of girls who lent themselves to their
purposes. Sometimes they were in league with the managers, and a girl
who held back would find her chances imperilled; sometimes these men
would even finance shows to give a chance to some favourite.

Afterward Toodles turned to listen to Oliver and his companion; and
Montague sat back and gazed about the room. Next to him was a long
table with a dozen, people at it; and he watched the buckets of
champagne and the endless succession of fantastic-looking dishes of
food, and the revellers, with their flushed faces and feverish eyes and
loud laughter. Above all the tumult was the voice of the orchestra,
calling, calling, like the storm wind upon the mountains; the music was
wild and chaotic, and produced an indescribable sense of pain and
confusion. When one realized that this same thing was going on in
thousands of places in this district it seemed that here was a flood of
dissipation that out-rivalled even that of Society.

It was said that the hotels of New York, placed end to end, would reach
all the way to London; and they took care of a couple of hundred
thousand people a day--a horde which had come from all over the world
in search of pleasure and excitement. There were sight-seers and
"country customers" from forty-five states; ranchers from Texas, and
lumber kings from Maine, and mining men from Nevada. At home they had
reputations, and perhaps families to consider; but once plunged into
the whirlpool of the Tenderloin, they were hidden from all the world.
They came with their pockets full of money; and hotels and restaurants,
gambling-places and pool-rooms and brothels--all were lying in wait for
them! So eager had the competition become that there was a tailoring
establishment and a bank that were never closed the year round, except
on Sunday.

Everywhere about one's feet the nets of vice were spread. The head
waiter in one's hotel was a "steerer" for a "dive," and the house
detective was "touting" for a gambling-place. The handsome woman who
smiled at one in "Peacock Alley" was a "madame"; the pleasant-faced
young man who spoke to one at the bar was on the look-out for customers
for a brokerage-house next door. Three times in a single day in another
of these great caravanserais Montague was offered "short change"; and
so his eyes were opened to a new kind of plundering. He was struck by
the number of attendants in livery who swarmed about him, and to whom
he gave tips f