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 Except a loaned book." 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gii i of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
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 B L 
 
 OF 
 
 NEW YORK LIFE 
 
 AND ITS 
 
 CRIMINAL CLASSES 
 
 from Fifth Avenue down to the Five Points. 
 
 A COMPLETE NARRATIVE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 1873. 
 
In 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873 by Fmdk. Giehard, in the Office of the 
 Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Whoever has not yet lived for some years in the Metro- 
 polis of the World or had at the same time an oppor- 
 tunity to tal :ep insight into the innermost recesses of 
 New York lite, and who has not made it his business dili- 
 gently to follow up the vices and crimes that are ever occur- 
 ring, and to penetrate to the causes that give rise to them, 
 has no conception, and can have no conception how terribly 
 the whole social life of this city-world is cankered ; how in 
 one shape or another temptation and crime lurk about to 
 draw into their toils the unwary and confiding, and to un- 
 dermine and destroy all peace, honor, decency, and every 
 happiness of life; how too, shame and infamy have their 
 home not only in the dens of the "Five Points" and other 
 such notorious quarters of the town, but how they sit en- 
 throned even in the mansions of the rich on Fifth Avenue, 
 there to celebrate their orgies, and to fatten on Deceit, 
 Swindling, Robbery, Theft and Murder. The scenes which 
 present themselves in a single week in New York, would, 
 if they were exposed in all their details instead of being for 
 the greater part hidden in the records of the police and 
 the detectives, fill the reader with astonishment, fright and 
 horror. The newspapers supply only isolated and selected 
 data, and give besides but a very feeble and imperfect pic- 
 ture which hardly gives the truth, still less touches it. 
 
 London and Paris contain within their limits much that 
 is bad, but they are far exceeded by New York; although 
 this ought not to excite much wonder since in New York 
 peculiar circumstances exist from which those cities do not 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 suffer. First there is the wretched misgovernment under 
 which this city has for so many years labored; a police 
 which in the first place is not sufficient in number, but then 
 also — as the penalties imposed almost weekly upon police 
 officers for offences against the regulations show — made up 
 for the greater part of people who do not care to know 
 their duties; then the bad administration of justice in the 
 courts through in part incompetent or corrupt judges; and 
 again the circumstance that immigration brings every year 
 to our port a number of people, of whom the greater part 
 remains in New York, and among whom there are so many 
 of doubtful character, who would rather fish in the troubled 
 waters of a great city, than attain respectability by founding 
 for themselves a home in the West upon diligence and labor. 
 Lastly it must also be taken into consideration that in no 
 other city in the world exists such a comglomeration of all 
 nationalities as in New York. According to the last census 
 of the United States, taken in 1870, there lived then in this 
 city 942,292 persons. Of this number, there were born here 
 510,553 white, and 12,645 colored. There were from Ger- 
 many, including Austria and Switzerland, 148,213; from 
 England 24,985, Scotland 7,551, Ireland 201,999, France 
 8,240, Belgium 328, Italy 2,789, Spain 453, Portugal 90, 
 Russia 1,139, Poland 2,392, Bohemia 1,847, Sweden 1,569, 
 Norway 373, Denmark 680, Turkey ^8, Canada 3,450, Me- 
 xico 56, Central America 16, South America 202, The West 
 Indies 1,595, China 103. Then there were still 10,898 white 
 persons, born in other countries and parts of the world not 
 defined, and lastly 448 colored people belonging to different 
 nationalities of the colored race in other parts of the world. 
 This is, in very truth, a mixed population such as nowhere 
 else exists. 
 
 In the present work everything will be set forth which 
 belongs to the dark side of New York life or which stands 
 in any relation to it whatever. This information will be 
 given under the following heads: 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 Pauperism — The Street Children— The New York Police— The New York De- 
 tective Force — The United States Secret Service — The Private Detectives — The 
 Thieves, (Pickpockets, Shoplifters, Sneak Thieves, Burglars, Bond and Bank Rob- 
 bers, Safe Operators, Railway and Stage Thieves, River and Dock Thieves) The 
 
 Rogues Gallery— The "Fences"— The Garrotters— The Swindlers (73 different classes) 
 — Prostitution, (Street Walkers, Houses of Prostitution, Houses of Assignation, Panel- 
 houses, Colored Prostitutes) — The Concert Saloons — Dance Houses — Picnics The 
 
 Gambling Houses, (Faro, Roulette, Keno, Monte, &c.) — Abortionists— Quacks — Lu- 
 natic Asylums — Counterfeiters and Counterfeit Money Speculators — Check and Not* 
 Forgers — The Prisons — The Police Courts — The Criminal Courts — Tombs Shysters — 
 Fortune Tellers — The Mediums — Lottery and Policy — Pawnbrokers — The 'Personals' 
 in the Newspaper Press — Bogus Intelligence Offices — Bogus Ticket Offices — Emigrant 
 Boarding Houses and Emigrant Svindlers — Matrimonial Bureaux — Adventurers and 
 Cheats — Black Mailing — Mock Auctions — The Trade in Obscene Literature — News* 
 paper Advertisements — The Theatres of the Lower Classes — The Baar-rooms and 
 
 their Visitors — Loafers and Rowdies — Prize-fighters — Dog-fights and Cocking-mains 
 
 Public Conveyances — The Tenement Houses — Professional Beggars — Murders and 
 Suicides — Missed and Lost Persons — The Morgue. 
 
 The work will give a description of the dark side of 
 New York life as it really is; it will confine inself strictly to 
 the truth, and will present a number of the most interesting 
 cases which bear upon the subject of which the work treats 
 and which are taken from the records of the courts, of the 
 notes of the detectives, and from other authentic sources. 
 
 Besides the observations of the author made during- 
 
 o 
 
 many years, other sources have been drawn upon for this 
 work. First among these are the communications of an 
 old member of the New York Detective force (Mr. Geo 
 S. Waiters) and then the following additions to an Ameri- 
 can literature which during the past years have treated 
 upon the subject; namely: "The dangerous classes of 
 JMew York and twenty-five years among them," by Chas. 
 .L. Brace; "Memoirs of the United States secret service, ,, 
 by Captain G. P. Burnham ; "The Nether Side of New 
 York, or the vice, crime and poverty of the great Metropo- 
 lis," by Edward Crapsey; "Light and Shadows of New 
 York, Life," by J. D. McCabe, Jr. ; "Sunshine and Shadow 
 in New York," by M. H. Smith; the most recent annual 
 reports of the authorities, and other authentic publica- 
 tions. To all of the above authors we express our obliga- 
 tions. 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Thus this book will prove a book of the highest interest, 
 and a perfect picture of the Night Side of New York life, 
 not only to those who live in the city, but, since New York 
 is the Metropolis of the country, to all the inhabitants of the 
 United States; and not interesting only, for since it is at 
 the same time instructive, it must also be useful. Only a 
 few even of those who live in New York know the dangers 
 which daily and hourly surround them and theirs. How 
 many are there who, living at a distance, come here on 
 business, and who have not already been the victims of crime 
 of every kind, because they knew not the traps that were 
 set for them ! And how many in distant states who have 
 never set foot in New York and never intend coming hither, 
 have not been already robbed of their money and their pro- 
 perty by the hundreds of swindlers, who, residing here, cast 
 out their nets hence over the whole country. ■ 
 
 Whoever reads this book, will — we hope — not lay it 
 aside dissatisfied; it will not only afford him interesting 
 reading, but through it he will obtain an accurate knowledge 
 of New York and the doings of its dangerous classes, and 
 thus be safe against all their machinations and evil designs. 
 
PAUPERISM. 
 
 In all large cities the contrast between wealth and poverty must strike 
 the attention of a careful observer. Although sometimes, as in Paris, the 
 interference of the police is invoked to exclude the mendicant from fash- 
 ionable quarters, the fact remains that every large centralization of people 
 gives, to those who seek it, extreme pictures of indigence and opulence, 
 of misery and wealth. But from various circumstances the contrast which 
 such pictures afford is nowhere greater, Dor, on this continent, anywhere 
 as great, as in New York. In most cities of the " old world" the poor have 
 their chosen locality, and the rich theirs. The districts of the strugglers 
 are indisputably their own. Nor do hovels or tenement houses usually 
 exist in glaring proximity to the residences of the more highly favored. 
 But here it is otherwise. In the Metropolis of America the most abject 
 misery and the most exuberant wealth may be seen dwelling side by side. 
 Luxury and starvation are near-by neighbors. While the servants of the 
 merchant are wasteful of his abundance, want may be feeding on the vitals 
 of the poor in their garret a few doors away. In any part of our city a 
 few steps will suffice to move the inquirer from the mansion of opulence to 
 the dreary abode where starvation and squalor reign ; from the home where 
 life is burdened only with pleasure, to the bare shelter where existence can 
 hardly be esteemed a blessing. No city could more easily be made to 
 deceive the transient observer, or to belie first impressions. It would be 
 possible to give to a visitor the idea, formed atter a long ramble through 
 our streets, that we are indeed a poverty stricken people. It would be 
 equally possible to convey to another the impression that New York 
 abounds in wealth, in luxury, even in magnificence ; and that poverty is 
 unknown amongst us. And yet the scenes to which each of those persons 
 would have to be presented lie close together. No wide space separates 
 them. No gradation of comfort or discomfort lies between. It is but a 
 step from the merchant's mansion to the pauper's hovel. Wealth is every- 
 where elbowed by poverty, and being sternly told that social equality is 
 not among the theories yet realized. Cities in the old world may surpass 
 us in riches, it is no exaggeration to say that none amongst them can pro- 
 duce more terrible illustrations of the results of indigence, idleness, and 
 dissipation. 
 
 There are various phases in which New York presents her pauperism to 
 us. We propose in the present chapter to treat of it in its worst form 
 
8 TIIE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 only, those extreme examples, which bad as they are, unfortunately are 
 not exceptional. There is a large class amongst us leading a precarious, 
 and by no means an enviable life, in tenement houses. These we shall 
 notice in a future page. They do not concern us now. They are too 
 affluent, too happy. We have to deal here with a class far — very far 
 beneath them ; a class which sets us at once face to face with poverty in 
 her most repulsive, most degrading form ; as we see her in the professional 
 city vagrant ; — the wretchedly depraved and objectless being who night 
 after night finds his lodging in the tramp room at the police station, and 
 who lives from day to day and from year to year — he knows not how. 
 The loathsome atmosphere in which these people move, the utter idleness 
 and disgusting dissipation that mark their career, rank them at once among 
 the lowest of the race. And they form a numerous tribe. Scattered by 
 day through the streets, they assemble at nightfall in the neighborhood 
 where they expect to sleep, crouching in doorways, or guzzling poisonous 
 spirits in the dram shops. In the summer they may often find a shelter in 
 places more or less exposed, but in winter the police station is their favored 
 resort. And thus collected they form a goodly band, saturated with whis- 
 key and eaten into with filth and vermin. Degraded by every vice, dis- 
 sipation and immorality, the stamp of debauchery ground into their very 
 being, they seem to have lost all semblance of humanity, and to have sunk 
 far below the brutes in their animal indulgences — and in their physical 
 appearances. 
 
 How many of us read, from week to week, that paragraph in some of the 
 papers which tells us how many arrests were made, and how many lodgings 
 were given, at the station houses of the city on the previous seven days ; 
 and how little do we heed the full force of that simple statement ! 
 
 The station ' houses thus referred to number thirty-two. In each of 
 these are two departments devoted to visitors. One belongs to those who 
 having been arrested are forcibly deprived of their liberty, the other is 
 devoted to the class we are about to depict, who voluntarily seek a friendly 
 shelter wherein to find a night's rest. Those houses which the most marked 
 specimens of New York paupers chiefly patronage, are in Oak and Mercer 
 Streets. In either of these, as evening approaches, may be seen a long 
 string of candidates for a lodging. They come mysteriously together as 
 the day departs, and wait about till the time to rest arrives. Their appli- 
 cations are rarely refused, although it was not for vagrants such as these 
 that the accommodation was originally intended ; and if refusals are made 
 it is either upon that ground, or else because the rooms are already filled. 
 There are usually two of these, built over the prisoners cells and separated 
 from the main building by a small yard. One is devoted to males and the 
 other to females. Upon the stone floor are a number of deal boards. 
 These constitute the most luxurious couches, and the first arrivals appro- 
 priate and keep them with jealous care. Those who arrive later are con- 
 
PAUPERISM. 9 
 
 tent with the stones to lie upon. But here it is well to notice the apparent 
 horror which the filthy creatures have for fresh air. The room is about 
 eighteen feet square, and may be calculated generally to contain about thirty 
 tramps, although sometimes that number is doubled. One would think 
 that under such circumstances alone, to pay nothing of the dirty condition 
 of the occupaut* and the foul odours that arise from their often wet clothes 
 and steaming bodies, a little ventilation would be a blessing. But no ; 
 these miserable people can no more endure pure air than they can com- 
 prehend the value ot healthy labor ; and so every crevice, every hole where 
 -a little good air might enter, or a little of the poisoned atmosphere of the 
 room might escape, is most scrupulously closed. Enter that room a couple 
 of hours after the arrivals for the night have begun, and the stench is 
 sickening. Look into it, and what a scene presents itself! It is a reeking 
 mass of humanity and filth. Men huddled together in a heterogeneous 
 mass ; — some sleeping, some stupid with drink, some picking the vermin 
 from their clothes and distributing them among their neighbors, some stark 
 naked, others in all the rags that belong to them and still uncovered ; and 
 all dissipated, brutal, and depraved. Nor is the sight that meets us in the 
 woman's room much better. If the occupants are less numerous, the infamy 
 seems more thorough. Hags, such as no imagination ever pictured, are 
 there to be met in full reality ; drunken, obscene, vicious, the very personi- 
 fication of all impurity. 
 
 And there they sleep in a surrounding of fermenting squalor till daylight 
 comes and a police constable warns them to the streets again. And what 
 to do? Two things only are they certain of, idleness and drink. Perhaps 
 if they knew anything of the doctrine of chances they might attain to some 
 kind of comprehension as to the probabilities of getting a breakfast. But 
 they are content to leave calculations of that kind severely alone. They 
 rarely work. If the temptation be very great, some may now and then be 
 induced to earn an honest dollar ; but such cases are exceptional. They 
 prefer to exist by mendicancy and " cadging." They beg, and, unfortu- 
 nately for them, begging usually pays. When it does not, they are not 
 reluctant to pilfer. Not that they are prone to habitual stealing. Indeed 
 theft is no part of their programme. But the appropriation of very uncon- 
 sidered trifles as a means of sustaining the little life that is in them, they 
 do not object to. Any money that they obtain goes into the till of the 
 dram shop. Drink is their main support, and if ever they work, it is that 
 drink may be procured. Offer them work and they will not take it. 
 Direct them to where it can be procured and they will not go. Get them 
 to do some, and they will take a few cents " on account" just to get " a 
 i)ite of victuals," then go away and never more return. Yet in a sense 
 they flouiish. There are hundreds of these vagrants who have been known 
 to the police for years. What they were once, they are now — neither bet- 
 ter nor worse ; just as poor, just as depraved, not more healthy nor more 
 
10 . THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 diseased, but quite as incorrigible and perhaps more confirmed in their 
 career of indolence and depravity. Their filth and dissipation, and the 
 obnoxious atmosphere in which they pass so much of their time, instead of 
 killing, as by every rule of propriety they ought, seem rather to shield 
 them against sickness ; although it must be added that when disease does 
 overtake them in any active form, it rarely leaves them a chance to tempt 
 it again. 
 
 During the twelve months ending on April 5th, 1871, the number of 
 lodgings granted at the several station houses, according to the returns of 
 the police, was 147,780 or about 4,618 at each station. Later reports 
 than this we have not been able to obtain, but the numbers are subject to 
 a slight annual increase. The accommodations, however, are by no means 
 equalized over the several stations. For instance at some, specially the 
 1st, 2d, 3d, 9th, 11th, 14th, 16th and 28th, there is but limited room ; then, 
 the 12th, 30th, 31st and 32d are so far v removed from the haunts of the 
 vagrants, that their applications are less frequent. The great burden of 
 this business falls upon the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 
 18th, 19th, 20th and 22d stations, and we are assured that in many of 
 these it is not uncommon in winter time to supply shelter to as many as a 
 hundred people on one night. 
 
 But we must here caution the reader against supposing that all who thus 
 have recourse to the police stations are of the same character. The police 
 themselves have by experience divided them into three classes. The 
 147,780 lodgings represent about 37,800 people* Of these, 7,500 are 
 classed as casuals. It is these for whom the accommodation was originally 
 intended, — and who are the greatest sufferers by the intrusion of the pro- 
 fessional vagrant. Of the remainder, all of whom sleep habitually in the 
 station houses, 30,000 change from place to place, sleeping for a few nights 
 in one, then moving off for a few nights to another, and so making the 
 round of the city. These are known as " repeaters." The other 300 are 
 recognized as " bummers," and as such may often be found figuring in the 
 police reports on a charge of drunkenness. These 300 seldom change their 
 lodging. Their names may be found almost nightly in the records of the 
 same office, and they represent more than three-fourths of the lodgings that 
 are granted. Four-fifths of the remainder belong to the repeaters, and of 
 the whole number of casuals it is probable that very few, if any of them 
 sought the refuge more than once. 
 
 Whoever has had occasion to come in contact with the professional vag- 
 rants and to convince himself how utterly irreclaimable they are, must, 
 however favorably inclined he may feel towards the poor, have his heart * 
 steeled against them. The truly unfortunate are the casuals. For these 
 genuine pity should be due. They are easily known. If they accept the 
 accommodation offered them, they never succeed in concealing the loathing 
 that they feel for their miserable associations. But as often the disgust 
 
PAUPERISM. II 
 
 that strikes them as the friendly policeman shows them into the apartment 
 alloted to them, with its reeking, stifling, atmosphere and its repulsive 
 occupants, makes them prefer the open streets and fresh air, even without 
 a resting place and exposed to the weather, before such an alternative. 
 
 What then are the materials and the causes that go to make a casual? 
 The materials may be of the best ; the causes may be quite beyond control. 
 New York is infested with a class of people who prey upon their fellows,, 
 sometimes in the shape of landlords, sometimes as lodging-house keepers, 
 They are the curse of the city. They know no limit to their demands for 
 money, no pity for the difficulties of their victims. Many a young man of 
 respectable connection, high probity, unflinching integrity, has been driven 
 from his home as the award made him by one of these harpies, for a tempo- 
 rary pressure which may have delayed the payment of his rent or his board 
 bill. He is turned adrift into the streets. His trunks and all he possesses 
 are detained. If the night be cold or stormy the landlord rejoices over 
 his opportunity. If it be both cold and stormy the landlord chuckles with 
 glee at the sufferings of his debtor. Ladies and even children are often 
 made to bear these marks of unchristian cruelty. We could detail many 
 instances of the kind. Sometimes mayhap the victims have friends who 
 will succor them, but often not. New York is a city of strangers. Thou- 
 sands are there constantly in it who have no friends to fall back upon in 
 an emergency. These are generally the greatest sufferers. Ignorant of" 
 the moralities of the place, they meet with some of the multitude of shar- 
 pers who infest the city and thus are swindled out of their means ; or per- 
 haps have labored hard for some adventurer or some dishonest employer, 
 who, when the time for payment comes, disappears from the scene or snaps 
 his fingers at their just demands. They have thus no money, no friends, 
 no immediate resource. A few days might enable them to recover them- 
 selves, or to see the prospect of better fortune, but the landlord, or the ele- 
 gant lady who " runs" the boarding-house will not wait. These cormo- 
 rants must have their money. If it does not come when due, the " guest" 
 finds his room locked, his possessions seized, and himself or herself, as the 
 case may be, in the street. He may think that an appeal to some hotel 
 manager with a true statement of his case will at least procure him a shel- 
 ter. In some cities it might, but not in New York. " Money or bajrgage," 
 says the " gentlemanly clerk ;" and as the unhappy applicant happens at the 
 moment to have neither, he is, without too much politeness, shown into the 
 street again. Wearied possibly l>y the failure of many such application^ 
 convinced at last that there is no pity for the crime of being without money, 
 no sympathy in our great city for the deserving poor, he applies for advice 
 to a police officer, he is directed to the police station, and there begging for 
 a shelter he becomes a police casual. Temporary misfortune coupled with 
 the hardened indictiveness of another have driven him to a fate which 
 neither industry nor good intentions could prevent, while the " repeater'" 
 
12 . THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 and the '• bumnier" owe their lot to their incurable indolence, drunkenness, 
 -and depravity. 
 
 The casual deserves commiseration and he gets none. The "bummer" 
 deserves extermination and he gets encouragement instead. New York so 
 admires the breed that it henceforth intends to cultivate it. A special 
 domicile has been procured and devoted to the interesting tribe. The police 
 and the commissioners of charity finding the evil growing upon them, have 
 sought to give it wider room for growth. Instead of crushing it out of 
 existence, as, for the credit of the city, they ought to do, they propose to 
 ■cultivate it in richer soil. Instead of asking for legislation which would 
 have complied with the dictates of moral sense, and which would have 
 abolished a race that subsists only in idleness, drunkenness, and dirt, they 
 have aspired to perpetuate a blot on our social life by fostering the most 
 inveterate vagabondage. The remedy was easy and they did not give it a 
 hearing. But it still remains available, and it ought to be tried. It is 
 simple, and would certainly be effectual. The bummer dreads nothing 
 that you can do with him, nothing that you can impose upon him, if only 
 he be allowed to remain idle. Work is torture to him, labor unendurable. 
 So long as he can roam the streets by day, turn into the whiskey saloons 
 when he chooses, and find a shelter in the station house at night, he is 
 happy enough. His ambition is satisfied, he asks for no more. Offer him 
 a, job and he grows disdainful. Give him bread instead of whiskey, and 
 he spurns it. Make him work and he is miserable. Yet that is the true 
 secret which should be put in force in our dealings with him. He is a 
 disgrace to our boasted civilization, and if we would remove him, he must 
 be made to labor, made to earn his sustenance, made to do as honest men 
 have to do. Pay for the food and shelter that he cannot dispense with. 
 It is time that his existence were taken earnestly in hand by the legisla- 
 ture, if his multiplication is to be stopped ; and it assuredly is due to the 
 rest of society that so worthless, so disgusting a parasite be destroyed, 
 rather than encouraged by a mistaken and dangerous policy. 
 
 A shade higher in the social scale brings us to a multitude of people 
 who rank not with the repeaters and bummers, only because they pay a 
 few cents for accommodation which the latter gets gratuitously. They are 
 to be found in the cellar lodgings, which, if they have improved since the 
 enactment of Sanitary regulations and the establishment of the Board of 
 Health, are still dens of disease, filth, and indecency, such as the mind 
 unused to enquiries of this kind cannot conceive. Situated generally under 
 ground, devoid almost of light, and quite of ventilation, reeking with dirt, 
 and filled with a foul and pestilential atmosphere, they constitute the most 
 fertile sources of disease in every shape. The people who frequent them 
 are hardly less degraded than those we have been considering. But they 
 earn a livelihood by more reputable means and they pay for their " beds." 
 Some, probably many, are beggars. But very many make a living by 
 
TAUrERISM. 
 
 13 
 
 selling trifling articles in the streets, or by sundry little jobs clone for others. 
 They comprise people of both sexes, and of all ages. Filth and vermin 
 are their constant companions ; drink is their certain failing : and disease 
 and ruin the price they have to pay for their folly. They herd together 
 indiscriminately. Men and women, boys and girls, crowd into the miser- 
 able damp and foetid dens, reckless of all decency, so long as they can pro- 
 cure a shelter and a few hours sleep for the small pittance they have paid. 
 These people seldom occupy the same cellar habitually. They know all 
 the many places where their needs can be supplied, and they go from one 
 to another, night after night, so that each oue is constantly changing his 
 or her companions. On the ground of morality, this system is worse than 
 that connected with the station houses, but bad as it is, and impossible as 
 the fact seems, it is much better than it used to be. Indeed, the improve- 
 ment of the cellar lodgings, and the change for the better that has been 
 
 © © > © 
 
 effected in the condition of their occupants, is one of the reforms upon 
 which the Metropolitan Board of Health is said to feel much pride. 
 
 Ascendiug yet a step in the social scale, we come to a class, where begins 
 to open out a little space for our sympathy. It is made up of these poor, 
 who have not yet fallen irrecoverably iuto the meshes of absolute idleness ; 
 who have still left a spark of self-respect, and who, rather than submit to 
 the infamy of those next beneath them, are willing to labor, in order to 
 provide themselves with a separate room, and the amenities of an inde- 
 pendent home. They occupy most wretched places, it is true, but they 
 pay for them, and they have the exclusive use of them. How the} r con- 
 trive to pay for them, is not always easy to understand. But assistance 
 from the public purse is usually bestowed upon them, and hence they rank 
 in the official returns as the " out-door poor." The balance needed for- 
 their maintenance is obtained by no defmite occupation probably, but accu- 
 mulated in the many ways, which stern necessity teaches to its victims, 
 ways that, to the more favored amongst us, are unfathomable. The rooms 
 occupied by these " out-door poor" are rarely ventilated. No water, no 
 drainage. If air and water enter at all, the way is by the roof, or through 
 the walls. In 1871 the number of families in this class was 5,051, com- 
 prising 1,710 adult males, 4,405 adult females, aid 13,042 children, iu all 
 19,157 people. The amount expended upon these during the year was 
 $64,910, all of which was given to relieve absolute necessities. Amid the 
 corruption that has eaten into our political institutions, it is gratifying to 
 be able to think, that, in this distribution of money to the outside poor, 
 there is no speculation. AVe have reason to believe that it is honestly and 
 judiciously expended ; that it gets where it is intended to go, and not iuto 
 the pockets of political adventurers. If there be any gleam of light that 
 comes upon the picture of New York poverty, it is to be fouud in this one 
 exceptional occurrence of administrative honesty. 
 
 But let us glance again for a moment at the figures we have just recorded.. 
 
14: TIIE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Note the undue proportion between males and females. Two-thirds of 
 the families are without any male head, and in many of the remainder, he 
 is only a diseased and decrepit old man. Too often also the women and 
 children are worn down by poverty and starvation, to a point, where they 
 have hardly left them the strength to procure ordinary sustenance ; and in 
 the cold of winter they suffer indescribably, depending often for any little 
 warmth they have, upon such sticks and cinders as they can find in the 
 streets, or dig out of the ash barrels. The scenes presented often to the 
 visitors of the Commission of Charity, are truly heartrending. In many 
 instances death is found already to have overcome the faint sparks of life, 
 that for many weeks have been flickering out, and in others, life is only 
 maintained by vigorous remedies, immediately applied. Nor are the cir- 
 cumstances of these unhappy people much improved in summer. Then 
 the intense heat enfeebles them to the utmost verge of endurance ; and the 
 putrefying atmosphere that surrounds them, soon engenders those diseases 
 which under such combination of circumstances are most deadly. Very 
 frequently, when these families come under the notice of the Commis- 
 sioners, their rooms are found to be emptied of every stick of furniture, all 
 of which has gone, from time to time, to satisfy the greed of the landlord. 
 Often, indeed, it is found that the clothes of the poor people have served a 
 similar end, and children stark naked, adult men and women with barely 
 enough to cover them, are huddled together on a heap of rags, as the only 
 contents of the deplorable apartment. While, to their shame be it said, 
 the owners of these rooms, the men and women who ring the rent from 
 these starving wretches, are often people, who claim to belong to the upper 
 ranks of New York society, and who, a few blocks away, are leading a 
 life, if not of debauchery, at least of reckless extravagance. 
 
 As further evidence of the immense world of poverty which this city con- 
 tains, it has been found that not less than a quarter of million of people, 
 or in other words more than one-fourth of the entire population of New 
 York, are leading this miserable kind of existence in some 18,000 tene- 
 ment houses, the mortality in which in the year 1871 was 06 per cent, of 
 all the deaths that happened in the city. Besides which there are on an 
 average 10,000 children wandering the streets. Such facts as these speak 
 for themselves. They indicate the enormous prevalence of poverty 
 amongst us, and how much need there is for the attention of those, who 
 can do aught to alleviate it. Happily, and to the honor of the city it must 
 be said, the efforts of private charity are well exerted. A hundred and 
 five institutions, supported by private contributions, lend their aid to the 
 cause of relief. Many of these, such as the Five Points Mission, the 
 Children's Aid Society, the hospitals and homes for the indigent, are ever 
 at work seeking out poverty and relieving it ; so that in truth the official 
 returns, which tell us of 22,783 starving people, represent but a fraction of 
 the actual necessities of the poor. The money expended annually by 
 
PAUPERISM. 15 
 
 private charities is greater than that distributed by the Commissioners of 
 Charity and Correction, and it is so expended, that it often affords relief 
 before the last extremity is reached. It is certain, therefore, that to the 
 number stated, at least 50,000 must be added ; and even the total thus 
 obtained will not reach the actual number of the " out-door poor," who 
 every year have to depend for their existence upon the help of charity. 
 That a city like ours, young, opulent, with a population considerably less 
 than a million ; the Metropolis too of a territory, but thinly peopled, with 
 abundant natural resources, and seeking ever for new currents of immi- 
 gration ; should be weighted with such an incubus of pauperism in its very 
 worst form, is a circumstance, not less remarkable than important. Nay, 
 it is more than this, i* is serious. When we remember that our laws and 
 public institutions are in competent to remedy the evil; when we recollect 
 that if the hand of prr ic c-li irity were for one day to be withheld, a cry 
 for food would rise up ii in .nidst from tens of thousands of starving men, 
 women, and children ; we laust recognize the depth of the precipice upon 
 whose brink we stand. 
 
 It wonld be dangerous to ignore it. Those who have not cared to turn 
 their eyes in that direction, may tell us that they cannot see it. But it is 
 there, nevertheless. Any one may see it, who chooses. The sight may 
 not be agreeable. It may not be flattering to our vanity ; but still it is 
 there. If any one does not care to visit the dens it has become our duty 
 to describe, he may form some idea of the misery that surround him, by 
 merely going with eyes of observation through the streets at night. Let 
 him learn the history and circumstances of the unhappy venders of corn 
 and other trifles ; of the many importunate beggars, whom he will meet in 
 any number ; of the women and children, who, with death-like faces and 
 skeleton hands, solicit alms ; of the wearied sleepers, who are to be found 
 on door-steeps, or among the lumber that is bestrewed upon the wharves ; 
 and he will learn lessons, that too many of us perhaps would prefer not to 
 know. 
 
 Or, if he would limit his investigations yet further, and abstain from 
 entering a course of enquiry, which is repulsive to the delicate frame that 
 is wont to languish only in the perfumed atmosphere of " society," let him 
 visit the Hospital on BlackwelTs Island or Bellevue Hospital in Twenty- 
 sixth Street. At these, in the year 1871, there were 1G,522 patients 
 healed at the public expense ; and the vast majority of these were people 
 who lived a precarious and poverty stricken existence. Again, at the 
 Bureau for the relief of out-door sick, not less than 17,717 persons were 
 relieved in the same space, and 1865 more obtained assistance from the 
 Hospital for Contagious Diseases. Add to these 1,190 permanent occu 
 pants of the public almshouses, and we have 5G,451 persons, who in one 
 year were dependent upon public funds for their support, which, with the 
 50,000 who recceived relief from private sources, make a total of 106,451 
 
16 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 people, who in 1871 were classed as paupers receiving charitable aid. 
 Nor is this all. To make the picture more complete, we must add yet the 
 50,314, who during the year applied for work at the Labor Bureau of the 
 Commissioners of Charities, and then the 75,016, who became inmates of 
 the prisons and reformatories. Thus the fact confronts us, that in a total 
 population of about 1,000,000, no less than 230,000, or nearly one-fourth 
 of the whole, were dependent upon the rest for their support. Nor do the 
 statistics of successive years evidence any improvement in the record thus 
 given. 
 
 That there must, and even will, be poor in our midst, is to be expected. 
 Poverty is one of the necessary evils of our existence. It always has been, 
 and always will be. Equality or communism, call it by what name we 
 will, is not a realization. And we must be prepared to deal with poverty,, 
 and to alleviate it so that it shall be reduced to a minimum. But it is 
 surely not at that state yet in New York. On the other hand it prevails 
 to a degree that is altogether disproportionate to the extent of our popula- 
 tion, and startling probably too, when exposed before those who aie too- 
 prone to content themselves with the self-assurance, that New York pos- 
 sesses none of the miseries and squalor that are apt to be associated only 
 with older cities. 
 
 The causes for this terrible state of things are probably two-fold. First 
 stands out the fact that we have one drink-shop for every 130 of the popu- 
 lation, and that in most of these places the most poisonous liquids are sold 
 and drunk ; and then comes the superabundance of unskilled labor. Out 
 of these two influences, no results, other than poverty and crime, can be 
 looked for. When, too, it is noted that one-half of the population is herded' 
 together, without any attention to common decency, in tenement-houses ;. 
 that one-ninth gets into the gaols ; that one-eighth is dependent upon 
 charity ; that tens of thousands have no occupation ; and that such 
 depravity as we have even thus far depicted prevails, and is in a measure 
 sustained, we are justified in the assertion, that the coudition of our city is 
 one that should fill with anxiety every one who aspires to the develope- 
 ment of moral and social progress. 
 
 Thus far in this chapter we have conducted the reader through a night 
 visit to the station house lodging-rooms ; we will now lead him to some of 
 the abodes of poverty and wretchedness, as we find them in Baxter and 
 Park Streets, in Okonovam Lane, and other places of a similar kind. Let 
 us step — in company of course with a police officer, for without such escort 
 it would not be advisable for any respectable person to undertake a visit of 
 the kind — first into a cellar iu Baxter Street. We descend about twelve 
 steps and come to a cellar-door, in which is a broken window, covered up 
 with paper. We kuoek, the door opens, and before us, made visible by 
 the lantern of our companion, stands a perfectly naked little urchin of from 
 ten to twelve years of age. An Irishman, older, but quite as naked, with 
 
PAUPERISM. 17 
 
 hardened feature?, sits upright in bed, and at his side lies a woman. This 
 cellar is scarcely eight feet high, and the floor is broken through and grimed 
 in with dirt. It served once as a boarding place, held by a colored man, 
 who had been sent to Sing-Sing. The atmosphere of the room |eomed 
 deathly ; and yet, as we soon convinced ourselves, this cellar was one of" 
 the best that we visited ; for since the negro no longer occupied it, it was 
 a private dwelling, and not a lodging-house. 
 
 We reach the street again, go along the broken pavement a couple of 
 houses further, and pass through an entrance that is devoid of door. By 
 aid of the feeble light of our lantern, the floor all the while cracking and 
 creaking under us at every step, we grope our way along and come to 
 another entrance, which is partly blocked up with casks and rags ; then 
 descending some more stairs, we find ourselves in a wretched cellar with 
 bare stone walls. In this hole, which at the most is fifteen feet long, and 
 ten wide, there are huddled together more than twenty people of both sexes, 
 and of every age. The floor seems to be but one bed, consisting of dirty 
 straw ; the boards are black and filthy, and the numberless holes visible in. 
 it, show it to be as much the residence of rats, as of men. Squatted down 
 by the light of a candle end, we see three creatures who seem to be sorting 
 rags. The light from our lantern falls upon the oldest of these, and shows 
 us a wrinkled, weather beaten face, hardly like that of a human being, and 
 of which we could not determine whether it belonged to a man or a woman. 
 The other two, to judge at least from their size, are children, their visages 
 sunken and dirty, and their hair full of shreds and flecks of cotton. During 
 the day they dodge about here and there on the wharf, where cotton bales 
 are exported, to snatch a handful of the cotton when they are unobserved. 
 Most of those lying on the floor appear to be sleeping, and the emanations 
 which arise from the snoring sleepers are truly horrible. Now, a child 
 begins to cry. and as our police companion lets the light fall upon it, we 
 see a little colored child shivering with cold. " Cover up the child," says 
 our friend with a voice of authority ; another sack is thrown over it by an 
 invisible hand, and it disappears under the apparently inexplicable mass 
 which covers the ground. A night's lodging in this den costs eight to ten 
 cents. The building — if so we may term it — belongs to a rich man, a 
 broker. 
 
 We go now to John Lane's whiskey shop. It is thronged with white 
 men and prostitutes of both races ; Irish and Negroes, black and white, in 
 close friendship. As we enter and the women catch sight of the police 
 uniform, many of them hurry away to a back door, when our companion 
 calls to them : u You need not run, I am not going to hurt you." To our 
 enquiry of the officer, why the women were so alarmed at the sight of him, 
 he answered: " Oh, they have good reason to know me, I have already 
 sent many of them to the Island/' 
 
 This drinking place is one of the lowest and most frequented, ana" is also 
 
18 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 one of the best established of the kind. Of the forty or fifty people whom 
 we see here, the most are thieves, who live in a lane, or alley, near-by. 
 The white people are mostly Irish. 
 
 Fitzgerald's saloon is on the corner of Baxter and White Streets. Six 
 brutish, brazen faced prostitutes, with blotched faces and black eyes, sit 
 around the stove, and one lies totally drunk on a bench near the door. 
 Five young fellows stand at the bar and drink the poisonous spirit that is 
 here retailed ; and more than once has the whole company been to the 
 stand. 
 
 Drinking saloons, in this miserable quarter of the city, lie close together. 
 At the corner opposite is that of Tom Lane. It is far larger than the two 
 first named, and as a resort of thieves, beggars, and prostitutes of the low- 
 est classes, it is notorious. Here we find about forty men and women. 
 The men are of a brutal description, with repulsive faces, and most of them 
 are partly or altogether drunk. The prostitutes, who hang about the place, 
 belong to the worst specimens of their kind, and are sunk so deep in 
 infamy, that to sink deeper would be impossible. Sick and dirty, with 
 bloated and loathsome faces, with lowering and blood stained eyes, they 
 have reached a depth, below which they cannot sink, nor, out of 
 which can they extricate themselves. As we are on the point of going, 
 one of the young rowdies makes a derisive remark at our companion. To 
 a whistle from him, another instantly answers, and a second police officer 
 makes his appearance. "Bring the fellow out," says our companion. 
 The order is immediately put into execution, and the crowd, partly under 
 the direction of his baton, moves out. The women, meanwhile, well nigh 
 explode with laughter. 
 
 We proceed a little further ; always over a broken pavement, often no 
 pavement at all, and the street-way a deep bed of mud. We go now into 
 a house with the windows mostly broken. Through a dark passage we 
 come upoa a low, small room, in which we find more negroes, and half 
 naked white women. Three of the negroes are sitting on a bench, and a 
 young white girl is lying across the laps of the three. Adjoining this is 
 another room without windows, but with a most horrible atmosphere. In 
 this there is an old bedstead, in which are four naked men, a colored man, 
 a white lad of about sixteen years, and two white women. 
 
 In another room of the same building lies an old negro in bed, while his 
 wife sits near him. The only window is nailed up with boards, the plaster 
 of the ceiling has partly fallen down, and on the floor are several pools of 
 water which has flowed down from the roof. 
 
