The Scandal of the New Zealand Dance Hall
A concerned Seattle resident warns of a dangerous 'plague spot' on South Third Street where teenagers are allegedly being lured into debauchery.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Saturday night I was asked by a neighbor to help him look up his son, a youth of 17, who is inclined to be a little wild. Our search finally brought us to the place on South Third Street called the New Zealand dance hall, and of all the degraded, disreputable places this city was ever afflicted with, that is certainly the worst. There in a basement was such an exhibition of licentiousness and debauchery as would make the famed Whitechapel district pale with envy. From thirty-five to forty of the most abandoned women and girls were engaged in circulating among the vast crowd, soliciting victims from among those they took to be the most susceptible in the boldest and most brazen manner. Boys of 14 to 18 were quite numerous and apparently as welcome as mature manhood. Now, in the name of common decency, can not you use your worthy journal's influence to wipe out these plague spots and save our young men from ruin and destruction? Can it be that this man Peterson has the protection of the reform administration just because he is a good Democrat?
“There in a basement was such an exhibition of licentiousness and debauchery as would make the famed Whitechapel district pale with envy.”
Public anxiety over the influence of 'low' venues on youth is a recurring theme in Seattle’s history, echoing modern debates about public space, safety, and the role of city government in regulating nightlife. The 'South Third Street' location places this den of vice squarely within what is now the Pioneer Square/International District area, a neighborhood that has spent over a century oscillating between industrial, social, and residential identities.
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