f the clothes on the
chair. The panel is then noiselessly closed. When the visitor is about
to depart, or sometimes not until long after his departure, he discovers
his loss. He is sure the girl did not rob him, and he is completely
bewildered in his efforts to account for the robbery. Of course the
police could tell him how his money was taken, and could recover it, too,
but in nine cases out of ten the man is ashamed to seek their assistance,
as he does not wish his visit to such a place to be known. The thieves
know this, and this knowledge gives them a feeling of security which
emboldens them to commit still further depredations. The panel houses
are generally conducted by men, who employ the women to work for them.
The woman is sometimes the wife of the proprietor of the house. The
robberies nightly perpetrated foot up an immense aggregate. The visitors
are mainly strangers, and many of these go into these dens with large
sums of money on their persons. The police have been notified of losses
occurring in this way, amounting in a single instance to thousands of
dollars. The majority of the sums stolen are small, however, and the
victims bear the loss in silence. The police authorities are thoroughly
informed concerning the locality and operations of these establishments,
but they suffer them to go on without any effort to break them up.

IV. THE CONCERT SALOONS.

There are about seventy-five or eighty concert saloons in New York,
employing abandoned women as waitresses. The flashiest of these are
located on Broadway, there being nearly twenty of these infamous places
on the great thoroughfare between Spring and Fourth streets. During the
day they are closed, but one of the most prominent sets out before its
doors a large frame containing twenty or thirty exquisite card
photographs, and bearing these words, "Portraits of the young ladies
employed in this saloon." It is needless to say that the pictures are
taken at random from the stock of some photograph dealer, and have no
connection whatever with the hags employed in the saloon. The Bowery,
Chatham street, and some of the streets leading from Broadway, contain
the greater number of these concert saloons. The majority are located in
the basements of the buildings, but one or two of the Broadway
establishments use second story rooms. These places may be recognized by
their numerous gaudy transparencies and lamps, and by the discordant
strai