 We enter another house which, although it scarcely has the height ot a 
 good first floor room, nevertheless, has two stories. The whole building " 
 leans as though it would any moment fall down. In one room, about six- 
 teen or^seventeen feet square, eighteen persons are sleeping. The room is 
 divided by wooden partitions, three feet high, into four compartments — 
 
PAUPERISM. 19 
 
 reminding one of how in Voigtland, so-called at Berlin, four families in 
 one room divide themselves off by a chalkmark drawn upon the floor. A 
 drunken old woman, with whom two young fellows are making obscene 
 sport, lies upon a mattress. Here ten cents are paid for a nights lodging, 
 and men, women, and children, sometimes hardly covered, sometimes 
 without any covering at all, lie in a confused heap together. 
 
 In the adjoining house are a number of white women, who are living 
 with negroes, and all more or less drunk. Three of the colored men are 
 lying with two white young ladies in one bed. On a bench sits a fourth 
 colored man, and a fifth lies on the ground. A peep into the next room 
 shows only a similar picture. 
 
 AVe now step across to a tumble-down building opposite. In a small 
 room we find three women. In the middle stands a pan with charcoal in 
 it, and one woman sits buuehed up near it, warming her hands. Another 
 woman is sleeping on a dirty mattress. No bedstead, no trunk, no table, 
 no chair is to be seen. The filth of the room is not to be described. The 
 gas from the charcoal is suffocating. An abandoned looking woman, only 
 half dressed, opens to us the door of the neighboring room. Two men are 
 there lying in one bed, a third in another. Here, too, everything is thick 
 with dirt. We ascend a broken staircase, in which at every step, one is 
 momentarily afraid of falling through. A pestilential effluvium meets us. 
 In one of the garrets lives a colored woman with four boarders. She pays 
 for this a dollar a week rent. In another garret we find six women, 
 squatting together at a stove, and under a heap of rags lies a man by the 
 side of a woman. All the women in this house are prostitutes ; one of 
 them is ill, and smells so horribly, that the stench, coming from her like 
 the vapour from the charcoal, seems to overcome even all the other bad 
 smells in the room, and is almost to be felt. 
 
 In the opposite garret a man had died in the morning, and there with 
 the corpse, in the same filthy and infected room, lie, still asleep, the widow 
 and her children, together with the boarders of the couple. 
 
 Again, in another house, an old colored beggar, in his shirt, opens the 
 door to us. Dirt, and nothing but dirt. On the floor lies a young negro 
 boy, and a colored woman on a mattress. A flight higher we find standing 
 in the middle of the room a pot with hot coals in it, and squatting around 
 it, four dissolute women, buried in filth. On a mattress near the fire, lie, 
 with their arms together, two men without any covering, except an overcoat 
 thrown over them. 
 
 But enough of poverty and wretchedness. As before remarked, the pro- 
 pensity for drink, and the great number of people who have no settled 
 occupation, are the two important causes of poverty, and this again is the 
 principal cause of vice and crime, whilst as a condition of poverty the 
 crowding together of many people in confined and often impure rooms, is 
 at the same time constantly fraught with danger to the healthy condition 
 
20 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 of the city. There are houses in New York, which, notwithstanding all 
 the pains taken by the Sanitary Commission, are never free from fever the 
 whole year through, and where the cholera has a rich soil to nourish in ? 
 as soon as only the smallest germs of the disease get into the atmosphere. 
 And the pauperism, under which so many thousands here languish, con- 
 ceals yet another great and threatening danger. Those thousands upon 
 thousands who live in New York, and find a poor shelter to-day in a 
 garret, to-morrow in a cellar ; those thousands, whose daily business is 
 devoted to obtaining a precarious maintenance ; those sixty thousand per- 
 sons living in New York, above ten years of age, who, notwithstanding our 
 many excellent free schools, are without all education, and are not even 
 in a position to write their names ; and lastly the great number of criminals, 
 or people prone to acts of violence and crime, which New York harbors ; 
 these form a very numerous class, which is accustomed to contemplate with 
 eyes of envy the condition of any one more favorably situated than 
 itself, and to regard capital as its enemy. This class is made up of the 
 same elements as that which in 1871 brought about the frightful outbreak 
 in Paris. Whoever smiles incredulously at this monition, or shakes his 
 head over our remarks, let him remember only the bloody revolt of 1863, 
 when our militia was at the seat of war, and the safety of the city was pro- 
 tected only by civil authority. 
 
 THE STREET CHILDREN. 
 
 It is extremely difficult to determine with accuracy the number of these- 
 unfortunate children, who are continually tramping the streets. Mr. Chas. 
 L. Brace, who for twenty years has labored in the Children's Aid Society, 
 and who is the heart and soul of that admirable institution, has set it down 
 in his work on " The dangerous classes of New York," as varying from 
 20,000 to 30,000. Other observers have estimated it at ten, twelve and 
 fifteen thousand respectively. We are willing to accept the lowest calcula- 
 tion, namely from ten to twelve thousand. Of this number, at least four- 
 fifths are veritable, and confirmed vagrants ; children growing up in the 
 most profound ignorance of all that is right and necessary, but well 
 educated in the impurities of degraded life, and well prepared for the 
 developement of those characters which sustain the continuance of crime, 
 and whose presence make life and property in the city insecure. Boys and 
 girls alike are here, starting from the same goal, learning in the same 
 school, and hurrying on in the same career to infamy, drink and vice~ 
 
THI BTBBBI CHILDREN. 21 
 
 The majority are boys, "with the gallows at the end of the road they are 
 hastening along. But a vast number, too, are jrirls, whose career of pros- 
 titution is no great distance in the future. Let us imagine this army of 
 so many thousands of the youth of the city drawn together for inspection. 
 Associate with the sight a thought that every individual in those twelve 
 thousand children is doomed to a fate of the lowest debauchery and wicked- 
 ness ; that society will be powerless to save them from their infamy, and 
 will only hold out her hand to punish them for their crimes. Can a more 
 painful spectacle be presented? Imagine then the power for good, which 
 lies in its germs, in that same mass of children, if only they could be placed 
 under sufficient guidance ; and we may be able to realize what society loses 
 by leaving them to grow up uncared for and unheeded. 
 
 It is terrible, indeed, to think that so many thousands of poor, friendless 
 little creatures, who have never known the joys of a genuine childhood, 
 should thus be wandering through the streets of the rich Metropolis of this 
 Western Hemisphere, not knowing how they are to live through the day, 
 or where they shall rest their wearied bodies and lie down to sleep at its 
 close. The hardest heart must soften at the thought. Police officers are 
 not more hardened than the rest of us, but their occupation, their constant 
 proximity to poverty, suffering, and crime, in all their forms, may make 
 them callous to scenes that would shock those less experienced in the dark 
 side of human nature ; but it is no uncommon thing to find policemen sub- 
 dued by genuine pity for the poor little unfortunates whom they have to 
 take into their keeping. In truth, we know no more sorrowful sight than 
 that of a helpless child, with all the materials of an honest man or a vir- 
 tuous woman in it, being carried headlong down into the whirlpool of per- 
 dition without a friendly hand in reach to save it. 
 
 For in truth the means we have for rescuing these children are very few. 
 And yet it is with them, that the beginning should be made, if we would 
 kill corruption, lessen crime, and close our gaols. If the criminal classes 
 were reduced to those only who take to crime in their adult age, they 
 would trouble us comparatively little. It is the professional criminals, the 
 men and women who have lived in an atmosphere of crime from their 
 childhood, who have been brought up in no other, who were born in infamy 
 and never stepped out of it, — it is these who fill our prisons, and whose 
 existence endangers life and property. Save them in their childhood, and 
 we should have no need to imprison or hang them in their maturity. But 
 if we would help them effectually, we must not stop to calculate the degree 
 of their necessities. The child who is only naked, is certainly better off 
 than he who is both naked and hungry ; but neither of them is in a better 
 condition than the other to supply his wants. Cynics are very apt to 
 attribute the worst characters to these street children ; and in such matters 
 there are no more ignorant, no more egotistical cynics than the people who 
 do not know what necessity means. But it is tolerably certain that human 
 
22 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 nature is not originally as bad as such persons would have us believe. The 
 first impulse of the little waif, whose destiny may indeed be bad enough , 
 is not theft. He begs before he steals. He knows no home, he has 
 enjoyed none of the affections of parents. He is the offspring of a dissipa- 
 ted, degraded couple, who would probably drive him forever from them,, 
 if they dare ; who cursed him as an infant, and felt his presence a burden 
 to them in their idleness. As soon as he can walk, he is turned adrift into 
 the streets, and well nigh as soon as he can speak, he is instructed in the 
 art of soliciting alms. If he attains any degree of success in that direction, 
 as he almost certainly does, a greater success is demanded of him. If he 
 brings home five cents to-day, he is told to make it ten to-morrow, or be 
 punished unmercifully as the alternative. For a time he works to the end, 
 and under these conditions. His form, his infancy, his appearance, strike 
 pity in the hearts of the passers by, and he succeeds. His naked feet, half 
 frozen with the cold, bleeding, mayhap from cuts received on the rough 
 streets or by the broken ice ; his cheeks pale and haggard, his hands almost 
 fleshless, his whole body wan and starved, his eyes wide and glaring from 
 continuous want ; he presents a picture of misery and distress, that attracts 
 public sympathy, and on that very account, becomes, to his infamous 
 parents, a portion of their stock in trade. Little, indeed, of the money he 
 takes home, goes to supply him with nourishment. He has only enough 
 to keep him alive, the greater part of the remainder goes to the whiskey 
 shop. He is ever hungry, sometimes ravenous, and the food that he is 
 denied " at home," he is often forced to dig out of the heaps of garbage 
 that are thrown from the houses, and then left as worthless by the prowl- 
 ing curs, whose lives are not unlike his own. A very brief career of this 
 kind gives him a spirit of independence. After his life has a few times 
 been nearly thrashed out of him by his parents, for his not being able to 
 supply them with all the money they want to satisfy their greed for drink, 
 he turns philosopher. He begins to realize the fact that the money he 
 gets would provide him a sustenance, better than his parents award him, 
 and that there are plenty of holes and dens in the town where he could 
 sleep, as well as in the den which he has hitherto called his home. In the 
 streets of New York he finds fifteen hundred other children, like himself — 
 all under ten years of age — whose experiences he can study. Nay, there 
 are more, probably seven or eight hundred more, who may be classed in 
 the same list. All these children are practically turned adrift to shift for 
 themselves, an army, truly, that has beeen drilled only in association with 
 perpetual filth, taught to regard depravity as a norma 1 condition of life, 
 and to talk the language of blasphemy and obscenity Half stripped of 
 clothing, never half fed, ill-used by parents, whose drunkenness is the con- 
 stant feature of their life, it is not to be wondered if children, placed in 
 such circumstances, are at a very early age glad and able to cut themselves 
 adrift from all ties, to gather the means for their own existence, to trust to 
 
< HILDR] v 23 
 
 luck in finding Bome empty barrel, some friendly door step, some unused 
 wagon, some Bheltered nook on the river Bide, where they can rest at night. 
 But they do not generally go into the world to steal. 
 
 They beg with all the energy of necessitous life, knowing at present no 
 other way to live. They are to be found in the evening, outside of theatre?, 
 concert rooms, and loitering about the doors of hotels and public places of 
 . kind, even to a late hour at night. If they are still in the service c>f 
 their parents, it is not unlikely that their mother is somewhere near at 
 hand, directing their movements, urging them to importunity, and threaten- 
 ing them if they fail to gratify her demands. AVe remember an interesting 
 little girl who, in the evening, was in the habit of way-laying persons on 
 their way to and from one of the large hotels, near Union Square. She 
 was generally clean, but badly clad, and her feet bare. In the summer she 
 sold flowers. In the winter she begged. She was seven years of age. 
 She would never tell where she lived, but always protested that her mother 
 never whipped her. Her face, though haggard and pale, was full of 
 childish beauty, and her ways won for her many a compliance with her 
 request for a penny. One evening she seemed lame and stiff. She sat 
 upon a step and cried. The little brightness she sometimes had was gone, 
 and then, on being closely questioned, she had to admit that her mother 
 had cruelly beaten her the night before for not having taken enough monev 
 home ; and that she often beat her, but she dared not tell people so, because 
 her mother had threatened to kill her, if she did. And there was the 
 history of many of the children who frequent places of public resort. 
 
 For a long time they suffer the penalties of their existence. But can we 
 wonder if their patience becomes at last exhausted ; and, whether it be to 
 spare themselves the punishment they know will await them from their 
 parents ; or, whether it be to satisfy the cravings of hunger when they are 
 shifting for themselves ; that they at last are driven to supplement mendi- 
 cancy with theft? Pity, rather than condemnation; protection, rather 
 than punishment, should be their award. When they are starving and 
 struggling against physical suffering, amid all the impurities of the terrible 
 atmosphere in which they began their existence, society should save them. 
 If the opportunity be lost, and they are left unnoticed till they force them- 
 selves into notoriety in the police courts, society should at least spare them 
 a little of her pity. If neither ba done, we have to pay the penalty which 
 crime inflicts upon the community. 
 
 It would be impossible to detail all the forms in which street mendi- 
 cancy, as it comes into notice through these children, makes its appearance 
 in our city. Some few of the little beggars that we meet with, are the off- 
 spring of people so well trained in the art of mendicancy, that it has become 
 to them a tolerably lucrative profession, and they live in the midst of more 
 enjoymeut, and in a sphere of a little more comfort ; and a little less impuritv, 
 than we have described. Sympathy for the parents would, in such cases, 
 
21 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 be misplaced, but it ought not even then to be withheld from the childrer, 
 who, in all they do, are still acting under compulsion. In, by far the great 
 majority of instances, however, the circumstances are such as we have 
 sketched, and we now come to note the next step in the progress. 
 
 The point where mendicaucy merges into crime, may be at a very early 
 age.- Children as young as six or seven years old, who must be ranked as 
 juvenile thieves, are numerous. According to sex, they now take different 
 roads, but nothing is too insignificant to merit their attention, nothing too 
 trifling to deserve appropriation. The girls take, possibly, to selling 
 matches, or flowers, sometimes thread, needles, laces, and sundry little 
 articles of needle work. The basket in which their stock is carried, is 
 far in excess of the requirements of the articles they offer for sale, but not 
 for the business, to which the other is only a blind. They frequent areas, ' 
 back entrances, and sometimes boldly ring the bell df the front door. 
 Plausible and well versed in all the arts of their calling, they seldom fail 
 to win the attention of the servant, sometimes, too, of the female head of 
 the family. It is of secondary importance to them, whether they make a 
 sale or not. They are looking for plunder, and are ready to snatch any- 
 thing that comes within their reach, which is at once secreted at the bottom 
 of the capacious basket, and taken away with as much celerity, as seems 
 safe. If these young girl thieves are good looking and shrewd, there is 
 yet another resource in store for them, as they grow older. The eyes of 
 the community were first opened to this, about three years ago, by a case, 
 which is sufficiently valuable as an illustration to bear a new relation here. 
 A gentleman of unquestionable reputation, and holding a prominent mer- 
 cantile position in the city, invoked the assistance of Police Captain 
 Thorne. He stated that, lor some time past, he had been annoyed l>y the 
 importunities of a flower girl, who had succeeded in obtaining from him 
 various sums of money, which he had given her, often to get rid of her, 
 and in the anticipation that every time she came would be the last. But 
 the effect of these contributions had been the reverse of that desired. The 
 girl came more frequently than ever, watching her opportunity when the 
 office was free from visitors and her victim was alone, then going in and 
 levying black mail, Captain Thorne promised his assistance, choosing a 
 day when the girl was expected to make one of her customary visits, he 
 secreted himself in the office, having first instructed the merchant upon the 
 line of conversation he was to adopt. As expected, the girl came. After 
 a few moments of introduction, the gentleman asked her her motives for 
 thus annoying him ; why she was so persistent ; reminding her that he 
 had never taken liberties with her, nor ever spoken an improper word to 
 her ; " I know that," said the girl boldly, " but who will believe you if I 
 say you have?" " I will," said Captain Thorne, stepping from his hiding 
 place. The astonishment of the girl at finding herself not alone with 
 her victim, but in the presence of a police officer in full uniform, may well 
 
THE STREET CHILDREN. 25 
 
 be imagined. She admitted that she had been black-mailing, that there 
 was no truth in her allegations, and that henceforth she would stop her 
 importunities. The right tiling in her case would have been a prosecution, 
 and it might have redeemed the girl from an infamous life. Captain 
 Thorne urged it, but the merchant, more intent upon his own convenience 
 and the making of dollars, positively refused to prosecute ; and so the girl 
 was sent adrift, again, to do worse. But it led to a remarkable discovery. 
 The girl made further confessions, which were proved to be true, and from 
 which it became apparent that the system was regularly organized, and 
 that there was a band of girls all working at the same game and success- 
 fully black-mailing respectable men, by making charges against them of 
 having taken improper liberties, and then demanding hush money. The 
 practice was not abolished. It still prevails. These girls are attractive, 
 well made up for the object they have before them, unscrupulous, danger- 
 ous, and if occasion demands it, profane and desperate ; any numbers of 
 them, under the pretence of selling flowers or fruit, are now daily plying 
 their more lucrative vocation among the business places of our city. 
 
 The male children take necessarily a different course. Endowed with 
 the same boldness and depravity as their sisters, they become burglars and 
 thieves, in what we may call the elementary branches of their future pro- 
 fession. Landlords, who prefer to have their houses lie empty, rather 
 than let them at honest rentals, suffer from their depredations, and so do 
 people who leave their residences empty, rather than help the needs of 
 others by placing them in charge of somebody, while they take their 
 country trip in the summer months. The boys are well adapted to their 
 calling. Semi-starvation has so attenuated their bodies and stunted their 
 growth, that they can pass through a space, which apparently, only a cat 
 could enter. Accustomed to be little encumbered with clothes, their move- 
 ments are stealthy and inaudible, and they can secrete themselves in the 
 smallest space that any human being of their age can occupy. Moreover, 
 necessity makes them reckless. They run risks that more experienced 
 thieves would shun, and although often they pay the penalty for it by 
 falling into the hands of the police, they fully as often reap its reward in 
 a successful raid. The blunders that they sometimes commit, may be 
 illustrated in a case that lias been recorded by Mr. Crapsey. Three boys, 
 none of them more than twelve years of age, contrived to enter the pre- 
 mises at the corner of "West Broadway and Franklin Street. They secreted 
 themselves unperceived until the place was closed in the evening and the 
 doors were locked. They then began their depredations, and made great 
 havoc in the office. But it was summer time. Daylight still reigned, and 
 their work was plainly seen by the neighbors. 
 
 Information was given to the police. The building was entered, and 
 nobody was to be seen. Captain Feltz and his officers looked long for the 
 bovs in vain. At last, after an hours search, he found them in a corner of 
 
*26 TTLK DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 the coal cellar, under the side-walk. The next case we shall mention is of 
 a different kind, and illustrates what we have said on the other side. It 
 happened in October of last year. Two women entered a shop on Third 
 Avenue, leaving the door open behind them. A youngster of some seven 
 years, who was standing close at hand, saw this, and went up. He took 
 a hurried glance around him, crept in at the door on all fours and quickly 
 came out again with a parcel in his hands, which he presently laid down 
 not far from the door. The action was seen by a man from the window 
 on the third floor of an opposite house. He hurried down, but before he 
 reached the street, both thief and parcel had disappeared. 
 
 The boys are in fact constantly on the watch for any opportunity that 
 will place anything in their hands by which a few cents can be raised. 
 But their favorite and probably their most lucrative field is among the 
 empty houses. These they enter wherever they have a chance, sometimes 
 travelling into the suburbs for the purpose. Everything that they can take 
 away is then taken. Brass and copper taps, lead pipes, gasoliers, and gas 
 fittings, copper cisterns, even the fastenings of the doors and windows, if 
 made of brass, and door keys, are all to them valuable acquisitions. For 
 the removal of some of these they must have older associates, but all the 
 smaller articles, which they can carry away, are generally first cleared out 
 to their own account. Articles exposed upon the side-walks, outside of 
 stores, and even the goods exhibited in glass cases in the same localities 
 are also frequently made the booty of these young thieves ; who, if business 
 is bad, do not always hesitate to snatch a parcel, a purse, or a satchel, 
 from a lady's hand, disappearing even before the victim has fully recog- 
 nized her loss. Many of them pride themselves, again, in their skill at 
 robbing tills. First making themselves acquainted by careful observation 
 with the habits of the storekeeper and the exact location of his money- 
 drawer, they seize their opportunity, slip unperceived round the counter ,. 
 make a snatch for the contents of the till, and are gone in an instant* 
 Small size is a necessary qualification to make this successful, but bold- 
 ness, caution, and agility, are none the less essential ; qualities which, if 
 turned in another direction, might prove more valuable acquisitions. 
 
 But there are a number of street children who are neither confirmed and 
 professional vagrants, nor thieves. In all large cities lost children some- 
 times come under the notice and protection of the police ; but in New York, 
 as a result, probably, of a combination of circumstances, the recorded num- 
 ber of such children is enormous. These may be ranked as street children 
 for the time ; that is, they are thrown adrift on to the streets to shift for 
 themselves, sometimes for a few hours only, but sometimes for days, and 
 even weeks. In the year 1871 there were 5082 such lost children taken 
 care of by the police ; and during the last ten years there have been not 
 less than 68,379, being a yearly average of 6840, or 18 every day. Most 
 of these are very young and have probably wandered away unintentionally 
 
TIIL STKI.I.'I < Mil DR] \. -2~ 
 
 from their homes while at play, and were unable to find their way back. 
 The method of procedure adopted with them is good. Being taken under 
 the guarditaBship of a patrolman, they are first removed to the precinct 
 station, where they remain till night, if not called for. At nightfall they 
 are passed on to the commodious new building for the Police-Headquartero, 
 in Mulberry Street, where suitable accommodation exists for their safe 
 keeping. A large upper room is there devoted to their use, and an expe- 
 rienced matron is ready to preside over them, and attend to their comfort 
 and requirements. They may remain here for three days, if not claimed ; 
 after which an accurate description of them and of their clothes is taken, 
 and they are handed over to the charge of the Commissioners of Charities. 
 The number thus disposed of is, however, small. Very many never reach 
 Mulberry Street at all, being taken home from the police stations by their 
 friends, before many hours have elapsed ; and of the remainder, the great 
 majority are claimed the next day. 
 
 .During the past year or two, much has been said and written on the 
 subject of foundlings. These constitute a distinct and peculiar class of 
 street children. The number of those who have been picked up in the 
 streets during the last ten years is between nine and ten hundred. But the 
 average which this would give is less than the present rate. It is a 
 remarkable fact — that since the opening of the Foundling Asylum, under 
 the care of the Sisters of Charity — these numbers have very little dimin- 
 ished. In 1870, the first year of its operations, the police picked up 16 L 
 children, the number for the previous year having been 1 78. This Asylum 
 for Foundlings is situated temporarily in Washington Square, but a more 
 suitable spot, comprising the entire block between Lexington and Third 
 Avenues, and 68th and 69th Streets, is about to be occupied by it. From 
 the opening of the institution in 1870 to October the first of that year, there 
 were 1183 children left at the institution ; during the year, ending October 
 1st, 1871, the number was 1377 ; and in that ending October 1st, 1872, it 
 was 1392. The number of children found in the streets in 1871 we are 
 unable to give, the police reports for that year not being available. It is 
 worthy of remark here, that of the 1377 children left at the asylum in 
 1871, fifty were found to be suffering from syphilitic infection, a fact which 
 throws a terrible reflection upon the state of morals in New York. Besides 
 which, when we reflect that under the old system the police found anually 
 an average of 160 children, and that now a yearly average of 1300 is left 
 at the asylum, we may form some idea how many children, about whom 
 we know nothing, have been murdered. And still there bristles up that 
 saintly bigotry and false notion, not here only, but in almost every town 
 of the Union, which denounces the erection of Foundling Asylums on the 
 wicked and erroneous supposition, that such institutions tend to the increase 
 of immorality ! 
 
 Formerly, when these children were taken charge of exclusively by the 
 
28 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 police, the custom was to transfer them as speedily as possible to the care 
 of the Commissioner of Charities, and as a consequence, the majority of 
 them very soon died. Under the care of the sisters at the asylum the mor- 
 tality is very much lessened, but some provision is still needed for their 
 future. They are for the time wards of the town, but they ultimately go 
 forth into the world to meet whatever fate may befall them, and to suffer 
 the vicissitudes of children who have never known a home, nor felt the 
 blessings of a parents love. In Europe, notably in London, the children in 
 the Foundling Hospital are provided for. The boys are taught a trade, or, 
 if they prefer it, put into the navy ; the girls are trained as household 
 servants, the institution keeping a watchful eye over them, till they are 
 fairly established. Some are even started in business, and the results are 
 found to be most encouraging. And something of the kind seems to be 
 needed here. 
 
 We now come to a class which is a peculiarity and an off-spring of 
 modern progress and commercial activity. We refer to those active, dirty, 
 driving little fellows, who scour about the streets to sell our newspapers or 
 to black our boots. They are the bottom end of the mercantile ladder. 
 Merchants in embryo, and under difficulties. With all their wits about 
 them, they generally manage to earn a living somehow, and honestly too. 
 As a class, the newsboys are unique. Often only half dressed, and that 
 half perhaps in rags and tatters, they are full of life, quick, shrewd, always 
 with an eye to the main chance, and generally cheerful under their bur- 
 dens. Their persons are not always very clean, nor their language very 
 polished. As they run through the street cars, it is a relief sometimes to 
 feel that they are not going to sit down next to us and be crowded into our 
 laps, and they do not readily understand that the language which they 
 know best, is not always that of polite society. But, at any rate, they earn 
 their daily bread, they do not beg, nor steal it, and they earn it hardly, too. 
 For this, at least, they deserve a kindly sympathy, and occasionally a 
 helping hand. We have said that their living is a hard one. Let us 
 briefly examine it. They are at work from early morning, till late at 
 night. At lour o'clock, they assemble at the offices of the morning papers, 
 crowding round for the first publications, or busy folding the papers as 
 they come from the press. Competition among them is very lively. The 
 instant one of them has got his supply, he rushes wildly off to secure the 
 first sales and earliest customers, shouting to the utmost power of his 
 lungs, all his energies strained to their limits, and exhibiting a degree of 
 energy, which, we have often thought, as we have contemplated him, is 
 one of the wonderful evidences of the nervous life of the present day. For 
 the first few hours he scarcely relaxes his exertions ; it is not till the news 
 of the morning have got well scattered far and wide, that he can take a 
 little rest. And then it is not of long duration. For presently the " even- 
 ing" papers are to be forthcoming, and all has to be gone over again. 
 
THE STREET CHILDREN. 2i> 
 
 Indeed, it is now that his best efforts are needed, for the streets are full, 
 and competition is even brisker ; so that his shrill voice stuns the car of 
 the passer by, and he thinks that nothing short of that will bring him cus- 
 tom. His work is not ended till late in the evening, although he changes 
 his location as people move up-town, or to the ferries, and is perhaps even 
 energetic in his actions. His days work is, in fact, one long display of 
 powerful, nervous and muscular activity ; that, too, in all weather and 
 under a very limited supply of food. Moreover, he is not of the strongest. 
 He is one of the city's waifs. He has been brought up in the school of 
 necessity, ever underfed and unsufficiently clothed ; so that the marvel is, 
 that he does so much upon so little. Then what does he earn? His profits 
 upon some of the papers is only the fraction of a cent, and he has to work 
 very hard to clear half a dollar a day. Thus by a weeks active and suc- 
 cessful exertion — that week representing about 84 hours, or 14 hours per 
 day, — he may clear three dollars. This is a scanty remuneration for his 
 work, his labors, and the use of his little capital ; and if he were left to 
 himself, his life would not be blessed with many of the amenities of 
 decency. 
 
 But the Children Aid Society have happily not forgotten him, and in 
 the Newsboys Lodging House, which they have established for him, at 49 
 Park Place, he can procure a bed or a meal for six cents. Thus, for 24 
 cents a day, he finds shelter and three good meals, leaving half his earn- 
 ings for clothes or for his own free disposal in any way he likes. These 
 boys are often said to be thriftless and reckless, yet in the year 1871 there 
 was in the Saving's Bank, connected with their lodging house, a sum of 
 $2,588.31 deposited to their credit ; that sum standing in various sums and 
 in the names of 1065 different boys. The value of this fact, as indicative 
 of the care of the majority, must depend upon their numbers and other 
 considerations, and then it fails to be such as should be wished. In the 
 year 1770, the number of boys who availed themselves of the lodging house 
 was 8655. Of this number 3,112 had no parents living and 3,651 had but 
 one. But 33 per cent, were unable to pay for the accommodation received, 
 being quite penniless ; hence we are confronted with the startling fact that 
 during the year 1870 two thousand and five hundred boys, willing and 
 anxious to earn their livelihood, were unable to make even twenty-four 
 cents per day. And yet out of the total number of 8655 there were only 
 713 who were not actually destitute of anything in the shape of a home. 
 But the applicants at the lodging house are not all boys. Some are girls, 
 either in the same position as the majority ; that is homeless and striving 
 to be independent, or escaping from the infamy of the horrible dens they 
 call " home," and the curses and cruelties of brutal, drunken parents. 
 
 The future career of the newsboys should receive attention, perhaps 
 more than it has. But there are difficulties in the way of getting informa- 
 tion upon this point, at least as regards details. Some of them, we fear 
 
"30 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 we must say many of them, die yoimg ; worn out with early privations, 
 and exhausting work operating upon a system that perhaps inherited the 
 germs of disease from vicious parents. Others fail to rise, and not rising, 
 they fall back again to the vagrant life, whence probably they took their 
 birth, they return never more to escape ; and thus they contribute to keep 
 up the ranks of mendicants and thieves. But others develope into respect- 
 able manhood, and become good and sometimes well-to-do citizens. The 
 little money they accumulate in the savings bank becomes a capital, which 
 lifts them on to a higher stage, and Avhen that is secured, the thrift and 
 energy which set them first on their legs, never fail to serve them in good 
 stead and fulfil the demands of reasonable ambition. 
 
 Near akin to the army of newsboys is the other class we have men- 
 tioned — the boot-blacks. These are not as numerous ; but they have more 
 temptations, make a little more money, though with the display of less 
 energy, and they more frequently turn out badly. The business of the 
 boot-blacks has of late years much altered in character. Prices have come 
 down in some parts of the city from ten to five cents, but that is not all. 
 Many of the boys have secured a fixed connection, either visiting certain 
 liouses at weekly rates, attending the hotels and railroad stations, or estab- 
 lishing themselves in some definite spot, where, sometimes with a chair for 
 their accommodation, they await the coming of regular customers, and 
 take as many chance ones as they can get in the meanwhile. Among 
 these the old rates are very generally maintained, and they would scorn 
 the idea of taking less than a fee of ten cents. But the peripatetic boot- 
 blacks, and those who do business within the limits of the City Hall Park, 
 for instance, are glad to work for half that sum. The earnings of these 
 "boys will range from perhaps $5 to §12, or even $15 per week, but the 
 higher amounts ought to be regarded as exceptional. Many do not make 
 as much as $5. 
 
 The life of the boot-blacks differs essentially from that of the "news- 
 boys. It is not as active. There is not the same degree of energy 
 necessary. In some respects it is an idle occupation that they follow. 
 Watchfulness is more needed than activity. They have much spare time, 
 too, and the state of the weather affects their business. In winter, for 
 example, when most people wear over-shoes in some form, they have very 
 little to do. But even during summer they can find much leisure, and it 
 is not beneficial to them. They spend it often in games of pitch penny, 
 tind in other devices of a similar character lose money and at the same 
 time cultivate a taste for gambling. They also, during such leisure 
 moments, sometimes become the prey of professional thieves, who, by 
 promises of an attractive character made to the boys, induce them to enter 
 the professional ranks, and thus they start on the road to the gaol. In 
 other respects they do no.t differ materially from the newsboys. They live 
 in much the same manner, originate in similar sources, sleep in similar 
 
THE STREET CHILDREN. 31 
 
 places, indulge in the same melegauries of language, and, except in occupa- 
 tion, they resemble them closely. 
 
 If now we would seek for the cause of the existence of such an army of 
 unfortunate street children it will be found in drink. Where the parents 
 are living they are found invariably to be addicted to drink ; and where 
 they are not living it is because the drink killed them, and thus the child- 
 ren were left helpless and destitute. There is evidence on all sides of this. 
 All will acknowledge that industry and thrift will succeed in earning a 
 competency almost anywhere, but when we find, in a city like ours, as many 
 as 7500 drinking saloons, or one to every 126 of the population, it is evi- 
 dent that there must be something different from industry operating some- 
 where. The money spent in drink by the poor would lift them a long way 
 out of poverty. The money spent in drink every year in New York is 
 certainly as much as fifteen millions of dollars, of which 30 per cent, comes 
 out of the pockets of those people who live in garrets, cellars, and tene- 
 ment houses ; or who seek their lodgings in the police stations. If the 
 money thus squandered were wisely used, the advantages of a home and 
 of education could be given' to every one of the street children. 
 
 There are, however, many whose position is not to be attributed to this 
 cause. Every year a great number, chiefly boys, are picked up by the 
 police, who come from the adjoining or from the New England States. 
 They drift thither upon the delusion, which too often afflicts their elders 
 too, that New York is an El Dorado, where one need only live in order to 
 be rich ; which one need only visit in order to see all that the world affords. 
 During the summer, hundreds of children come to the city, either to see 
 its wonders, or to make rapid fortunes. Among the former the theatres 
 are most attractive, and above all the Bowery Theatre with its low drama 
 and sensational representations. But it is not only the country boys that 
 this theatre ruins ; there are also thousands of boys in the town who took 
 their first lessons in crime from its stage, who have there grown familiar 
 with vice, have lost their inclination for thriftiness and fallen into the toils 
 of crime. A gentleman, who has long interested himself in the welfare of 
 young criminals, enquired among fifty of the boys on Blackwell's Island 
 what the first temptation to crime had been. The result was that, with 
 but few exceptions, all had begun to steal at a very early age, and had 
 stolen either from their parents or anywhere else that an occasion offered, 
 in order to procure a few cents that they might go to the Bowery Theatre. 
 Perhaps the full importance of having in our midst this multitude of out- 
 cast children is hardly realized. But what it would have been if nothing 
 had been done to alleviate the evil, cannot be surmised. The adult crimi- 
 nal classes are still recruited from this source. If the latter were removed, 
 the former would dwindle down to a comparatively small item, which 
 could never very greatly disturb the peace of the community. But we are 
 far from having attained this point yet. Nevertheless, much has been 
 
32 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 done. Many of the boys have been turned into a career of honesty, some- 
 even placed on the way which opens out into the widest field of future 
 success. And thus the evil is very much less dangerous than it might 
 have been. 
 
 This, however, must be attributed to the efforts of private individuals or 
 societies, and not to the efficiency of the laws. Legislators are not always 
 noted for their wisdom, and least of all does their sagacity display itself 
 when they are called upon to deal with the prevention of crime. But to 
 arrive at conclusions upon this point it is not necessary to study the statute 
 law ; a visit to the police courts will answer the purpose. We may take a 
 case which has been before used in a similar connection and which is 
 remarkable in its application. It occurred not very long ago and created ' 
 some talk at the time. Two boys broke into a store in Greenwich Street, 
 entering through the skylight from an adjoining tenement house. The 
 boys being taken before the magistrate, a simple statement of this fact was 
 taken. No enquiries were made, no investigation as to the antecedents of 
 the prisoners was deemed necessary. In a very few minutes they were 
 committed to the Tombs, where they soon found themselves accommodated 
 with a cell and with the company of prisoners of all degrees of villainy. 
 It is not necessary to ask ourselves whether those boys would have been 
 reformed or made worse by such associations. Experience has sufficiently 
 answered that question in hundreds and in thousands of like instances for 
 many years past, though there is a wonderful reluctance on the part of the 
 people to listen to her voice. Happily for the boys they had for a short 
 time been engaged in one of the industrial schools of the Children's Aid 
 Society, and when they got incarcerated at the Tombs they were missed 
 from the school. Inquiries were set on foot, the agents of the society 
 sought for them far and wide, and at last found them. They were taken 
 from the prison, received into the care of the society, and now promise to 
 be respectable and useful citizens. Whereas, if they had been left in the 
 Tombs, or tried and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, there can be 
 no doubt, whatever, but that the town would have been burthened with 
 two more professional criminals. Yet another case may be quoted. Dr. 
 Harris, the secretary of the New York Prison Association, found in prison 
 a lad, fifteen years old, who had already passed three years of his short 
 life in prison for petty thieving. Desirous to learn what had been done 
 towards the reformation of the boy, Dr. Harris asked him what the judge 
 had said to him when he was tried. The first time he had asked him 
 whether he was not ashamed of himself ; the next time he had told him he 
 was an incorrigible young rascal ; and on the third occasion he said he 
 was certain to be hanged. The boy, whose fault was one more of thought- 
 lessness, than criminality, had soon learned to think that he was a con- 
 firmed thief, and that his destiny was settled. But the kindly words 
 addressed to him by Dr. Harris, made such an impression on him, that he 
 
TIIK STREET CHILDREN. 88 
 
 began to enquire whether, when lie was given the liberty again, he might 
 not learn a trade and thus do something better than steal. This request 
 lias been granted him, and thus the boy, notwithstanding the efforts of the 
 law and its administrators to make him a confirmed criminal, has now a 
 chance to become a law-abiding citizen, and to earn by honest labor more 
 than he could ever have acquired by stealing. And this treatment, of which 
 we complain, is not confined to New York. AVe are too much in the habit 
 of dealing with these children, either as the victims of pre-ordained destiny, 
 or else, as offenders whom it is our only duty to punish. If they cannot be 
 reclaimed, it is certain that their condition is exceptional, and thus while 
 we have the undoubted opportunity to convert them into honest men, we 
 too often place them in the best schools of crime that our system affords, 
 and then, at some future day, when they have been making a long and 
 costly fight against society, we condemn them as a curse for which we our- 
 selves are in no wise responsible, or we hang them by the necks, and tell 
 other criminals to profit by their example. 
 
 If the prisons have failed as reformatories, especially in the case of young 
 offenders, So likewise the advantages of those institutions, in which hun- 
 dreds of them are compelled to live together, have not been proportionate 
 to the anticipations formed concerning them. In some respects, the 
 reformatories partake of the disadvantages of the gaols, in that they do not 
 sufficiently separate the boys, nor alienate their minds from the kind of life 
 they have been leading. Much more productive of good fruit are such 
 institutions as the Ohio Reform Farm, where the children, although con- 
 strained to work, live at the same time as in a family, a principle to which 
 the Children's Aid Society here also owes its noble success. 
 
 In this consideration we have had several occasions to refer to the last 
 named institution, and think that now we ought not to close the chapter 
 without offering some further data concerning it. The Children's Aid 
 Society has been in operation since 1854, and it would be difficult to find, 
 anywhere in the United States, a society which has before it so vast and 
 blessed a work, or which has enjoyed as much success. Its task has been, 
 and is, to labor against vice and crime, to snatch from temptation the out- 
 cast children of the poor, and to place them in a condition of life where all 
 temptations and allurements shall be as far as possible removed. 
 
