Harry M. Beardsley, "Chicago 'Bad Lands' Reclamation is Near But Halsted Street District is a Thriving One Despite Gun Play," Chicago Daily News (March 25,1922); 10.

The bark of sawed-off shotguns; the crack of automatic pistols; the red glare of fire in the sky by night; newspaper headlines reeking of murder, violence and disaster-these have flaunted the story of Chicago's "bad lands"-the district centering about Halsted street and Roosevelt road.

This is Chicago's "Dark and Bloody Ground," the battlefield of the nineteenth ward political feudists; home grounds of the hard-boiled "Valley Gang" in their battles of extermination with the police, with rival gangsters and with each other; scene of some of the city's most disastrous fires and explosions.

These "bad lands" have been "bad" economically as well as morally. Their development has been checkered; but those interested in their progress believe that their reclamation and rejuvenation is not far distant.

Is Heart of Ghetto

In addition to the ill-famed Valley"-the patch between Racine avenue and the railway tracks, West 14th and West 16th streets-this district contains the heart of Chicago's ghetto, the picturesque Maxwell street market, a volatile section of the Italian colony, a colorful Grecian colony, Hull House, the most famous settlement house in America; a large warehouse, jobbing and manufacturing district and a shopping and business center different from any in the city.

The signs and window displays along Halsted street tell the story. From West Congress street south to Polk street Greek meets Greek. The names "Atlas," "Minerva," "Marathon," "Olympia," recur again and again in the signs of business establishments. Olive oil, Grecian and Turkish tobacco, water pipes, peppers, Turkish paste, imported canned goods and delicacies are displayed in the windows. There are more than a score of Greek coffee houses along Halsted street and others on Harrison street, Blue Island avenue and Polk street. Here swarthy men, with wondrous curling mustachios, sit around marble topped tables sipping sirupy coffee from tiny cups, smoking their water pipes or long cigarettes, talking, dozing or playing cards.

"Diamond Joe's" Stamping Ground

South of Polk street the lithographs of Atlas, Minerva and Grecian athletes are displaced by chromes of Enrico Caruso, the Bay of Naples, and political posters bearing the visage of and imploring votes for "Diamond Joe" Esposito. The windows are filled with spaghetti, ravioli, macaroni. The coffee house groups are displaced by little knots of men gathered on the sunny side of the street deep in earnest conversation.

Here is De Koven street, where Mrs. O'Leary's nineteenth ward cow kicked over the lamp on the night of October 9,1871. Beyond De Koven street the tenor of the signs changes again. The portraits of Caruso give way to those of the poetic looking Ben Ami, appearing at Yiddish theater at Blue Island avenue and Roosevelt road.

"Fire Sale", "Forced to Close," "Mighty Price-Slashing Sale", the banners across the street fronts proclaim. The section from De Koven street south is predominantly Jewish. It contains the principal business houses of the district, houses that prosper despite the fact that their old customers have moved away and that the nineteenth ward has decreased nearly 10,000 in population during the past ten years.

Stores Are Busy Spots

Two of the largest department stores outside of the loop are located here. A great part of their patronage is former residents of the district-Irish and Bohemian families who moved south, north and west years ago, but with their children and their grandchildren continue to come to Twelfth and Halsted to shop, to bank and transact business. One department store maintains bus service between its establishment and elevated railway stations two miles away in order to serve customers who come from afar.

The Halsted-Roosevelt shopping district is unique in that it has practically no night trade or night crowds. The local population is not sufficient to support night traffic, and there are no theaters, ballrooms or other amusements to attract people from other parts of the city.

Just south of Roosevelt road is Maxwell street - the market place of the ghetto. Here the streets are lined with pushcarts and booths filled with merchandise of all kinds-clothing, house furnishings, food stuffs, crates of live poultry, tanks of live fish, barrels of fresh and salted fish, meats, vegetables, boxes of nuts, coffee, dried fruits, Russian candies and Kosher delicacies that can be purchased nowhere else.

Push Cart Market Seen

And here, too, are pushcarts loaded with copper vats and kettles, coils of tin and copper pipe, funnels, hydrometers, wooden spigots, capping machines, flavoring extracts and all other equipment and ingredients needed for America's most thriving home industry.

Business men and property owners of the district have not felt to the extent that was anticipated the benefits of the widening of Roosevelt road. For this reason they have been insistent that the street be opened to through traffic. The necessary appropriation has been voted by the city council and work is expected to start within a few weeks.

With the construction of the Grant Park stadium and the Illinois Central terminal, Roosevelt road should assume great importance as an east and west artery. The new Union station, the new West Side post office and the Canal street improvements are expected to give a new impetus to the entire near west side.

Ordinances for the widening of Jefferson, Des Plaines, Taylor, Polk and Clinton stress through this district have been passed by the city council, and the board of local improvements is expected to open legal proceedings soon. These streets are now forty feet wide. The new ordinances would make them a uniform width of eighty feet. This district with its fine railroad facilities would then become one of the most advantageous areas in the city for warehouses and wholesale establishments.