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

Thu Aug 30 01:33:26 UTC 2007

OED has it back to 1797.

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Subject: Re: Red Light District (1898? From NYC or Texas?) (UNCLASSIFIED)
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"Chief Devery to-day _detailed_ several men ..."

What's the date on this? 1898? 1899?

I had no idea that it went back so far. Till now, I'd thought that
this particular use of "detail" as a verb was peculiar to the
relatively-recent military (abstracting away from the fact that police
departments are quasi-military organizations). I probably first heard
"detail" used this way in '40's war movies, but I remember it for
certain only from the years of my own military service (late '50's to
early '60's).

-Wilson, once upon a time himself often one of several men detailed

On 8/28/07, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
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> Poster: "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC"
> Subject: Re: Red Light District (1898? From NYC or Texas?) (UNCLASSIFIED)
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>
> "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
> > Poster: Barry Popik
> > 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> > 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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