Three Men to Watch Each West Side Block

From The Indianapolis News, Tuesday, March 13, 1923: The West Indianapolis Civic League for the Enforcement of Law West of White River met last night and selected officers. Three men, known as captains, will be assigned to every square in West Indianapolis to watch for and report to the central committee any violations of the law. These will then be reported to the proper authorities and action urged. “Blind tigers might as well move out of West Indianapolis because we’re going to get them,” one league official said. Bootleggers ply their trade in that part of the city and illicit whisky is made there constantly. More than 500 citizens attended the first meeting of the league and voted to conduct an energetic campaign against vice and violations of the liquor law until West Indianapolis is a fit place for children.

“Three Men to Watch Each West Side Block,” The Indianapolis News, 13 March 1923, p. 1:7

Actress Collapses in City Court Trial

From The Indianapolis Star, Thursday, March 8, 1923: The city court trial of Jessie McDonald, a Chicago chorus girl, charged with public indecency, ended yesterday and Judge Delbert Wilmeth took his findings under advisement. McDonald was arrested following a performance of The Mischief Makers at the Broadway Theater after Rev. Charles Winders, Indianapolis Church Federation secretary, said the police chief had failed to prevent indecent shows in Indianapolis theaters. Rev. Winders testified he had attended a performance at the theater last week and that McDonald, although wearing bloomers within an inch of her knee, was “thinly clad and danced in a suggestive manner extending the middle part of her body.” The trial follows a long period during which Rev. Winders has sought to change the character of performances at the theater which are attended by many young boys and women.

“Actress Collapses in City Court Trial,” The Indianapolis Star, 8 March 1923, p. 17:2

Graves of City's Founders May be Terminal Site

From The Indianapolis Times, Monday, February 26, 1923: “I’m the last member of the Nowland family, and I certainly do regret to see the memory of my ancestor and the other pioneer citizens of Indianapolis desecrated in this way,” Edwin Nowland said in response to an Indiana state senate bill which provides for the confiscation of historic Greenlawn Cemetery for the site of a freight terminal for the traction companies. Overgrown with weeds, cluttered with junk and the city’s refuse, the graves of pioneers receive no attention from the citizens of the city which these men and women founded. The names of many families prominent in the early history of Indianapolis appear on broken slabs and markers in the dilapidated cemetery. “It is an outrage. The people should make this a beauty spot. Their memory should be respected,” Nowland declared.

“Graves of City’s Founders May be Terminal Site,” The Indianapolis Times, 26 February 1923, p. 2:2