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

Tue Aug 28 22:04:27 UTC 2007

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

"Stabbing Affray on Cripple Creek." The Knoxville Journal; Date:
05-06-1895; Volume: XI; Issue: 69; Page: 4;
"A little stabbing affray occurred on Cripple Creek at the "Red Light
House," about two o'clock yesterday morning.
George Washington tried to force his way into a room where another negro
was by the name of Pleas Miller, charging him with having locked up his,
Washington's, wife.  Pleas tried to put him out and got cut in the arm
for his trouble."

"A Red Light Tragedy" The Wheeling Register.; Date: 09-17-1896; Volume:
35; Issue: 70; p. 4
"Louisville, Ky., September 16.-- At an early hour this morning Carrie
Jennings, colored, in a fit of jealousy, stabbed Monroe Bell, colored,
aged 32 years, to death and then fatally shot herself in the head.   The
tragedy occurred in the Red Light district on Green street, between
Seventh and Eighth streets."

> -----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
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