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

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Dallas Morning News has "red light parlors" on 11/5/1897, slightly
antedating Stephen Goranson's cite of "red light district".

There are earlier references to a saloon called "the Red Light", though,
which may be pertinent to the origin.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Barry Popik
> Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2007 7:26 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Red Light District (1898? From NYC or Texas?)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barry Popik <bapopik at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Red Light District (1898? From NYC or Texas?)
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> 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 wer= e lanterns used by
> visiting railroad men.
>
>
> Wikipedia: Red Light
> District<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-light_distri=
> ct>
> 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 aide= d 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 tha= t 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 th= e 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 an= d 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.=97Chief 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 ge= t 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 s= o 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
> machin= e has already been tried in the "red light district"
> in New York, which is no= w 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.=97Considerable comment is heard among the
> delegates to = the ecumenical conference over the character
> of the "Guide to New York" prepare= d 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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Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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