The Golden Room

TWO

Mi

CARTER HARRISON WINS MAYORAL RACE

INCUMBENT DEFEATS STEWART 146,208 TO 138,548

SLENDER MARGIN DUE TO

SURPRISE TURNROUND IN FIRST WARD

REFORM CANDIDATE HARRISON

PROMISES IMMEDIATE CLEAN-UP OF CITY VICE

Mi

'I spoke to Bathhouse, told him you wanted to see him,' said Aida. 'He expected the call. He and Hinky Dink are already on their way.'

Still seething, Mi

Aida picked up the paper. She sca

'Close only counts in bed,' snapped Mi

Aida continued to scan the front page. 'Mi

'What about him?'

'He's coming to Chicago soon. Mi

'What business? We'll be out of business. Harrison will see to that.'

'Why don't we find out what Bathhouse and Hinky Dink have to say?' pleaded Aida. 'Here, let me pour you a whisky.'

'Make it a double!'

Fifteen minutes later, as Mi

Mi

'We passed your money around,' Coughlin said with sincerity. 'Apparently it wasn't enough. Someone else must have come along and outspent us.'

'I don't believe you,' said Mi

'Mi

'We spent it all,' interjected Ke

'It makes no sense,' persisted Mi

'No, that's not true,' said Coughlin. 'That's what I was coming over here to tell you.'

'What do you mean, not true?' Mi

'Please sit down, Mi

'That's a slick one, Bathhouse,' said Mi

Coughlin pushed on. 'Just listen to me. Hinky Dink and I were with Mayor Harrison this morning. To congratulate him. I tell the mayor, "You can do whatever you want to do with the other houses in the Levee. But you can't close the Everleigh Club." The mayor rears up at that. "Who says I can't close the Everleigh Club? It's the one whorehouse I mean to close and fast." Then Hinky Dink speaks up and says, "Mayor, we have it on good authority it is not a whorehouse. Sure, it was once. But it isn't one now. The Everleigh Oub is a restaurant, and the girls there are dancers and entertainers." The mayor is furious. He says, "I know it's a whorehouse." So I says to him, "Mayor, you better prove that for certain before you can close it down." That shut him up for now.' Coughlin beamed at Mi

'Who's home free?' Mi

'An expensive restaurant, with special charges for seeing the girls perform, in whatever way they perform. Maybe a way can be arranged for some of them to perform upstairs if you're careful to screen all visitors.'

'But, in effect, we still don't have a house anymore,' insisted Mi

'Not exactly. You can earn enough on the restaurant to keep going, and let the girls do floor shows as entertainment.'

'You know our real money comes from upstairs.'

'So you'll lose a little for a short time,' said Coughlin cheerfully. 'Gradually, the heat will be off. The mayor will have other, more pressing matters on his mind. He can claim he reformed you and forget about it. When he does, you can resume business as usual – no more problems. So maybe you think you lost, but Hinky Dink and I say you won, in the long run you won.'

'That's a terrible scheme, but I'll go along with it for a little while, as long as you do your part.'

'Meaning?'

'Meaning that you see to it that none of the Harrison-people get in here. I don't want spies who'll try to prove we're still ru

'Hinky Dink and I will do our best. You have to do your part too.'

'Like what?'

'You have to get your girls to pledge they won't peep a word of any goings-on upstairs. That means your servants too.'

'Don't worry about the girls and the servants. They don't want the place shut down. They want their jobs.'

Ke

'Outsiders? Just one. Dr Myers from the Loop. He comes here weekly to examine the girls.'

'Can you trust him?' asked Ke

'How do I know?'

'Not good enough,' said Coughlin. 'Fire him. We have someone to replace him.' He looked at Ke

'Sounds reasonable,' said Mi

When Harold T. Armbruster received the call from Mayor Harrison's secretary, Miss Karen Grant, inviting him to drop by for a moment that afternoon to convey his thanks for the meat-packer's assistance in the election, Armbruster hesitated momentarily. He was a busy man, and normally he would have suggested it would be sufficient for the mayor to thank him on the telephone. But then Armbruster remembered something else he had read in the morning newspaper besides the election results. What he had read was very much on his mind.

He had decided that it might be a wise idea to meet with the mayor in person, after all.

'Yes, fine,' Armbruster had said. 'Tell Mayor Harrison I'll be delighted to come by this afternoon at three o'clock.'

Now, at five minutes after three, Armbruster sat comfortably in a tufted leather chair across from the mayor's roll-top oak desk.

'Congratulations,' Armbruster said again. 'It was a wonderful victory you had yesterday.'

The mayor leaned back in his own high leather swivel chair, plainly pleased with his triumph. 'Thank you for your kind words,' Harrison said, 'and more than that, thank you for your contribution. That probably made the whole thing possible. Let me repeat, Mr Armbruster, if there is ever anything that I can do for you…'

Armbruster interrupted him. 'As a matter of fact, there is something.'

'Ah, good. You need only name it.'

'There was an item that I read in the paper this morning.'

'And what was that?'

'It was about Prince Henry of Prussia, head of the German Navy, the brother to Kaiser Wilhelm. He's coming to the United States to pick up the kaiser's new yacht – and he intends to make one side trip – right here to Chicago, presumably because of our large German population. May I ask you, Mayor Harrison, is this true?'