 The Children's Aid Society supports, iu various parts of this city, 
 twenty different schools, (besides eleven industrial schools) with a roll of 
 9429 children and a daily average attendance of 2847 ; besides a sewing 
 machine school, in which during the year 1870 — (the returns for 1871 
 have not reached us) — 845 young girls were instructed iu the use of the 
 sewing machine. Then including the lodging-house for the newsboys, and 
 one for girls, there are five houses where in 1870, 11,928 different children 
 obtained, for six cents each, a night's lodging and meals ; while those who 
 bad nothing received shelter and food without payment. The society has 
 
 3 
 
34 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 besides five reading rooms and different evening and Sunday schools. 
 And, lastly, it has sent through its agents from the time of its foundation, 
 to the first of September, 1872, 28,082 persons into the Western States ; 
 where they were placed out with farmers, mechanics, and others. Most of 
 these persons were outcast children, varying in age from 6 months to 14 
 years. Many of them are already in the position of well-to-do farmers, 
 citizens and land owners, while others are at college, training as physi- 
 cians, lawyers or preachers. But what would these thousands of outcasts 
 have been, what a burden upon the city would they not have become, and 
 how much misery and crime would not New York no w be harboring, if 
 the work of the Children's Aid Society had not been done, and if those 
 children had remained amongst us? Indeed their work is full of blessing. 
 And almost all is a work of private benevolence ! Outside of the city 
 appropriation, $62,000 has been raised in one year from private individu- 
 als, many of whom gave from $200 and $300 to $500 and $1,000. It is 
 worthy of special remark that the society acknowledges no sectarianism, 
 but receives all alike with a pure and genuine spirit of philanthropy ; while 
 Mr. Charles Doring Brace, who since the establishment of the society has 
 been its main support, is such an ardent philanthropist, and such an impar- 
 tial man in the exercise of his duties, as can rarely be met with even 
 within the limits of America. 
 
 THE NEW YORK POLICE. 
 
 The authority which first of all is entrusted with the guardianship of the 
 public safety, is the police. It therefore seems better, before we further 
 consider the picture presented to us by the dark side of New York society, 
 to give some information concerning the constitution and effectiveness of 
 this body. 
 
 Up to the year 1870 we had a Metropolitan police whose district com- 
 prised the cities of New York and Brooklyn, as well as New York, Kings, 
 Richmond and Westchester Counties, and a part of Queens County. But 
 the charter of 1870 effected a change, and created a municipal police for 
 the city of New York alone. This is presided over by a commission con- 
 sisting of four members, nominated by the mayor ; and the force itself com- 
 prises a superintendent, 3 inspectors, 35 captains, 136 sergeants, 83 rounds- 
 men, 1992 patrolmen, and 75 door-keepers. 
 
 The city is divided into two districts, and the inspectors are responsible 
 for the conduct of the men, and for the maintenance of order in their 
 
TIIK HEW rORK POLICE. 35 
 
 respective districts; to which cud they. are required to inspect the men, 
 even during the night, at unexpected hours. They have also to visit the 
 stations in their districts and to investigate any complaints against mem- 
 bers of the force. 
 
 The inspectors' districts are sub-divided into thirty-two precincts, and in 
 each of these, as nearly the centre as possible, is a station. Each station 
 is under the control of a captain, who is answerable for peace and good 
 order within the limits of his precinct. The men under him are divided 
 into two bodies of about equal strength, called respectively the first and 
 second platoons, each of which is again divided into two sections. At the 
 head of each section is a sergeant, but it is the duty of the captain to 
 determine the disposition of the men and the services they are to perform. 
 In case of the illness of the captain, command of the precinct is taken by a 
 sergeant, appointed for the occasion by the superintendent. 
 
 The special duty of the sergeants is to patrol their districts, and see 
 especially that the roundsmen and policemen are at their posts and in the 
 performance of their duties. One sergeant, however, must always be 
 found at the station house. . 
 
 The commissioners appoint further, two roundsmen in every district, 
 out of the ranks of the policemen, upon whom devotes the special and con- 
 stant supervision of the latter. 
 
 To the policemen, whose position is something similar to that of privates 
 in the army, are given the guardianship of certain defined beats ; but the 
 extent of these beats is in many instances so large, that it is often impossi- 
 ble for the men to perform all that is demanded of them. Each man is 
 obliged to exercise the utmost watchfulness lest any offence be committed 
 within his beat, and on the perpetration of any crime it is always presumed 
 that the policeman has not done his duty, so that the obligation rests with 
 him to show that he was at his post. When he is on duty he is expected 
 to keep a watchful eye upon everybody he meets, to observe everything 
 that is going on, and at night to see whether the house and shop doors, 
 and lower windows, are fastened, and if not to give information to the 
 occupants of the place. He is required to know all the people who live in 
 his district ; to notice the occupations as they com£ before him of all per- 
 sons who are suspected of being thieves, burglars, receivers of stolen goods, 
 gamblers, lottery dealers, or criminals of any kind ; and to watch disorderly 
 houses and report upon all people who frequent them. In every way he 
 has to look after the maintenance of the public peace, and to make all 
 arrests which are necessary, and according to his duty, as laid down in the 
 regulations that are given him. His attention is especially required 
 towards pickpockets, acts of cruelty to animals, injuries to the telegraph 
 wires, the use or sale of slungshots, prize-fighters, dog-fighting and cock- 
 pits, injuries to the public trees, lamps, etc., also to disorderly people 
 of any kind, street rows, drunkenness, games of chance, the use of fire 
 
36 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOEK LIFE. 
 
 arms, &c, &c. But if the policeman has to make an arrest, he is only- 
 allowed to use force when resistance is offered him. He is not permitted 
 to converse others except on business connected with the service, and even 
 then he can only speak with private persons as little as his public duty ren- . 
 ders necessary. 
 
 It will thus be seen then that very much is demanded of him, and that 
 his duty requires his constant, and unremitting attention, in all weathers. 
 His arms are a short staff of hard wood, and a revolver ; and his hours for 
 duty are thus divided : The first watch is from 6 to 8 in the morning, then 
 next from 8 till 1, then from 1 till 6 in the evening, then from 6 till 12, 
 and lastly from 12 to 6 again. These watches are so arranged that no 
 man is on duty during similar hours on two successive days. Finally, one- 
 third of the force is on duty during the day time, and two-thirds at night. 
 
 The force has still other sub-divisions. Forty men do duty in the 
 Courts of Justice, four in the House of Detention, while the sanitary divi- 
 sion, some of which do duty at the ferry and steamboat landings, consists 
 of a captain, 4 sergeants, and 57 policemen. Some of the force are* 
 assigned to an inspection of the steam boilers in the city, others are attached 
 to the Health Commission ; nine have to look after vagrant children, and 
 others are deputed to the protection of the banks and other public buildings. 
 Another division constitutes the river police. This has its station on a 
 steamboat, which is always in readiness to go anywhere w r here the services 
 of the men may be required. Their duty is to watch the river thieves and 
 those vagrants who frequent the wharves, to interfere in the case of muti- 
 nous conduct on the part of sailors, to help firemen when ships are on fire, 
 to tow away ships which are in dangerous proximity to the burning, — and 
 so on. Another division is the detective force ; but of that we shall speak 
 in another chapter. 
 
 The headquarters of the police are in the five story building No. 300 
 Mulberry Street, which extends through to Mott Street. It is admirably 
 adapted to the purpose intended. Special rooms are devoted to each 
 department, and thus the greatest system and order are secured. 
 
 The office of the superintendent is in telegraphic communication with all 
 the station houses, so that news can be received at any moment, and orders 
 sent to any part of the town. If there is any great crime committed, such 
 for instance as the robbery of a bank, the news is transmitted forthwith to 
 every precinct, almost before the thief has got his booty safely in his pos- 
 session ; and it certainly is astonishing to know that, notwithstanding this 
 admirable provision, so many thieves escape detection. If a child is 
 reported to be. lost, a full description of it is sent out to all the precincts, 
 and the entire police force is thus put on the look out for it. In fact, a 
 criminal can, from the office of the superintendent, without this officer once 
 leaving his room, be followed by the telegraph not only through the city ? 
 but throughout every part of the United States, and even beyond. 
 
TIIK NEW YORK POLICE. 37 
 
 At headquarters there is also a court room, where charges and com- 
 plaints against the police are enquired into and disposed of. Every com- 
 plaint must be sworn to. It then goes to the police commissioner, who 
 summons the defendant to appear. The latter seldom procures legal assis- 
 tance. The charge is read, the commissioner on duty hears the defence 
 and the evidence on both sides, and then gives his decision, which decision, 
 however, has to be confirmed before the entire commission. Most of the 
 ■complaints are for breaches of discipline, and the punishment generally 
 consists of a stoppage of pay for one, or perhaps two days. 
 
 There is also in this building an office in which all things found and left 
 iu charge of the police, as well as stolen property, which has not yet been 
 returned to its owners, are deposited. This is styled the " property room," 
 and is in charge of a special clerk. During the official year ending April, 
 5th, 1871, property to the value of $1,413,074.62 came into the hands of 
 the police. Of this, $1,277,036.85 was returned to its owners directly 
 from the station houses, and $132,072.40 through the medium of the 
 property clerk. All unclaimed property is kept for six months, it is then 
 sold by auction and the proceeds paid over to the Police Life Insurance 
 Fund. In the year above named, this amounted, after payment of expen- 
 ses, to $3,965,37. 
 
 These arrangements are in themselves excellent, but unfortunately the 
 efficiency of the New York police leaves much yet to be desired. ^ There 
 are several causes for this. As already stated, the police force, however 
 willing its members may be to do their duty, is too small to be able to 
 give due protection to the whole community in a city of so large extent, 
 and with a double waterfront of such great length as ours. Then, again, 
 the beats of several of the policemen are so extensive, that these officers 
 cannot possibly give an efficient protection to all the inhabitants. But 
 even if the force were more numerous, it is still doubtful whether the object 
 would be attained, unless more care were taken in regard to the selection 
 of the men, and the regulations applicable to them. There is too little 
 encouragement given to them iu the performance of their duties, and 
 instead of promotion being made iu reward for good conduct, it is too often 
 the result of favoritism. Then the employment of the men as political 
 hacks lessens their value as officers ; aud again the action of the commis- 
 sioners, in their dealings with the complaints aud accusations that are made 
 before them, is often so arbitrary, that at their mere option men are liable 
 to be punished most unjustly, under the effect of party prejudice. And 
 this corrupting influence extending from above downwards, may grow 
 into strength in the stations of certain precincts. The captain is possibly 
 an autocrat, and if that be the case, he undermines and neutralizes any 
 efficiency that the commissioners may have left in the men. In each pre- 
 cinct there is a ward officer, who is the captain's right hand man, so to 
 speak, and whose special right it is to follow up all great robberies that 
 
38 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 are reported to him ; but if it is one of less importance, or one from which 
 it seems unlikely that anything can be made, it is then handed over to the 
 policemen. This system works badly in two ways. The officer who first 
 discovered the crime sees the further pursuit of the matter taken out of 
 his hands, and given over to another, whereby his service in the discovery 
 is lost sight of altogether. Then the motive for ambition is destroyed, 
 and any interest the man might feel in the active performance of his duty 
 is nullified ; so that for the future he would rather avoid discoveries than 
 make them. The consequences of all this are that fewer arrests are made, 
 and fewer sentences recorded ; and it is a well known fact that where a 
 thief is not apprehended in the first instance, he is seldom taken afterwards. 
 Moreover the number of instances where an arrest follows immediately 
 after the offence, is comparatively very small. 
 
 Many circumstances testify how little conscienciousness is shown in the 
 selection and discipline of police officers ; as when we see them, without 
 'any provocation whatever, belaboring people with their clubs, or even, as 
 is often the case, making use of their revolvers ; or again — as happened jn 
 October 1872 in the Bowery — policemen were cudgelling people in the 
 open streets ; when again we hear of a couple of policemen shooting a 
 stranger in order that they may themselves plunder him ; and as when a 
 policeman, one Aiken, — this was brought to light in August 1872, — could 
 in his own district commit seventeen burglaries in the course of half a 
 year ; for which, by the way, he received a sentence of twenty years in 
 the state prison. All this, we say, shows most incontrovertibly that there 
 is gross laxity somewhere. 
 
 As long as police officers are chosen from among the worst specimens 
 of ward politicians, so long this state of things must and will continue ; 
 and although the great number of crimes of every kind is even now a 
 source of uneasiness, we must be prepared for matters growing still worse 
 in the future. 
 
 THE NEW YORK DETECTIVES. 
 
 As the task of the main body of police consists in guarding the public 
 safety and averting crime, so it is the special province of the detective force 
 to bring criminals to justice. In early times, notably in France under the 
 reign of Louis XIV., detectives had the ignominious duty of watching only 
 people who were politically obnoxious, submitting them to examination, 
 and, for an unguarded or unconsidered word, often committing them to 
 
THE HEW Y<>;:k DETECTIVES. .>*.> 
 
 prison, or to a fate even worse. And to the present day, in the monarchies 
 of continental Europe, the detectives are in a measure available for political 
 purposes. But here the duties of the detective force are clear and open, 
 and directed only to the investigation of crime and the detection of 
 criminal Si 
 
 The origin of the New York detectives is recent, and dates from the 
 time when Mr. Matsell was chief of the police. The force was first com- 
 pletely organized in the year 1857, and it forms now a separate division 
 of the city police, numbering twenty-five men, under the command of a 
 captain. 
 
 The office of the detective force is in police-headquarters in Mulberry 
 Street. All officers of this body must be men of experience, intelligence, 
 and energy. Without these qualities a detective is useless ; and other 
 qualifications, e\en in a high degree, are necessary to a thoroughly good 
 and well qualified officer. He must be resolute, courageous, and self- 
 reliant under all circumstances. He must understand human nature, and 
 be skilled in the management of any kind of business. He must be physic- 
 ally strong, capable of endurance, adroit, and never neglectful of any 
 means whereby to attain his object. He must be taciturn, capable of 
 assuming any disguise, and in conformity with it to play any role that mav 
 be necessary. He must be ready to encounter any personal danger ; and 
 lastly he should be an honest man ; for his calling brings him into contact 
 with temptations, which honest men alone can withstand. 
 
 The duty of a detective, from whatever point of view we regard it, 
 whether physical or moral, is in truth a difficult one ; for although it is 
 essential that he be an honest man, yet, in order to serve the ends of justice 
 and to protect the public, thereby fulfilling his duty, he often has to resort 
 to means which his moral sense cannot approve. How often must he not 
 dissemble, and be untruthful, and steal into the confidence of men — crimi- 
 nals though they be — to betray them afterwards, and to hand them over to 
 punishment. The only thing which in such circumstances can appease his 
 conscience is the knowledge that he is doing his duty ; and that the highly 
 developed business relations of the time render it necessary that criminals 
 and crime should be hunted out ; which, however, would not be possible 
 without the successful application of those means which he uses; since 
 most crimes, and especially those of a complicated character, are not readily 
 unraveled through the skill and dexterity of the ordinary police. An 
 unpleasant feeling, however, under which the detective must labor, since 
 he has incessantly to deal with crime, is the gloomy light in which every- 
 thing that surrouuds him must appear ; for he can never entirely free him- 
 self from the contemplation of the weaknesses, the follies, the vices, and 
 the crimes of mankind. Indeed his is no enviable existeuce. 
 
 But unpleasant as the calling of a detective may be, it is none the less 
 useful, since he not only looks after criminals, but without being recognized 
 
40 TI1E DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 he keeps a watchful eye over the property of thousands of people who have 
 no idea that he is in the neighborhood. This use of the detective police is 
 especially unappreciated in the country, and inhabitants of small places, or 
 of the country, who come to New York, have no conception how much of 
 their protection depends upon the silent and unseen management of these 
 unknown guardians. Very few of those who visit the great up-town stores, 
 such as Stewart's for instance, have any idea how systematically the super- 
 vision of everything is managed by a detective ; that, too, not in the interest 
 of the proprietor only, but also in that of the customers, whose purses are 
 a great attraction to pickpockets. 
 
 The detective police are to be found in all public places, for the protec- 
 tion of the thousands who visit them. Let us take the theatres for an 
 example. At one or other of the entrances of these places are often to be 
 found crowds of people who carry gold watches, held by only the most 
 slender chains ; or perhaps a full purse ; or, maybe, something valuable in 
 the outside pocket of a coat. If a detective were not at hand, many of 
 these people would have to grieve over some great loss, as soon as they 
 should return home. At the entrance, however, stands a well-dressed 
 man, who observes every person who goes in. Now and then he nods to 
 one of them, and speaks to him. But that man is a pickpocket, and the 
 detective refuses to let him pass. That pickpocket has perhaps been away 
 from New York for a couple of years, and thinks that the detective will 
 not remember him. But detectives have very good memories, which are 
 constantly being refreshed in the " Rogues' Gallery" that is to be found at 
 headquarters, and where are the portraits of all the thieves who have at 
 any time fallen into the hands of the police. In this way, and unremarked 
 by the public, the detective stops every pickpocket who desires to enter, 
 and starts him off. No thief whom, or whose portrait, he has once seen 
 can pass him, even though the man may have much changed in appearance. 
 
 But perhaps the detective knows that recently one or two pickpockets 
 have arrived from England — a country which often sends us this kind of 
 immigration — and that they are in the house. He does not know them ; 
 but they are known almost as soon as they arrive, to the thieves here ; for 
 when they land they seek out the places that they know to be frequented 
 by their own class. Under these circumstances he allows one or two pick- 
 pockets whom he knows, to go in to the theatre, and to watch the foreign- 
 ers ; while he holds the former responsible for any robberies that may take 
 place on that evening. The New York thieves who are thus entrusted 
 with the supervision of the new arrivals, give a promise to steal nothing 
 that night, and they keep their word ; first because anything that should 
 happen would fall upon their shoulders, and secondly because they regard 
 New York as their own rightful domain, and they will not suffer a for- 
 eigner to meddle in their business. In this way the detective often uses 
 one thief to catch another* 
 
TI1K NEW TORS DETECTIVES. 41 
 
 Without detectives the protection of property io the larger cities would 
 be impossible ; and, in the absence of the efficiency of these men, Vigilance 
 Committees would soon become a necessity throughout the land. 
 
 So much then for the usefulness of the force in regard to the supervision 
 of the criminal classes ; it is equally important in their detection and prose- 
 cution. It is true this does not always hold good — for two years have not 
 sufficed to discover the Nathan murderer — but it does in most cases ; and 
 then only through the experience of the men and the knowledge they have 
 acquired of the criminal classes. It is quite immaterial that a Chicago 
 burglar, a Boston safe burster, or a Philadelphia bank robber, work in dif- 
 ferent ways from those practised by the New York criminals, for these, too, 
 have their own manner of operating in the execution of their business ; the 
 experienced detective knows without any difficulty from the manner in 
 which a robbery has been committed, to which band they belong who have 
 been concerned in it. It must be mentioned here, however, that bands of 
 thieves are made up of different " gangs." These we shall speak of in 
 another chapter under the head of " thieves." Marks and signs which 
 would be overlooked by the ordinary observer, but which are very evident 
 to the detective, make it quite clear to him whether a robbery has been 
 perpetrated by an unskilled hand, or by an expert in the business. 
 
 Here are two illustrations. 
 
 In one of our banks small sums of money were from time to time dis- 
 appearing, without apparently the possibility of finding out how they went. 
 A detective was engaged, aud after he had fully weighed all the circum- 
 stances, he came to the conclusion that one of the officers of the bank must 
 be the thief. In consequenee of this every one engaged in the place was 
 carefully watched, for a considerable time, but in vain. Money continued 
 to disappear ; until at last the matter was given entirely into the hands of 
 the detectives. Unknown to the clerks the officer visited the bank at 
 different times, in different disguises, and under different pretexts, and 
 every day his observations strengthened the opinion that one of the clerks 
 must be^he thief, till at last his suspicions rested specially upon one of 
 their number. He followed this man in all his movements for fourteen 
 days ; at the end of which time an exact account of the habits and doings 
 of the suspected clerk was given to the president of the bank. The detec- 
 tive had never left the young man one hour out of his sight. The latter 
 lived in New Jersey ; but the officer went with him every day backward 
 and forward on the railroad. Whenever he went for a walk or to pay a 
 visit, the detective was after him, though unsuspected and unrecognized. 
 Every house which the clerk had visited during those fourteen days was 
 noted down in the report, with the name of the street, the number, and the 
 character of its occupants ; also, whether he was there a long or short 
 time ; what he had eaten and drank ; aud the persons whom he had spoken 
 to. Every place of amusement which he had visited was noted, and also 
 
42 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 what he' had spent there. Amongst other things the report stated that he 
 had visited gambling places and other houses of a like kind, and further 
 that after going to bed he would get up at two o'clock in the morning, 
 leave the house, and go off with persons of whom a close description was 
 given. How it is possible that anybody can for fourteen days be observed 
 as closely as here appears, without once having his suspicions aroused, is 
 a mystery which belongs only to the detectives. However, the officer in 
 this case had done enough. The clerk was called into the office of the 
 president and openly charged with the theft. The report was laid before 
 him, and at length, overcome by the evidence, he admitted without further 
 ceremony the truth of the accusation. 
 
 Here is the next case. A couple of years or more ago a man came to 
 a station house and complained that his house had been robbed. He had 
 followed the thief, but could not catch him. During the chase the latter 
 had thrown away a chisel and some scraps of paper. The captain of the- 
 precinct, and a detective who happened to be present, questioned the com- 
 plainant closely concerning the nature of the robbery, what marks had 
 been left behind by the tools that had been used, what things had been 
 stolen, and so on ; and both officers were at once agreed as to what band 
 the thief belonged. That settled, the next thing was to find out the par- 
 ticular member of the band. The chisel gave no information ; but the 
 pieces of paper which the thief had thrown away were pasted together, and 
 although they were not complete, they nevertheless were a clue to one of 
 the thieves who belonged to the band which the officers had indicated. 
 The next object was to arrest this man. The detective at once named 
 three houses, in one of which he would be found. To each of these a 
 police officer was sent, and within two hours the thief was under lock and 
 key, and had confessed to the charge. 
 
 We must add one more case which has been related by the well-known 
 detective Mr. Waters. But let him speak for himself. He says : — 
 
 u One evening in the year 1860 I visited the Winter Garden Theatre, 
 and after I had been following the performance for some time, I cast my 
 eyes over the audience. A noise in the gallery attracted my attention, 
 and I saw three young people get up and leave their places, an incident 
 which I should not have noticed further, had it not happened that through 
 the space left by their departure my eyes rested upon an elegantly dressed 
 man on the back row of seats, who, after looking fixedly at one of the 
 "boxes, whispered something to the person sitting next him. The one I did 
 not know, but the other was a man who often did " business" in Wall 
 Street as a real-estate broker and money lender. He had an office in Pine 
 Street, and was one of the most active and dangerous pickpockets in New 
 York. I immediately concluded that some rascality was on the way. As 
 from the place where I was I could not see into the box where the man 
 had looked so intently, I left it, and went to another whence I got a full 
 
THE NEW YORK DETECT! VKS. 4$ 
 
 view of the box and could notice the occupants without being observed. 
 These consisted of two gentlemen and two ladies, who had the appearance 
 of people from the Southern States. They were elegantly dressed and as 
 I noticed that they wore valuable rings and other jewelry, it became clear 
 at once why the people in the gallery had directed their attention to the 
 box ; neither did I for one moment doubt that they would soon come down, 
 and scrape an acquaintance, and rob them either of money or valuables. 
 
 Henry Dubois was one of the names under which the elegant rascal up- 
 stairs carried on his business ; the name of his companion I did not know. 
 At the end of the act I noticed that the two gentlemen in the box left it, 
 and immediately afterwards Dubois and his friend went out. Guessing 
 that both parties had gone into the refreshment room, I did the same, 
 having first put on some false mustachios and a pair of spectacles, so that 
 Dubois might not know me. Hardlv had I entered the refreshment room 
 and found the gentlemen from the box, before Dubois and his companion 
 came in. I had thought that Dubois would make his recognition cau- 
 tiously with the view probably of commencing operations later, and I was 
 not a little surprised to see that as soon as he had glanced round the place 
 sufficiently to find the person he was in search of, he touched his compan- 
 ion on the elbow, and going up to the two gentlemen, who were in the act 
 of drinking a glass of wine, he exclaimed to one of them : " How are you r 
 Mr. Le Franc. I am delighted to see you in New York. When did you 
 leave New Orleans?' 
 
 The gentleman addressed looked at the elegantly dressed Dubois, who 
 stood before him, and after a momentary surprise, evidently deceived by 
 the manners of the stranger, he replied : " I think you have made a mis- 
 take, sir. My name is not Le Franc, and I do not remember to have had 
 the pleasure of your acquaintance." 
 
 " Indeed," replied Dubois, " I took you for Mr. Le Franc of New 
 Orleans, whom you resemble in an extraordinary degree, and together with 
 whom and another gentleman, I made a trip to Donaldsonville about three 
 years ago on the invitation of Mr. Robert McDonald." 
 
 u Robert McDonald ? likely that is my cousin," and thereupon the gen- 
 tleman extended his hand, " My name is William Hale. I live in Savan- 
 nah, and this gentleman" (presenting his companion) " is my cousin, Mr. 
 Clemens, from Mobile. May I request to know your name !" 
 
 Very obligingly Dubois took a card case from his vest pocket and pre- 
 sented Mr. Hale with a card on which were the words : 
 
 HENRY CLARKSON DUBOIS, 
 
 Attorney at Law. 
 
 Specialty. — Dealing in Real-Estate, effecting Loans, and securing advan- 
 ces on Cotton. 
 
 Office : 34 Pine Street, New York City. 
 
44 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 He apologized at the same time for it being a " business" card, as he had 
 no visiting cards about him." 
 
 " Now Mr. Dubois, it gives me much pleasure to meet in you a friend of 
 McDonald's. When did you see him last ? Is he not a fine man ? Par- 
 don ! Will not you and your companion join us in a glass of wine ?" 
 
 Dubois, evidently pleaied at having made such progress, of course did 
 not refuse, and when he had taken the glass, replied : " You asked me 
 when I last saw Robert? It was about three months ago, when he was 
 on his way to Hamilton, in Canada. He wa3 staying for a week at the 
 Metropolitan Hotel, where I live." 
 
 " True," answered Mr. Hale, " Robert wrote us once from Canada, and 
 I am sorry that I did not accompany him on his visit at that time. I hope 
 he was well." 
 
 I saw that Dubois had, so to speak, taken both gentlemen by storm, and 
 I was eager to learn what further was going to happen. Mr. Hale offered 
 cigars, but these Dubois declined, asking permission, however, to light a 
 cigarette, a case of which he took out, remarking as he did it : "I 
 acquired the habit of using cigarettes in Cuba, when I was there attached 
 to the United States legation." 
 
 The elegant cigarette holder seemed to please the gentleman from Savan- 
 nah very much, and it was quite evident that the gentlemanly demeanor 
 of Dubois had quite deceived the Southerner, while his companion, although 
 not so elegant as Dubois, had, nevertheless, made a favorable impression. 
 
 The next act of the play had begun, before the gentlemen had smoked 
 their cigars and finished their conversation, when Mr. Hale said to his 
 friend Clemens: "Would not Mary be pleased to make the acquaintance 
 of so intimate a friend of cousin Robert's ?" And to Dubois he continued : 
 " I said that McDonald was my cousin ; but it is by marriage, for he is 
 one of the dearest relations of my wife. Will not you and your friend do 
 us the honor to accompany us to our box, that we may present you to the 
 ladies." 
 
 " With the greatest pleasure," replied Dubois ; whereupon the party 
 returned to the box, and I hastened back to my place to watch the progress 
 of affairs ; having first removed my moustachios and spectacles. Mr. Hall 
 immediately introduced Dubois to his wife as the intimate friend of her 
 cousin Robert ; and I could not but remark that Dubois succeeded in 
 deceiving the ladies quite as easily as he had won the good graces of their 
 husbands. The affair must have accupied the time of nearly two acts, so 
 absorbed were all in the conversation. But Dubois' whole demeanor — 
 wavering as it was between a studied politeness of manner and the evident 
 desire to be doing something — told me, that his plan was made up and 
 would be worked out in due time. I remarked that much had been said 
 about rings, and that Dubois took a ring from his finger and holding it in 
 his hand, seemed to be telling some occurrence in connection with it ; and 
 
THE NEW TORX DETECTIVES. 45 
 
 towards the end of the act I observed that Mr. Clemens had also taken off 
 a ring, containing a valuable brilliant, which, as I learned later, he had 
 bought the day before for $1500, and which he intended as a present for 
 his brother, who was studying at Harvard, whither he and his wife were 
 going next. There was nothing but enjoyment in the box ; the gentlemen 
 laughed, while the ladies rallied them with their fans, and seemed to refuse 
 to let them out. But, as I afterwards learned, Dubois, before he went, 
 assured the ladies most obligingly that he would return very soon. 
 
 He left the box behind the other gentlemen, and as he went out, he gave 
 a polite salutation with his hand to the ladies. That revealed all to me, 
 for on his linger I now saw, without any possible mistake, the identical 
 brilliant ring belonging to Mr. Clemens. 
 
 I hurried to the refreshment room, and instantly saw on the face of 
 Dubois evidence of the victory he had won ; but I watched him now the 
 more diligently. He was very jovial, would not permit Mr. Hale or Mr. 
 Clemens either to order refreshments, or to pay for them ; and was, in a 
 word, amiability itself. 
 
 The third act was about to begin, and the gentlemen, who had got some- 
 what warm from the numerous glasses of wine that they had drank, went 
 back to their box ; and I to my post. But on my way there I was detained 
 somewhat by a lady who had fainted in the throng, and when I reached 
 it, and looked again into the box, I at once remarked, that Dubois was not 
 there, that Mr. Clemens was speaking very earnestly about something, and 
 that the whole company was very much put out ; whilst Dubois' compan- 
 ion was looking very much surprised, and seemed to be protesting and gestic- 
 ulating against something that had been put forward. I saw now that no 
 time was to be lost. I left my place again and once more betook myself 
 to the refreshment room, where Mr. Hale and Mr. Clemens had alreadv 
 gone. They were enquiring of the barkeeper whether Mr. Dubois had 
 been back again, whether he had seen him since they last went back with 
 him to the box, and many other questions. But the barkeeper had not 
 seen him ag tin ; and Mr. Hall remarked to his friend, " Now you are nicely 
 swindled. This fellow is an arrant rascal. He borrowed the ring, and 
 you will never see it again." 
 
 " Let us look for a policeman," said Mr. Clemens. 
 
 " Nonsense," replied Hale, " no policeman can bring it back. The man 
 is not easy to be caught, besides who knows that he may not have taken 
 the next train to Philadelphia, or somewhere else. I don't think he lives 
 in New York. But here is his card, though perhaps this too is a swindle. 
 Let us look in the directory." 
 
 The barkeeper produced the directory, but no " Henry Clarkson Dubois'" 
 was to be found in it. The gentlemen looked at each other, bewildered 
 and perplexed, and Hale suggested that they should return to the ladies. 
 
 " Perhaps they know what is best to be done. You know what your 
 
46 THE DARK SIDE # OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 wife said. If we had followed her advice and gone after the scoundrel at 
 once, we should perhaps have caught him by this time." 
 
 I did not think well to put myself forward, for I feared that they might 
 perhaps take me for an accomplice of the thief. But I soon made up my 
 mind what to do. It was quite clear to me that I must get hold of Dubois 
 that night. Three months ago I had known where he lived, but I had 
 since heard that he was now wandering about. The question was, where 
 to find him? I recollected a boarding-house in West Thirteenth Street, 
 where Dubois once had lived, and the landlady of which did not know his 
 true character, but took him to be a respectable young man. There I 
 went immediately. I found the lady at home, and to my enquiries, 
 whether she could tell me where I could find Dubois on the following 
 morning (for I did not let her know that I wanted him that night), she 
 replied that I should in all probability find him at his office, No. 34 Pine 
 Street ; that he had two days before bespoken board at her house, but that, 
 as all her rooms were engaged for a week, he had declared that he would 
 go and sleep at his office on the sofa ; and that she had sent him bedding 
 for that purpose. 
 
 Now my plan was complete. I let the coachman drive to my lodgings, 
 where I duly armed myself. I then drove to the Post Office, where I got 
 out and went at once to 34 Pine Street. Near there was at that time the 
 office of an old friend of mine, and I was not a little pleased to see a light 
 in it, and to learn that one of his clerks, together with another man, were 
 still at business there. 
 
 I knocked, and the clerk, who knew me, opened the door. " Don't ask 
 me anything," I said to him hurriedly, " but tell me whether you will 
 remain here another quarter of an hour ?" 
 
 " Yes, perhaps an hour." 
 
 " Good, I shall perhaps return." 
 
 " Just so — are you on the track of a bird," asked the clerk. Then he 
 remarked jokingly, that I must not bring him there at that time of night. 
 
 I shut the door, and ran up a couple of flights of stairs in No. 34 to 
 Dubois' office, at which I knocked. 
 
 Nothing was to be heard in the room — all was still. Had the bird 
 flown ? 
 
 I did not think so, I thought certainly to find him there. I knocked 
 again. 
 
 " Who is there?" asked some one in a half sleepy voice. 
 
 "Oh!" answered I, "are you asleep, Mr. Dubois? Never mind. I 
 have something urgent on hand. I knew that you were here, for I saw 
 you come into the house. In the office near is a man who has fainted and 
 I am alone with him, but I want you to stay with him, whilst I run for a 
 doctor. Just throw a coat over your shoulders and come out quickly." 
 Upon which I ran down stairs, but came up again directly, and knocking 
 
THE NEW rORK DETECTIVES. 47 
 
 again, I called to him still more urgently ■ ** Make haste, and run down 
 directly, while I go for a doctor. The door is open ; but, let me see, the 
 sick man may recover his senses and may need some stimulant. Here is 
 the key of the cupboard ; there is a bottle of brandy in it. Here, take it." 
 Dubois, who little thought to be taken unaware, opened the door a 
 little to take the key from me, when I, pushing open the door, went into 
 the room. On his finger was Mr. Clemens ring. He had only a shirt and 
 trowsers on, but he was a powerful man and a good pugilist. I saw at 
 once how matters stood, so quickly drawing my revolver, and holding it at 
 his head, I said quietly : " Dubois, do not trouble yourself. Just hand 
 over to me, without more ado. Mr. Clemens' ring, or I shall call up my 
 officer, who is below at the door." 
 
 Dubois was astonished, and declared that he had no ring, except his 
 own. 
 
 M We will see all about that," I replied. " Mr. Hale will be here in a 
 moment. As soon as he comes, it's all over with you. He knows the 
 ring and can identify you, and so can I. So out with it.'' 
 
 Dubois saw that he could not deceive or escape me, and so he gave me 
 the ring, beseeching me not to expose him ; and as I did not know whether 
 Mr. Clemens would be willing to prosecute, although I doubted very much 
 whether he would allow his journey to be interfered w r ith, I w r ent out, 
 reminding him, however, that the events of the evening were well known, 
 and that he was carefully watched ; adding briefly, as I shut the door, that 
 ■the man who had fainted in the next house, had in the meanwhile quite 
 recovered, and that in consequence he need not trouble himself further. 
 
 I drove home, locked the ring up carefully and went to bed, turning over 
 in my mind how to find Mr. Clemens. The next morning I went out earlv 
 to look for him. After many enquiries at the larger hotels, and much 
 running about in all directions, I ascertained that both gentlemen lived 
 with their wives in a private house in Madison Square. I went there, but 
 found both families ou^ and learned that they would not be home till even- 
 ing. I therefore enquired for paper and ink, and left the following letter 
 addressed to Mr. Hale : 
 
 Dear sir : 
 
 I have not the pleasure to know you person 
 ally, but the fact that I am a true friend of your cousin, Mr. Robert 
 McDonald, will, I hope, suffice to secure to me an interview. I called to 
 see you upon a business of importance, but as I do not find you at home, I 
 beg you to expect me at half-past nine this evening. I should also be glad 
 to have Mr. Clemens present : and when you shall have learned the object 
 of my visit, you will not think me impertinent, when I express the hope 
 that the ladies may also be present. 
 
 Respectfully, &c, &c. 
 
48 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Punctually at half-past nine I was again in Madison Square. 1 enquired 
 for Mr. Hale. He came to speak to me in the entrance hall, met me with 
 a very dubious expression, and, although polite, was very cool. " I left a 
 note here for you to-day," I said. 
 
 " Yes ! I received a somewhat singular letter and did not know what to 
 make of it. Pray, explain yourself. We are strangers, aud you will 
 excuse it, if we are cautious in our intercourse with a stranger." He had 
 evidently taken to heart the lesson of the previous evening. 
 
 " But," I asked, " are Mr. and Mrs. Clemens also ready to receive one ; 
 as I requested in my letter ?" 
 
 " Yes, and my wife also." 
 
 " Can I see the party all together? for my time is rather limited." • 
 
 " Yes," answered he shortly, " follow me." 
 
 We went into a small parlor close' by, in which I found Mr. Clemens 
 and the two ladies. 
 
 With the words " This is the gentleman who left the letter to-day, in 
 which he said that he knew Robert McDonald," Mr. Hale introduced me, 
 and requested me to take a seat ; having first thrown a sly glance around 
 at the mention of McDonald's name. 
 
 " I beg pardon," I remarked, " I did not say that I knew Mr. McDon- 
 ald, but that I was a real friend of his ; if you have my note convenient,. 
 I beg that you will refer to it." 
 
 " Oh ! then you do not know my cousin McDonald?" asked Mr. Hale. 
 " I am glad to hear you say that you do not know him ; for when I thought 
 otherwise, I was a little alarmed. We have quite recently had to deplore 
 an acquaintance that we made with one of his friends." 
 
 " Now ladies and gentlemen," I replied, " I will be brief. You have 
 indeed good reason to be vexed at having made the acquaintance of one 
 who called himself a friend of Mr. McDonald. Perhaps he did know him, 
 personally too. I, however, do not know him, but I am so far a friend of 
 his, that my object is to serve his friends, as he would have me to do, if he 
 knew the very great loss that you suffered yesterday." 
 
 Each looked at the other and for a few moments there was a complete 
 silence, till Mr. Clemens said in a trembling voice : 
 
 " What, do you know all about it? Have you found the ring?" 
 
 "Nonsense," interrupted Mr. Hale, "how can you think that anyone 
 has found what was not lost, but stolen?" 
 
 " Nevertheless," said I, " I have something here for you" — at the same 
 time taking the ring out of my pocket and holding it up to the light. 
 
 "That's it!" "Where did you get it from?" " Was it lost, and did 
 you find it?". " Oh ! how glad I am that we have got it again ;" they all 
 cried out together. 
 
 " Listen to me quietly and I will explain it all to you." I now told my 
 
THE M-'.V YORK DEI E< n\ ES. 
 
 name and occupation, and related to them how I had Been the whole trans' 
 
 action, and also what I had done. 
 
