ABSTRACT
The good old days never were that good, except for a lucky few. To lift the veil of nostalgia from what actually existed reveals not only a harsh and uncertain life for most, but a public morality not much different from our own except in degree of permissiveness. The penny presses of the American Victorian era filled their pages with scandal. The working class had cheap, bawdy entertainment in vaudeville houses and the even more raucous concert saloons. The sinful pleasures of the wealthy sometimes revealed themselves as they do today, but otherwise the rich publicly showed their mettle by attending operas, plays, balls, and private dinners, again just as they do today.
