THE KING OF SKATS IN SARATOGA PARK (1904)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Starting around 1904-1905, Saratoga Park began to develop a sinister reputation, as young men began using it for the purposes of selling illegal narcotics, assaulting park-goers, and simply loafing about and insulting anyone who walked into the park. This was a new phenomenon to the people of the district who did not understand how or why the neighborhood children had begun to disrespect their elders in such a way. One article of the time blamed the parents as much as the boys. They interpreted the occurences as the acts of disaffected sons of respectable families who had little to do with their time, were not forced to take responsibility for their actions, and could not be held chargeable by the police because their parents, who were influential, did not want their sons’ names in the papers: “These young men were night hawks. Sons of respectable, but indulgent, parents, they did about as they liked. They worked always in small groups and gloried in the thought that they could lick any cop which came their way. The groups would assemble on some street corner near the park and use insulting language to girls and women passing.” An indication of what was to come played out in the newspapers between 1905 and 1909, […]