 Naturally enough they all thanked me much. But when Mr. Clemens 
 
 parted from me, he said : " Never again will I trust anything that belongs 
 to me, to a stranger, I don't care whose friend he is. 1 shall not forget the 
 ksson I have just had." 
 
 And in the city of New York there are plenty of elegant rascals like 
 Mr. Dubois. 
 
 These illustrations will suffice to show the necessity and the usefulness 
 of the detective force, as well as the means and the skill with which their 
 work is done. But while alluding to their usefulness, w r e must not omit to 
 refer to those cases, not very unfrequent, which involve on the part of the 
 detective police a great danger to public security. We mean those instan- 
 ces where the detectives themselves prove dishonest, and regardless of their 
 duty to make an attack upon criminal offenders, they treat with them for 
 their own advantage ; or in other words, obtain sums of money, whereby 
 they support themselves abundantly upon the persons who are robbed, 
 these in turn receiving back a part of the stolen goods on a negotiation 
 made with both thieves and detectives, and the promise not to prosecute. 
 
 A case that occurred not so very long ago will at once set forth the 
 audacity of the thieves and the dishonesty of some of the detectives. 
 
 A bank in Maryland was broken into and robbed of valuable papers to 
 the amount of $120,000. After some time it was ascertained that the 
 papers had come to New York and were in the possession of two notorious 
 burglars. At first it appeared that the thieves would be proceeded against 
 in earnest, and the detectives went a long way towards recovering the 
 property and arresting the thieves. No criminal was used as a decoy, nor 
 was any immunity from punishment promised. The thieves were quietiv 
 watched, and it was discovered that they wanted to sell the stock through 
 one of the regular brokers. This gentleman came to the necessary terms 
 with the thieves as to the transfer, and they arranged to go to his office 
 and to give up the papers on receipt of the value. They kept their appoint- 
 ment, and on giving up the stock they were immediately arrested by the 
 detectives, who had been concealed in an adjoining room. 
 
 Thus, the thieves together with 99,500 dollars worth of the stolen prop- 
 erty was in the hands of the officers, and it seems that in a robbery of so 
 much importance justice ought to have triumphed, and the thieves not to 
 have been permitted to escape punishment. But it resulted, otherwise. 
 The next thing was that the identity of the prisoners who in the first 
 instance had given false names was called in question by the detectives, 
 and very soon afterwards we learned that the whole thing had been settled 
 to the satisfaction of everybody concerned ! 
 
 But the Baltimore detectives had first had charge of the case, and now 
 the success of the New York officers had snatched from their grasp the 
 
 4 
 
50 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOKK LIFE. 
 
 large reward that had been offered. However, there was still a sura of 
 $20,000 wanting to the property that had been stolen, and the Baltimore 
 men, determined to have something, hung on to those $20,000. Now a 
 farce was enacted by the detectives, of this kind. It was arranged that 
 the accused should be taken to Maryland of their own consent, and without 
 any previous requisition from the governor of that State, and that they 
 should there be arraigned. As soon then as the New York detectives had 
 given up their prisoners to the Baltimore detectives and received their cer- 
 tification, the latter went off to Baltimore with their prisoners. Their jour- 
 ney, however, must have been a very quick one, and the proceedings in 
 Baltimore, too, must have been done on the double-quick ; it must have 
 ended, too, in a very sudden acquittal ; for scarcely was the ink dry with 
 which the certificate of transfer to the Baltimore detectives had been writ- 
 ten, before the thieves were peacably promenading Broadway as if nothing 
 had happened. How was that possible? The $20,000 were returned; 
 and thus the story ended to the satisfaction of everybody — except the pub- 
 lic, who saw that once more justice was, to it, not worth a snap of the 
 fingers. The thieves were pleased because they had escaped punishment ; 
 the detectives because they had had a "good job," for they received the 
 $16,000 reward ; and the bank because they had received back its stolen 
 property with a small comparative loss. 
 
 But while such miserable transactions are tolerated, what becomes of 
 justice and public security ? 
 
 The following illustration proves, yet further, how thieves and officers 
 sometimes conspire together. A young man who held a position as clerk 
 in a banking house in this city was prosecuted for a robbery of some bonds 
 which had been stolen from his principal, aud he was condemned to several 
 years imprisonment in Sing Sing. Although he was not a professional 
 thief, but had only lent a helping hand to the actual thieves, he was, never- 
 theless, crafty enough to cheat them out of a considerable part of their 
 booty. He was hunted down, and after some time arrested and prose- 
 cuted ; principally, however, because he would not enter into any negotia- 
 tions for the return of his share of the robbery ; which consisted of $30,000, 
 and which the detectives were not able to discover. When he was sen- 
 tenced he explained that $30,000 were well worth five years in jail, so he 
 considered his conviction a profitable piece of business. But he was bol- 
 der and more cunning even than people took him to be, for he did not 
 happen to go to jail. He was handed over to a deputy-sheriff for removal 
 to Sing Sing, but after an absence of two days that officer returned, with 
 the simple statement thart his prisoner had escaped. That was too much 
 even for New York ; the affair was enquired into, and it appeared without 
 doubt that the prisoner had been assisted to escape by the officer himself. 
 The latter was thereupon prosecuted, and received a sentence of four years 
 in Sing Sing. Thus that story ended, and both of them, the criminal as 
 
THE UNITED STATES DETECTI1 -31 
 
 well as the officer, bad done a " good stroke of business," each in hij 
 own way. 
 
 That such cases as these, where in the most unseemly manner justice is 
 trodden under foot, Can be allowed to happen in New York, is indeed 
 hardly credible ; but it is none the less a fact. And, in the chapter upon 
 the criminal courts of this city, we shall have to consider the subject yet 
 more in detail, and to introduce other illustrations of a similar kind. But 
 if this sort of thing happens, if detectives, whose duty it is to pursue crimi- 
 nals and to bring them to justice, lower themselves so deeply as to become 
 partners in the business, still it must not be overlooked that the existing 
 regulations themselves, verv much contribute to lead the detectives into 
 temptation ; and even into the arms of corruption ; for it is noteworthy that 
 these people, who to work successfully must have so many prominent quali- 
 iications, are not better paid than'the ordinary policeman. If we were to 
 give to the detectives for their very difficult, dangerous, and often most 
 laborious services, a proportionate, a respectable, a liberal remuneration ; 
 and at the same time forbid them to take private rewards for the arrest of 
 criminals, and also make the offering of such rewards illegal, we should 
 cease to hear of corruption in the force. Such a mode of proceeding may 
 perhaps seem hard ; but it is still the only way to rectify an evil which 
 carries so much mischief in its train. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES DETECTIVES. 
 
 The detective force ofgthe United States is known as the United States 
 secret service division. It is under the command of a chief, — which office 
 has been held for four years past by Colonel Whitley, — and it has officers 
 throughout the country. Its sphere of operations does not clash with that 
 of the city detectives, but is quite different. It has nothing to do with 
 offences against private individuals, but only with those against the gov- 
 ernment of the United States. Among these, the most important are 
 coiners, and counterfeiters of U. S. Treasury notes, National Bank notes, 
 and Internal Revenue stamps ; then smuggling and false declarations in the 
 Custom House, secret distilleries, and other frauds against the Internal 
 Revenue department ; Post Office defalcations and robberies ; illegal collec- 
 tion of pensions, &c, in short all crimes and offences affecting the central 
 government. The United States detectives are well supported by the local 
 authori-ties, but to them we are indebted for the fact that during the last three 
 
52 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 or four years a powerful obstacle has been interposed to the counterfeiting* 
 of Treasury and National Bank notes. 
 
 Of the great extent to which these forgeries injure the transactions of 
 the active business public, and of the number of persons engaged in the 
 nefarious traffic as capitalists, manufacturers, engravers, printers, whole- 
 sale dealers, jobbers, retail dealers, peddlers, &c, we shall have an oppor- 
 tunity to speak in detail in a future chapter upon " forgers and counterfeit- 
 ers." Here, in order to show the importance of the work of the United 
 States detectives, we will only remak that, during the last three and a half 
 years, they have taken and brought to punishment 497 coiners, bank note 
 counterfeiters and forgers of United States bonds, more than 300 counter- 
 feiters of Internal Revenue stamps, &c, over 400 smugglers, besides peo- 
 ple engaged in secret distillation, post office thieves and defaulters, &c, in 
 all 1220 criminals engaged in these nefarious pursuits. In addition to this 
 tliey have confiscated more than 70 engraved plates for the manufacture of 
 counterfeit treasury, bank, and currency notes, and United States bonds ;. 
 46 dies for gold and silver coin, 14 plates for forging Internal Revenue 
 stamps, 40 expensive printing, and other presses, and apparatus, besides 
 counterfeit notes to the nominal value of $700,000, and revenue stamps to 
 the amount of $200,000. 
 
 The duties of the United States detectives are naturally similar in char- 
 acter to those of the New York detectives, with the difference only that the 
 former extend their operations over the w T hole country. We will give a 
 couple of interesting cases from their experience. 
 
 People who live in the Bowery, or the vicinity of Hester Street, or who 
 have had occasion to be much in that locality, will probably remember a 
 hobbling old man, somewhat lame, and supporting himself on a thick stick, 
 who was often to be seen there on Sundays, as well as week days, some 
 two years ago. He was decently dressed, but was only known as " Old 
 Sam/' He Avas supposed to live in New Jersey, but no one precisely 
 knew. He was generally taken for a farmer, or for a resident in some 
 little outlying place. People called him also " lame Sam," and whoever 
 heard his ever quiet mode of speaking, and saw the friendly smile that was 
 always lighting up his face, must have taken him for a very harmless man. 
 And whoever met him on Sundays wending his way to church with a 
 most devout aspect, must assuredly have thought that he was a very good 
 old man, who was going thither out of pure piety. 
 
 But " lame Sam" was very little of a saint ; on the contrary he was a 
 most arrant scoundrel, who, to get money, was capable of any wickedness, 
 and only went to church for bad motives. In everything he did he had a 
 dishonest object in view, and although he was generally considered as a 
 good old man, he was in truth nothing else than a crafty, deceitful, scoun- 
 drel, and the confederate of a notorious forger, burglar, and safe thief., 
 named Crosby. 
 
Iiii. I Ml l.I' STATES DETEC I H ES. 
 
 Sam had been running his evil course for som«- years, and had systemat- 
 ically circulated counterfeit money wherever occasion had guided him in 
 bis wanderings; a proceeding which was easy enough to him with Ids 
 seemingly honest face, and an aspect from which one would have thought 
 that lie could not Bay " boo to a goose." And fortune favored him so well, 
 and so long, that he succeeded in accumulating a sum of money which 
 enabled him to buv a fine farm in Quakertown, which brought him in a 
 handsome return. 
 
 Sam was always at work, for the circulation of counterfeit money con- 
 tinued to remain his sole occupation. But he conducted this vile business 
 •so cautiously, so craftily, and under such a pious air, that it never occurred 
 to anyone to take him for what he really was. And so, as he hobbled 
 about from place to place, he was always the subject of a friendly good 
 word, until one day the chief of the United States detective police, Colonel 
 Whitley, conceived a suspicion against him, and thus, the man who had 
 lor so many years been cheating people with false money, began to be 
 watched. 
 
 As before remarked, Sam always carried a thick stick, which, as he 
 said, he could not do without, because he was so lame, that he therefore 
 required a strong support. Wherever he was seen, wherever he went, 
 sitting or standing, he had the stick constantly in his hand. He never let 
 it go from him. But one day the thought occurred to the detective who 
 was entrusted with the case, that there must be something more about that 
 •stick than at first appeared, and he determined to come at the truth of it. 
 
 About that time there was a large number of counterfeit notes, of vari- 
 ous denominations, in circulation in New Jersey, and down as far as Mary- 
 land. The detective officer working under the assumed name of Rugg, 
 found out that Sam often paid visits in that direction. 
 
 So the officer scraped an acquaintance with Sam. At first, meeting him 
 on the road he would go with him, then he very soon took a journey on 
 the railroad with him, and the two were constantly in bar-rooms and beer 
 houses together. He drank and gossiped with him, and thus the acquaint- 
 ance grew thicker, at last on one occasion Sam was observed to pass a 
 counterfeit ten dollar bill in a hotel, and soon after to repeat the action iu 
 another house. 
 
 Now the officer went to work. Sam was travelling about in New Jer- 
 sey, but Rugg was watching him unobserved; and one day just after 
 Sam had come out of a hotel, in a country place, the detective went in and 
 d whether Sam had spent any money there. 
 
 " Yes," answered the landlord, " fifty cents. He is an old miser — never 
 - through the night." 
 
 " What money did he give you,'" asked Rugg. 
 
 " A ten dollar note." 
 
 11 May I sec it." 
 
54 THE DAUK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 "Yes', here it is," answered the publican, taking the note out of the? 
 till. 
 
 " The note is bad," Rugg quietly remarked. 
 
 "The devil it is," cried the host. 
 
 " Nothing but a counterfeit, my friend ! Not worth a cent." 
 
 " Damn it !" shouted the publican, and he burst into a torrent of oaths,.. 
 But Rugg whispered to him : " Now be quiet friend, I am a detective.. 
 Leave the rest to me and take care of the note till I return." 
 
 Upon this Rugg left him, and going on the road after Sam, soon over- 
 took him. 
 
 Sam had just come out of a store upon whose proprietor he had played 
 a similar game. 
 
 " My daughter," said he, as he went in, " asked me to get her three 
 yards of calico. Have you anything good in that way?" 
 
 " Yes," answered the storekeeper. 
 
 " How much is it a yard?" 
 
 " Twenty cents." 
 
 " Is not that a little dear?" 
 
 " No, on the contrary ; you will not get it as cheap anywhere else." 
 
 " Well, then give me three yards." Sam took it ; paid for it with 
 another bogus ten dollar bill, and left the store with the calico " for his 
 daughter," and nine dollars and forty cents of good money in his pocket. 
 
 Meanwhile Rugg had altered his dress, beard, and hat, so that Sam 
 could not recognize him. He also, as he fell in to Sam's road, feigned to 
 be somewhat intoxicated. 
 
 "How are you getting along, old fellow?" said Rugg in a stammering: 
 voice. "Where are you going?" 
 
 Sam stopped. They gossiped for a little while and then went off 
 together. 
 
 Rugg asked Sam wdiat he had in his little parcel. " Calico for my 
 daughter, which I have just bought in that store," said Sam, looking back- 
 wards at the place. Upon which Rugg suddenly remembered that he had 
 to take seme needles and thread to his " old woman." He took a good 
 ten dollar bill out of his pocket and asked Sam if he could not change it. 
 Sam gladly seized such a good opportunity to do business, and he gave 
 Rugg two counterfeit five dollar bills, for, thought he, the fellow is so 
 drunk, he will not know a bad note from a good one. 
 
 Rugg now begged Sam to go to the store with him, then they would cr> 
 on together ; and, as they set off, Rugg noticed, as if for the first time. 
 Sam's stick. 
 
 " What a curious stick," he stammered out. And so saying, he took it 
 out of Sam's hand, looked at it on all sides and examined it to see if the 
 large top unscrewed. It did ; he screwed it off, and found that inside a. 
 string was fastened. 
 
THE UNITED mail- DETECTIVES. 55 
 
 Sara was now on thorns, but lie was a cunning fellow and knew how to 
 control himself. 
 
 Rugg pulled out the string (which had a knot at the lower end) and out 
 full a little rull of bank notes. He pulled again ; another little roll fell out, 
 and then another, till altogether there were twelve rolls of live, and ten 
 dollar bills. 
 
 Rugg, who still pretended to be drunk, laughed aloud, apparently at 
 the quantity of money he had pulled out ; while Sam was confounded and 
 hardly knew what to say. 
 
 "Hallo, you are rich, old fellow, very rich," cried Rugg. 
 
 Sam collected his notes together again. 
 
 " Do you think they |ire good ones?" asked Sam, soon recovering him- 
 self. 
 
 Rugg looked at the notes and replied : "Yes, indeed, they are all good," 
 while he had noticed at a glance that they were all new counterfeits of the 
 kind most recently put into circulation. 
 
 " It is curious," said Sara, " I have carried that stick more than twenty 
 years. It belonged once to my father, who is dead, and I never in my 
 life knew that the head would unscrew." 
 
 "Twenty years?" stammered Rugg; "and you have had it all the 
 time?" 
 
 " Yes, — it has never been out of my possession." 
 
 " It seems to me," remarked Rusts:, still feigning drunkenness, " that 
 your notes were not printed at that time ?" 
 
 Tha\ was a delicate question ; but Sam went on as if he did not hear it ; 
 and when he had gathered together all his notes, he said " You wanted to 
 go and buy something in the store, let us go and do it, and then we will 
 move along together." 
 
 " So we will," said Rugg, making an effort to stand on his legs. 
 
 So they went to the store. 
 
 When they had entered, Rugg quietly asked the storekeeper whether 
 the old man had bought any calico of him ? 
 
 " Yes, about an hour ago," answered the storekeeper. 
 
 " And with what did he pay for it ?" 
 
 " With this note," replied the man ; showing Rugg the note he had 
 received from Sam. 
 
 " It is a bad one," remarked Rtiirg, quietly. 
 
 " Bad,"' cried Sam, " that is not possible. Then I will very soon take 
 it back to the place I received it from. I am an old man and have not 
 very good sight. Is it not a shame to cheat an old man like that?'' 
 
 Saying this, he wiped the tears from his eyes. Then he looked about 
 in his pockets and brought out ten good one dollar bills, and laid them 
 down, apparently very much enraged at being cheated. He was on the 
 point of going away, when Rugg, who now seemed to be sobered again, 
 
56 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 asked him whether all his money was like this, which to him seemed 
 closely to resemble that which he had in his stick, to which Sam replied : 
 " Indeed, I cannot say, for my eyes are very bad." 
 
 "Now then," said Rugg, "let us go over to the hotel and have some- 
 thing to drink ;" to which Sam agreed, although he wished Rugg at 
 Jericho. 
 
 Arrived at the hotel, Rugg called the landlord on one side and asked for 
 the ten dollar bill which Sam had paid him. The landlord gave it and 
 Rugg at once said to him : 
 
 " Did this man give you this note?" 
 
 " Yes, he is the man who gave it me." 
 
 " What did you give him in change?" 
 
 " Nine dollars and a-half." 
 
 " In a moment Rugg took " lame Sam" by the collar and began to search 
 him. First he found the publican's nine and a-half dollars ; then his own 
 ten dollar bill, for which Sam had given him the two counterfeit five do 1 - 
 lar notes, and lastly he took $400 in counterfeit notes from his stick. 
 
 " Where did you get these notes from?" asked Rugg, who was now quite 
 sober. " I brought them from home. I went to see my sick daughter." 
 And Sam was going into a long explanation, but Rugg took off his hat and 
 his false beard, and said : " That is played out. I am a United States 
 detective and you, old rascal, are now my prisoner." And at these words 
 he slipped on the handcuffs, and taking Sam to the railroad station, soon 
 brought him to New York and before the chief. After a few words of 
 conversation Sam confessed that he bought the notes from a man named 
 Crosby, a dealer in counterfeit money, and that for years he had been 
 doing business by putting these notes in circulation in New York and the 
 neighborhood, New Jersey and Maryland. Sam was prosecuted ; he plea- 
 ded guilty and was sent for four years to prison, where he now is. 
 
 Such are the ways in which the United States detectives do their work. 
 Here are two other cases, illustrating the manner of dealing with and 
 detecting smugglers. 
 
 It would scarcely be credited how much property is smuggled in the 
 steamships that come to New York from Europe. The strictest watch 
 over all new arrivals is so much the more necessary too, because smugglers 
 are ever devising new methods, which indeed seem to be inexhaustible ; 
 and they often adopt the most curious means to avoid discovery, and the 
 punishment and confiscation which in that case await them. 
 
 In the year 1866 and 1867 the attention of the detectives was directed 
 to the fact that several diamonds, and much valuable lace, had come into 
 the trade here, which had not paid the duties ; and a detective, who on this 
 account had been set to watch the steamers arriving from France and 
 England, had been on the look-out for two months without being able to 
 make any discoveries. 
 
Till: UNITED STATES DETECTIVE3. 0< 
 
 Odc morning, he had been watching the arrival of a French steamship, 
 nnd was on the point of going on board, when his eyes fell Mpon a long 
 host which was about being conveyed ashore. " What is in that chest?"' 
 ie asked. 
 
 The people who were engaged in removing it, drew his notice to the 
 address. "This chest," said they, "contains a dead body; the man died 
 in Europe, and the corpse has been consigned to his friends to be buried 
 !iere,^it home." 
 
 The detective called the ship-carpenter and told him to open the chest. 
 In it was a mahogany coffin, and when the lid was opened there appeared 
 the dead body already partly decomposed. The detective was satisfied ; 
 and coffin and chest were fastened up again and sent on. 
 
 On the arrival of the next French steamer the officer went also on board, 
 out although he had scrutinized the passengers very carefully, he had not 
 been able to find anything suspicious ; and he was just going off, when 
 again he caught sight of a long chest, which, as it seemed, contained like- 
 wise a dead body, to be sent on to the sorrowing friends of the decased — 
 but to a different address from that to which the former chest had been 
 -directed. 
 
 " It seems to me," remarked the officer, " that just now there is a great 
 mortality among Americans travelling in Europe. I will look at the body. ' 
 W hereupon he ordered the chest to be opened. 
 
 There lay the corpse in its still home, its pale, cold face, head and neck 
 uncovered. There could be no question about it. It was a corpse. But 
 just as the small door of the coffin lid, which was fastened to the lower 
 portion with silver plated hinges, w r as going to be shut down, the detec- 
 tive, to the astonishment of the sailors who were standing around, desired 
 that the whole of the lid should be removed. 
 
 It was done, and — horrible to relate — the entrails of the body had been 
 removed, and in their place was found a tin box containing costly Brussels 
 laces to the value of $8000. 
 
 Two months later, an English jew, a true Shylock, who often went 
 backwards and forwards between here and England, and who was sus- 
 pected of smuggling, was on his return. The detective knew this, and 
 with another officer awaited his arrival. 
 
 The jew was a passenger in the steamer, but he was very sick. The 
 passage had been very stormy and he was not much of a sailor ; but, not- 
 withstanding his illness, he seemed very anxious to land as soon as he 
 could. Both officers remarked this, and asked him if he were ill. 
 
 U I feel terribly," answered Moses, "I am dying! Indeed, vciy bad." 
 
 k> Sea-sick?" asked the detective. 
 
 " Shocking," replied the jew. And he seemed indeed to be suffering 
 much from a severe pain in the stomach. 
 
3<5 . THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 "Come with me," said the detective. " You are an old practitioner,, 
 We must search you before you go ashore. Well or ill, no matter." 
 
 So the jew had to go into the captains cabin nolens volens. His clothes 
 were searched, but nothing found. He complained of the rough treatment 
 and said: "You did not think to be able to catch me twice, did you ?"' 
 (for he had once before fallen into the hands of the police for smuggling) 
 and then he made a ludicrous effort to laugh at his own joke. Tken he 
 rubbed his stomach, writhed with pain, and seemed every moment to be 
 getting worse. 
 
 But he dressed himself again, and was even going on deck to leave the 
 ship, when the detective ordered him to wait, at the same time calling the 
 steward. The latter came and the officer immediately told him to fetch 
 the doctor, for, said he, " we have here a very sick man." 
 
 The officer spoke to the doctor about it outside of the cabin. " Doctor," 
 said the former in a confidential tone, "I have within here a jew diamond 
 smuggler who is very ill ; he is one of your passengers, just arrived from 
 Europe." And then he whispered into the doctors ear something of his 
 suspicions. "I wish that you would .prescribe for him a good strong 
 purging mixture ; which will act well without hurting him. But give him 
 such a dose as will clear out his stomach in fifteen minutes. Can you do that ?" 
 
 " I understand," laughingly replied the doctor, who was an honest man, 
 • and in his heart opposed to smuggling. " I will make him up something 
 suitable ; and it shall not hurt him either." 
 
 Five minutes afterwards, in came the detective with a dose of calomel 
 and croton oil for the sick man. He was indeed very unwell ; he was pal^ 
 as death and turning about with pain. But he refused to take the medi- 
 cine offered to him. He was'" not going to let himself be doctored on 
 board the ship," only at home, and there he would be willing to have medi 
 cal assistance. 
 
 " Take it," said the detective, " it will do you good." 
 
 " But I will not." 
 
 " Then we will pour it down your throat by force — every drop of it," 
 answered the officer with determination. " I have something more to do 
 than to stand here by the hour trying to cure you. Will you take it wil- 
 lingly, or shall we pour it down your throat?" 
 
 " It is a great deal too much, indeed it is," groaned the jew, as he looked 
 with hesitation into the glass held towards him. 
 
 " Down with it," shouted the officer, and the fellow seeing that no kind 
 of refusal would help him, gulped, and gulped, and gulped it down till the 
 greater portion was taken ; but all the time making exceedingly wry faces. 
 
 " Now, you ungrateful curmudgeon, stay here till the medicine has acted 
 and cured you of your sudden illness. But take a lesson. I know you, 
 and your game is played out. Mark that. With these words the detec- 
 tive moved away. 
 
Till: PRIVATE DETE4 l l\ ES. 5$ 
 
 "Go to the devil,'' was the answer that overtook him from his patient 
 as lie was going. 
 
 The deteclive left the jew under the care of his companion, to whom he 
 gave final orders to report within an hour the effect of the medicine. The 
 dose acted well ; before the hour had expired the officer gave his report, 
 and diamonds to the value of $4,000 were recovered, which the medicine 
 brought to light. The smuggler had swallowed them ten minutes before 
 the officers had met with him. 
 
 These narratives will suffice to disclose the skill, dexterity, and efficiency 
 of the United States detectives, and since, in this and the previous chap- 
 ters, we have spoken of the New York and the United States detective, 
 force, we Will now come to a description of the private detectives. 
 
 THE PRIVATE DETECTIVES. 
 
 "While the social circumstances of the times render a detective force 
 absolutely necessary, the legal authorities in this business are those whose 
 organizations are described in the two preceding chapters — the New York 
 detectives, and the United States detectives. And although upon the for- 
 mer at least, of these, the reflection is cast that the officers of the force 
 accept payment for their services from private people, nevertheless the first 
 and highest impulse to efficiency is the sense of official duty. The officers 
 of both bodies are under oath, and if, as cannot for one moment be doubted, 
 their efficiency is both useful and necessary, so also in the same proportion 
 are the services of private detectives useless, dangerous, and mischievous. 
 
 The success which the detective force had won in criminal matters, 
 called into existence for some years past this private organization for simi- 
 lar purposes. But its first and only object, contrary to that of the legal 
 detectives, is solely and entirely to do business ; or rather, as we express it 
 in America, to make money. These private organizations have no legiti- 
 mate authority. Th($ T have not the right to make arrests, and are in fact 
 nothing more than spies — a calling which is neither creditable, nor trust- 
 worthy. These men follow and watch anybody, however honest he may 
 be, simply at the request of anyone who will pay them for it ; so that no 
 .one, however honorable, can be sure that he is not being spied upon by one 
 of them, at the dictation of an enemy, and all his actions watched and 
 reported. A jealous wife engages a private detective to watch her hus- 
 band ; and from that moment this spy follows the man like a shadow. 
 
-60 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOUK LIFE. 
 
 wherever he goes, — hence they are known as " shadows" — and he reports to 
 the wife every movement and every outlay that the man has made. He 
 is paid for this from six to ten dollars a day, and if we suppose that he 
 works for a week, and- does not report anything unfavorable in that time, 
 •the wife grows tired and gives up the espionage. But if this happens, the 
 spy loses his bread and cheese. His interest demands that he should 
 report something, whatever the jealousy of the wife most seems to require, 
 and when he cannot find anything that is true, any actions to detect, he 
 indicates that some great result is soon to come ; or he invents some news 
 such as the wife either expects, or is desirous to hear. 
 
 If a man wants to be divorced from his wife, be, too, engages one of 
 these spies, to rake up evidence against her. Actions for slander are got 
 up through the operations of these private detective agencies. Innumer- 
 able divorces rest entirely upon evidence obtained through their means, 
 and the sudden ruin of many heretofore happy families, or good business 
 relations, has depended in like manner upon this spy system. 
 
 In the City of New York there are about a dozen such agencies, of 
 which, about two conduct their affairs in pretentious offices, while others, 
 of smaller importance, are contented with very inferior places, and perhaps 
 consist of only two people, who are both business managers and " shadows." 
 We will take the reader into the rooms of one of the larger establishments 
 <tf this kind. 
 
 The reception room is on the second floor, a plain, cold, hard looking 
 place, certainly not attractive, nor altogether indicative of any open, cheer- 
 ful business. There may be a few seats in it, but they are cold and grim 
 booking also, as if too malevolent to allow even the weariest visitor to rest 
 in them. The bare boards add to the air of discomfort ; and across the 
 place is a low railing that seems to say with an aspect of authority : 
 -"Thus far, but no farther." Inside, the railing are two or three desks, 
 perhaps, two or three men standing about, as if suddenly struck dumb, or 
 freed from the trouble of any occupation at the entrance of a stranger. 
 •One at any rate will be there, a wiry, worn man, harder than the furniture 
 .--about him, whose face is never distorted to a smile, but seems like some 
 coarse carving in a dingy colored wood. His hair is wiry and wild, his 
 beard grizzled, and the hairs mutinous. Look at his hajids ; they are the 
 counterpart of his face, hard, gaunt, and not over clean. 
 
 The whole demeanor of this man is one of mystery. But he cultivates 
 it. The mysterious is a part of his calling ; without it, feigned or real, the 
 private detective would lose half his importance. But this official, and 
 this office, are not the highest parts of the concern. The former is only the 
 secretary, the latter is only the reception room. The head of the estab- 
 lishment is in a deeper recess, and the '* shadows" are flitting about 
 invisibly. The record of them is kept by the u secretary," who on a black- 
 board near at hand chronicles the " ins'' and the " outs" : each shadow 
 
Till-: PRIVATE DETECTIVES. 61 
 
 being known by a number. Bells, speaking tubes, the telegraph and sun- 
 dry cabalistic signs, are the means of communication in this establishment 
 among all who are in any way connected with it ; and a small boy, who 
 lias succeeded in assuming all the tone and character of his superiors, con- 
 veys any verbal message that may be necessary to pass between the secre- 
 tary and the chief. Utterances are made in mysterious whispers, some- 
 what resembling a hoarse imitation of a stage ghost, and the small boys 
 highest ambition, after learning to use tobacco and to help fill the spittoon,, 
 is to acquire the official whisper. 
 
 The early morning is the most likely time to find the greatest number of 
 visitors in the reception room, and upon these the secretary exercised ;•. 
 wonderful degree of analytical judgment. From any number of people- 
 before him he readily detects those who will pay best, and these are the 
 first to gain access to the presence of the chief; unless some weary waitei 
 enters a vigorous protest and insists upon taking his proper turn. It must 
 be remarked, however, that even the visitors partake something of the 
 spirit of the place. Note them as they sit along the side of yonder wall. 
 They are dark, mysterious, and apparently as full of malevolence as even 
 the most ambitious detective could wish them to be. Each eyes all the 
 rest with an air of suspicion ; and some of the ladies, save the mark ! 
 bedecked in all the paraphernalia of modern fashion, seem to be the very 
 incarnation of mischief. A strange picture of human society, in this, our 
 Empire city, would have to be depicted, if we could portray all that the 
 thoughts of those people could at the moment suggest. But that would be 
 impossible. Yet the imagination can do much if we give it full play in 
 the field of jealousy, family discords, false friends, faithless wives, dishon- 
 est partners, and so forth ; although the chances are that not a few of those 
 seeking help from a " shadow," may after all be plotting a conspiracy that 
 can only be sustained by perjury. For such is one of the most common- 
 uses made of private detective agencies. 
 
 Without business they could not live. And without success of some 
 kind, real or feigned, they cannot hope for business. A woman may apply 
 to them, in perfect good faith, for investigations concerning the conduct of 
 her husband. She may think that by so doing she will learn either 
 whether her suspicions are unfounded or whether they are false. But 
 under almost any circumstances she is mistaken. If she be poor, or unable 
 to submit to a constant drain upon her purse, she will probably learn 
 nothing ; if she be rich, and easily subject to their ingenuity, she will hear 
 whatever she most desires to know, no matter whether it be true or false. 
 
 In the preliminaries for the divorce court reasons have sometimes been 
 found for the continued existence of private detectives, but we know no 
 sufficient excuse for their existence whatever ; since their object being 
 money, rather than truth, no reliance can be placed upon their operations. 
 It may even happen, for it has so happened, and not uufrequentlv, top, 
 
62 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 that the same agency will take in hand both sides of the same case, thu3 
 supplying one " shadow" to watch the wife in the interest of her husband, 
 while another is following up the husband in the inteiest of his wife. 
 Sometimes the " shadows" thus employed are quite aware of the circum- 
 stances under which they are working, and a very pretty story is then con- 
 cocted between the two worthies, or a deep conspiracy mayhap is planned, 
 to bring money into their own pockets and to gra'ify the clients on both 
 sides. Sometimes, however, the whole truth is known only to the chief ; 
 the subordinates are in ignorance of the double design, and remain so till 
 their own treachery brings them into inimical collision. For it often hap- 
 pens that when they find out how the thing is really being arranged, they 
 -" sell" each other ; that is, the husband's employee warns the wife that she 
 is being watched, and the wife's man gives a hint of a like kind to the 
 husband. Several examples of this character are within the experience of 
 the principal agencies. And the most frequent result of them is curious. 
 For while they end in the most stormy episodes between the two shadows, 
 they also generally result in the reconciliation of the two principals. 
 
 The profits of these agencies are enormous. In ordinary cases the pay 
 of the seedy men, who act as " shadows," is about $3 a day, but the charge 
 made by the concern to its clients is rarely less than $10. A gentleman, 
 staying at one of the fashionable up-town hotels, had a valuable dog stolen, 
 for which the sum of $300 had been refused. A very well founded suspi- 
 cion rested upon one of the porters, and an army officer staying in the 
 house ; it was also reasonably suspected that the landlord of the hotel was 
 not altogether ignorant of the transaction. There were special reasons 
 why the dog should be recovered. A high reward was offered. Applica- 
 tion was made to a, private detective agency ; there the chief had the auda- 
 city ta make a charge of $15 a day for looking for the animal, and insisted 
 that the payment must be continued till the animal was found. It is need- 
 less to say that that consummation never occurred. This, however, gives 
 no idea of the profits of the agencies, or of their charges in the more deli- 
 cate cases that are submitted to them for manufacture, such as compound- 
 ing felonies, getting up evidence in divorce suits, or supplying witnesses to 
 perjure themselves in the courts. These are the most elaborate duties 
 they are ever required to perform, and their charges for them are regulated 
 by no known rule, except that of rising to the very highest limit that 
 unscrupulous men, with plenty of money to spend, are willing to pay for 
 the attainment of their unjust ends. 
 
 It is almost impossible to estimate the injuries done to society by these 
 private detective agencies. They flourish chiefly in our large cities ; but 
 in almost all cases they have to manufacture the business upon which they 
 flourish. It is not a natural outgrowth of commercial pursuits, but a 
 parasitical plant, that must be planted before it can be lived on. The duties 
 of a detective, even when under legitimate authority, and paid for from the 
 
T11E PRIVATE DETECTIVES. 63 
 
 public purse, are such as can only be defended on the ground of public 
 icy. In principle they are revolting; necessity alone makes them 
 tolerable. But when they are pursued, not iu the public interests, but 1'or 
 private plunder — sometimes called private gain — they become obnoxious, 
 -and most pernicious. They serve to foster a feeling of distrust, where, 
 without them, none would long prevail, perhaps would not exist at all. 
 They encourage, perhaps give rise to, suspicions which in themselves are 
 often the cause of unfaithfulness and breach of trust ; and how often do 
 they not serve to destroy forever the peace and happiness of the family 
 circle? " The master makes the servant." Employers are not always 
 actuated by the highest motives, nor influenced by the highest principles. 
 A man who is himself not over scrupulous as to the means he uses to put 
 an extra dollar into his pocket, will be the first to suspect the honesty of 
 those he employs. And the private detective agency is at hand to indulge 
 his suspicious, and, as long as he pays, to produce evidence of the justness 
 of those suspicious. Thus a bad man puts an iniquitous machinery into 
 motion which too often produces the result that it is alleged to prevent. 
 Some men never entertain the thought of doing a dishonest action if left to 
 themselves ; but nothing is more likely to turn them to it than a knowledge 
 that their integrity is being secretly called in question by those for whom 
 they work. Mistrust is one of the commonest causes of deceit, and mis- 
 trust is the noxious weed that private detective agencies most diligently 
 cultivate. Hence, instead of preventing crime, they induce to it ; instead 
 of furthering the ends of justice, they propagate only misery and ruin. 
 
 Again, they are among the best friends that professional thieves recog- 
 nize. A robbery is committed ; and nothing suits the robbers better than 
 to find that the matter has been referred to a private detective agency. 
 They know that these agencies have no power to make an arrest, and they 
 also know that they are ever ready to take a share of the plunder. In 
 fact a reference to private detectives means compromise. We will suppose 
 that a valuable amount of jewelry has been stolen. The owner applies to 
 the mysterious man who acts as " secretary" in one of these " agencies," 
 he, after sundry mysteriously cabalistic performances with bells, and voice, 
 ushers him into a remote recess and the presence of the " chief." This 
 functionary aspires to look the embodiment of wisdom, but, in physical 
 appearance, he is only a little further developement of the secretary. With 
 an air of importance — never forgetting the element of mystery that has to 
 be introduced into every new act — he receives all the information that can 
 be had, asks a few questions for appearance sake — whether otherwise 
 necessary or not — and suggests the offering of an ample reward as emi- 
 nently necessary, and without which nothing can be done. That little 
 matter arranged, he undertakes the investigation at a certain specified sum 
 per day — a considerable deposit to be made in advance — and presently the 
 victim goes away, not without a feeling that he is bound to be a consider- 
 
64 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 able loser, but still with the personal assurance that he has done his duty 
 to himself and to the public. It is more than probable that in a few days, 
 perhaps in a few hours, the whole business has been satisfactorily arranged 
 as between the thief and the agency ; but as long as money is forthcoming,, 
 the " chief" leads on his client to the necessity of further enquiries, and 
 further disbursements. At length, when the spring of profits seems nearly 
 dry, the agency announces the recovery of the valuables, and returning 
 them to their owner receives the promised reward, a portion of which pre- 
 viously agreed upon, is handed over to the thief. But this is compounding 
 a felony ; it may be said. Just so. But who cares? Not the public, for 
 other people are intent upon filling their own pockets. Not the victim of 
 the robbery, for he recovers his property, which he probably would not 
 have done if he had prosecuted ; and, moreover, he saves himself the trou- 
 ble and annoyance of dancing attendance in the law courts. Not the thief, 
 for he has been paid for his crime and is free to steal again. Not the 
 agency, for they have transferred a considerable amount in good money to 
 the right side of the ledger. And thus a villainous system of criminality 
 prevails and flourishes, as a fruit of the corruption that runs through 
 society. 
 
