898. In 1900, New York police made a major effort to clean out the "red
light district" of the lower east side.

A "red light district" is where shady transactions occur, such as
prostitution, drug use, and gambling. Red lights sometimes were used at
these establishments, but not always. One theory is that the red lights were
lanterns used by visiting railroad men.


Wikipedia: Red Light District<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-light_district>
A *red-light district* is a neighborhood where prostitution and other
businesses in the sex industry flourish. The term "red-light district" was
first recorded in the United States around 1890, and derives from the
practice of placing a red light in the window to indicate to customers the
nature of the business. The color red has been associated with prostitution
for millennia: in the Biblical story of Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho aided
the spies of Joshua and identified her house with a scarlet rope.

Some say the origin of the red light comes from the red lanterns carried by
railway workers, which were left outside brothels when the workers entered,
so that they could be quickly located for any needed train movement. Others
speculate that the origin comes from the red paper lanterns that were hung
outside brothels in ancient China to identify them as such. It was said that
the lights were thought to be sensual.

In more recent years the red-light district term has its name from the red
lights that hang from the district's brothels.

*A Treasury of Texas Trivia*
by Bill Cannon
Plano, TX: Republic of Texas Press
1997
Pg. 10:
Reference books and lore alike attribute the origin of the term "red light
district" to Texas. It's said to have been coined by railroad men after
their practice of hanging signal lanterns by the front doors of local
brothels while visiting.

(Oxford English Dictionary)
*red light*
The sign of a brothel. Freq. attrib., as *red light district*, etc.
1900 *N.Y. Jrnl.* Nov. 19 (caption) Children of the 'red light district'.
1900 *Boston Transcript* 4 Dec. 14/3 The disorderly houses in the
'red-light' district were all closed last night.

a1898 W. C. Brann *Brann the Iconoclast* (1911) II. 99 The *Post* next
proceeded to publish a directory of Houston's redlight district, giving
names and addresses of the "madames," the number of their "boarders" and the
condition of the merchandise thrown upon the market.

2 June 1898, San Antonio *Daily Light*, pg. 5, col. 4:
Another attempt was made by a hack load of Rough Riders last night to take
in the red light district and shoot out the lights after the fashion of the
wild and woolly Occident, but a few shots brought out the mounted police and
the Rough Riders succeeded in making their escape across lots in the
darkness.

27 November 1898, Philadelphia *Inquirer*, pg. 7:
*CHAPMAN'S GOOD WORK*
*He Is Going Through the "Red*
*Light" District With a Fine-*
*Tooth Comb*

NEW YORK, Nov. 26.—Chief Devery to-day detailed several men from other
precincts to help Captain Chapman in getting evidence against keepers of
disorderly houses in the Twelfth precinct, as policemen of the Eldridge
Street Station are all well-known in the neighborhood.

Even the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has failed to get
legal evidence to convict proprietors of "cafes" which harbor young girls,
as was shown to-day, in Essex Market Police Court.

17 February 1899, Naugatuck (CT) *Daily News*, pg. 3, col. 3:
Watson Schermerhorn, a New York police detective, has devised a machine for
melting the frost on a window pane over a space as big as a silver dollar so
as to permit the industrious searcher for vice to see from the outside of
any cafe or other place of entertainment what is oing on inside. The machine
has already been tried in the "red light district" in New York, which is now
receiving so much attention from the police.

14 March 1899, San Antonio *Daily Light*, pg. 12, col. 1:
A jury in Justice Sweeney's court heard the testimony in a fighting and
abusive language case this morning in which a number of women of the red
light district were involved, and gave a verdict of not guilty.

13 March 1900, Philadelphia *Inquirer*, pg. 1:
*
STARTED IN NEW YORK
The Haymarket Closed, Its Proprietor Arrested
"Red Light" Characters Driven Into the
Street and Gamblers Indicted
(...)
Police Captain Diamond and a squad of his men from the East Fifth street
police station visited every resort in the famous "red light" district
to-night, driving the people into the street. Considerable excitement
occurred at McGurk's, where over one hundred men and women were ordered out.


28 April 1900, Marion (OH) Daily Star, pg. 1, col. 2:
New York, April 28.—Considerable comment is heard among the delegates to the
ecumenical conference over the character of the "Guide to New York" prepared
for their benefit by the hospitality committee. Some of the more
straight-laced are shocked by it, particularly by the chapter headed "A
ramble at night." They say it was probably taken bodily from a guide book
prepared for a drummers' convention or some other secular and unregenerate
gathering.

The "Ramble at night" takes the trusting missionary first to the Red Light
district on the lower East Side, up the Bowery and through Chinatown. He is
informed that opium smoking rooms are called joints, where it costs $1 to
hit the pipe.

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