ABSTRACT
Any discussion of American urban imagery would be incomplete if it ignored the question of urban disorder—and the associated questions about the ability of police to keep the peace or about the all-too-frequent outbreaks of violence between certain city groups. The sociologist's concern with how social order is constructed and maintained naturally leads him to be interested in how social order becomes disrupted or partly breaks down. Fan-tan, the sale of lottery-tickets, opiumsmoking, disorderly houses, and gambling in all its forms, if not strictly repressed are to be found night and day. The gambling fraternity in New York have their clearing-houses and exchanges just as well known and just as prominent as those of the business institutions in the lower part of the town. Chinatown has its own government for which two parties at least are generally contending.