 The police commission of New York have not yet had the courage to 
 give, in their annual report, the number of thefts and depredations that 
 take place in a year ; but it is certain that there are hundreds of such 
 crimes of which the public knows nothing. It is a rule to pass over iu 
 silence all cases where no arrest is made ; even where the circumstances 
 are known. Many, very many robberies occur, which do not reach the 
 knowledge of the police at all, but, of those which are known, the perpe- 
 trators as often as not escape, in fact the police will not affirm that half of 
 them ever fall into their hands, and the probability is, tint much more 
 than a half escape all detection. It has been estimated that the property 
 stolen annually in New York, and of the robberies of which no cognizance 
 on the part of the authorities is taken, amounts to many hundred thousands 
 of dollars, though, of course, anything like an accurate estimate could not 
 be made. 
 
 We do not mean to intimate by this that so much property is absolutely- 
 lost. Valuable merchandise will, deteriorate about one-third in value in 
 its passage through the hands of thieves and receivers till it reaches the 
 mercantile world again ; but a great deal of the thieves plunder goes 
 directly back to its owner, by one or other of the many routes, which, inas- 
 much as they depend upon compromises of some sort, have a most prejudi- 
 cial effect upon the public interests. Advertisements in the papers indicate 
 liow constantly this kind of thing is occurring ; and if all the instances 
 could be gathered up and examined into, it would doubtless be found that 
 most of them are brought about by the intervention of private detectives. 
 This ought not to create surprise, since money making is the first object of 
 
THE PUIVATK DKTKCTIYK3. 65 
 
 those functionaries, and as they are bound by no oath, they never come to 
 regard it a part of their duty to bring the thief to justice. 
 
 We will subjoin some cases to illustrate their mode of operation. 
 
 A private detective called upon the proprietor of a large retail store iu 
 Broadway to offer his services, and to obtain for himself a lucrative engage- 
 ment. He assured the owner that he knew all the shoplifters and pick- 
 pockets in the city, that he could recognize them the instant they came into 
 the place, and that thereby he was in a position to save the proprietor, aud 
 his customers too, thousands of dollars yearly. He was engaged, but the 
 engagement did not produce the promised fruits. The truth was that the 
 man had none of the experience he claimed. He had no more acquaint- 
 ance with the criminal classes than any ordinary resident in the city would 
 have. But after a time he recognized the fact that he must do something 
 to maintain his credit, and his post, or else submit to an ignominious 
 exposure. He was not without expediency. He cultivated the acquaint- 
 ance of police officers, and by enquiries from one and another of them he 
 learned the names and addresses of two elegant ladies who had earned a 
 considerable reputation as shoplifters. He visited them ; represented that 
 he was one of tho craft, and suggested the plan of a robbery iu which he 
 would aid them, and receive as his share one half of the plunder. He 
 showed them the great value of his assistance by representing that he was 
 in league with the clerk of the lace shawl department of the house where 
 he was engaged, and th?.t that gentleman would be judiciously blind at the 
 moment when they would secrete the goods. The ladies did not at first 
 seem very willing to enter into the conspiracy, partly because they did not 
 altogether feel confidence in the source whence the offer came, and partly 
 because they were not just then in need of money. But he impressed upon 
 them so forcibly the great profits ensuing, and the absolute safety with 
 which the business could be done, that they at last consented ; and an hour 
 was appointed when they were to go to the store for the purpose. The 
 detective thereupon left them, and at once laid his plans for turning the 
 affair to his own benefit in his relations with his employer, by making 
 arrangements for the discovery, and arrest of the women. But the last 
 named act he could not accomplish, for he had no authority. He therefore 
 subsidized the services of a policeman on whose beat the store was situated, 
 requesting him to be near at hand at the time agreed upon, and assuring 
 him that there would be something for him to do. The women kept their 
 engagement. They went to the store true to time, and in a few minutes 
 had secreted several valuable lace shawls about their persons. The detec- 
 tive, too, was on hand, and at the right moment, in his judgment, he 
 pounced upon his victims, accused them of the theft, had them searched, 
 and then gave them in charge oi the police officer. The evidence was 
 conclusive, — and the women were tried, convicted, and sentenced to a long 
 imprisonment, the detective of course being one of the principal witnesses 
 
 5 
 
66 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 against them. Through this conviction the man at once sprang to a high 
 point in the esteem of his employer, and indeed of all the storekeepers in 
 the neighborhood, (from whom he did not forget to demand and to receive 
 valuable remunerations for the service he had rendered them, by removing 
 two such dangerous shoplifters.) It is no credit to our judicial system that 
 the truth of the case did not come out upon the trial, and that the detec- 
 tive was not made to take his place by the side of the women in the court 
 room, there to receive the punishment which he most richly merited ; more, 
 certainly, than did his victims. But law and justice are not synonymous, 
 nor is so-called justide always justice. The man profited by his villainy 
 for a time, although its real character came out by degrees, at last. 
 Whispers first flitted about. Then rumour grew bolder, and finally, though 
 not, unfortunately, till the man had reaped his harvest, the truth became 
 known, and the detective simply lost a berth which he no longer wanted. 
 The women remained in prison, but he went out to concoct new designs. 
 
 The following case shows a similar illustration. — A man who had been 
 living in Canada, and had been engaged in smuggling operations, fled to 
 this country ; then, after looking successfully for a suitable partner, opened 
 a private detective agency in the vicinity of Wall Street. In the ordinary 
 way of business they were not very prosperous. At any rate they were 
 not satisfied with the amount that came in ; so they set to work to make 
 some. Relying upon the credulity of the public, and blessed with a degree 
 of boldness which may, or may not have been the child of necessity, they 
 waited one morning upou the agent of one of the steamship lines running 
 between here and Liverpool. They represented to him that they had 
 information from which it was apparent that a systematic course of 
 smuggling, upon a scale of vast dimensions, was about to be carried out 
 through the medium of his steamships. The agent, although he is gener- 
 ally esteemed as one of the shrewdest business men in the city, believed 
 the representations of these people, and readily fell into their suggestion 
 that he should employ them to travel between Liverpool and New York on 
 board of his vessels, and use their best exertions to put a check upon the 
 plot. This they did. They received liberal remuneration, and the best 
 accommodation that the ships afforded. So satisfied were they with the 
 bargain, that they desired to continue it indefinitely, and to this end they 
 saw the necessity of proving, by fair means, or foul, the value of their 
 services. They therefore provided the owners in Liverpool and the agents 
 here with a liberal supply of names of persons whom they alleged to be 
 concerned in the conspiracy. But their utmost ingenuity did not suffice to 
 enable them to do more than this. And the consequence was that after 
 some months the owners in England became suspicious, and they trans- 
 mitted instructions to this side, which resulted in the two private detectives 
 being themselves placed under espionage. Their business was now soon 
 trlosed up. It was apparent in a very short time that their representations 
 
TIIK PRIVATE DETECTIVES. 67 
 
 "had been pure inventions, made up for the purpose of obtaining several 
 ■months first class board, and of filching a large sum of money out of th« 
 pockets of the ship owners. * 
 
 Cases of this kind are not of every day occurrence, only because the 
 opportunities are not every day to be met with. But instances similar to 
 those we have already indicated, where felonies are compounded, or 
 promised to be compounded, are so numerous that probably no certain 
 estimate can be made of their number. There are no means of recording 
 them, since they do not generally come under official cognizance. When 
 they do, it is because the private agencies have failed to keep their promi- 
 ses, or because their clients are brought, in time, to a sense of the fact 
 that it would be more profitable to apply to the legitimate authorities. In 
 some cases, however, the circumstances that are brought to light are suffi- 
 ciently clear and connected to give us a very tolerable insight into the 
 manner by which these agencies do their work. We quote the following 
 as one of this kind. 
 
 A letter came one morning to the address of a large manufacturing firm 
 in this city, doing business in gold and silver watches. It was sent from 
 the office of a private detective agency, and bore the signature of the chief 
 of that concern. Enclosed was the following letter written in a bad hand- 
 writing and spelled in a much less orthodox way than the form in which 
 we give it. 
 
 " Old Pal 
 
 I suppose that you have wondered how I got away 
 and where I am things was so hot I had no time to let you know before. 
 I have had one or two small things out this way and have now the best 
 job I have ever been in. There is a big watch movement factory here 
 and I have made everything square with the watchman I have beat it 
 already for a little but I am waiting for some good pal to help me clean it 
 out Come on and we'll make a good haul. 
 
 Snoozer Bill." 
 
 The agency explained that this letter had come accidentally into their 
 possession, but, deeming it of importance to the firm, they had sent it on. 
 The firm took the bait, but, if they had had any experience among the 
 criminal classes, they would have known at once that such a letter had 
 never been written by a thief, although it very possibly was written by 
 quite as dangerous a criminal. The " agency" was at once applied to for 
 advice, and the application of course resulted in the " agency" being 
 engaged to take charge of the whole matter. Large payments were made 
 by the firm for the valuable services rendered — most of which consisted in 
 ,the detection (or concoction) of other letters from "Snoozer Bill," and in 
 stories mysteriously told by the detectives, which frightened the honest 
 watch makers out of all the influence of ordinary reason ; and gave them 
 
68 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 the certain assurance that but for the most providential discovery of" 
 " Snoozer's" first letter, and the tremendous exertions ot the detectives 
 since, their whole watch factory, with all its contents, would ere now have 
 disappeared from the visible face of existence, and they themselves would 
 have been cast on to the world poor and penniless. Thus the game went 
 on for a long time ; the credulity of the firm standing every strain, and 
 their bank cheques answering every call. At length the " agency" thought 
 it wise to close the account, before the slightest suspicions shouldbe aroused. 
 They did so. They announced at length the entire success of their pro- 
 ceedings ; how that the designs of the robbers had been entirely defeated ; 
 and that now the safety of the watches was secured without further exer- 
 tions on their part. Such honorable ( ?) conduct increased the admiration 
 which the firm already felt for the excellent agency, which had protected 
 them from such a fearful burglary. " It was most disinterested conduct," 
 and the firm clenched their sentiments by a last tribute, and final reward, 
 in the shape of a cheque for a highly respectable sum. 
 
 Another remarkable case is recorded, in which a private detective called 
 upon one of the principals of a silk house, and informed him that some 
 slight information had been received at their office of an intended burglari- 
 ous operation upon their silks. Nothing definite was said, or done, at that 
 interview. It was in fact only a paving of the way for other attacks upon 
 the citadel. Shortly afterwards another detective visited the firm with 
 information, derived apparently from quite a different source, full of the 
 minutest details. The slang names of the intending burglars were given, 
 such as " Stutter Jack," " Glimmer George," and others ; also the place 
 where it was arranged that the goods should be disposed of; the exact 
 description and value of the silks to be taken, and the manner in which the 
 plunder was to be divided among the several persons concerned. Such 
 information, coming, as it seemed, from different quarters, so complete in 
 its particulars, and with the weight of detective authority upon it, could 
 not be disregarded. Heavy fees were paid by the firm for the valuable aid 
 of those detectives, and of course neither " Glimmer George" nor " Stutter 
 Jack," nor any of their confederates stole the silk. But the case was sug- 
 gestive of a new idea to the private agency. They doubtless argued that 
 there was no reason why they should not have fortified themselves still 
 more strongly in the estimation of their clients by arranging for an actual 
 burglarious attempt upon the premises, thus making an occasion to show 
 again their skill at detection, and their extraordinary facilities for learning 
 the movements of the criminal classes. They acted upon this idea, and it 
 is recorded that on the next suitable occasion some of their confederates 
 did pretend to make a burglarious entry into a warehouse, but submitted 
 to be frightened away, at the most fitting moment, by their ever vigilant 
 friends ! 
 
 Again, a case is mentioned, where a gentleman lost $5,000 in United 
 
THE PRIVATE DETECTIVES. 69 
 
 States bonds, bis misfortune being immediately after made a sensational 
 item in the newspipers, where, as usual, a great deal of falsehood was 
 mixed up with a very small grain of truth. In consequence of this ill- 
 timed publicity the private detective agencies made an attack upon the 
 victim of the robbery, and finally succeeded in convincing him, most satis- 
 factorily, that there was no chance, whatever, of recovering his property, 
 save through their intervention, and by the promise of a liberal reward. 
 He engaged one of the agencies, paid a large fee by way of preliminary 
 expenses, offered a proportionately large reward, and in a few hours only, 
 the bonds were back in his own safe ; a fact which shows most conclusively 
 the close relations that there must have been between the detectives and 
 the thieves. Indeed it is not improbable that the property was in the pos- 
 session of the agency even when the engagement was made, and that 
 money only was waited for ere it was given up. How these expectations 
 were realized may be gleaned from the fact that the recovery of his property 
 ■cost the owner $2,500. 
 
 But, besides the private detective agencies, there are also many people 
 who work on their own account, and these are by far the most dangerous. 
 They are not responsible to anybody, not even to an employer, they are 
 the keepers of their own secrets, and consequently have no check to restrain 
 their conduct ; not even the fear of laws, which in themselves are lax, and 
 administered with even greater laxity. These men do not even depend 
 for employment upon publicity, as they generally manage to scrape together 
 a business of their own which suffices to supply their immediate necessi- 
 ties. Whereas larger agencies, with all their objectionable features, are 
 dependent upon publicity, and must keep a tolerable front to the world, 
 whatever be the deeds of darkness that are done behind the scenes. 
 
 One more illustration occurs to us in this connection, as showing the 
 means to which people of this kind have recourse in order to fill their 
 pockets. One Ed. H. Raymour, who had done business in many private 
 detective offices, was charmed at the pecuniary success of some of them, 
 and being anxious to grow rich suddenly, hit upon a novel way of fulfilling 
 his wishes. He rented a suit of rooms in a first class street, furnished 
 them elegantly, procured a large safe, with ponderous ledgers, and other 
 books, and all things necessary to an extensive agency. He caused a 
 quantity of circulars to be printed and circulated, and having engaged a 
 number of u shadows," began operations. He so divided his people that 
 they always worked in twos. One of these would be instructed to go only 
 on a particular route, and wherever people were found who would be 
 likely to take the bait, to sell them, at a very low price, counterfeit bank- 
 notes, with which he was duly provided. Then, after some time, he sent 
 out the second man — who was already made acquainted with the business 
 that had been accomplished by his predecessor — with instructions to make 
 •the same tour, and to lay under contributions the people to whom the first 
 
70 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 had sold the notes. If the people — whom he told to their face that he knew 
 all about their criminal transactions — were willing to be bled rather freely r 
 well and good, the business was done ; but if they refused, he gave infor- 
 mation to the United States authorities and had them arrested ; he thus 
 secured the reward that is offered for the arrest of persons circulating coun- 
 terfeit money. 
 
 But it happened that Raymour could not pay enough good money to his. 
 black-mailers to meet their hotel and travelling expenses. So these gen- 
 tlemen began to pay away the counterfeit notes which Raymour had given 
 them. These notes had been given to them only for the purpose named — * 
 that is to sell, and then to enable them to levy contributions from their vic- 
 tims, but now that they paid them away as good money, they gave a clue- 
 to their proceedings which could without much difficulty be traced. 
 
 It was taken hold of at last by a United States detective, and so persis- 
 tently followed up that in a short time he succeeded in securing the whole 
 band, the " shadows," as well as the people who had bought the notes from, 
 them, and put them into circulation. Upon this followed the arrest of 
 Raymour ; and, when his office was seized and searched, a complete expo- 
 sure of the purposes of the whole conspiracy was made, a result which 
 lery justly procured the committal of Raymour to prison. 
 
 We will not close this chapter without drawing attention to the fact that 
 in October, 1872, two persons, who had a private detective office in Broad- 
 way, were arrested for theft. A woman named Mary Berger had some 
 months before deposited a small box of jewels with them, and one of the 
 firm pawned it for his own purposes. This man was sentenced to a year 
 in Sing Sing, but his companion, who it appeard had not been privy to the> 
 transaction, was set free. 
 
 The picture of the private detective system, which we have here 
 attempted to draw, is, we admit, uniformly unfavorable. And while we 
 believe that this character of it is fully justified by facts, it does not neces- 
 sarily follow, nor would we have it to be supposed, that there are no honest 
 men attached to these private agencies. There certainly are some, there 
 may be many persons connected with the system who would not be guilty 
 of a questionable, still less of a dishonorable, action. But these are not in 
 the majority, nor are they sufficiently numerous to give to the private 
 detective agencies a reputation in any degree better than we have repre- 
 sented. The system itself is unnecessary. All legitimate detective busi- 
 ness could be undertaken by the city or United States forces, and illegiti- 
 mate business should not be provided for. But when, in addition to this,, 
 these agencies are, as a rule, unscrupulous, and more or less irresponsible,, 
 even while limited in their powers, it must be apparent that neither their 
 efficiency nor their integrity is worthy of public confidence. And finally ;. 
 when we find them resorted to so constantly by bad and unprincipled mens 
 and women ; when facts are numerous, showing that their operations are* 
 
THE THIEVE8. 71 
 
 too often productive of dangerous complications in business circles, and of 
 untold misery in family relations, it needs no special argument to show 
 that the tone of society would be raised, and the public interests conserved, 
 if all such agencies were to be swept away ; — killed out of existence by the 
 withdrawal of public patronage. 
 
 THE THIEVES. 
 
 Having in the preceding chapters adverted to the principal causes of 
 crime, namely, pauperism, and outcast children ; having also spoken of 
 those whose duty it is to ensure the safety of the city, namely, the police 
 and the detectives ; having then briefly directed the attention of the reader 
 to tbe private detective agencies ; we pass on now to the criminal classes 
 themselves, and propose to treat in the first instance of, ordinary thieves. 
 
 A well known preacher once stated publicly at a meeting convened for 
 the purpose of considering the social condition of New York, that there are 
 in this city no less than 30,000 professional thieves, 20,000 prostitutes, 
 3,000 drinking places, and 2,000 gambling houses. We do not know the 
 authority upon which Dr. Bellew made this statement, but presume that 
 it must have >3en, in his estimation, sufficient to justify the figures. It 
 went the round of the newspapers, and was generally credited as being a 
 statement of actual, and well ascertained, facts. But it was not worthy or 
 so much public confidence. There is no reason for making the record ot 
 our city worse than it really is, — especially when we remember that it 
 would be difficult, if not impossible, to find another where the social condi- 
 tion is as bad. It has been estimated, upon what seems to us to be a better 
 authority, that the number of professional thieves does not exceed 3,000 ; 
 while the women, who are generally known to be public prostitutes, com- 
 prise about 5,000. Dr. Bellew may have meant to take in a wider circle 
 than is here comprised, but as a line must be drawn somewhere, and as it 
 is quite impossible to include every woman who may be guilty of immo- 
 rality, we may well be content with these figures. In estimating the num- 
 ber of drinking places, under which term we comprise all places where a 
 glass of liquor can be procured, whether they be hotel bars, " sample 
 rooms," or public houses of every kind, the doctor erred in the other direc- 
 tion. There are more than 7,000 such places in New York, and the num- 
 ber is daily on the increase. Then, if under the head of gambling houses 
 we include faro banks, and all the lottery bureaus, the total docs not 
 
72 TI1E DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 amount to more than 600, and if the efforts of the police, which have been 
 exerted recently in certain precincts, be persevered with, we may hope that 
 even this calculatien will soon become excessive. 
 
 We must, however, be careful to distinguish between professional crimi 
 nals, and those who do not use crime as the means of obtaining a liveli- 
 hood ; that is, between the people who live upon crime, and they who com- 
 mit it through poverty, or perhaps only through indiscretion. 
 
 It is probable that considering all the circumstances with which we in 
 New York are surrounded, the numbers of the former do not exceed what 
 might reasonably be anticipated. We have a mixed population, and mixed 
 nationalities. We have poured into our midst people from all quarters of 
 the world, many of whom are not influenced by the highest principles. 
 Moreover, there are hundreds, nay thousands among us, who have a hard 
 fight to secure a bare subsistence, and whose honest intentions are subverted 
 by actual want, until offences against the law are committed as the only 
 alternative against starvation. It is easy for persons who revel in luxury 
 at home, who never knew what it was to have an unsatisfied desire, still 
 less a stroke from the hand of necessity, to sit in judgment over the pecca- 
 dilloes which men, who are in their hearts as honest as the honestest, are 
 often times driven to commit. That such a condition of things can exist 
 at all in a country like ours, shows that a great wrong is being done some- 
 where. But we must not mistake its position. It lies less at the threshold 
 of the offender in such cases, than at the heart of society itself, under whose 
 guidance and legislation crime is made to become such a cruel choice. 
 When we consider the sources whence we derive our population, the needs 
 that prevail among us, the standard of morality that obtains in social and 
 political circles, and the temptations that are developed by our institutions, 
 the wonder rather is that crime is not even more prevalent, and the crimi- 
 nal classes more uncontrollable. 
 
 It is very difficult to give complete and authentic statistics of the crimes 
 committed in New York, since we have only the annual report of the 
 Police Commission to guide us ; and this, be it remembered, gives only the 
 number of arrests ; while a great number of offences against the rights of 
 property are committed where no arrests follow, and of which many are 
 not even known to the police. 
 
 The latest report issued from the press up to the time of our writing, is 
 that for the official year from April 5th, 1870, to April 4th, 1871. The 
 number of arrests in that period was 75,692, increasing in the next year to 
 84,515, but that report is not published.*) Of the former, 635 were for 
 
 *) It may be interesting to compare these figures with those given in London, a city where the law* 
 vary least from our own. The latest returns from there have not reached us; but in the year 1867 when 
 the population of the police district of London was as nearly as possible four times that of New York, 
 the nnral er of arrests was 63 042. In 1866 it had been 65,806 ; and in 1865 it was 70,274, thus showing not 
 an increase as with us, but a decrease, even with a rapidly increasing population. This is a terrible record 
 as against New York. But again. Of the 84,^14 peisons arrested in New York, only 367 could neither 
 
THE THIEVES. 73 
 
 burglary, 332 for robberies in the streets and elsewhere, 2,21)6 for grand 
 larceny, 5,332 for petty larceny, 362 for pocket-picking, 163 for receiving 
 stolen goods; in all 9,120. Then 958 were for crimes of magnitude not 
 here enumerated and 65,614 for smaller offences, and for drunkennes, 
 breaches of the peace, &c. The number of 9,120 arrests for stealing 
 gives, however, no accurate idea of the number of thieves living in the 
 city ; there are many arrested, for petty larceny for instance, who fall into 
 the hands of the police more than once in the year for similar offences, 
 while on the other hand, as before stated, many thefts take place where no 
 arrest follows ; either because the perpetrator of the theft is not discovered 
 through the prevalence of a feeliug of leniency, or because the trouble is 
 not taken to pursue a genuine prosecution, and thus small offenders are 
 permitted to escape. To show how little those police estimates are to be 
 depended on, one example will suffice. As already stated, the number of 
 arrests for pocket-picking was 362, or at the rate of one per day ! One 
 only, in this city of New York ! while everybody, who lives here, knows 
 the immense number of such robberies that are constantly taking place in 
 the horse cars alone, a number which we may certainly set down as not 
 less than ten every day. Then again the number of persons who get their 
 subsistence in New York by picking pockets is tixed in the returns at 300, 
 and yet only 362 arrests for picking pockets are made in the course of a 
 year ! At this rate each one of the pickpockets practises his handiwork 
 only once a year ! Truly, a bad living, indeed ! But yet how many 
 watches and purses there are stolen ! 
 
 When we find recorded that the number of professional thieves of all 
 kinds in New York is only 3,000, it must be remembered that this does 
 not include the many hundreds who steal casually under the influence of 
 either poverty or recklessness. It represents only those, both men and 
 women, who make a business of theft and live by it. 
 
 As already shown there have been during the year 2,296 persons arrested 
 for grand larceny and 5,332 for petty larceny. In the former there is 
 very little room for pity or commiseration, since almost without exception 
 they are hardened and persistent criminals ; while, with few exceptions, 
 the latter class are more deserving our kindly sympathy, than our con- 
 demnation. Magistrates would do well to draw the distinction more fre- 
 quently than they do in their judgments. Whether from negligence or the 
 force of habit, we do not say, but the practice too commonly is, in our 
 courts, to treat the casual offender and the experienced criminal alike ; 
 punishing for the crime, without taking into consideration the circum- 
 
 read nor write ; 3,42-3 could road but not write ; and 80,724 had received a more or less good education. 
 But of the 63,042 persons arrested in London 7163 could neither read nor write, 54,1^4 could read but not 
 write, and 1,084 could read as well as write, while only 61 had anything like a superior education. This 
 would seem to show not only that there are many more law breakers in our city, but also that for the 
 most part they are of a class who ought to know better, while in London they are almost invarubly the 
 most ignorant. 
 
74 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 stances' under which, and the antecedents of the person by whom, it was 
 committed. In this way a severer punishment is often inflicted than the 
 prisoner deserved, and injustice is the consequence. It is not that there is 
 any difficulty in detecting the professional from the casual thief. A very 
 little care on the part of a cautious observer, and especially if he be one 
 who has had experience among criminal classes, will suffice. And yet 
 while earnest tales of pinching poverty, told with all the color and force of 
 the thieves* rhetoric, seldom deceive a magistrate ; it is very common to 
 see an equally deaf ear turned by the bench to appeals which come from 
 the heart, and are given with all the force of truth and genuine emotion. 
 Our city is so overrun with poverty, is so teeming with crowds of poor 
 unfortunates who can scarcely contrive by honest labor to keep body and 
 soul together, that in truth there is as a rule, more need for pity than for 
 severity. By far the larger number of these petty offenders are the victims 
 of a stern necessity. Men and women who have chosen crime for their 
 profession do not descend, they do not need to descend, to petty thieving. 
 It is not worth their while, it would not pay them, to risk imprisonment,, 
 for a loaf of bread or a dollar stolen from a till. Moreover, a sense of dig- 
 nity would not allow them to do it. They scorn such little prey. It is 
 unworthy of their experience, their skill, their standing among their fel- 
 lows. When men or women, such as these, stand at the bar of justice, we 
 ask for them no sympathy, no lenity, on the side of the law ; but we do 
 claim some consideration for some reform in the mode of dealing with those 
 unhappy prisoners, whose offence is at the worst but trifling, and who have 
 been impelled to it by circumstances of hard pressing necessity. Very 
 often, if their cases where enquired into, it would be found that the tres- 
 pass is repugnant to no one more than to the prisoner himself. He will 
 deplore his condition from the very depth of his soul, but he will tell how 
 he had no option between becoming a criminal and seeing his wife and 
 children perish miserably of starvation. He chose the former ; and who, 
 in the name of justice, and humanity, can blame him? People who are 
 ever so ready, as too many among us are, to utter a sweeping malediction 
 against all who transgress the law in small matters ; — for in truth society 
 does not equally condemn the fashionable and great criminal — should 
 habitually visit the police courts. If they were not there soon and often to 
 feel pangs of pity for many of the unfortunate offenders against the law, it 
 could only be because their hearts were steeled against the sufferings of 
 their fellow men, — and all sense of feeling and generosity obliterated from 
 their constitution. 
 
 It is not long since a poor woman was brought before a magistrate for 
 the commission of a trifling theft, and who told a sad story of want and 
 misery. Her husband lay at the point of death, not from sickness, but 
 from starvation, and she had three children crying for bread. Destitute, 
 not of food only, but of almost everything else— of everything, indeed, but 
 
THE THIEVES. 
 
 75. 
 
 the few rags that barely covered her nakedness and certainly did not shel- 
 ter her from the cold — this poor woman in her extremity went out to beg. 
 But the calling was new to her, the arts and devices, the cunning and 
 effrontery, of the professional beggar were unknown to her, and she failed. 
 People would not believe her, they would not help her, and she was driven 
 to a state of wild desperation. In this condition, to save her husband and 
 her little ones, she stole a loaf of bread. The storekeeper from whom she 
 took it had no compassion for her, and he handed her over to the police. 
 She told her tale of woe and misery in the court, and her whole aspect tes- 
 tified to the truth of it. She, too, was slowly perishing of starvation. 
 Her haggard face, her wild and staring eyes, her bones well nigh protrud- 
 ing through her skin, told a story of suffering which should have brought 
 her sympathy and help, but it only brought her a felon's doom. The 
 magistrate was obdurate, and the woman went to jail. What became of 
 her dying husband and her starvmg children, nobody cared. Their crime 
 was poverty, hers poverty and necessity combined, and the law did not 
 hesitate long in leaving the one to die, and sending the other to a prison. 
 Its hesitation is wondrously extended when the defendant is rich, and his 
 offence an unwarrantable crime of immense magnitude. Then, the laws 
 delay and the tax-payers punishment have become proverbial. 
 
 Such cases might be multiplied almost indefinitely. We may, however,, 
 repeat two others indicating the dangerous injustice that is too frequently 
 to be met with iu the administration of the law. A child, not ten years of 
 age, was engaged as shop boy in a house that seemed outwardly to be 
 respectable, though it is not much in favor of the reputation of people when 
 we find them treating their servants with all the worst rigors of social sla- 
 very. This lad was made to work for sixteen hours every day, and his 
 pale and haggard face told but too plainly of the miserable living, that the 
 paltry pittance, which his master called his " wages," could at the best pro- 
 cure. The marvel is that children so situated do not yield to temptation 
 more often than they do, subjected as they are to cruel treatment, hard 
 work, and very little remuneration. But this seemed to be at heart an 
 honest boy, and he went bravely along doing his duty satisfactorily and 
 using every effort to win advancement. But a new misfortune was in 
 store for him. His mother was a widow, and her earnings, supplemented 
 by his, sufficed to keep the wolf from the door ; but presently she fell ill 
 and all the help she got was such as this child could render her. His 
 miserable " wages" were of little avail. Presently food was no longer 
 attainable, and starvation entered into the desolate home. The boy gave 
 his mother all he had, and was content himself to starve upon the merest 
 scraps that he could gather. But matters became worse. The mother 
 drew nearer and nearer to the point of death, and the child grew distracted 
 at the terrible fate that seemed certainly coming to his only parent, and 
 imminently threatened himself. Thus afflicted, he took a dollar that 
 
76 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 belonged to his employer. Poverty secured his conviction. He was, 
 without any show of mercy, or consideration, handed over to the police ; 
 and henceforth relentlessly prosecuted. The magistrate who knew, as 
 well as his employer had known before him, all the extenuating circum- 
 stances, exhibited no disposition to use the discretionary power that is 
 readily developed when prisoners have wealth or influence behind them, 
 and after a severe reprimand, much of which was utterly unjustifiable, the 
 boy was committed to the House of Refuge as incorrigible ! In such a 
 ease one naturally asks the question ; " and what became of the mother?" 
 Oh ! that was of no importance. The judge did not feel it his business to 
 trouble about her. She probably starved. 
 
 These instances show the evil effects of the administration of the law 
 where no regard is had to the necessitous causes that sometimes induce to 
 petty offences, the next shows how much mischief may be done, and crimi* 
 nals in fact manufactured for society, by magistrates who treat even less 
 excusable faults with undue severity. — A young girl remarkable for her 
 beauty, and as certainly innocent of all the immoralities to which shop 
 girls are subjected, took a small piece of ribbon out of the store where she 
 was engaged. There was no excuse for this but vanity, — and although the 
 value was only a few cents, no justification could be found for the theft; 
 The storekeeper prosecuted, and took some trouble to do so. The girl 
 was arrested and after being locked up for some time, was finally tried and 
 convicted. She did not attempt to conceal her guilt. In such a case the 
 disgrace, the loss of situation, the imprisonment already suffered, should 
 have sufficed. The girl was respectable and she was penitent. She had 
 no bad disposition, and if allowed to return to her friends with a repri- 
 mand, the lesson would probably have been effectual. But this was not 
 done. The girl was sent to prison. There she associated with thieves 
 and prostitutes and took a long and enduring lesson in crime. Her youth 
 and beauty helped on her ruin. She left the jail to become the mistress of 
 a well-known thief, for the stain upon her character left her, according to 
 the ethics of our Christian society, no better course ; and she ultimately 
 developed into an accomplished shop-lifter. It would be difficult to learn 
 what the sentence first inflicted in her case has cost the public since, — ■ 
 and it would be absurd to say that the law is not responsible for having 
 made that woman what she is. 
 
 Pleas of extreme poverty and distress are, it must be admitted, very 
 common ; but they are always worthy of consideration. In the cases of 
 women and children they are most affecting, but many men, and strong 
 able men, too, sometimes urge them with perfect justification. It may 
 seem anomalous that the story of such a man shall be true when he tells 
 us that want and inability to work led him to an act of dishonesty. But it 
 often is true, nevertheless. In New York there are many, very many, 
 abte and willing men who cannot save themselves from starvation. Within 
 
THK THIKVKS. 77 
 
 our experience we have met with men of the highest ability and with no 
 evil propensities, who for days, aye and for weeks in succession, in spite* 
 too, of the most strenuous efforts, have not been able to procure a dinner- 
 But there are many thousauds of less attainments than these, but capable 
 of hard work, who are often driven to acts of petty theft to save themselves 
 from perishiug by want. Many of them would do well if they could leave 
 the city, and take the advice, so cheap to give, but so hard to take ; u go 
 West." They would gladly do so, but they have not the means ; and hav- 
 ing, in many cases, wive3 and families dependent upon them, they cannot 
 even work their way into the country. A single man may be enabled to 
 do this. A gentleman who lived in a private house on one of the main 
 lines of railroad crossing New Jersey, gave meals within the space of a 
 month to twenty-five persons, all strong able-bodied men, who, having 
 failed to support themselves in the city, were moving away on foot into 
 Pennsylvania, begging their food as they went along. In every case a 
 similar tale was told, and there could be no doubt as to the truth. But 
 married men cannot thus leave their families, and to many of them theft is 
 the only apparent salvation from starvation. Thus again the record of 
 crime is extended, and poverty stands forward as the sufficient palliation 
 for small offences, if only the administrators of the law would take the 
 trouble to investigate the truth. 
 
 The thieves cost the honest people of New York about four millions of 
 dollars annually. They have plenty of money and they squander it lav- 
 ishly. The police report for the year, April 1870 to April 1871, to which 
 we have already referred, gives no account of the value of stolen property ; 
 but we find one in an earlier statement ; that for 1868. There it amounts 
 to $4,755,077.83. But as a part of this to the value of $4,383,567.13 was 
 recovered, the actual loss would not amount to more than $371,510.70. 
 This, however, must be incorrect, since if it were not, the annual income 
 of each of the three thousand thieves would be only $124. 
 
 The professional New York thief is, as a rule, well dressed ; and he 
 lives well. It is also a noteworthy fact that, when a thief goes into a store 
 expressly to purchase something, he very seldom steals, but pays honestly 
 for what he w r ants. 
 
 Many of the thieves expend annually large sums of money, while others, 
 however, only just make a living. Still it may safely be affirmed that on 
 an average they expend not less than $3.00 a day each ; which, among 
 3000 thieves, amounts $3,285,000. 
 
 But the thieves never obtain from the receiver of stolen goods their full 
 value, often not more than hall, perhaps even less. It is, therefore, evi- 
 dent that when we set down the value of property lost to its owners by 
 theft during a year at four millions, the estimate is under, rather thau 
 over the truth. 
 
 Stewart & Co., in their retail business alone, lose from $15,000 ta 
 
78 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW TORE LIFE. 
 
 $20,000 annually by robbery, without reckoning their loss at the hands of 
 thieves who break open their packages in the bonded warehouses where 
 their goods lie, so that the loss of this firm alone by shop-lifters and rob- 
 bers may be taken at certainly $30,000 annually. Other large business 
 houses suffer in a similar proportion. Many ot them keep a separate 
 account for loss which they expect to suffer in this way through thieves, 
 and all large houses have one or more paid watchman to whom the princi- 
 pal thieves of both descriptions are known. 
 
 But whether the t Jief has three dollars a day or only a tenth part of it, 
 he is, as a general rule, never without money, for a more careless and 
 reckless spendthrift than a thief does not exist. " Have no care for the 
 morrow," is the only precept in the Bible that he follows. As fast as he 
 gets his money, he spends it, hardly knowing that he has had it. Outside 
 of his business he is just and liberal, and when he has his pockets full he 
 first pays what he owes, and also helps out of misfortune his less fortunate 
 companions. If then he has anything left he goes to the gambling table, 
 and then the keeper, or the bank, takes all he has and once more he finds 
 himself without a cent. He does not object to the society of ladies, nor to 
 the use of strong drink, but in neither i3 he extravagant. Very seldom is 
 he a drunkard ; and the often repeated statement that all thieves are con- 
 federated with abandoned women, is an error. Very often, indeed, a thief 
 is found living with one woman, and then she, too, is a thief and con- 
 tributes her full share to the housekeeping. 
 
 But even if thieves do not go near the green cloth, nor have anything to 
 do with the ladies, they still fail to save anything, for no classes are so 
 unmercifully fleeced. They are the fair game of lawyers and many detec- 
 tives, and when once they fall into the hands of these, they seldom escape 
 until they have been mulcted of their last cent. If a thief belongs to the 
 less prominent of his class, he may be perfectly certain that he will first be 
 fleeced and then marched off to prison ; but if he belongs to the more 
 important set of thieves, and has plenty of money, when he is arrested he 
 can settle the worst, robbery by a compromise. 
 
 As, in all conditions of life, there is among thieves a real aristocratic 
 element which thinks better of itself than of others, and also a plebeian 
 party which is looked askance at by the other. There are then greater 
 and lesser thieves, by which term of " greater thieves" we do not here 
 mean those who cheat to the value of millions, but actual, genuine thieves. 
 It must be conceded to the " greater thief," who considers himself a gen- 
 tleman, and engages only in large operations, that he has a certain amount 
 of contempt for the " lesser thief," because he considers that he has not the 
 " honor" to be a thief, and also because, as he is ever irritating the public 
 mind with his paltry robberies, the business of the big man gets damaged. 
 The greater thief has his fixed sphere. He is cither a burglar, pickpocket, 
 bank-robber, or belongs to one or other of the recognized divisions of the 
 
THE THIKVES. 70 
 
 profession; while the "lesser thief" turns his hand to anything. The 
 greater thief lives, as we have already said, well ; while the other has no 
 fixed habitation, and lives now in this lodging-house, now in that ; unless 
 some thief in better circumstances takes him to his own place to employ 
 him in some business as an accomplice. In all houses where thieves fre- 
 quent there are to be found one or two of these fellows, where they are 
 tolerated in order that they may be used, as occasion requires, as rowdies 
 and bullies, or as messengers and " go-betweens" in the business of the 
 greater thieves, for which service they receive a trifling wage, or perhaps 
 the right of free drinks in this or that bar-room. Often, too, they get an 
 old coat, or a pair of old boots, or something of the kind which the thieves 
 leave behind when they are on a journey ; that is when they are gone to 
 jail ; but this favor is done less out of kindness than with the idea of giving 
 the ragamuffins a more respectable appearance. 
 
 These men tramp the streets in the morning when the shops are bein<* 
 opened in the business localities, to look about and see where anything can 
 be made. There is a dry goods store. The clerk has brought out per- 
 haps a couple of pieces of cloth, or something of the kind, and has dis- 
 played them carefully before the store to attract customers. He returns to 
 bring out more ; and in a moment the thief is on hand. A glance suffices 
 to tell him that he is not observed, and in a moment he has got a piece of 
 the goods into his bag, thrown it over his shoulders, and is walking quietly 
 away, mingling with the people, who even at this early hour are numerous, 
 and who are now unwittingly helping the thief to get his plunder into a 
 place of safety. 
 
