While it has aptly earned comparisons to Erik Larson's "The Devil in the White City", Karen Abbott's "Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul" deserves praise without any comparisons. It is an enthralling read through some of the seedier aspects of turn-of-the-century Chicago life. Focusing on the Everleigh sisters, famous brothel owners, Abbott interweaves the push for reform that widespread prostitution created, highlighting the ministers and lawyers who devoted their lives to stopping exactly what the Everleigh sisters had built their lives doing.
Ada and Minna Everleigh were enigmatic brothel owners - no one knew much about their past, for the sisters fabricated story after story and shaved at least a decade off of their actual years. They built up the Everleigh Club in Chicago's Levee district, an upscale brothel that demanded its women (or "butterflies" as they wre called) be clean, well-educated, as ladylike as possible, and not employ any tricks or drugs to steal money from a client. As soon as they arrived in the Levee, the Everleigh Club was a success, vastly outearning the neighboring brothels, starting off a jealousy that would cause the Everleigh sisters many headaches and heartaches later on.
But as the Everleigh Club was gaining fame and notoriety (not just in Chicago), reformers such as lawyer Clifford Roe and minister Ernest Bell, fought tooth and nail to have the Levee destroyed. It wasn't enough to have prostitution segregated from the rest of society - it must be ended once and for all. Why these reformers, especially Bell, targeted the Everleigh Club is ironic, since it was the one club that did not engage in the seedier aspects of the profession: there was no drug use allowed, and no white slaves were ever forced to work in the club, a trade which was the primary target of the reformers' crusade.
"Sin in the Second City" is an eye-opening look at an aspect of Chicago history that has been swept under the rug for over a decade. Abbott has done a tremendous amount of research, trying to piece together the real stories of the lives of the "Scarlet Sisters". Abbott has a lot of territory to cover in this book, from the sisters and their prostitutes, to the reformers, to the network of politicians and policemen who made the Levee possible, and she manages to do so seamlessly. It is difficult to put this book down, but the ending seems to come too fast after such an incredible build-up of events. While the book is not wholly about the Everleigh sisters, I wish there would have been more time devoted to what happened to them after they left the Levee and tried to remake themselves yet again.
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