vice no
longer hid itself in the dark caves and dens of the great city. The
Tenderloin, with its multifarious and widereaching influence for evil,
was then created, and the police of the city reaped a royal revenue from
its thousand dens of vice for their protection. To be captain of the
Tenderloin precinct meant an extra weekly income of $1,000 at least. He
had the lion's share; about an equal amount went to Headquarters, to be
divided between the Chief of Police and the gang, Irving being one of
the half dozen who had pull enough to get in the ring. The Tenderloin
lieutenant, roundsman and sergeant came in for about $100, $50 and $25 a
week, while the common patrolman got what blackmail he could on his own
account from the unhappy women of the street. These were considered
lawful game, and woe betide the poor unfortunate who refused to pay the
tax. Too well she found it meant a violent arrest, accompanied with
brutal treatment, a night in a filthy cell, and then to be dragged
before the magistrate, who was some ward heeler, hand in glove with the
police. The form of a trial and a speedy "six months on the island" from
the lips of the judge followed.

From Spring street to Tenth, Broadway was full of night
games--faro--each and all paying large sums for protection. This money,
however, did not all go to Police Headquarters, there being a host of
parasites aside from the police. The shoulder-hitter politicians, each
with his pull, and each having a claim to his percentage. Most of the
Broadway games were known as square games, but then there was the host
of skin games in the Bowery, Chatham square, Houston, Prince and other
streets. The Eighth Ward and all Broadway were considered the lawful
happy hunting grounds for Headquarters detectives, and this by long
prescription. Outside of that they had no claim save only to a
percentage from the Tenderloin. But the protection money paid by the
swindling games around Chatham square, Bayard street, and the whole
length of the Bowery, by a sort of sacred prescription, belonged to the
captains of those precincts, save only that part absorbed by the
politicians of the district who had a pull. These usually were the
Aldermen and Councilmen with their henchmen.

[Illustration: "PULLING OUT A $20 BILL, I THREW IT DOWN."--Page 27.]

But to return to my friend, Capt. Jim Irving, who, before our party
separated, had opened three bottles of wine. Before leaving I had asked
him to cal