On this day in 1918

Saturday, Sept. 14, 1918. Under the headline “CLOSED AGAIN,” the Sunday Budget reports that public safety commissioner John F. Cahill has order “all disorderly, or alleged disorderly houses in the city” shut down tonight.

“The order was the subject of comment, as it has been insisted that no such resorts existed in Troy, and that a previous order for closing them was in effect,” a Budget reporter writes.

“Of course, it has been a matter of common knowledge that resorts of the kind referred to have been running, especially in what is notoriously known as ‘The Red Light District,’ the previous order to close having been, in a camouflage way, obeyed for a little while and then the pretense of compliance being thrown off.”

The “Red Light District” is located on Sixth Avenue near the Union Depot. “Disorderly house” is the common euphemism of the time for a brothel.

Despite previous crackdowns, “the open and bold parade of inmates of such places upon the streets, often in the company of young men, has had its effect.

“The presence in the city these days of large numbers of soldiers and students is said to have had a direct influence in causing the latest order to be issues, as the resorts are known to be traps for young men of both classes.”

Cahill summons Troy’s four precinct captains this afternoon and “told them in an emphatic manner that the resorts must be closed and kept closed.” The order applies mainly to the Second and Third precincts, the “Red Light District” being part of the Second.

Second Precinct captain James B. Shaughnessy posts men at the front and rear of known disorderly houses this evening. “I’ll see that [Cahill’s order] is strictly enforced,” he tells the Budget, “and that the places complained of are kept closed.”

The latest crackdown also covers saloons that stay open past midnight on Saturdays, in order to stop “carousing in saloons and cafes, with hilarious antics on the streets after midnight.”

An anonymous Troy resident tells the Budget reporter that “Special attention should be given to the alley dives in this new crusade.

“They are among the vilest imaginable, frequented as they are by the lowest type of blacks and a still lower type of whites. It is notorious that they are dens of the vilest kind, and that frequent complaint of robber comes from men, mostly strangers in the city, who have been inveigled into them.”

At midnight, “comparative quiet” reigns in downtown Troy, but “it remains to be seen how long this latest order against vice of various kinds will be effective.”