TITLE: Tar Flat Dens.
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, 6 October 1876, page 5.
TRANSCRIBER: SFgenealogy.
NOTES: None.

TAR FLAT DENS.

The Dives and Nurseries of Crime in that Locality.

The Breeding Place of Hoodlums Explored – Midnight Raid Upon Bumshops - A Dark Side of City Life.

The Barbary Coast has long been known as the hot-bed of crime in this city, and but a few years ago it was unsafe for a man to explore its nooks and bays unattended by an officer, and even then there was considerable danger in the attempt. The efforts of the police have been directed to the suppression of the worst forms of vice in this locality, with some degree of success, and that portion of the city bounded by Market, Howard, Second and Main streets, known as Tar Flat, has now become the haunt of criminals of the lowest class, and the stronghold of the most vicious hoodlums. Assaults and robberies are frequent, and occasionally a murder calls public attention to the desperate characters who have no fear of God nor man before them, and who easily escape the officers in the dark and dangerous alleys and the low dives kept by their partners in crime. The hoodlum is present here in all his glory. As soon as night falls, small groups being to collect around

THE CORNER SALOONS

And in the shadows of dark doorways watching for their prey. Their favorite pastime is following some inebriate until out of sight of an officer, and then beating or robbing him, as their inclination may suggest. One of the peculiarities of Tar Flat is the little saloon, kept generally by a woman, where vile whisky and viler females debuse the miserable wreches who wander around this locality, drunken and debauched, a slur on the name of humanity. The saloon, or rumshop – for it can scarcely be dignified by the name of saloon – consists usually of three rooms on a level with the street, the first containing a bar with a few black bottles on the shelf and a barrel of slop beer under the counter; the second or middle room is used as a lounging place, and the back room is usually a chamber. Occasionally, in the larger establishments, there is an upstairs to the place, furnished very respectably. In the lounging room will generally be found two or three women of unprepossessing appearance, the very scum of the slums, waiting for some customer to treat them to a glass of whisky.

THE KEEPER OF THE DEN.

Usually sits in this room, entering the bar-room only when a drink is called for, and returning immediately when the transaction is concluded, for the law prohibits a woman from being in any place where liquor is sold between the hours of 6 P.M. and 6 A.M. The police find it difficult to catch them in the bar-room, as an innocent-looking small boy, with a dirty face and a generally listless appearance, sits upon the doorstop and gives timely warning of any disturbance in astronomical circles that causes a “a star” to approach in suspicious proximity to the den. Some of these places are licensed to sell liquor, and the only way in which the law is violated is in the presence of women behind the bar. In the unlicensed places more precautions are taken against the incursions of the predatory policemen, the spiritous liquor being concealed in various out of the way places, such as in the bed, the stove, etc. Detective McKenna has been detailed to look after the license business in its different branches, and is actively engaged in breaking up the worst of those dens, especially those that are unlicensed. Many of the women evade the law in regard to being in a saloon by keeping a few dusty, fly-specked packaged on the selves and calling the dive a grocery. Strictly speaking this is no protection, but the officers do not prosecute the cases against such places as actively as against the dives where nothing but liquor is kept. Lick alley, leading off First street, is a foul nest of these dives, and there are several on Jessie street and First street.

A MIDNIGHT RAID.

On Saturday night detective McKenna, accompanied by a CHRONICLE report, with officers Marshall and Downey withint hailing distance, made a tour of Tar Flat and explored the dark, reeking abodes of misery and crime. Turning into Lick alley and picking their way among the debris and ragged children that encumbered the sidewalk, the two curious explorers saw the worst side of this miserable state of existence in all its hideous deformity and wretchedness. From the windows of low one-story houses, a sickly light shone through the mist, the only sign to notify the passer-by of the nature of the establishment. Peering through a half-open door, two or three hags could be seen, generally in the middle room, conversing and drinking with an equal number of rough-looking men, and sometimes could be seen a child breathing this atmosphere of crime and degradation, its young mind already poisoned and polluted with the ribald jests and profanity of those who should be its protectors from influences that corrupt the moral nature, and destroy all the natural attributes of childhood. While yet young in years, these children of the night to whom the bright side of life is as great a mystery as the hereafter, become adepts in petty crimes, and old in suffering. Their very sports partake of the vicious nature of the life they see around them. The innocent games of childhood are unknown, and in their stead is pilfering, torture of the poor animals unfortunate enough to be their playfellows and imitation of the brutality and sin that is constantly before their eyes. No wonder that hoodlumiam and prostitution are on the increase, when they are fostered and matured in such dens as these. Occasionally the door and winow are kept closed, the light only struggling through the rickety blinds and transom, but the shouts of coarse laughter or the curses of some drunken brawler tell a vidid tale of the scene within where

THE LOWEST OF THE LOWEST

Are holding their midnight carousal. Here and there a santily clad, barefooted child is seen hurrying along to a dive with a broken earthen pitcher that has evidently been an active agent in many a family unpleasantness, to purchase the poison for its miserable parents to stupefy themselves with. Assuming as nearly as possible the general appearance and gait of a pair of stragglers, the detective and the reporter strolled along First street unnoticed by the cappers and sentinels in the doors of the saloons, until a rumshop kept by a woman named Jones was reached. Three or four women were seen in the bar-room talking with two men, and before the alarm could be given the detective sprang into the room, interrupting a hearty laugh midway. The appearance was so sudden that the grin on the old woman's face remained while her eyes expressed the most intense astonishment. The effect was decidedly picturesque, but it did not last long. The backdoor afforded a means of exit of which the other women suddenly availed themselves, and a thorough search of the premises resulted in the capture of only one of them. During the search among the neighboring roocries, an up-stairs arrangement was stumbled upon and that phase of dive life seen in all its details. The face of the arrest was almost instantly known to the neighboring saloons, and when they were visited the women were quietly seated in the back room, leaving the bar entirely deserted. The only way in which these places can be broken up is by continual raids and the imposing of fines to such an extent as to render the business unprofitable, when of course it will be abandoned. Until it is broken up the hoodlum will reign supreme in that portion of the city and the worst of crimes stain the name of San Francisco. The officers have a great many difficulties to contend with, but considering the small number available for such work the raids so far have been very successful.

TAR FLAT THIEVES.

The region of Tar Flat is honored with an association of youthful thieves and hoodlums, know by the name of the “Tar Flat Crowd.” The depredations of this gang have been the cause of much tribulation to merchants and ship-owners whose property has been subjected to visitis of its predatory members. The three principal members of the ganage are “Bull” Johnson, “Dumpy” McKee and Pat Galloway, who has as yet not been honored with any special appellation. The operations of the gang have been somewhat limited since the incarceration of John Wilcox, the leading spirit of the “crowd,” but business is again assuming a brighter look and the faces of the hoodlum members are once more radiant with the consciousness of success in the thieving line. The headquarters of the gang are located in teh vicinity of Harrison and Spear streets, where two old ships' cabins and a few caves under the wharves afford ample sleeping and meeting accomodations for those hoodlums who have been exiled from their homes and friends. A few weeks ago a number of barrels of liquor were stored temporarily on a wharf in that vicinity, and in a few hours subsequently there were found to be emtpy. The water rats had bored holes up through the wharf into the barrel and allowed the liquid to trickle into cans beneath, after which they carried it away to use during the conclaves of the association. River steamers loaded with produce are also the objects of much attention on the part of the young thieves, and sacks of potatoes and vegetables are pilfered in large quantities and disposed of to grocery-keepers and vegetable dealers, who ask no questions if they have to pay small prices.