The Price of 'Protection': Judge Glasgow Cuts the Fine for Unlicensed Saloons
A routine municipal court case reveals the city's long-standing 'ninety-day' tax on houses of ill fame.
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.
Emma Norton, a keeper of a house of ill fame, was fined $25 in the municipal court yesterday upon a charge of selling liquor without a license. Heretofore, it was the habit of the police to arrest all such women every ninety days, and a fine of $50 would be paid. So general had the custom become that many of the women never attended court at all, merely paying the fine to the police clerk. But Judge Glasgow has evidently decided that a $50 fine for such offenses is too much, for he has cut it down to $25.
“Heretofore it was the habit of the police to arrest all such women every ninety days, and a fine of $50 would be paid.”
This story offers a glimpse into the late 19th-century 'system' of municipal graft, where vice was not so much eradicated as it was taxed through periodic fines. The 'ninety-day' cycle describes a formal, semi-official extortion arrangement that allowed illicit businesses to operate so long as they remained quiet contributors to city coffers.
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