ntage--Blackmail. C'est pour rire."

Who are these women who are brought in a crowd together? One of them
older than the rest is a foreigner plainly dressed in black silk with
a gold chain. She does not seem particularly evil, but rather
respectable. The others are in long cloaks or waterproofs hastily
donned and through which are glimpses of pink stockings. They have
hair of that disagreeable butter color which speaks of peroxide. There
has been a raid on a west-side street of a house of ill repute. Some
testimony is given and the older woman, the "Madam" is held in bail
for the action of the Grand Jury while the rest are held for further
evidence. The judge tells us there will probably not be enough
testimony and they will be released in the morning. But unless bail
is found they will spend the night in cells.

A nervous, excited woman comes in--two policemen are with her. She has
been arrested for disorderly conduct on Sixth Avenue near Thirty-first
Street. She has been fighting with a man who has also been arrested
and taken to the men's Night Court. Hers is a hard, tough face of the
lowest type.

"Why should you try to scratch the man's face? What did he do?" the
judge asks. "Is he your husband?"

"My husband, your Honor? Yes, I guess you can call Al that. We lives
up town and when I went out he says to me, 'Hustle, kid, you got to
hustle, the rent's due and if you don't get the money I'll break your
neck.' The slob won't work. Well, a night like this you couldn't make
a cent and I only had half a dollar and I wanted to get a bite to eat.
I hadn't had a thing since four o'clock, and then I met Al going down
Sixt' Avenue an' he tries to swipe me fifty cents off me and I was
that wild I wanted to tear him. I'm sorry; I guess it was my fault. I
don't want to see him jugged, so please let me off, your Honor, and I
won't make no trouble."

"Take her record," said the judge, "and hold her as a witness against
the man."

A string of women are brought in for sentence who have been having
finger prints taken in the adjoining room. The judge proceeds to
impose sentences according to the previous records which are shown.
Some of the women are those who have passed in front before. The
little bedraggled woman with the red feather has been arrested seven
times in sixteen months. Another has spent eight weeks in the
workhouse out of a period of seven months; another has been sent
already to the Bedford Reformatory; anoth