 In yonder corner, again, is an old apple- woman, busy setting out her 
 wares. She disposes her fruit in as tempting a manner as she can, to 
 attract the passer-by, and just as she does so >he thief comes along with a 
 step of impudent assurance. To divert the attention of the woman he 
 takes up an apple with one hand, asking what it costs, while with a cloth, 
 which he has in the other hand, he covers the little box in which the 
 woman keeps her small change, picks it up, and laying down the apple 
 with the remark " that is too dear," goes on his road again. Such is the 
 way these thieves get along, the plebeians of the profession ; and it need 
 not be wondered at when we find the great gentlemen thieves looking down 
 with contempt upon these paltry raggasnumns, who, according to their 
 idea, degrade their high calling. Livery stables and all such places where 
 harness or horse trappings are in use, are kept well attended to by this 
 kind of thieves ; they go in, ask for work, and when the gentleman turns 
 his back, perhaps, to look after his horses, they gather up in a moment 
 -anything they can lay their hands upon, and are off. 
 
 - In the evening they sneak about in all directions to spy out something 
 that they can carry off. Perhaps there may be some goods left by inad- 
 vertence outside a store ; the thief passes along once or twice to see whether 
 
80 THE DAKK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 there is any danger to him from within ; and as soon as he finds that the- 
 coast is clear, he takes up the goods quietly as he passes by the next time,, 
 puts them into his bag and goes on. The passers-by, who see him do it,, 
 have no idea that the man is a thief, but think that he belongs io the shop 
 and has a right to take away the goods. 
 
 Trunks, travelling bags, and other baggage in the railroad stations are 
 never safe, except when under the immediate eye of the owner, or of some 
 trustworthy person. Railway depots are to be numbered among the places 
 which are especially frequented by thieves of this kind, and not half of 
 their robberies come to the notice of the police. Thus the thieves have 
 certainly much good fortune in the exercise of their base occupation, but 
 it is not always the case, for it often happens that a little negligence on 
 their part leads to their discovery. 
 
 We subjoin here an interesting example of this kind, and will let Mr* 
 Mc Walters, the detective who had charge of the case, tell his own story, 
 as follows : — 
 
 u One day, some years ago, a Mr. Latimer called upon me. He was a 
 ^wealthy man, a land owner, engaged in several kinds of business and 
 among others in the sale of real-estate. He said that on the previous 
 night the sum of $7,255 had been stolen from a safe that stood in the room 
 adjoining his bed-room. He had left it there in the evening, because it 
 had been too late to deposit it at the bank. I asked him where, from 
 whom, and in what sums the money had been received, and ascertained 
 from him that he had been collecting house rents, a part he had taken for 
 a load of pressed hay sold in Jersey City, and another sum had come to 
 him from the country. At my request he gave me a specification of each 
 of the separate payments, also the names of the parties who had paid them, 
 and the consideration. I also asked him whether any other persons were 
 present when he received the money. In reply to this question he told me 
 that when he took the money for the hay several people were standing by,. 
 some were customers, others working people, and a few well, but rather 
 flashily dressed young men. Latimer had taken out his pocket-book, in 
 which there was already a considerable sum of money, and opened it to 
 put in the amount just received. He had put this back into an inner 
 pocket of his waistcoat, and as soon as he reached home, he put it away 
 in the safe. After this interview Mr. Latimer left me and I promised 
 to visit him another day at his house, and take a look at the surround- 
 ings. 
 
 On the same evening my duty took me into several gambling houses,, 
 and in one of them I fell in with a young man who had plenty of money ^ 
 and from whose appearance I could not divert my mind of the idea that 
 this money was a part of that which had been stolen from Latimer. But, 
 unfortunately, I did not yet know the denominations of the notes belonging 
 to the stolen money, otherwise I would have looked into the matter a little 
 
lilt IlllhVKS. 81 
 
 closer, and have arrested the man forthwith if my suspicions had been 
 confirmed. 
 
 On the next morning I called on Mr. Latimer. I asked him about the 
 members of his family and his servants. His children were not iu New 
 York, the boys being away at college and the girls at a boardiug-school. 
 He, his wife, and their servants were the only persons residing in the 
 house ; and even his wife — as he remarked — had, as it happened, not been 
 aware that he had the money, or that it was deposited in the satV. I 
 examined the servants in whose honesty, by the way, Mr. Latimer Raid 
 he had the utmost confidence. None of these could give any information. 
 Only one had heard on that night a slight noise ; the others had slept well 
 and heard nothing. Since the safe stood in a room adjoining their bed- 
 room, Latimer and his wife must also have slept very soundly on that 
 night, otherwise they must have heard something. I saw at once that a 
 very skilful thief must have been at work here, and again T could not help 
 thinking of the young man whom I had seen the evening before spending 
 so much money, and who, it certainly seemed to me, must be the man who 
 had committed the robbery. But there was one question I could not 
 answer to myself satisfactorily. How was the thief able to open the safe? 
 lie must have been acquainted with the interior of the house and with the 
 safe. 
 
 Perhaj s he had a key for it, or that he had in his possession several 
 sife-keys, of which one might have opened the lock. If otherwise, he 
 must have used Mr. Latimer's own key. But this key (a very small one) 
 Mr. Latimer had in his vest pocket, and his clothes, during the night, lay 
 upon a chair at the head of the bed. He had laid them there at night and 
 he found them there in the morning. He w r as also quite certain that he 
 had locked the safe after depositing the pocket-book inside. I asked him 
 to let me see inside the safe, and to show me the place where he had laid 
 the money. He opened the safe. The lock was a simple one and by no 
 means a sufficient protection against thieves. For, although the key-hole 
 was very small, so that the lock could not have well been burst with pow- 
 der, yet the construction of the lock was such that it could not have pre- 
 sented any difficulty to a dextrous thief. But to open it by force, without 
 making any noise, would not have been possible. Latimer had placed the 
 money in one of the little drawers inside the safe and had turned the key 
 of the drawer, but left it iu its place. But the drawer fastened very closely 
 and although we opened it at least a dozen times, we found it impossible to 
 do so without making considerable noise. In fact upon that night Latimer 
 and his wife must have slept unusually soundly. 
 
 After I had examined everything thoroughly, and questioned and cross- 
 questioned Mr. Latimer, we were about closing the safe again, when he 
 took out some papers that lay disarranged on the bottom of the safe, for 
 the purpose of setting them straight. While doing this a lottery ticket, 
 
 6 
 
82 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 which had been lying on the papers, fell to the ground. He picked it up, 
 looked at it in astonishment, aud handed it to me with the words : 
 
 " This is strange, you will think at last that I gamble in lotteries, but I 
 don't know how the ticket got in here." 
 
 "Has anybody besides you got a key to the safe?" I asked him in 
 reply. . 
 
 Upon whioh he told me that "of course his wife had a key." " Oh ! 
 then," said I, " she may have placed the ticket there." But he emphatic- 
 ally denied this, saying that his wife was a bitter enemy to lotteries, aud 
 that if she had found the ticket there, she might well have thought that he 
 gambled. 
 
 "No," he continued, "the ticket does not belong to her, but perhaps 
 one of the servants may have given it to her to take care of, for it is possi- 
 ble that they may speculate in lotteries." 
 
 So Mrs. Latimer was called in and questioned. She knew nothing of 
 the ticket, and answered very angrily that if any of her servants came to 
 ask her to take care of such a thing, she would tear it up first, for no ser- 
 vant of hers should gamble in lotteries. 
 
 Now then, how did the ticket get into the safe? It was for a lottery 
 which was to be drawn in Baltimore at the firm of Henry Colton & Co., 
 who were at that time agents for lotteries in Maryland, and it bore the 
 number 1710. It appeared from the ticket, which was evidently new, that 
 the drawing was soon to take place. But still there was mystery, and 
 again I asked myself how did it come into the safe? Mr. and Mrs. Lati- 
 mer clearly knew nothing about it, aud it was quite certain that it had not 
 been in the safe long. At last I came to the conclusion that, as the drawer 
 moved stiffly, the thief, in opening it, had been obliged to use some force 
 and that, in leaning over, the ticket had fallen out of his waistcoat into the 
 safe, where we had found it. But still the question remained unanswered : 
 How had the safe been opened? And this I could not satisfactorily 
 answer. Perhaps it had been done with a false key. But as the keys of 
 all these safes are different, how could the thief have procured one that just 
 opened this lock. 
 
 After we had finished our investigation, Mr. Latimer shut the door of 
 the safe, turned the knob and took out the key. I do not know what 
 exactly caused me to do so, but I asked him. " Have you locked it ?" 
 " Yes," he answered, " with this safe you have only to close the door 
 firmly to fasten it," and with these words he took hold of the knob and 
 pulled it to show me the arrangement, when — the door opened ! Larimer 
 stood stupefied ; and I must confess that I was scarcely less astonished. 
 It was now evident that, on the night when the robbery took place, the 
 thief had found the safe open, just as it was uow. We examined the lock 
 more closely and found that the catch did not come out far enough to close 
 
THK THIKYES. 
 
 63 
 
 lie safe securely. Th re was in fact something out of order with the lock 
 which Mr. Latimer had not before remarked. 
 
 But I uow had the lottery ticket, and I told Mr. Latimer that this must 
 now be made the mean* possibly of detecting the thief. I requested him 
 to go to all those people who had made him any payments on the day in 
 question, and to ask them if they could remember the amounts of the vari- 
 ous notes and the banks to which they belonged. The answer he brought 
 me to these enquiries gave me some information, and I then explained to 
 Mr. Latimer my plan of operations. 
 
 He authorized me, iu case I should consider it expedient, to offer a 
 reward of rive hundred or a thousand dollars for the discovery of the thief, 
 •or double the amount for the detection of the thief and the recovery of the 
 stolen property. 
 
 31 v first idea now was to go to Baltimore. But I felt convinced that 
 even if the ticket were genuine it would not give me any information as to 
 who had bought it. Possibly I could get that information from the New 
 York agents, but I dare not go there, because they might be acquaintances 
 of the man who had bought ticket No. 1710, and in that case the thief, 
 hearing of my enquiries, would come to the conjecture that he had lost the 
 ticket in Latimer's house. I gave up the thought of going to the office, 
 and at first did not know very clearly what I should do. Presently, how- 
 ever, a plan suggested itself to me. If the ticket wins, I thought to myself 
 — and the winning numbers must be published immediately after the draw- 
 ing — then I will offer to the Baltimore agent the promised reward of $500 
 or SI, 000 to find out the thief; but if it does not win, then I must take 
 into my confidence the New York agent who sold the ticket, that he may 
 -write to the purchaser of it, to say that it had won and that he could have 
 the money. So being decided as to what under either circumstances I 
 "would do, I determined to remain in Baltimore duriug the two days pre- 
 ceding the drawing. 
 
 Luckily No. 1710 won ; the prize, too, was not less than three thousand 
 ■dollars. I now went to the agent, told him how the matter stood, offered 
 him the promised §500 and half the amount of the prize, and he expressed 
 his willingness to help me to discover the thief. Naturally, too, the New 
 York agent, who had sold the ticket, interested himself about the payment 
 of the prize ; for that so large an amount had been won by a ticket pro- 
 cured from him, was a matter that had to tJ^put before the public. But 
 -where was the ticket? The agent had thought that the purchaser of it 
 would present himselt without any delay, but he did not come. He wrote 
 to him and told him of his good fortune ; upon this the man called, but 
 wiih the complaint that he had lost the ticket ; whereupon the agent, who 
 did not want to lose his commission, wrote to the head office in Baltimore, 
 requesting that the money might be paid only through him. It was now 
 arranged that the purchaser of the ticket should make an affidavit in due 
 
84 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 legal form that he had bought ticket No. 1710, that he had not surren- 
 dered it to anybody, but had really lost it. And — as a pretended precau- 
 tion, leet possibly anyone who might have found the ticket should present 
 it for payment — I further determined that it would be better for the actual 
 purchaser of the ticket to say in the. affidavit, whether, as is often the cus. 
 torn, he had put any private mark on the ticket. I wanted this in order 
 to bring the recollection of the thief to the point, and it facilitated me in 
 gettiRg from him the declaration that he had not marked the ticket, but 
 that he well remembered to have so tumbled it up together that there were 
 two breaks in the paper across the numbers 7 and 1. That was just what 
 I wanted, because it identified him as the true purchaser. He swore that 
 he had not parted from the ticket to anybody, that he had upon such and 
 such a day (and he named the dav upon which the robbery at Mr. Lati- 
 mer's had taken place) lost it, as he thought, while on his way from Broad- 
 way and Fulton Steeet, (where at that time was a gaming house,) to< 
 Union Square. 
 
 He had signed the affidavit, but how T were we to know that that was 
 his real name. At the same time, however, the New York agent also 
 made an affidavit that he had sold the ticket to this man, whom he again 
 recognized. We now agreed to arrange matters thus : — that if the ticket 
 were not presented for payment by anybody else within a month, then the 
 amount should be paid over to the signer of the affidavit ; but that if any- 
 body else should put in an appearance in the meantime, he should be duly 
 intimated and given an opportunity to defend his claim. These arrange- 
 ments being safely made in Baltimore, and the New York agent made 
 acquainted with them, I returned to New York to find out, if possible, who 
 this Charles F. Worden was, who had signed the affidavit. The Baltimore 
 agent also came to New York and worked ably in the business, since the 
 agent here had written him a description of Worden. He succeeded in 
 having a long interview with Worden in the presence of his New York 
 colleague, and when he wrote to me a description of the latter, I recog- 
 nized at once, and without any doubt, the young man whom I had seen in 
 the gaming house on the evening I first mentioned and whom I then sus- 
 pected of being the thief. The general description of his person was amply 
 sufficient, but he had besides a remarkable mark, a bare spot on the left 
 side of his head, which he was in the habit of striving to conceal with his 
 hair. 
 
 Now I was certain of success, but still I felt assured, that the real name 
 of the man was not " Worden." It is sufficient, however, to remark that 
 in t*wo days I found out all that I wanted to know. Even his antecedents 
 were fully known to me. lie belonged to a good family and was not with- 
 out abilities, but his love of pleasure and dissipation had made him a grief 
 to his relations and friends. His father, who, although not a rich man, 
 Was a well-to-do merchant, had cast him off more than a year betbre. As 
 
THE THIEVES. 85 
 
 tie could find no other occupation, he went as clerk to a grocer, who, 
 besides his legitimate business, had a drink ing-saloon in a back room. 
 Here Worden made the acquaintance of a " Banker" from down town, who 
 lived near the grocery, and soon was very intimate with him. It occurred 
 to him, however, to find out what kind of a banker the man was, and he 
 discovered that he was the banker of a gambling hell at the corner of 
 Broadway and Fulton Streets, but was regarded in the neighborhood where 
 he lived — for who in New York knows his neighbors? — as an active and 
 wealthy merchant. 
 
 This acquaintance was the occasion of the young man beginning to 
 neglect his duty, and to waste time wandering about when he had to go 
 out, till at length the grocer dismissed him. How after that he managed 
 to live, and dress himself so well, was a puzzle to his earlier acquaintances. 
 One day, after he had gambled away his last dollar, he stole some money 
 from another man with whom he was living in a boarding-house. Suspi- 
 cion did not rest upon him, and the consequence was that he was led fur- 
 ther on along the road to crime. 
 
 Although confident now of securing my man, I had not got him ; more- 
 over, I must first confer with the Baltimore agent. Upon him much 
 depended. I had the ticket, and the young man had sworn that it belonged 
 to him ; but he would certainly declare that he had lost it, and that the 
 thief must have found it, if I laid my bauds upon him yet. So I took Mr. 
 Latimer with me, disguised, to the gaming house which the young man 
 frequented, and there he recognized him, without any doubt, as one of the 
 people who was standing near when he received the moaey for the hay in 
 Jersey City. But even this did not sulhce to secure the conviction of the 
 thief, since we were not in a position to say that the stolen property, or 
 any part of it, was in his possession. Yet I hoped that this would be pos- 
 sible, for I saw r that now he did not play recklessly, as formerly, but witli 
 caution, like a man who puts by what he wins. I thought that now that 
 the robbery had given him a fine capital in hand, he felt that he had only 
 to play and win more, and that then with the proceeds of his lottery ticket 
 lie could begiu business. And, that I calculated rightly, the later acquaint- 
 ance I made with the young man assured me. 
 
 As stated before, Mr. Latimer had, by the questions he had put to the 
 people who had paid him the money, provided an important fact towards 
 the conviction of the thief. I went agaiu to Baltimore and told the chief 
 agent, that I thought the time had come to bring the affair to a crisis. We 
 then decided on our plans. 
 
 The New Y^ork agent was informed that the ticket had been presented 
 at the chief office, and a request made for the payment of the prize, that 
 in consequence he must now come on to Baltimore w r ith " Worden" to see 
 the holder of the ticket, and that the latter would call again in three days. 
 The chief agent was much delighted ; for I had promised him, that if the 
 
86 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 affair turned out well, and we succeeded in recovering a good share of the 
 Stolen money, he should have the whole of the lottery winnings, provided 
 he would renounce his claim to the $500 reward. 
 
 He was for charging the young man with the theft at Mr. Latimer's as 
 soon as we got him into the private office, telling him that we knew all 
 about his presence when the money was paid in Jersey City, and the cir- 
 cumstances of his identification of the ticket in the affidavit, thinking 
 thereby to frighten him, and to drive him into an immediate confession. 
 
 I, however, felt that it might not be so easy to bring him to a confes- 
 sion, and that we had better let things take their course and see what the- 
 result would be. 
 
 I had not yet told the agent what information Mr. Latimer had given 
 me as to the denominations of the notes, bat I arranged with him that, . 
 when the time came for the payment of the money, he should give the 
 young man a draft upon New York to the amount of $3,500 in payment : 
 so that Worden should give him $500 in exchange. 
 
 The New York agent and Worden came on and we had a private con- 
 ference, in which I assumed the position of legal assistant to the Baltimore 
 agent. The New York agent was also present- I put several questions 
 to the young man with reference to the ticket, heard the statement of the 
 New York agent, and in the presence of both gave it as my opinion that 
 the Baltimore agent should pay the young man, but that he had better first 
 send for the holder of the ticket with instructions to bring it along with 
 him. The New York agent was now requested, u as there was no one at 
 hand who could be depended upon," to take a note over to a man who 
 lived some distance from the lottery office, who would then send on to the 
 person who held the ticket. The Baltimore agent had, as he previously 
 told this man that he should, written to him that morning, instructing him 
 what to do. The man kept a little shop ; he received the New York agent 
 very politely and requested him to take a seat in the office, remarking, that 
 he would send his assistant to the gentleman and give him the letter. I 
 had requested the New York agent to bring the gentleman with him and 
 to wait a couple of hours if necessary. 
 
 " All right. All right. You be sure I shall make it all right," said the 
 New Yorker, and with that he startechon his journey. 
 
 We offered the young man the newspapers to read, and spoke of things 
 generally by way of conversation. The Baltimore agent went back to his 
 desk in the next office. At the end of about half an hour I said : — " It is 
 a nuisance that that man delays so long." " I must go to my office. I 
 will be back presently," I observed to the agent as I opened the door of 
 his room. "When shall I come?" "Oh! pray stop," answered the 
 agent, " or at any rate come back directly," and at the same time he gave 
 me a wink, which of course was not seen by the young man. I went and 
 came back in a quarter of an hour with the remark : — " Look, the matter 
 
THE THIEVES. 
 
 8' 
 
 assumes a new shape." I found the gentleman who had the ticket in my 
 office waiting to speak to me about something. He said he knew that I 
 was your legal adviser and would also counsel him as to what was best to 
 be done. And when I told him I was certain that the ticket was the 
 property of this young man, he answered that he would not interfere in the 
 affair any further, aud then gave me the ticket. " See, here it is. Do you 
 remember it?" said I to Worden. lie jumped up, looked at it, and cried 
 out delighted " Yes, that's it, do you not remember that I described in my 
 affidavit how I had broken the ticket by doubling it together?" Now Mr. 
 Worden, I answered, I have no doubt that the ticket belongs to you, and 
 of course the agent will pay you the mouey. " Certainly," answered the 
 agent, " as you are here, it can be done at once. I will make up the 
 account and be back directly with the money." He closed the door after 
 him, and as it was already getting late, he told his people in the office that 
 they might go home. And they left. 
 
 After a short time he returned and remarked to Worden that he had not 
 S3, 000 in cash, but that he could give him a draft, payable at sight, on a 
 New York bank for $3,500, if he could give him the $500 change. Wor- 
 den willingly agreed, and the agent went now to his desk, wrote out the 
 draft and gave it to Worden, who laid it on the table, and opening his 
 travelling bag (iu which, as I saw, there was plenty of money), took out 
 five one-hundred dollar notes, which he handed to the agent. The latter 
 went back again into his private office and I followed him. He showed 
 me the notes, and — now the thief was in our hands. Four of the notes had 
 upon the backs the name of one of the people — a Mr. Bordell, from whom 
 Latimer had received a part of the money. They were notes of the Bank 
 of America, which the man, who paid them to Latimer, had taken from 
 the bank only an hour before ; and his custom always was, in that case, to 
 put his name on the back of the notes. I then requested the agent to ask 
 Worden whether he could not give him two fifty or five twenty dollar bills 
 for one of a hundred ; and I gave him one of the notes that was not written 
 on the back for that purpose. He did so, and I followed him ; and the 
 moment Worden took his travelling bag into his hand, and was going to 
 open it, I snatched it out of his hand, saying : — 
 
 " No nonsense, you rascal ! You are under arrest. You are the scoun- 
 drel who robbed Mr. Latimer's safe. I have followed you up step by step, 
 but you don't escape now. And I seized him by the throat. 
 
 He tried to get free from my grasp, but I held him tightly, waited a few 
 moments till he recovered from the first shock, then sat him on a chair, 
 and explained to him in a few words how he had been taken. In the mean 
 time the agent looked through the travelling bag, counted the money that 
 was in it and found another hundred dollar note with the name of Mr. 
 Bordell upon it. Worden saw that he could not escape. We found that 
 he had still three thousand dollars by him, and he begged to be allowed to 
 
88 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 go back- to New York, where he had the remainder, withiu six or eight 
 hundred dollars that he had paid away, but which he thought he could 
 procure in the city. He said he was willing to give up all if we would not 
 prosecute him. He wished to reform. The certain prospect of a journey 
 to prison had mollified him. I was now about to handcuff him, but he 
 besought me not to bring this disgrace upon his father, and promised that 
 he would go with me willingly. And as the agent declared that he was 
 not yet ready to accompany us, and to divide with me the care of watchin^ 
 him, I consented. The agent arranged his business for a short absence, 
 wrote to the New York agent that he was suddenly called to New York 
 but would see him there another day, and so we set out with our prisoner 
 to the nearest station. 
 
 The young man kept his word. Not only did he give up all the money 
 which he still had left from the robbery, but he borrowed from a friend, 
 whom we called upon together, the sum of $710 which was required to 
 make up the amount. He also gave the Baltimore agent the ticket and 
 then I let him go to his father's house. Nor am I sorry that I did so, for 
 he truly reformed, and is now living — a merchant in a large city in the 
 West. His real name I have never made known to anybody, not even to 
 Mr. Latimer. He had crept quietly into the house at dusk with the inten- 
 tion of opening the safe with a key which he had provided, but which he 
 found to be unnecessary when the safe opened upon turning the knob." 
 
 In the city there are about a dozen public houses which are frequented 
 almost entirely by thieves and characters of a similar kind. The most 
 pretentious of these is the St. Bernard Hotel at the corner of Prince and 
 Wooster Streets. In the disgraceful days when the Tammany ring ruled 
 the city of New York, this house was a support and centre of political 
 power. Now, its character is changed, in that respect at least ; but it is 
 still the resort of the '• better class" of thieves. Some of them are always 
 to be found there, smoking, drinking, or playing billiards ; and lest it may 
 be thought that it would not be safe for an honest taan to go into that 
 hotel, we must assure him that his pockets would probably nowhere be 
 more safe from intrusion. It is believed that no robbery has ever been 
 perpetrated in the house. Aristocratic thieves do not foul their own nests. 
 These gentlemen of the profession then, who are to be seen there, are 
 respectable in appearance, and if a little flashy in conversation among 
 themselves, they are at least as courteous, and, as a rule, perhaps more 
 polite than very many who are more pretentious in their claims to a good 
 reputation. They spend their money freely ; are always ready to help a 
 friend out of his difficulties, and not unfrequently are to be found giving 
 their money to strangers, if they find them iu need. They are sociable, 
 jovial, and hospitable ; and perhaps have very often more feeling for others 
 than many of the rich and wealthy amongst us, who have acquired their 
 money by more fashionable, but hardly less questionable means. 
 
TIIK TI1IKVE3. i j * 
 
 But the character thus given does not extend beyond the class of thiei \i 
 referred to. On the corner of Hester Street and the Bowery is a resort of 
 quite a different kind, where all who enter aud who are not of the craft, 
 will certainly be made, if possible, to suffer for their temerity. It is in the 
 basement of the building, and may be visited by anyone who wishes to see 
 a collection of men who are unmistakable as thieves and ruffians of the 
 lowest kind ; and who at the same time is willing to take the risk of his 
 curiosity. For these fellows are not very scrupulous. Many of them have 
 already, perhaps more than once or twice, tasted the penalties of prison 
 life, and they will rob aud steal at any risk ; so that if the use of a 
 bludgeon, a slung-shot, or even a revolver, be necessary to accomplish their 
 ends, they will not hesitate to have recourse to it. 
 
 Having detailed the general doings of the thieves, and pointed out two 
 of the dens which they frequent, we will now take the reader to a thieves 
 ball ; — for the fraternity give balls generally for the purpose of raising 
 funds to pay a lawyer in the defence of one of their number who has fallen 
 into !he power of the law. 
 
 We take a ticket and go in. The place is in one of the worst localities 
 of the Fourth Ward. It is kept by an old house-breaker, who, having 
 finished his studies in an English prison, became a ticket-of-leavc man, and 
 now lives here. We pass through the dirty bar-room and find ourselves in 
 a long, narrow room, with a low ceiling, aud an uneven floor. Along the 
 walls benches are placed, and a couple of kerosene lamps just suffice to 
 bring out a doubtful kind of darkness. At one end of the room is a plat- 
 form for the orchestra, which consists of two colored men, a violinist and 
 a banjo player. The gentlemen who attend here are all dandily dressed, 
 but, in the fashion of their kind, with very open waistcoats, and colored 
 neckties, thick watch chains in imitation of gold, and rings upon their fin- 
 gers. Here are representations of every branch of the honorable society 
 of thieves, from the miserable sneak-thief to the bank-robber. The mem- 
 bers of the fair sex, of whom there are already a large number assembled, 
 are worthy companions of the chevaliers of the evening. There is a noto- 
 rious woman, a sneak-thief, who lives with the man, a house-breaker, who 
 sits next to her, and with whom she works in partnership. Here and 
 there we see a face which we recognize as that of a waiter-girl whom we 
 have met in one or other of the Broadway saloons. It too often happens 
 that these girls get acquainted with the thieves who frequent the saloons 
 where they pass their miserable existence, and once that happens, the>- 
 sink lower and lower in infamy. That flat nosed robust young fellow 
 about two or three and twenty years of age, has just come out of prison, 
 where he has been passing a few years for robbery and garrotting. That 
 stout woman is well known to the police as a panel-thief, and that lazy 
 fellow with a stand-up shirt collar, lives on the ill-earned money which she 
 makes by her abominable business. Crinoline, rouge, and false hair are 
 
90 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 here everywhere about ; and if any of the women present ever had a parti- 
 cle of beauty about her, a life of dissipation and crime has effected such a 
 radical change, that not the slightest evidence of it remains. Everyone 
 here, man and woman, has an alias or nickname. There is " Roddy the 
 jumper" ; there " little Tommy," and there again " red-haired Joe." That 
 girl with her neck covered by a thickly spangled waterfall is the thieving 
 " Nanny" ; and yonder syren with the red morocco shoes is known as 
 " wild Maggy ;" while the woman — no longer a girl — with the Kiole on her 
 left cheek, bears the nickname of " beautiful Anna," a sarcasm, indeed, as 
 most of these nicknames are. She keeps a concert saloon, and is so expe- 
 rienced in the use of her fists, that she is a match for almost any man of 
 her size. 
 
 Before the dancing begins there is a general march round, a so-called 
 Polonaise to the screeching noise of the fiddle and the banjo. Thence we- 
 go with the crowd a few steps up into a second bar-room, where the gen- 
 tlemen drink whiskey and the ladies take gin and water. After this the 
 dance goes on again, and Virginia reels and round dances of every kind 
 follow in quick succession. Later in the night the dancing becomes furious, 
 increasing in violence with every empty bottle. Then — but let us be con- 
 tent with the glimpse we have already had, — and instead of staying longer 
 to witness scenes that are little edifying, take ourselves away with a French 
 leave. 
 
 The New York thieves are divided into regular gangs, who give 
 themselves different business names. Thus we find among others on the 
 west side of the city a very dangerous band, which bears the respectable 
 name of the " forty thieves," while in other parts of the town are similar 
 bands working under different names. Quite recently, that is within a few 
 months, a part of the gang of the " forty thieves," under the lead of one of 
 their companions, a man named " Williams," fell upon a gentleman named 
 McHayes, in Sixth Avenue, knocked him down, and robbed him of his 
 watch and money. — But thieves divide themselves not only into gangs, 
 they are further separated according to the different branches of their busi- 
 ness ; namely into pickpockets, railway and omnibus thieves, shop-lifters, 
 sneak-thieves, house-breakers, bond and bank thieves, safe-bursters, and 
 river and dock thieves. We purpose now to notice each of these separately. 
 Pickpockets cultivate a different art from most of those who are ever 
 waging war against property, and are by so much the more dangerous 
 since people are never secure from them ; indeed they ought to be always 
 on the watch if they would be safe against their assaults, — a degree of 
 watchfulness which is not often possible, since everyone has business or 
 affairs of some kind upon which his thoughts are directed. Pickpockets 
 are to be met with everywhere, but especially where there is a crowd, for 
 there they find the best opportunities to carry out their depredations ; so, 
 too, at the entrances of theatres, and other places of amusement ; in the 
 
THE THIEVES. 01 
 
 churches, at political assemblies, exhibitions, processions, funerals ; in a 
 word, wherever several people are collected ; even lor instance, where, as 
 is often the case in New York, a pedler from the top of a chair or old cask 
 is proclaiming the virtues of his wares. Let a crowd be gathered to witness 
 a street-fight, or anything of that kind, and in all probability it was brought 
 about by the pickpockets themselves, who seize the opportunity for collect- 
 ing booty. 
 
 If anybody wants to keep clear of pickpockets, he must, as far as possi- 
 ble, avoid a crowd, especially must he be careful not to mix up eagerly 
 with any throng which may be accidentally gathered together ; then he 
 must carry as little money as possible about him, and never exhibit it in 
 the presence of strangers ; nor should he at any time carry valuables in the 
 outside pockets of his clothes ; and lastly he should be very reluctant to 
 allow a friendly approach on the part of strangers, who, as is constantly 
 happening, pretend to recognize and to greet an old acquaintance. 
 
 The pickpockets — and we allude now especially to the men — are very 
 differently dressed, many of them very poorly, or at least not in any way 
 remarkably ; others appear in the most elaborate toilets, so that no one 
 would for a moment take them to be pickpockets, but rather people in the 
 best circles of society. 
 
 Here is an example of the craftiness of these criminals. A young lady 
 of good family, whose parents live in the upper part of the city, had occa- 
 sion recently to cross one of the parks. After a few minutes she remarked 
 that an elegantly dressed young man was following close behind her, and 
 presently he passed by and went on in front. When she was about to 
 enter the gate of the park he stood in the way, so that, unless he moved, 
 she must crowd by him to get in ; and when she reached the opposite side 
 of the park and was about to leave it, he again stood at the gate, and 
 looked her directly in the face. Indignant at such rudeness, and obtru- 
 siveness, she requested him earnestly, not to annoy her, but to allow her to- 
 pass ; and just at that moment another elegantly dressed young man came 
 up and, with something of a threatening air, insisted that the first should 
 make room for the lady; upon which, apparently intimidated, he moved 
 away and the second man politely opened the gate, and, with a bow, 
 allowed the lady to pass thiough. Hardly had the latter reached the oppo- 
 site footpath, when she met a third man, who, addressing her, asked 
 whether she was lost? Annoyed at all this, she replied durtly " No," and 
 was going on her way, when the gentleman, still persistent, asked : — 
 waether she had not lost her purse? She immediately answered that she 
 had not, remarking also that she had used it on the other side of the park, 
 before crossing. Upon the further request that she should look and see 
 whether she still had it with her, she did so, but was no little astonished 
 to find that she indeed had lost it ; whereupon the gentleman, showing a 
 purse, asked whether it was hers. 
 
"92 T1JK DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 u Sure enough it is," she cried in astonishment and asked him how he 
 came to have it? He replied that he got it from the elegantly dressed 
 young man opposite, — directing her attention across the street to the fellow 
 who had so politely liberated her from the obtrusive man who first 
 approached her, and who was now being led away in the firm grasp of 
 another. " That man," he said, " took it out of your pocket. The man 
 who has now got him under arrest belongs to the detective force ; and so 
 <lo I. We were going the same way as you, and we noticed that you 
 were being followed by the first man whom we knew to be a pickpocket, 
 and who we conjectured to have something on hand. He was the helper 
 of the other who robbed you." 
 
 But all pickpockets do not dress thus elaborately, they have first to go 
 through a certain amount of schooling until they attain the qualifications 
 which enable them to assume the drefcs of " gentlemen." 
 
 The incipient thief begins by stealing, perhaps, a sausage, a piece of 
 bacon, or something of that kind from the market, and rises step by step to 
 what he considers the chief attainments of his art, picking pockets. In 
 the thieves' dens, which he frequents, he is looked upon by the higher 
 order of thieves with a certain amount of contempt, as only a u bacon- 
 thief ;" so his ambition is to become a pickpocket and thus attain an emi- 
 nence in his business ; for which purpose he undertakes the next lowest 
 operation, that of stealing pocket-handkerchiefs. 
 
 This, however, is seldom done by thieves singly. More generally from 
 two to five are concerned, one of whom undertakes to do the theft, while 
 the others merely act as assistants. The duty of these assistants is as far 
 as possible to conceal the act of the operator. If only one be there, he 
 takes his station among the people around so that he shall be at the side of, 
 or behind the intended victim, in order that by some artifice or other he 
 may divert his attention from the thief. But if there are two or three 
 assistants, they so arrange themselves in front, behind, and at the side, 
 that the operations of the actual thief are very much facilitated. Man 
 will snatch a pocket-handkerchief from a person passing, while the more 
 timid only operate in crowds. 
 
 This kind of robbery is, however, followed, as might be expected, by the 
 younger members of the craft, the half-fledged youngsters. Sunday is their 
 most profitable day, and they steal more pocket-handkerchiefs at the 
 entrances to the churches on that day, than they collect on all the other six 
 days of the week. But they work in companies on these occasions, and 
 the instant the thief has secured anything he passes it to one of his accom- 
 plices, who, as soon as his pockets are full, is replaced by another. The 
 man, who has got his supply, goes at once to one of the thieves' resorts, 
 where the handkerchiefs are immediately sorted ; for of course the thievea 
 empty as many pockets as they can, without troubling themselves about 
 selecting their plunder. The handkerchiefs are then washed and ironed 
 
TI1K 1 IIIKV M, 'J-> 
 
 by some woman known to the fraternity, and the better ones are then sold 
 to receivers. Those that are interior and unsaleable are pledged for a 
 small amount at the pawnshop and the tickets then sold. 
 
 When a band of thieves is out on a pocket-baudkerehief-steal, the prin- 
 cipal thief gives a signal to his companions the moment he is going to • 
 work ; upon which thev so surround him that he is completely covered in 
 his operations from the passers-by ; then he takes hold lightly of the cover- 
 ing of the pocket with oue hand, whilst he draws it open with the other, 
 so that the handkerchief comes into the fingers, and so is taken without 
 the whole hand being placed into the pocket ; which might be dangerous. 
 These pocket-handkerchief-robberies are, as we have said, practised 
 only by the lowest and poorest classes of pickpockets ; and the lives of these 
 people are a continual mixture of baseness, shameless pleasure and fear of 
 the police ; for they are never certain that they will not be seized at the 
 moment when they are committing a robbery, and they are constantly 
 fearful lest they should be arrested — for the police know them — either as 
 pickpockets or vagrants. They sleep in the most miserable dens, such as 
 we have described in a previous chapter, they subsist upon the most miser- 
 able food, and always begin one day as they ended that before it. If they 
 have any surplus money they lie about in some place of thieves' resort, and 
 gamble with cents, by this means hoping to get away their ill-got gains 
 from the members of some other bands. Often arrested, then condemned 
 for a short time to prison, then released, and soon a#ain arrested, such a 
 thief passes a miserable existence. Unless, perchance, by some unusual 
 skill he attracts the attention of a help, whose chief is in prison, and who, in 
 consequence, has lost his main support. Then a new band is formed, and, 
 un ler the guidance of an experienced pickpocket, he is carefully trained to 
 the higher branch of the science, where purses and such valuables are the 
 objects of prey. He now may even aspire to be the master of the band,, 
 and choose his own assistants in the u high art." Upon his colleagues in 
 the pocket-handkerchief line he now looks with contempt, for he no longer 
 works with them, but stands proudly in the highest grade which the pro- 
 fession of pickpockets recognizes. 
 
 As he now r steals purses, his business pays better. He has money, and 
 that opens to him the best circles of thiefcraft — just as in like manner it 
 serves people in other lines of business and becomes a veil over their faults. 
 If he had no money, the masters in the art, who not only take purses from 
 coat pockets, but know how to abstract them from even iuside pockets, 
 would look askance at him ; but since he has money and can take part in 
 their orgies, and more especially as his acquaintance may prove useful to 
 them, they allow themselves to accept his friendship. 
 
 The accomplished pickpocket must have a delicate power of touch. He • 
 must never search for anything, but must know from the first moment 
 "where to find the object he means to steal, and how to get at it. He must. 
 
34 THE DARK 3IDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 by merely passing the back of his hand over the surface, be quite assured 
 of what he has to do. The accomplished pickpocket is able to take a purse 
 from the pocket of a ladies dress, or from the trowsers pocket of a gentle- 
 man, as he passes by them on the pavemeut ; and that, too, without being 
 'observed. 
 
 As a means of procuring money when in embarrassments, and it is not 
 well to steal, they commonly make use of the thieves who belong to the 
 grade between the pocket-handkerchief thieves and the highest pickpockets. 
 For example : one of these gentlemen in difficulties meets an acquaintance 
 on the street. He is quickly at his side and whispers in his ear : — " I have 
 a good c job' in hand, but I want some money, help me with so much. I 
 will assist you another time." And if the person addressed has the money, 
 although taken off his guard and perhaps a little surj rised, he generally 
 pays it out. 
 
 Another trick is as follows : — He will scrape together as much money 
 as will, perhaps, suffice to buy a yard of cloth. This is taken to a pawn- 
 broker who, at the request of the customer, writes plainly on the ticket 
 *' one piece of black cloth" or whatever it may be, without defining the 
 quantity. The ticket is then taken to a receiver, to whom a great story is 
 told of the value of the goods, the house they were stolen from, and the 
 amount ; as much, perhaps, as ten yards or more, also that it was only 
 pledged for the small sum on the ticket in order to put it into a place of 
 safety. Then the thief leads him on, telling him how two fine dresses can 
 be made out of the goods, and at last the trade is closed. The thief 
 receives, in consequence of this false representation, perhaps, four or five 
 times as much as the ticket is worth, and the thief has cheated the receiver 
 without his being able to touch him, for in these matters he seldom does 
 anything for which he is punishable. The cheated u fence" must hold his 
 tongue. Of course a trick of this kind can only be practised once by the 
 same person, but these people are ever shifting about from one to another. 
 
 Sometimes a band of these men — the thief and his assistants — will fol- 
 low a person whom they have marked as having put something valuable in 
 his pocket, through several streets without finding an opportunity of getting 
 at him. A spot especially frequented by these bands is before the banks, 
 or in the neighborhood of them. They do not stand together, but singly, 
 as if they do not belong to each other ; and thus they watch everybody who 
 goes into and comes out of the bank. Many people have a habit of feeling 
 their pocket with their hand before going into a bank to see if they have 
 their money or cheques safe. That does not escape the band. They now 
 know where this man carries his money, and if they cannot reach him this 
 time, they make the information useful for another occasion. Others again 
 put away the money they have drawn, from the bank at the moment they 
 leave the building. That is exactly what the thieves are waiting for, and 
 directly the act is observed by one of them, he gives the signal to his com- 
 
THE THIKVK3. 15 
 
 panions, and iu an instant they surround the persou to rob him. One or 
 two go before him to impede his way, two or three others follow close at 
 his heels so that he is in soniethiug like a crowd, and at the same time the 
 thief snatches his booty and escapes. Very often the thief slips secretly 
 the property he has stolen into the hands of a confederate, so that that at 
 least shall be safe if he is taken ; but if he fears lest anybody passing by 
 should notice him, he keeps it himself and hurries away as fast as he can 
 to one of his dens, where his companions follow him, and where the treas- 
 ure is then divided. They take care always to follow him closely, too, lest 
 he should cheat them as to the value of the plunder. It often happens that 
 when a thief is in the act of putting his fingers into the pocket of the person 
 he intends to rob, the latter has his attention drawn by something, and sud- 
 denly turns or perhaps stops. Then tne thief cannot do his work, for if he 
 would not have the victim notice anything, he must always remain in a 
 similar step. In such cases the thief immediately turns round, with his 
 hand grasping his pocket, as though he were thinking that he has been 
 robbed of something, whilst at the same time the confederates stumble 
 against the person whom they meant to rob, as if by accident, and to make 
 it appear further that it was accidental, they apologize for their awkward- 
 ness. 
 
 Many persons, when they go into a crowd, put their hands into their 
 pockets where they have money, and then they think they are safe from 
 thieves. But these gentlemen have also a means of meeting that contin- 
 gency. In such a case they surround him and one of them, either with an 
 umbrella or by some other means, moves his hat, as if accidentally, so that 
 it will fall off if not held. This is what happens then. To prevent his hat 
 from falling, it is of course necessary to take his hand out of his pocket, 
 which he does in a moment, thinking only of his hat, and at the same time 
 the thief has got his purse or watch, and has passed it away to one of his 
 companions. 
 
 A similar procedure is observed when anyone is to be robbed of what he 
 is carrying in an inside pocket. But, generally, it is necessary in this case 
 to open two buttous of the waistcoat, and to conceal his hand in doing this, 
 the thief usually carries a light over-coat upon his arm. Thus the tricks 
 and artifices of the thieves are of various descriptions. As long as they 
 can see an opportunity before them for committing a robbery, they are 
 never at a loss how to carry it out. 
 
 •What we have thus far written has reference to the robberies of men by 
 male thieves ; far greater skill is necessary to enable male thieves to pick 
 the pockets of women ; and readiness in this art, especially when they are 
 moving along the streets, is esteemed even by the pickpockets themselves 
 as the very highest branch of their business. It involves an extraordinarv 
 delicacy of touch, and besides great accuracy in execution. Once a lawyer 
 in one of our courts, while defending one of these thieves, whose guilt was 
 
96 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 not quite cleared away, used the following words in reference to this : — 
 " If, gentlemen of the jury, this act could be divested of its dishonorable 
 and criminal character, you would be constrained to admire the man whom 
 now you must condemn." Of a truth, it matters very little to American 
 lawyers, especially those who engage principally in the defence of this kind 
 of criminals, how they exercise their right to freedom of speech, or whether 
 in their zeal they fairly slap justice in the face. At any rate the remark 
 made by the lawyer in the words we have given was true, and it is, as we 
 have said, regarded by the thieves themselves as the very highest excel- 
 lence possible in their calling, to be able to pick the pocket of a lady in the 
 street. 
 
 The thief who makes a raid upon ladies pockets disdains altogether any 
 such help as is derived from confederates by the thief who operates upon 
 mens' pockets. He is a host in himself, and depends entirely upon the 
 delicacy of his touch and his dexterity. All that such a thief wants to 
 completely conceal his act from the passers-by, is to get to the side where the 
 theft is to be done ; and when he sees that he is not being observed, he has 
 the lady's purse out of her pocket in a trice, and both he and she, are seen 
 moving quietly on as if nothing had happened ; he with his booty, and she 
 without the slightest suspicion that sh^has been robbed. 
 
 Many of these thieves, however, decline to steal from passengers on the 
 foot paths, because they lack the necessary skill ; but they get into crowds, 
 or among ladies when standing before shop-windows, and their attention is 
 attracted by the goods they are looking at. Many ladies, from fear of being 
 robbed, and in order to be quite secure, carry their money not in the 
 pockets in the skirts of their dresses, but close to their bodies ; bu^ even 
 that does not prevent a really clever thief from effecting his design, and it 
 has often happened that ladies, who think their purse quite secure in such 
 a place, find to their surprise, when they reach home, or are in & shop 
 where they want to pay for something, that their money is gone. 
 
 To the other means which thieves make use of to work the more 
 securely, belongs the corruption of the police who patrol the beat in which 
 the robbery is done. Such circumstances are by no means uncommon, 
 and it has even happened that the police officer on duty has been so 
 leagued with the thief, that he would give him a signal of the approach of 
 another police officer, or of a detective, so that the thief might run off in 
 time and keep out of the way. 
 
 To warn the public against pickpockets there are notices put up in much 
 frequented places, such as theatres, railroad depots, horse-cars, ferry-boats, 
 &c, with the words M Beware of pickpockets ;" and to this are sometimes 
 added the words " male and female." These warnings confront the iuof 
 fensive and inexperienced arrival from the country, or from Europe, 
 directly he visits the city, and tell him that he will do well to give it atten- 
 tion. But how little is the warning generally followed. The new comer,. 
 
THE THIEVES. 07 
 
 who reads Buch a warning, is perplexed and instinctively thrusts his hand 
 into his pocket, wherever his money happens to 1>«\ and with a feeling of 
 relief pulls it out again; for luckily he finds his purse still secure and 
 untouched in its proper place. During the next five minutes he is still 
 contemplating the warning; perhaps he puts his hand into his pocket again 
 to be sure that his treasure is there, and looks'with doubtful eves upon that 
 to him shabby and suspicions looking young fellow near him, without for a 
 moment thinking that that elegantly dressed, noble looking young man, 
 with the distinguished mien who seems to be so deeply interested in the 
 newspaper he is reading, is a pickpocket, only waiting for the opportunity 
 to give the stranger some experience of his dexterity. A few hours later 
 in the whirl and tumult of New York streets, and busied with the thousand 
 things which come before his astonished eves, he is not thiuking in the 
 least of the warning which so frightened him, and exposed to his unsus- 
 pecting heart that there are in New York many pilferers who take pleasure 
 in relieving their fellowmen of their spare money, or any other valuables ; 
 and yet, probably, as he undresses at night and is about to lay his things 
 upon the table, he comes to the observation that although his purse is safe, 
 his watch certainly is gone. 
 
 We come now r to the female pickpockets, who, especially for dealing 
 with women, are not only as skilful as their male companions, but even 
 more so. While the number of the latter is about three hundred, that of 
 the women does not exceed two hundred. These are a recent production, 
 for five and tiventy years ago a female pickpocket was very seldom seen in 
 New Y'ork. Besides a couple of women, who w r ere kept by thieves, there 
 were only some young girls from tw r elve to fourteen years of age who were 
 used as confederates. So these learned the business, came constantly in 
 contact w T ith male thieves, grew older and began to w r ork on their own 
 account, so that they could deck themselves out and dress fashionably. 
 Their example was followed by others, and thus we have now a consider- 
 able number, and among them many exceedingly active and clever thieves 
 who contribute not a little to the insecurity of New Y'ork. They are, 
 without exception, not thieves only, but prostitutes, and thus they have a 
 double calling, so that when through bad weather or otherwise they can 
 make nothing by stealing, they live on prostitution. The leading features 
 of their character are delight in sensuality and dissipation. They are pas- 
 sionate in the highest degree and all given up to the abuse of spirituous 
 drink. Any good womanly feeling among them it is useless to seek. 
 
 Female pickpockets have a great advantage over their male companions, 
 in that they can follow their victims into the shops and there sit down 
 beside them without awakening the suspicion either of the lady they intend 
 to rob, or of the clerk who is serving her. They can get into conversation 
 with the lady and at the same time rob her before she can recognize what 
 sort of a person is standing next to her. A favorite place for female pick- 
 
 7 
 
98 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 pockets to pursue their work is before shop-windows ; then in shops, and 
 churches, at funerals, and public spectacles, or in omnibuses and street 
 ears, everywhere in fact where two or three persons are found together. 
 Almost all are well known to the police and detectives, many of whom 
 connive at them, and from the young or prettier of them collect their 
 reward in a fitting manner. Another favorite locality for the operations 
 of these women, and a very convenient one, too, is in the dressing-room of 
 theatres, also in the wardrobe rooms at balls and other such places which 
 are set apart especially for the use of ladies, and where in fashionable cos- 
 tume they pass for respectable persons and can carry on their depredations 
 without being suspected. The assurance and impudence of these women 
 know no bounds. If they only know where anything is to be had, they go 
 w r ith perfect confidence and get possession of it. With words like these : 
 " I beg pardon, Madam, (or Miss) will you have the goodness to fasten 
 my brooch ?" or, " My train has come down, will you have the kindness to 
 arrange it for me?" or, " Wait a moment, Madam, you have a spider on 
 your dress, I will take it off for you," or remarks of a similar kind they 
 address their victim and, when she turns away or has her attention di- 
 verted, they rob her. While probably the unsuspecting lady thanks the thief 
 for removing the spider, or for any other little kindness which she may 
 think has been done for her. Such opportunities are not within the reach 
 of the male pickpockets, and on that account, alone, independently of their 
 dexterity, the women are far the more dangerous. 
 
 The relations which these female pickpockets hold with the other sex 
 constitute a somewhat peculiar phenomenon. Of any fifty such women, 
 hardly one could be found who is content with one so-called " lover." 
 They hold intercourse not with one only, but with two, four, six, eight, 
 and sometimes twelve or more men. Then they change about, living per- 
 haps a couple of months with one, then a short time with another, then 
 again a month or two with a third ; and so on. Thus for a time they 
 exist, till faded and worn they no longer find anyone to care for them. 
 Their very breath is poisonous, and naught is left them but the sad recol- 
 lection of the past. 
 
 To show the craftiness of these women, the following incident will be 
 useful. One of the most prominent female pickpockets a few years ago 
 was well known everywhere as " Nellie Hall." She belonged to that class 
 which carries on its depredations not among women only, but among the 
 men also, and the members of which work by themselves and without out- 
 side assistance. She was well-known to the whole of the police depart- 
 ment, but they felt that even if she were to be arrested, her cuuning would 
 stand her in good stead to avoid the merited punishments. This, however, 
 was not necessarily the case. On one occasion she came out of a difficulty 
 not altogether unscathed, while the victim whom she had selected escaped 
 from her hands without having been robbed. At the commencement of 
 
TIIK THIE1 ES. 
 
 99 
 
 her career slie enjoyed a tolerably attractive influence, and hor highest 
 delight and pride were to get the best of the, to her, hateful members of 
 the police. 
 
 One evening Nellie went out, as usual, at the beginning of the twilight 
 to pursue her avocation by robbing careless young people of gold watches, 
 purses, or any other valuables she could lay her hands on. She knew well 
 how to assume an air of modesty if occasion required, so that the victim 
 whom she enticed into her net as often as not thought himself to be the 
 seducer instead of the seduced, until he became aware of the extent to 
 which his pocket had been lightened. Among the lovers who were acting 
 under this delusion was Mr. C. — a young commercial traveller, and judging 
 from the amount of money he usually carried about with him, it could 
 have been no second rate house that he represented. 
 
 Nellie, who under her disguise could well be taken for a most virtuous 
 young girl, seemed to the young merchant to present a good subject with 
 whom to enter into conversation. But when he left her he found that a 
 five hundred dollar note, which he chanced to have had about him, was no 
 longer in his pocket. The young man called a policeman and requested 
 him to make an enquiry at the suspected house, while he himself would 
 keep watch. Nellie was found quite at her ease and composed. She 
 asked the representative of the law to look carefully through the house, 
 and even upon her own person to satisfy himself that the young man had 
 made a mistake. To assist the investigation she herself gave the officer a 
 lighted candle in a brass candlestick, in which the candle was steadied in 
 the sconce by means of a piece of paper. The policeman looked for the 
 lost note, candle in hand, but fouud nothing, although Nellie offered no 
 obstacle, whatever, to his investigations. At last he came to the conclu- 
 sion that the young trader must give up all hope, and the latter, too, began 
 to think that he must certainly have lost the note somewhere else ; and, as 
 for Nellie, there was nothing that could be proved against her and there- 
 fore no charge could be made. The reader will from the context be ready, 
 without doubt, to learn that she only waited her time to take the paper 
 from the end of the candle, to smooth and straighten it out and then to put 
 it in her pocket with a smile of defiance for the policeman and the man of 
 business. 
 
 On another occasion Nellie began her romantic pursuit in a street lead- 
 ing out of Broadway. The evening was dark, and the hour late enough 
 to enable frivolous young fellows who prowl about for the purpose of 
 " fooling" w r ith any girl whose appearance takes their fancy, to do so 
 without much chance of being recognized by their friends or acquaintances. 
 One of these night revellers fell into the way of Miss Nellie, and she 
 thought, doubtless, that it would be quite in order if she took a little sur- 
 vey of his pockets. The young man, however, did not approve of this, 
 and as soon as he saw a policeman he informed him that he had been 
 
100 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 robbed of a twenty dollar bill. The police officer knew Nellie and arrested 
 her then and there, and as nobody had gone by at the time to whom she 
 could have transferred the money, it seemed impossible but that it would 
 be found upon her. Nellie took the matter with her accustomed coolness. 
 The policeman examined her as well as he could, with the assistance of the 
 young man. Her pockets were turned out, but, with the exception of a 
 pocket-handkerchief and some pawn-tickets, nothing was found. As far 
 as could be seen under the dull light of the lamp, there Avas also nothing 
 to be found upon the pavement. 
 
 " You must have made a mistake ;" said the policeman. 
 
 " It's impossible," replied the young man. " There are as many folds 
 in this woman's dress as there are lies and falsehoods in her head. Take 
 her to the station house." 
 
 To all this Nellie only anwered with her accustomed smile of self* 
 confidence. She did not even go unwillingly, on the contrary she knew 
 exactly how it would turn out. When arrived at the police station she 
 was searched by a woman, but no twenty dollar bill was found upon her, 
 and as the young man still persisted in his assertion that it had been stolen, 
 the captain on duty and the police were convinced that there was some 
 mistake, an opinion which the " innocent" Nellie endorsed by the remark 
 that she had seen the young man in the company of a girl of very unscru- 
 pulous character. There was nothing more to do but to let Nellie go. 
 
 Several days passed and nothing more had been heard of the young 
 man, who, doubtless, by this time had reconciled himself to the loss of his 
 twenty dollars. 
 
 The officer who had undertaken the search found himself one evening at 
 his post again and was thinking over the occurrence and wondering what 
 could have become of the note, when he saw a woman coming towards 
 him. It was Nellie ; who seemed to be in a particularly good humor, for 
 she took the policeman confidingly by the arm. 
 
 "What is it now?" said he, " up to your tricks again?" 
 
 " No, I have a secret to tell you." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " You are a man I can speak to. Listen. Would you like to have the- 
 greenhorn's twenty dollar bill? I can't have the thing on my conscience." 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! Nellie Hall's conscience !" laughed out the officer. " How 
 long have you owned such a thing?" 
 
 " Yes indeed, sir, my conscience." said Nellie pettishly. " A curious 
 thing it may perhaps be, but it is a thing. Will you promise not to lock 
 me up if I tell you where the twenty dollar bill is ?" 
 
 U I will," replied the officer, though not without a thought for the 
 demands of duty. " Tell me where the note is and I will do the best I 
 can for you." 
 
 " Oh ! I know it won't do to tell too much. But a wink will do as well/' 
 
THE Tim- I B8. 101 
 
 * l Now then out with it," Baid the otricer. 
 
 M You won't betray me then? Well. Now who is your tailor?" 
 
 " What has that got to do with the note?" 
 
 u Something that, perhaps, will astonish you," said she, putting one 
 "hand to the back pocket of his coat, while she held his arm with the other. 
 "He has made you a good deep pocket, large enough for a knapsack." 
 
 " Nous use ! get away and don't be silly." 
 
 " It's all right." she replied, sinking her hand to the bottom of his 
 pocket. 4 * It's all right. Only if you were to find the note in your pocket 
 after I am gone away, would you say that you had found it and not go 
 chattering about me?" 
 
 " Perhaps I would. Who knows?" 
 
 " Then search your pocket and you'll find it," said she. And she moved 
 away and set off bidding him good-bye and adding: "Now be an honest 
 fellow, and go and give the poor man back his money." 
 
 The policeman was a little flurried, but he did not fail to search his 
 pocket. Instead, however, of Nellie putting the note into his pocket, she 
 had taken it out ! 
 
 When she was arrested she slipped the note into the coat-pocket of this 
 guardian of the public peace, who had thus been carrying it about with 
 him for several days without knowing it. The man could safely have 
 sworn that he found nothing, although he looked for it thoroughly, and the 
 trick would probably never have been known, unless Nellie herself, on a 
 later occasion, when she was in a place of safety, had freely told it. 
 
 Nellie Hall was one of the boldest pickpockets, who have ever made the 
 streets of New York unsafe by their presence. She had accumulated once 
 as much as from two to four thousand dollars, and at last was convicted 
 for a theft of seven dollars in which she happened to be detected. When 
 she was discharged from jail, she went to Australia, since which time 
 nothing has been heard of her in New York. 
 
 Female pickpockets, however, mostly confine their operations to the 
 ladies, especially when they go out in the day time. Generally in company 
 with a companion they make the foot-paths on Broadway and the shops in 
 that neighborhood the sphere of their operations ; especially when the for- 
 mer are crowded with people, with gentlemen in the morning and ladies in 
 the afternoon. After they have emptied of their contents, the purses of 
 their victims, they leave them, perhaps, in the ladies room of some fash- 
 ionable res'aurant, and then return home laden with plunder ; perhaps to 
 undertake on the same day another similar and successful raid ; we say 
 successful, because mostly they are so ; for these women know very well 
 how to make detection almost impossible, and they do it with the skill of 
 most practised performers. 
 
 The New York female pickpockets follow the example of another species 
 of birds of prey, belonging to the other sex, however — we mean the pro- 
 
102 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 fessional gamblers. Just as these dress as respectably and " gentleman- 
 like" as they can, but not conspicuously ; so also the female pickpockets, 
 who act as their confederates, imitate in their dress the dove, rather than 
 the peacock. Thus the nervous old lady — who convulsively grasps her 
 purse in her hand Whilst an elegant example of the demi-monde, rouged 
 and dressed out in velvet and silk sweeps by, while letting, perhaps, a 
 sneer cross her mind of the shameless character of the women — never has 
 an evil thought for the simply and respectably dressed person who is 
 apparently busy with the examination of a piece of cotton goods, laid out 
 at the crowded entrance of a fashionable shop among a lot of valuable 
 things to which she does not seem to pay any heed whatever. The old 
 lady stops, perhaps, following the instinctive habit of her sex, to cast a 
 look over the goods. In a mild tone the simply and respectably dressed 
 woman, who is intent upon the calico investigation, remarks to her with a. 
 sigh the high price of this thing or the other ; and the old lady returns a 
 friendly reply. It is enough, her attention has been diverted if but for a 
 moment. That time, short as it is, is enough to enable another neatly 
 dressed person, who has been standing close to the two, busied, also, in 
 examining the goods, to come up and relieve the pocket of the amiable old 
 lady of all its contents. This, too, she does quite unperceived either by 
 the passers-by or by anyone standing around. These operations are done 
 quickly, dexterously, and without exciting any suspicion. Then the crowd 
 of people passing along soon serves to separate the two women and to 
 bring their conversation to an end in the most natural manner possible. 
 The old lady, perhaps, goes into the shop to make a purchase, and finds 
 now to her astonishment that the money she had intended to be used there 
 is gone to serve other and worse purposes. 
 
 A friend, who is chief clerk in one of the largest dry goods warehouses 
 on Broadway, told us lately, while we were speaking to him of the pick- 
 pockets in the city, that very often as many as four or five empty purses 
 are found in the letter and newspaper boxes at the door, and that empty 
 purses are also often found in the store under perhaps a piece of goods. 
 On the same occasion he narrated to us the following occurrence : — 
 Some months previously his wife had been burried at Greenwood Ceme- 
 tery ; and while the clergyman was conducting the service, the coffin being 
 open, a respectable looking woman dressed in black, (whom he afterwards 
 learned was a pickpocket,) came up and, mixing with the mourners, robbed 
 two of them before the ceremony was ended. Some days after he heard 
 that a woman had been detected picking pockets and was then in custody ? 
 he went to the police office and at once recognized the woman whom he 
 had seen in the church-yard at his wife's grave. But what was his aston- 
 ishment to see upon the finger of the prisoner a ring that had belonged to 
 his wife, which he had himself put upon her hand after death, and which 
 he believed to have been buried with her. How the woman got it is a 
 
THE THIEVES. 103 
 
 mystery still unravelled. She must have taken it from the finger of the 
 corpse after the conclusion of the service and when the mourners, among 
 whom, as we have said, she had introduced herself, were taking a last 
 look. 
 
 From this the reader will see that no opportunity is too sacred, no con- 
 dition too solemn, no place secure from the operations of these harpies. 
 The so-called anniversary, when the clergymen of different denominations 
 hold their annual convention, is generally a time of rich profit to many of 
 them. 
 
 u What is misfortune to one is a happiness to another," said the owner 
 of a fancy goods store to us, lately, when we were speaking to him of the 
 robberies perpetrated by these pickpockets. " Our trade in pocket-books 
 and purses was never better than it is just now, and among the number of 
 purchasers, who come to us during the day for such things, there are 
 always two or three who tell us that they have had their own stolen." 
 
 He then told us the following story as one out of the treasure of his 
 experiences : — " Some time ago, a lady, well known to me, came to the 
 store and looked at a number of different things. Close beside her I 
 noticed a neat and respectably dressed woman, whose appearance, never- 
 theless, I distrusted. I determined to watch her movements through the 
 mirrors. At length the lady asked for an article which was in a compart- 
 ment behind me. I had thus to turn my back upon the two women to get 
 the goods, and when I turned round again to show the things required by 
 the lady, I remarked that the woman whom I had suspected had left. 
 Some minutes later, when the lady wanted to pay for her purchases, she 
 missed her purse. It had been stolen." 
 
 We were recently conversing with the proprietor of an art exhibition. 
 In places of this kind there assembles, every day when the weather is line, 
 a crowd of ladies who devote themselves to the examination of the pictures. 
 Here, again, is an excellent opportunity for the pickpockets, and the use 
 they make of it was indicated by a remark made by this gentleman to the 
 effect that every year as many as thirty and more empty purses are found 
 behind the pictures, and that on one day, recently, he had found six behind 
 a picture that was hanging near the door. 
 
 That part of Broadway which lies between Franklin Street and Union 
 Square is the chief scene of the operations of female pickpockets, and in 
 that neighborhood very many ladies have been relieved of their money. 
 It must, however, be admitted that ladies generally make the work of these 
 pickpockets much too easy, carrying their purses, as they do, in a pocket 
 of their dress which is outside of their crinoline. This makes it impossible, 
 sometimes, for the closest observer to discover the thief, since her hands 
 are covered not only by the folds of her own dress, but by those of her vic- 
 tim ;, while the latter is prevented from noticing the manipulations of the 
 thief by the tight corset or other necessary parts of fashionable female 
 
104 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 costume. The pickpocket never wears gloves in the exercise of her art. 
 Her hands must be bare, otherwise she cannot work. 
 
 The loss which these women annually inflict upon the female portion of 
 the community is very considerable ; although a portion only comes to the 
 notice of the authorities, as some hundreds of ladies never say anything 
 about their losses. Whoever would form any conception of the daily num- 
 ber of such victims has, only to put an advertisement in one of the morning 
 papers with the heading u A porte-monnaie found containing some money, 
 &c," and he will learn from the number of answers he receives that hun- 
 dreds of people every day lose their money at the hands of thieves. 
 
 That the imperfection of our police force is in a great measure to blame 
 for this, cannot be denied, and, indeed, assumes a new importance when 
 Mr. G. W. Matsell, who again fills the office of superintendent, and who 
 has always been a trustworthy and competent guardian of the peace, w r rites 
 as he did in the Gazette of December 23d, 1871, where, after speaking of 
 the steps that should be taken to prevent pocket-picking in the streets, he 
 says : — 
 
 "And where are the officers to be found to carry this out? Certainly 
 not among those who during the past year have been entrusted with the 
 duty. Would the public wish that a man who drinks with thieves, recog- 
 nizes them as friends in the public streets, or offers them his hand, should 
 be chosen for such a post? I think not. Would the public desire to trust 
 such a service to a man who will not only divide the booty with a pick- 
 pocket, but even help him to commit the robbery? I think not. But such 
 men are in the service, and many of them are rich, and have much more 
 than the honest man who has to earn his bread hardly, through rain and 
 through sunshine, by sheer laborious work. So long as honest people are 
 not entrusted w^ith the guardianship of the public safety — people who would 
 scorn to let themselves be corrupted by thieves ; people who would turn 
 with disdain from the idea of any league with criminals — so long as such 
 people are not permitted to have the guardianship of the city, so long will 
 the public be swindled, plundered and robbed as they now are. The police 
 officer of the present day only wants to " make money," and " make 
 money" he does, — with the aid of others- Ask any female pickpocket 
 what percentage of her plunder she has had to pay out within any given 
 time, — ask her the name of the officers who have not only received a per- 
 centage in greenbacks, but into whose embraces she has also been com- 
 pelled to go, — ask any of them — and if she be not afraid to tell the truth, 
 you will hear things that will make your hair stand on end." 
 
 And this was written by the man who was once before Police Superin- 
 tendent of New York, and who has within the last few weeks been placed 
 back in his old position. 
 
 In the foregoing pages we have pictured to the reader the practices of 
 both male and female pickpockets and will close the resume with a brief 
 
THE Tim.\ B8< 105 
 
 nit of the history of a young female thief, which proves how evil asso- 
 ciation will cover even the most innocent girl with ir u i 1 1 and bring her to a 
 miserable end. 
 
 Ellen Naylor was a pretty, innocent black-eyed girl of twelve years. 
 Jler father was dead and her mother supported the family — two boys and 
 a girl — by was ling. She lived in a miserable house in an out-of-the-way 
 street. In the same house there lived also another family who, as was 
 well known to all the residents of the place, never worked, but, neverthe- 
 less, dressed well and were never in want of anything. At first there were 
 whispers passing about from one to another, and gradually it became 
 known throughout the house that the family lived by picking pockets. 
 
 " Well now," said one of the neighbors, " that is no affair of mine. 
 They pay me for what I do for them. I have to earn my bread as I best 
 can, without troubling myself about the affairs of others, and it is nothing 
 to me if they do live by stealing." 
 
 This opinion was entertained by all the inmates of the place, and also, 
 therefore, by Ellen's mother, who was every week in receipt of a consider- 
 able sum from the thieves' family for washing. A closer intimacy now 
 sprang up between the two mothers, then between the sons belonging to 
 the two families, and lastly Ellen joined in the intercourse. The mothers 
 drank together and the sons went together to the Bowery Theatre. No 
 long time elapsed before Ellen was induced to join in these visits to the 
 theatre, nor was she very reluctant to do so, for when her brother was 
 not at home her mother was almost always drunk, and she was left at home 
 by herself. But the theatre was the place where the sons of this family 
 got the greater part of their plunder ; and the more that Ellen saw how 
 easy it was to steal, and since no parent cared for her hitherto miserable 
 existence, the more readily she arrived at the opinion that she might as 
 w r ell steal like the rest, who lived well, dressed well, and were never dis- 
 covered in their depredations. Perhaps Ellen would not have gone so far 
 wrong at this time, had she not unfortunately met a female pickpocket on 
 one of these theatre visits, who, being known to her companions, became 
 introduced and was soon on friendly terms. This was the first female thief 
 that E^llen had seen, and she asked herself now " Why may I not have as 
 much money and dress as well as she does?" But still the better feeling 
 within her battled against the temptation. On other occasions Ellen was 
 invited to go with the neighbor's son and this pickpocket to the theatre, 
 and as her mother now lived upon spirits, she went, — till one evening, after 
 they had all been drinking, she was directly asked whether she would not 
 become a pickpocket. The advantages were well put before her, and 
 finally it was agreed that on that same evening she should have her first 
 lesson in the business. Poor girl ! What a blessing it would have been 
 if discovery and punishment had followed close upon the first theft ! But 
 it did not thus happen, and presently, with trembling hand, she drew out 
 
106 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 ttoe purse from a lady's pocket and was not detected. Now her fate was- 
 sealed. She was praised by her companions ; her poor clothes were 
 changed for fine ones ; she came into the company of other thLves, and 
 notwithstanding her youth, soon became the mistress of her instructor, 
 thus founding her first housekeeping upon the proceeds of her first robbery. 
 She was not yet fourteen, her seducer only eighteen. He was her first 
 love and was proud of parading his sweetheart among his criminal 
 acquaintances. So Ellen soon became famous as the pretty and clever 
 pickpocket. Attempts were now made to alienate her from the man she 
 lived with, and all the women tried to get into her confidence for that pur- 
 pose, but as such attempts were frustrated by her in every instance, they 
 swore their revenge ; to betray both to a detective. 
 
 The man with whom she lived was within three months sent to prison,, 
 but she was released with a caution. Expecting this, many old thieves 
 had gathered round the court to offer her, under the pretence of sympathy, 
 their protection, as she was now alone ; while their only aim was to so 
 entangle her that she would be obliged to join them, and unable to extri- 
 cate herself. They knew her extraordinary skill in thieving and now they 
 wanted her to steal for them. When she came out of the court she was 
 surrounded, drinks were taken in her honor, and flatteries were heaped 
 upon her. She was conquered. 
 
 Ellen went home, sold her household-stuff and joined the thieves in their- 
 den. Orgies were celebrated, Ellen was made drunk and put to bed by 
 one of the old women. When she awoke she found herself the bed-fellow 
 of a most miserable, disgusting fellow. Horrified at the detestable trick 
 that had been practised upon her, she jumped up, threw on her clothes, 
 and fled from the house ; taking with her only the likeness of her lover. 
 And that was the last that has ever been seen of Ellen Naylor. — On the 
 same day a shawl which once was her's was found upon one of the wharves 
 by the Hudson. 
 
 Shoplifters form another class of the professsion of thieves, although 
 many of them also engage in picking pockets. They number about two 
 hundred, of which the majority consists of women. Here, also, there are 
 degrees of ability, of which two are recognized. The lower is that which 
 concerns itself chiefly with depredations upon dry goods stores, and in tins- 
 women are mostly engaged ; the higher is devoted rather to the acquire- 
 ment of rings and other valuables of that kind, and consists principally of 
 men. 
 
 We will first treat of the former of these, the women. They dress, gen- 
 erally, with much elegance, live in good neighborhoods, are very comfort- 
 ably off, and pass as respectable ladies as long as they can remain unex- 
 posed ; but there is truth still in the adage, that " the pitcher may go oft to» 
 the well but at last comes home broken." 
 
TIIK THIEVES. 
 
 107 
 
 We will give an illustration that has occurred quite recently : — la the 
 large manufacturing house of Messrs. Lord and Taylor, which is visited 
 daily by thousands of buyers, there occurred up to a recent period so many 
 robberies that the proprietors saw themselves constrained to procure the 
 services of watchmen. One Saturday, the day upon which the crowd of 
 visitors to stores of this kind is the greatest, a young lady of most prepos- 
 sessing appearance was seen to enter. She was about eighteen years old, 
 fashionably dressed, with rings on her fingers and other jewelry. Sitting 
 down at one of the counters, near to another lady, she requested that some 
 goods might be shown to her. One of the watchers, who had noticed the 
 rings upon the girl's fingers, observed her closely and remarked very soon 
 that she had put her hand into the muff lying on the counter near her, but. 
 which belonged to the lady sitting next to her, and had taken from it a 
 well-filled porte-monnaie. Just as she was about to slip it into her pocket 
 the man laid his hand upon her shoulder, and whispered to her that she 
 must consider herself his prisoner. But young and pretty though she was, 
 she was also shameless. In a furious temper she looked at the man as 
 though she would have pierced him through, denied the theft, and threat- 
 ened to call him to account for the outrage upon her. But the officer had 
 not made a mistake. He arrested her, the porte-monnaie was found upon 
 her, and she is even now awaiting her trial. 
 
 But, unfortunately, very few such thieves are taken in the act, conse- 
 quently we need not be surprised to learn that this kind of theft has 
 recently increased to an enormous extent, as might be shown by the num- 
 ber of robberies that have taken place within the past few months in the 
 houses of A. T. Stewart & Co., Arnold Constable & Co., C. G. Johnson, 
 Lord & Taylor, and others. During the past two weeks, in the last named 
 house alone, fourteen ladies lost their purses ; and with them an aggregate 
 sum of six hundred dollars. 
 
 What we have said above of the relations of the sexes in regard to the 
 pickpockets, applies also to shoplifters ; they are inveterately given to a 
 vicious life, and their companions are almost without exception pick- 
 pockets, house-breakers, and swindlers. Then in the dens which these 
 men thieves frequent there are rooms set apart for the women where they 
 become slaves to the curse of drink. There is, indeed, nothing more 
 revolting than this kind of rabble, consisting of men, and, when weary of 
 each other, become mutually distrustful ; since such a mode of life cannot 
 fail to lead to jealousies and animosities, and as soon as these take place, 
 one or the other of the people take revenge by betraying others to the 
 police. 
 
 Between eleven and four o'clock in the day, the time when ladies mostly 
 go shopping, is of course that in which the shoplifters commit most of their 
 robberies, and in many of the shops they are greatly facilitated in their 
 operations by the inexperience or frivolity of young clerks, who are ofteiit 
 
108 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 only to,o glad when they think they are being regarded in a friendly man- 
 ner by a pretty girl, and especially when they can enter into conversation 
 with her. The clever shoplifter knows at once what kind of a clerk she 
 has before her, and she invariably goes to that part of the counter where 
 there is one whom she thinks most suitable to her purpose. He is grati- 
 fied at the approach of a nice looking girl and asks her promptly what he 
 can do for her. 
 
 " I want to see some silks." 
 
 " Certainly, Miss. We have the newest styles, and a greater choice 
 than any other house. Pray, take a seat." 
 
 Upon this he takes down the goods, and opens out one piece after another 
 on the counter. Now the thief begins her game. While making various 
 remarks to the clerk about the goods, or in some other way holds him in 
 conversation, she selects the most valuable piece and lays it aside in such 
 a manner that when the right moment comes she can put her hand upon it 
 again. She now goes on to speak to him in the most friendly manner pos- 
 sible, and when she thinks that she has by her fascinations got him suffi- 
 ciently under control, she will say to him : — 
 
 " I must ask you to show me another piece, which is a little lighter," 
 or as the case may be, darker, " than this. I do not think that anything 
 here is quite suitable." 
 
 The clerk bows very politely and sets to work to comply with her 
 wishes. At the same instant, quick as lightning, she puts the piece which 
 she had laid aside, into the bag that she carries under her clothes, looking 
 as innocent all the while as if nothing had happened. For these bags or 
 capacious pockets are a provision which all shoplifters carry suspended 
 from a belt round the waist. 
 
 Now the clerk spreads another piece of silk before her and is much 
 pleased when the lady says : — " Yes, I think this will suit me exactly. 
 But before you measure it, be so kind as to cut me off a small piece that I 
 may take home and see if it matches my own, and then in the course of 
 the day I will call again." He cuts off the pattern, gives it to her very 
 obligingly, and she requests him to "lay aside the piece, so that in case I 
 cannot come myself and have to send for it there can be no mistake." 
 
 The lady leaves the shop and the clerk makes her a respectful bow as 
 she goes out. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that she very seldom either calls or sends 
 for the goods that have been set aside for her, while the proprietor of the 
 shop is two pieces of valuable silk poorer than he was before her visit. 
 
 In the same manner ribbons, laces, kid gloves, and numerous articles of 
 similar kind are taken ; and all go to the receiving shop. 
 
 When two shoplifters work together, the confederate draws off the atten- 
 tion of the clerk at the moment when the thief is about to steal the goods, 
 
 
nii: inn \ i S. 101) 
 
 by perhaps pointing to something behind him, and then keeping him 
 engaged until the woman who has the things has left the shop. 
 
 It is always of importance to induce the clerk to bring out as manv 
 articles as possible, for if there are only a few on the counter the robbery 
 is much more difficult to effect. For this reason the assistants in these 
 shops should always he careful not to introduce more goods at one time 
 than is absolutely necessary : and they should always, as far as they can. 
 put by at once those articles which will not suit; if this were followed 
 many of the robberies now occurring would be rendered impossible, and the 
 loss consequently would be much lessened. In fact, the storekeepers iu 
 New York cannot be too cautious in observing and watching customers 
 whom they do not know ; and no one should blame the proprietor, if, being 
 in a shop where he is not known, he finds himself being watched. The 
 external appearance of a shoplifter is such that it is only by an experienced 
 eye that she can be distinguished from a lady of respectability. 
 
 Very recently a detective, who was' buying something in a large house 
 in Grand Street, noticed a pretty young woman, very fashionably dressed, 
 engaged iu examining some laces. But to his experienced observation 
 there seemed to be something peculiar about her, and, as she left the shop 
 without buying anything, he followed her. Passing close by her side he 
 found that she was carrying something like a square port-folio or card 
 under her mantle. This strengthened his suspicions, and in order to 
 satisfy himself he ran against her as if by accident, when, as he antici- 
 pated, the cardboard fell to the ground. She changed color, but went on 
 without turning to pick it up, upon which the detective stopped her, 
 charged her plainly with having stolen the lace, and arrested her. 
 
 She lived in two pretty, comfortably furnished rooms in a fashionable 
 street. The walls of the rooms were covered with handsome pictures and 
 in one of the apartments was a piano. She was a professional shoplifter, 
 and although she had carried on the business for a couple of years, she had 
 never before been detected. 
 
 The following case will serve to show the wonderful audacity and crafti- 
 ness of these women, and how well versed they are in the ways and means 
 for evading punishment whenever they chance to fall into the power of the 
 law. 
 
 A couple of years ago a notorious shoplifter, named Mary Brown, was 
 arrested in Stewart's store for a robbery committed there. A short time 
 after she was tried, but not sentenced at the time. The officer who had 
 charge of her was taking ker back to the Tombs, and on the way, at the 
 corner of Centre and Chambers Streets, he ran against a well-known house- 
 breaker named Hale, who was then at liberty, but is uow undergoing a 
 sentence in Sing Sing. He turned round to speak to him, and at the same 
 instaqt his prisoner, who was closely veiled, slipped from his side, and 
 another woman, similarly dressed and also thickly veiled, took her place 
 
110 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 and went along near him as though she were the prisoner herself, while 
 the officer, who had no suspicion of what happened, went quietly on his 
 way too. But when they came to the corner of Worth Street, the woman 
 turned down that street, whereupon the officer quietly but decidedly told 
 her, that she was in his custody, and must go back to the Tombs without 
 making any trouble. What must have been his astonishment when the 
 woman, apparently very angry, told him, what at the same time he seemed 
 to realize, that he had no business to insult a respectable woman ; if he 
 did not let her alone, she continued, she would speak to her husband, who 
 should lay a charge against him before the Police Commissioners. At the 
 same time she raised her veil and the officer saw at once that Mary Brown 
 was no longer there, but in her place a woman who was a perfect stranger 
 to him. Astonished aad perplexed, he instantly allowed the pseudo Mary 
 Brown to go on her way and hurried back to Centre Street to look for the 
 real Mary Brown. But in vain, she was nowhere to be seen, and a few 
 days after the police found her in a house near Yonkers, as she was in the 
 act of packing her trunks to go by the next steamer to California, which 
 journey was now set aside, and she was obliged to take a preliminary 
 lodging in Sing Sing. 
 
 As remarked above, the higher class of shoplifters consists of men, who 
 busy themselves with the accumulation of rings and valuables of that kind. 
 These men generally go about very well dressed. They must have good 
 manners and possess extraordinary dexterity to pursue their calling as they 
 do for many months and sometimes even for years. On wet days, when 
 they canuot pursue their usual depredations, or when unwell, they improve 
 the dexterity of their fingers by practising with imitation gold rings, but- 
 tons, or cent pieces. 
 
 Whoever has been present at the exhibition of a conjurer, knows what 
 dexterity these artists exhibit when taking up a piece of money between 
 their thumb and middle finger, they cause it to disappear in a momeat, 
 without the most careful observer, or even those who know the trick, being 
 able to see where it is gone. The male shoplifter does the same. He 
 goes into a jeweller's shop and expresses a wish to buy a diamond ring. 
 A case of such valuables is laid upon the counter and opened, and whilst 
 the stranger is looking at the rings, and taking out first one and then 
 another, and returning them to their places, the jeweller is, as he thinks, 
 closely watching every movement. In the mean time the thief has made 
 his selection, and now turns the eyes of the jeweller from his hands by ask- 
 ing a question, looking at the same time direct. at his face ; and in the brief 
 instant when the jeweler looks up to answer the man, the ring disappears, 
 and the hand of the thief is lying flat upon the counter ; so that the jeweler 
 has no suspicion, when in another instant he returns his glance to the box 
 of rings, that one of them is hidden between the fingers of the man's hands. 
 Now the thief asks another question, and at the moment moves his hand 
 
THE THIEVES. 
 
 111 
 
 Towards his pocket, apparently to take out his handkerchief, but really to 
 put away the ring. He then uses his handkerchief; and as lie sees that 
 no suspicion rests upon him, he says that be cannot now make up his mind, 
 but will call again. Whereupon he leaves the shop with his plunder. 
 Sometimes, however on the contrary, he sees something which leads him 
 to think that the jeweller is suspicious, and that in consequence he cannot 
 safely venture to go away with the ring, he then looks for a opportunity 
 cither to return the ring to its place or to put it somewhere on the counter, 
 and so avoid detection and its consequences. 
 
 This using of the pocket-handkerchief just at the moment when a quan- 
 tity of valuable jewelry is lyiug upon the counter is at the least a very 
 suspicious manoeuvre, and is almost always followed by the robbery of the 
 storekeeper unless he is very cautious. It is also of immense advantage 
 to the thief, for he not only avails himself of the opportunity to put the 
 ring into his pocket, but it also enables him to conceal his face for a 
 moment in case there is any passing indication of embarrassment or fear. 
 The handkerchief is used just as people generally use one and then it goes 
 back again to the pocket. That is all that the shopman sees. The thief 
 then takes care to keep his hand open as if by chance, so that the inside 
 can be seen, and with the promise to come again, by which he once more 
 engages the attention of his victim, he leaves. The greatest skill of the 
 conjuror depends upon the rapidity of his movements ; and the most accom- 
 plished male shoplifters must be just as thoroughly practised in the art as 
 the conjuror is, before they can come before the public as performers. 
 Jewelers and persons who deal in small articles of much value should never 
 allow their attention to be diverted, nor allow their eyes to be turned from 
 their goods when these are brought out for sale. 
 
 Besides the two kinds of shoplifters who come from out of doors, there 
 >6 still another in the inside of business houses, these are — dishonest clerks 
 and porters ; and many houses have lost large sums of money at the hands 
 of these thieves. We will give here an interesting example of the mode in 
 which they do their work, from the rich experiences of Mr. McWalters, 
 whose account we will follow in his ov/n words : 
 
 He says : — " One day the confidential clerk belonging to a large firm 
 called upon me, and said that he was deputed, by one of the principals of 
 his house, to consult with me concerning a systematic robbery which had 
 been going on for some time in the concern, and to engage my assistance. 
 I will call this clerk Phillips, the name of the principal shall be Redding. 
 The two other principals were absent, one in the South, the other in 
 Europe. Mr. Phillips told me fully how for a long time different goods 
 had been constantly disappearing, that lately the robberies had been largely 
 increasing, and that now great quantities of the most valuable goods were 
 missing. He calculated the loss that had been experienced, within a rpace 
 of the last few months only, at eighteen hundred dollars, and it consisted 
 
112 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 in silks, satins, laces, and goods of that kind. The loss might possibly 
 have l?een greater since it was quite likely that many things taken had not 
 yet been missed. He told me what Mr. Redding and himself had done to 
 try and find out the thief, or thieves ; and what measures had also been 
 taken to keep a watch upon the premises. He informed me also that the 
 opinion of Mr. Redding about the robberies differed from bis own, and that 
 Mr. Redding thought that some of the clerks must be the guilty parties. 
 It seemed as if that was certainly very often the case, since the place was 
 placed at night under the guardianship of a thoroughly trustworthy watch- 
 man, whom he himself controlled and was convinced in consequence that 
 he had no dishonest accomplices. He could not, however, share in this 
 opinion of Mr. Redding because the clerks had been there a long time, 
 most of them for five years, and the remainder, with the exception of three 
 who had been there but a few months, had been two, three, and four years 
 with the firm. He knew all their circumstances and from this knowledge 
 was loath to believe that they were the thieves. Mr. Redding, however,, 
 adhered to his view that some of the clerks must be the thieves, and he 
 wanted the question settled and cleared up. 
 
 I asked Mr. Phillips how many clerks there were in the establishment, 
 and he said that, not including himself, there were thirty-seven. 
 
 " Thirty-seven?" I asked ; — " And do you mean to say that there is not 
 one of these thirty-seven whom you consider to be more or less innocent or 
 guilty than any of the rest." 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " Now we have a considerable task before us which will not only tako 
 time and prove our patience, but also cost your house a considerable sum 
 of money. We might, perhaps, stumble upon the thief at once, but if wo 
 can prove nothing against him, we must convince ourselves that all the 
 rest are innocent, and that may cost your house more than the robberies 
 even, till accident perchance in time leads to the discovery of the thief. 
 
 " I have discussed this point with Mr. Redding too," replied Mr. 
 Phillips, " but he insists that we must find out the thief, cost what it may, 
 and once and for all put an end to the plunder ; for the house cannot long 
 stand against such constant and continuous losses. He has made up his 
 mind to probe the thing to the bottom, and when he once takes a resolve 
 into his head, he does not readily give it up again." 
 
 In reply to enquiries I drew from Mr. Phillips that, although many of 
 the goods were of a particular kind, it would not be easy to identify them 
 if the private mark of the house were removed : " And any thief," he con- 
 tinued, " who steals goods in bulk will be prudent enough to leave nothing 
 on them by which they can be identified, and himself convicted. He would 
 be sure to destroy our marks." 
 
 We now agreed that on the next day I was to make a visit to the store,. 
 as a merchant from Buffalo, desirous of making some purchases, so that I 
 
Till 1 llll.VKS. 1 >'•'> 
 
 might take a look at the place and at the several clerks. After Mr, 
 Phillipfl had left me I thought the matter over well, but could not see any 
 
 solution to the puzzle. My colleague. ho\ve\er, to whom J spoke about 
 the business — Cor in an affair of this kitid it is accessary to have more than 
 one concerned — thought that some of the clerks must be the thieves and 
 that it would only be necessary to set a watch for a couple of nights in 
 order to find out the right people. But still it seemed to me that the dis- 
 covery of the thief in this case would be by no means such an easy matter. 
 
 On another day I visited .Mr. Redding. 1 had arranged with Mr. 
 Phillips that in the presence of the other clerks he should not know me, at 
 any rate not uutil Mr. Redding should have introduced me to him. As I 
 was not personally known to Mr. Redding, I introduced myself to him by 
 means of a letter written for the occasion. He received me with all the 
 attention which business people usually show towards good customers, and 
 took me through the entire establishment. In this way I was able to see- 
 the faces of every one of the clerks, and as I very much wished not to 
 create any suspicion in any of the people, we took our time. At last J 
 thought to myself: " Either my judgment and knowledge of physiognomy 
 have gone, or else the clerks in this place are among the most honest set 
 of men in the world." 
 
 Presently Mr. Redding called his confidential clerk, Mr. Phillips, intC 
 his office and we talked the matter over together. At Mr. Redding's 
 request, Mr. Phillips laid before me a list of the goods that had been 
 missed se far as it could be made out, and it was indeed a formidable cata- 
 logue ; but there was nothing in it which could be easily recognized, noth- 
 ing to which there were not goods exactly similar in other shops. Lastly 
 I expressed a wish to see some silks belonging to the same parcel as *.hose 
 which had been stolen, and having a tolerably good eye for lorm and color, 
 my attention was at once attracted by a piece of goods such as I had nevei 
 seen before, and which had such a remarkable pattern that it was imme- 
 diately impressed upon my r mind. But other stores also kept this same 
 kind of goods and so, even if I should find auything like them in either of 
 the retail shops, or at a pawnbrokers, still I should not be in a position to 
 identify them as having been stolen from Mr. Redding's. At the same 
 time I thought that possibly this piece of silk might be -the key with which 
 to lay open the secret of the robberies. 
 
 I now entertained no longer any doubt that the thefts must be perpe- 
 trated by one or other of the clerks, and I determined to watch them all. 
 For this purpose I deputed some of my people, while I undertook the 
 supervision of a few, to look after them when they left business and so to 
 find out whether any of them frequented gaming houses, brothels, or other 
 houses of ill-repute. Many evenings passed away but without any result. 
 One of the clerks, who lived in Brooklyn, came over to the city one Sunday 
 evening and went to a house of assignation. That certainlv threw a faint 
 
 * 8 
 
114 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 shadow upon his character, but it gave us no hold upon which we could 
 rest for considering him as the thief before all the other clerks. Two other 
 clerks, older than he, had also taken some acquaintances who had come 
 from the country " to see the lions," to places which more solid people do 
 not usually care to visit. But this should even less be laid to the charge 
 of the clerks as an evil, for in many houses it is customary even in accord- 
 ance with the wish of the principals that the assistants should pay such 
 little attentions to acquaintances from the country. 
 
 Thus then I had so far taken a great deal of trouble without arriving at 
 any result. Almost every day I held consultations with Mr. Redding and 
 Mr. Phillips ; and each day I liked the latter better, for he showed the 
 greatest zeal in the interest of his principal, and was untiring in his 
 endeavours to assist me in my enquiries. Many times Mr. Redding was 
 on the point of giving up, but it was always Mr. Phillips who encouraged 
 him to persevere, because he was sure that sooner or later the thief must 
 be discovered, and in his position as chief clerk in the establishment, and 
 as an honest man he felt it his moral duty to press forward towards tht 
 discovery of the thief. But the robberies still went on ; and w r hoever 
 believes in ghosts might well think that some invisible hand was engaged 
 in the business. At last Mr. Redding determined himself to pass the 
 nights for some time in the warehouse, with a watchman and a trust- 
 worthy dog, whilst another watchman did duty on the outside. But this, 
 too, led to no discovery, and the most surprising part of the business was 
 that even during that time goods disappeared. At length the continued 
 misfortune, and the danger consequent upon these repeated losses in the 
 business, made Mr. Redding nervous and ill, so that he had to give up 
 these nightly visits to the warehouse. 
 
 One day after this Mr. Redding called me to him and told me that as 
 all other measures had failed, he thought his only safety depended upon 
 his dismissing the whole of his thirty-seven clerks, innocent or guilty, and 
 engaging others in their places ; and he showed me an advertisement in 
 the " Herald" which he had caused to be inserted for the purpose, and in 
 consequence of which he had a great number of applications already before 
 him. We discussed the proposition, and whilst I was giving many reasons 
 against such a sudden aud sweeping change, Mr. Phillips coincided with 
 me, chiefly on the ground that they could not be more certain of the fidelity 
 of the new, than they were of the old clerks ; and that it would be unjust 
 to punish the innocent with the guilty. That was decisive to Mr. Redding, 
 who was a good man, who looked upon, and who treated his assistants as 
 though they were his own children. But Mr. Phillips, who had always 
 been much beloved by the oth er clerks, would now be much higher 
 esteemed in consequence of the action which he was thus the means of 
 determining. He was in fact a somewhat remarkable man, and so mucA 
 the soul of the business that it was difficult to see how, if his place were 
 
Tin', iii !• l la 
 
 made vacant, it conld b<> refilled. Besides which lie was a man irreproach- 
 able in his habits, and bo impressed with his social and moral duties thai 
 be held a prominent position as teacher in a Sunday School. But as th<^ 
 difficulties seemed to be e\ er increasing, and the whole situation wan one 
 of extreme discomfort to him. he one day expressed his wish to Mr. Red- 
 ding to leave, although his agreement did not really terminate for two 
 years longer. Mr. Redding would not hear of this ; but of course he could 
 not force Mr. Phillips to stay if he would not. However to avoid losing 
 him and being deprived of his services he offered him from the next month 
 an increase of fifty per cent, on his salary, if Phillips would give up his 
 old contract, and bind himself to remain for five years longer. That gave 
 the matter a new turn, and Phillips full of thanks went on and now worked 
 with redoubted ardour for the discovery of the thief. He even gave up 
 the association of his family circle and did as Mr. Reddinjr had done for a 
 long time previously, slept in the warehouse. But when a week had 
 passed, and during that time the robberies had still been going on, despair 
 came over him as it had before over Mr. Redding. He gave up all hope. 
 ')f being able to discover the thief and openly spoke of the regret he felt at 
 having signed his new agreement. 
 
 So Mr. Redding came back to his former plan of dismissing all his 
 clerks and engaging new ones in their places, and he was on the point of 
 carrying this out when his fellow-partner, who had been in the South, 
 returned. Being informed how matters stood, and not agreeing as to the. 
 step proposed by Mr. Redding, he took the business into his own hands, 
 holding each individual clerk responsible for the goods which were speci- 
 ally under his control. This worked well for a few days, but soon the. 
 goods began to disappear again, first from this then from that one, and he 
 had to report losses. At this now the clerks protested and the partner felt 
 himself as helpless as Mr. Redding and Mr. Phillips had been before him. 
 It was now quite apparent that if there was any suspicion allowed to rest. 
 upon one of the clerks as being guilty of the robberies, it must also be 
 extended to all who were deficient with their goods in the department. 
 So now they returned once more to the idea of making a general change. 
 The partner gave his consent and ten clerks were forthwith dismissed and 
 ten others appointed. 
 
 In the mean time I was requested not to relax my exertions. The firm 
 paid me most generously for my past services, chiefly at the instigation of 
 Mr. Phillips, who laid much stress upon the fact, that although all efforts 
 to get hold of the thief had thus far been of no avail, they had to thank me 
 in that Mr. Redding and himself had not long since given the matter up in 
 despair. 
 
 After so many fruitless efforts, I now became most anxious to effect 
 something decisive, for I did not feel despondent about the affair. For 
 although I had been in error ill through, it did not indicate that I should 
 
116 THE DARK SIDE OF NKW YORK LIFE. 
 
 not succeed, although it piqued me to think that I, who had generally been 
 successful in my exertions, had not been able to find a solution to the 
 present case. Nevertheless I had already experienced many cases where 
 the discovery was delayed even longer than in the present and was made 
 at last — shall I say? by accident. 
 
 However, three weeks after the events thus far recorded, the light began 
 to dawn. Engaged upon a business of rather pressing nature, I one day 
 rode in a Fourth Avenue car towards the New Haven Depot at Twenty- 
 Seventh Street. Two women got into the car at Eighth Street. They 
 might have been taken for fashionably-dressed ladies, if they had not been 
 dirty — an unfailing mark either of low birth or sudden and rapid wealth. 
 The car was full of people with their travelling-bags, going on by the 
 Boston train, and, as no one else stood up, I did so, and gave one of the 
 ladies my place. The feeling of sympathy, or otherwise which sometimes 
 arises, is a curious phenomenon, and I cannot to this day explain to myself 
 how it was ; but, before I had even glanced at the dress which this woman 
 wore, it occurred to me that in her I might find the clue to unravel the 
 mystery of the thefts at Mr. Redding's. But so it was. The silk which I 
 had seen at Mr. Redding's, and which struck me at the time as so peculiar 
 in pattern and style, did not recur to me at first. But after a while, when 
 I had noticed somewhat closely the appearance of the lady, I began to 
 puzzle myself with thinking where I had seen a dress like hers before, till 
 at last it occurred to me that it must have been in Mr. Redding's store. 
 Now there was work before me. But the business I had in hand was of 
 much importance, for I had to go the New Haven Depot before the depar- 
 ture of the train, to look for a man who was wanted for a burglary com- 
 mitted in New Jersey. It was possible that the ladies also were going 
 by the train ; but it was possible, too, that they might alight before we 
 reached Twenty-Seventh Street, and I must perforce go on. What was to 
 be done? I looked down the rows of passengers in the car, went also on 
 to the front platform, but found nobody who seemed likely to answer my 
 purpose. While, however, I was turning it over in my mind, and had in 
 the meanwhile inspected the rear platform, a good-looking black-eyed 
 Italian boy got up on the car with a basket of toys which he wanted to 
 sell. The boy pleased me, and to my question how old he was, he answered 
 " thirteen." And, when I asked him whether he would like to earn five 
 dollars that afternoon, his eyes glistened with delight as he replied that he 
 would. I now asked him his name, place of residence, the names of his 
 parents and so on, and noted all down in my pocket-book. 
 
 "Now," said I to him, "here is my card. I am a detective, and would 
 like to know where in the city I could find you in the middle of the night. 
 But for a little while you must be a detective too.* 1 will take care of 
 
 ♦The buy lias since become one of the moat able detecthes in the force. 
 
PHM THIEVES. 
 
 117 
 
 TOUT basket, and you can get it in the morning at my office. lien' arc two 
 dollars to begin with, and I will give you the other three to-morrow 
 morning. You may bring your father with you if you like. I would like 
 to speak to him ; and if you do the errand that I am giving you now very 
 well, it is possible that I may engage you in a place where you will earn a 
 good deal of money." 
 
 I had struck the right note, and the boy was at my disposal. I now told 
 him in a whisper that he must go on with the car, and watch where the 
 two ladies went whom I pointed out to him, but in such a manner that they 
 could not notice him, and that then he was to come back to me. Then I 
 told him that lie must follow them any distance, and that, in case they 
 separated, he was to go after the taller of the two — the one in the silk 
 dress. If they went into a store or a house, he was to wait until they came 
 out, and not to give up following them until he was sure that they would 
 not come out again and that they were at home. He was then to notice 
 the street and the number of the house, so that he would be able to take 
 me there. " Can you manage this properly, so as not to give rise to any 
 suspiciou?" I asked him. 
 
 The boy's ambition was aroused. "Of course I can," he replied, his 
 eyes beaming with pleasure ; "I'll follow her till night, if necessary." 
 
 I then wrote my private address on the back of the card which I had 
 given to him, and told him that if he liked lie might come and stay through 
 the night at my house. Tears ran down the lad's cheeks, for he evidently 
 had never met with anyone who had spoken to him as kindly before. 
 
 Scarcely had I completed my instructions, when the sound of the bell 
 told us that somebody was going to leave the car at Twenty-Second Street. 
 It was the two ladies. That they might not see the boy's splendid eyes — 
 which, if they had seen, they must have noticed — I drew the boy's cap over 
 his face, and then took him on with me to the next street, where I put him 
 off and enjoined him to bring me a good report. I had told him he was to 
 spend as much of the money as w r as necessary in riding, and that what he 
 so spent I would repay him — a promise which seemed very much to increase 
 his self-conh'dence. 
 
 In the evening the boy was duly at my house, and he brought me a com- 
 plete report. The ladies had gone a long distance ; fortunately, however, 
 they had not used any carriages except the street stages and horse cars, so 
 that he had been able to keep them in view the whole day, aud finally he 
 had followed the lady in the silk dress to her home. 
 
 Considering how the ladies were over-dressed, I had been fearful lest the 
 pursuit should lead to a house of prostitution, for, as the inmates of such 
 houses are practised in deception, it was very likely that, if the clothes 
 they wore really were a part of any stolen goods, it would be very difficult 
 to prove it and to follow out the traces thus far obtained. But the ladies 
 lived in a respectable place in Nineteenth Street. 
 
118 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 The boy went to his father to tell him what he was doing and to take 
 him the five dollars, and then he returned and passed the night at my house. 
 At a very early hour next morning we were both in Nineteenth Street, 
 where I surveyed the house and took a note of the number, and two hours 
 later, when the shops were open, it was easy enough to go to a grocer's and 
 a druggist's in the neighborhood, and to learn the names and position of 
 the residents. 
 
 At the end of two days I had seen the gentleman who lived in the house, 
 one William Bruce, in whom I recognized an old acquaintance and who 
 was a speculator in Wall Street, leave the place twice in the morning and 
 return twice in the evening. But I had not yet sufficient facts in hand to 
 lake any decided step in the matter, so T went to Mr. Redding to freshen 
 my memory concerning the pattern of the stolen goods ; but I did not let 
 him know that I had even the smallest clue. His partner and Mr. Phillips 
 had gone to Cincinnati to make arrangements with a house which owed 
 them a considerable sum of money, and had recently failed. Unfortunately 
 I now wanted the assistance of Mr. Phillips in directing me to the neces- 
 sary proofs, but learned to my satisfaction that both would be back in a 
 couple of days. In the mean while I received some useful information, 
 from Mr. Redding, and the next forenoon saw me busy with the tools as a 
 workman under the Croton Water Board, which was just then engaged 
 in laying the water pipes and looking after the connexions with the houses. 
 
 A sprightly Irish girl opened the door when I went to the house and let 
 me in, as soon as I told her what my pretended business was. I said to 
 her that she must tell the lady that after I had finished in the basement I 
 would go up stairs, as we wanted to examine all the place ; upon which 
 she replied that the lady had been upon a visit to a friend for a few days, 
 and that Mr. Bruce was out. So I found that I could take my own time,, 
 and after doing a little joking and flirtation with Sarah— for that was the 
 girl's name — all of which she took very kindly, she let me go over the 
 house from top to bottom and examine it thoroughly. I induced Sarah to- 
 show me her mistresses wardrobe, which, indeed, was splendid, and made 
 me a little envious, when I bethought myself, with what a comparatively 
 poor wardrobe my good wife had to be contended. And I found, in the 
 course of this inspection, among a number of silks not yet made up, some 
 from which the private mark of Mr. Redding's house had not yet been 
 removed. These I contrived to get hold of without Sarah knowing it.. 
 And with a pair of scissors, which I found in Mrs. Bruce's room, I cut a 
 little piece from the silks, also without Sarah noticing me. But in a 
 closet, there were a dozen more dresses, each apparently handsomer than 
 the last, and among them I found the dress with the peculiar pattern 
 which Miss Bruce had worn on the day when I saw her in the street car. 
 1 now continued my flirtation and bantering with Sarah for a long time, 
 till at last an opportunity offered to enable me to slip into the closet, and 
 
THE THIEVES. IT.' 
 
 to shut myself in long enough to enable me to cat a pieee oi the silk from 
 a broad seam on the insids of the sleeve. Having finished my inspection 
 — still of course retaining the character of a Croton Water man — and hav- 
 ing found out all I wanted, I saw that Sarah had been taking all my jest- 
 ing id earnest, and verily believed thai she had discovered a very desirable 
 sweetheart. For, returning to the basement, I found a splendid lunch set 
 out for me, all of which assured me when 1 left the house that the damsel 
 would not he very likely to say anything to her master about the visit of 
 the " CrotOD Water man." 
 
 After 1 had changed my dress I went to Mr. Redding, took him into his 
 private office and told him my story ; cautioning him, however, not to let 
 the faintest whisper of it leak out, not to mention the least word to any- 
 body, not even to his partner or to his confidential clerk, Mr. Phillips, who 
 on the same day was expected back from Cincinnati. 1 begged him to 
 speak absolutely to nobody until I saw him again, "for,"' said J, ''the thief 
 is one of your old clerks, and Mr. Phillips lias so good a heart and will 
 ieel so much for the man, that he will be above all astonished, and per- 
 haps, unable to control his better judgment, might give the thief an oppor- 
 tunity to abscond." 
 
 Mr. Redding could not very well understand that, but he promised me 
 to do as I wished, for I convinced him that for a secret to be well kept it 
 must be known as little as possible, however trustworthy people may 
 chance to be. 
 
 I knew now that I would havj to take the fortress by storm, so on the 
 next day I went with my badge of authorily, and accompanied by a police 
 oificer, to the house in Nineteenth Street and asked for Mrs. Bruce. 
 When she came into the parlor I said to her that I had some business with 
 her husband and 1 asked her where I could find him? She gave me a 
 card with his address : — " William Bruce, Dealer in Stocks &c, G4 Wall 
 Street." which I took ; rose from my seat aud moved towards the door, 
 near to my companion, as though we were going awa} 7 ; — when I locked 
 the door. I had remarked that when Mrs. Bruce came in she changed 
 color at the sight of the police uniform, and she was now perfectly pale 
 when I locked the door and said to her : — 
 
 " Mrs. Bruce I have come with my friend here as servants of the law 
 to search your house. Your husband is, as you very well know, not that 
 which his card represents, lie is a clerk in the house of Mr. Redding, 
 and a thief. The greater part of your splendid wardrobe, which I 
 inspected yesterday, is stolen property, and 1 am here to seize it, but do 
 not desire to make any demonstration with it before the neighborhood. 1 
 do not think \±n you participate in his guilt. Very probably he has never 
 iuformed you of his secret, and I do not wish to inflict upon you any annoy- 
 ance. But the firm must have their goods back again, and as I see that 
 
120 THE PARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 you have much jewely and many articles of value, I must ask you to hand 
 all ovef to me, until your husband shall have settled with the firm. 
 
 She was speechless with amazement. When she had recovered herself 
 a little, she said that she could not believe that Mr. Bruce was any other 
 than he had always represented himself to be ; that she had received letters 
 from his sister, who lived in Pennsylvania ; that she had always taken him 
 for an honorable man ; and that he was always ready to give where it was 
 required, if, by so doing, he could render any assistance. 
 
 The end of it was that during the day many large trunks full of beauti- 
 ful and valuable goods left the house in Nineteenth Street. Sarah helped 
 to do the packing without any misgiving as to my being the Croton Water 
 man, and her fond sweetheart. When I was about to go away, happening 
 to be alone with her for a moment, I whispered a word into her ear. 
 Astonished and flurried she seized my hand, drew it towards her convul- 
 sively and, to my request that she would tell nothing, said : "I'll hold my 
 tongue." The truth was she had had many season lovers before. 
 
 The trunks were first deposited in a safe place, and then sent on to Mr. 
 Redding. Most of the goods were at once identified as having been stolen 
 from his house, especially a number of silks that were still unmade ; and 
 also a very valuable shawl of which description only three had been 
 imported ; and Mr. Redding knew where the other two had been bought. 
 
 Mr. Redding now pressed me to tell him without any further delay the 
 name of the clerk who had committed the robberies, but I did not do that, 
 preferring rather to wait till the two gentlemen from Cincinnati had 
 returned ; and accordingly I requested him, to send for me as soon as that 
 occurred. At the end of two days he sent for me. Luckily I was at home, 
 and went to him immediately. I found his partner and Mr. Phillips tiere 
 too, they having returned, within an hour only, from Cincinnati ; having 
 settled their business there satisfactorily, they were being very cordially 
 received by Mr. Redding. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Redding," I began, " I think w r e have advanced so far that 
 I can tell you all my story." 
 
 " One moment," he said to me, and turning to his partner and to Mr. 
 Phillips, he continued : " I have also some good news to tell you. Our 
 friend here has at last been successful. He has discovered the thief, and 
 we have already got some of the goods back again." Then turning to me 
 again, he said : " Now tell us all about it, for I have not yet had the least 
 idea who the thief is." 
 
 The partner and Mr. Phillips looked at each other in astonishment and 
 called out together : " Yes, yes, let us hear it all." 
 
 " But first," said Mr. Phillips, " let us know the name of the rascal, if 
 you have it, and then you can go on with the rest of the stor^'" 
 
 " Very well, Mr. Phillips," I replied. " His name is William Bruce, 
 Dealer in Stocks &c, 64 Wall Street, so his card says." 
 
THE TII1KVKS. ] 2 1 
 
 Mr. Redding and his partner looked at each other in bewilderment 
 (because I had told Mr. Redding that it was one of their old clerks). Mr. 
 Phillips also looked very much surprised, but from altogether a different 
 reason. But their bewilderment increased yet more when I turned spe- 
 cially to him, and continued : "But Mr. Bruce has an alias, another name, 
 and that is — Charles Phillips ; and you, sir, are. the rascal to discover, 
 whom you worked so strenuously with me." 
 
 Phillips was deadly pale. He wanted to speak, but his voice forsook 
 him. 
 
 "Mr. Phillips,*' I now continued, "the house in Nineteenth Street has 
 given up its treasures. They are in my keeping, together with the dia- 
 monds, pearls, watches, and all the other valuables which were in the pos- 
 session of your mistress : who, as your " wife," consented to hand them 
 over to me. You, too, are now my prisoner, without the remotest proba- 
 bility of being able to escape the fullest penalty of the lav.'. And now I 
 wish Mrs. Bruce to be sent for. She, I think, is not a party to this crime, 
 and will be surprised to see again her returned husband in the person of 
 Mr. Charles Phillips, the, for many years past, confidential clerk of this 
 house." 
 
 Phillips instautly stretched out his hands to me in a most pathetic man- 
 ner, and besought me not to send tor Mrs. Bruce, adding * k It serves me 
 right, I am ready to confess all." — And then he began to cry bitterly. 
 
 It is hardly possible to describe the astonishment of Mr. Bedding and 
 his partner. Never in my life have I seen such a sudden change in any 
 man as there was in Mr. Redding. 
 
 He, who for several weeks past had been quite broken down, stood in 
 full vigor and strength, firm and decided. He spoke very few words, but 
 these were to the point. There was something sublime in his scorn for 
 Phillips. 
 
 "You hypocritical scoundrel !" he said. " you detestable whited sepul- 
 chre ! You most miserable wretch, of all who ever betrayed the con- 
 fidence reposed in them ! I am more annoyed to think that I have allowed 
 myself to be deceived by your canting hypocrisy, than I am at all the loss 
 an anxiety you have inflicted upon me. But, as it is in the Bible you are 
 so fond of quoting " With the measure that you measure withal shall it be 
 meted to you." So it shall be. You thief! You libertine ! You hypo- 
 critical Sunday School teacher !" 
 
 Phillips was silent for a moment ; and, as I considered the woman to be 
 innocent of his crimes, I was anxious to know what he would say in reply 
 to my previous remark ; but hardened sinner as he was. he still had enough 
 manliness left in him to take all the guilt upon himself. He replied : — 
 
 " Oh ! no, jhe knows nothing of my offence. She has not misled me, 
 and I. have been brought to the position of a criminal only by my wicked 
 affection for her. I am indeed what Mr. Reddinjj called me, a whited 
 
122 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOIcK LIFE. 
 
 .sepulchre, and unworthy to have entered even any church. But, if you 
 insist upon it, I have now to Buffer the penalty which the law imposes ;• 
 although I wish that for the sake of my wife and children they would 
 release me, and so enable me to go and begin a new life far away from 
 New York." 
 
 After the lapse of a couple of days Mr. Redding' s disposition had soft- 
 ened, and he decided to let Phillips go, on condition, never again to return 
 to New York. — And thus the thief, the confidential clerk of the establish- 
 ment, Avho so long had betrayed the confidence of his principal in the most 
 infamous manner, escaped the punishment he so justly merited. 
 
 Now how had Phillips managed to carry on these depredations so long 
 without detection ! He was a cunning, crafty fellow. He packed up such 
 goods as he wanted with his own hands, and then sent them out with 
 other things by the carrier. One of the porters remembered that he had 
 often had packages for Mr. or Mrs. Bruce put into his charge. Then Phil- 
 lips addressed the packages himself to different hotels, to be left " till 
 called for," as though intended for some stranger staying there, and so he 
 sent them away. Then he used to go round and take them himself from 
 the various offices, a matter in which of course he had no difficulty, since 
 knowing the contents of the parcels, he could always identify them." 
 
 " A wolf in sheep's clothing" is the title appended to this case by Mr. 
 McWalters' in the collection of experiences which under the general head 
 of " Knots united" is to be found in his notes ; and truly an admirably 
 suitable title it is. But how many more such wolves in sheep's clothiug 
 are there not even now sneaking about New York ! 
 
 The Omnibus and Street-car Thieves are also pickpockets, but since 
 they conduct their operations exclusively in the street conveyances,- they 
 ought to be ranked in a separate division. Like the others, these, too. 
 may be divided into two classes, those who work in the horse-cars and 
 others who confine themselves to the stages. The former are for the most 
 part men, the latter are generally women. We shall first notice the street- 
 car thieves. 
 
 During the past year robberies in the cars have very seriously increased ; 
 and scarcely a day passes in which there are not numbers of watches, pur- 
 ses, and breast-pins stolen in these conveyances. The thieves are well 
 dressed, gentlemanly in appearance and manner, and often exhibit a gold 
 or imitation gold watch-chain, or a glittering breast-pin, so that an inex- 
 perienced person may be inclined to take them for respectable people. 
 They never work singly, but always in parties of from three to five, and 
 there are in the city at least twenty such bands, who travel on all the city 
 railroads, but especially in those of the Third and Fourth Avenues. 
 
 The forenoon, when business people are already down town, and the 
 cars are in consequence less filled, is leisure time for these thieves. They 
 
mi. i mi.\ i 8, 123 
 
 are then assembled in their dens, drinking and gambling, bnt only await- 
 ing an opportunity to L r o oul and steal. And such opportunities are ol 
 dailv occurrence, for instance at an alarm of fire. Then in an instant the 
 cards are thrown aside, the hand hurries off by the shortest road to the 
 line of horse-cars which go Dearest to the lire, and then each gang jumps 
 on together to one and tin- same ear. There are always a number of Curi- 
 osity mongers ready to run off to see a tire, so that the ear is probablj 
 already tolerably lull of passengers. But at every comer more get on, and 
 thus the thieves find themselves in the crowd where they wish to be, and 
 soon make it worse by boisterous behaviour, by pushing and crowding 
 iuside the car. 
 
 Now a victim is about to net off* There, squeezed in among the crowd. 
 and holding on by one of the leather thongs that hang from the roof, stands 
 an elderly man who at first sight would be taken for a man in easy circum- 
 stances. A heavy gold watch-chain is fastened into a button-hole of his 
 waistcoat; and his attention, as well as that of most of the passenger-, i- 
 directed chiefly to the fire engines and ladder wagon-. Hut not so the 
 thieves. These now begin their game, having so manoeuvred that they 
 now stand around the gentleman, and in such a way that he cannot move. 
 He now holds more tightly on to the leather strap, and by so doing facili- 
 tates still more the action of the thieves. Now. the thief who stands 
 squeezed up in front of him raises his left elbow, as it to get a little more 
 air. and thus he prevents the gentleman from seeing what he is doing with 
 his left hand, which is at the same time taking the chain out of the button- 
 hole of the waistcoat. This done, the fellow next draws out the watch, 
 aud immediately gives it to the confederate standing next to him. win. 
 again passes it on to another. Now the thieves crowd aud squeeze about 
 so as to entirely alter their position and to surround some other gentleman 
 and play the same game over again till they think it is time to move away- 
 and then they get off the car. 
 
 The harvest time of these thieves, however, is at the time when the 
 offices are being closed, and busiuess men are returning to their houses in 
 the upper parts of the city. Then they leave the resorts, each of which is 
 generally frequented by not more than one gang, and they arrange them- 
 selves separately on the foot-paths, and wait till they see a car going up 
 full. As soon as the chief operator has fixed upon one, he gives the signal 
 to his confederates and jumps in as it passes along, when the others get on 
 at intervals immediately after. When they are all together the crowding 
 begins. They force themselves between the other passengers, begin 
 apparently to quarrel among themselves, then to push about and to create 
 such a confusion in the car that everybody has enough to do to keep his 
 place. While this uproar is going on in the crowd, everything within 
 reach is stolen : aud in case any one of the victims should remark that he 
 had been robbed, ,and should raise an alarm, he immediately brings upon 
 
124 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 himself the open violence of the thieves, who do not hesitate to be guilty 
 of any, kind of criminality. 
 
 But it is not only inside the car that this rubble pursues its advocation. 
 The back platform is also a favorite place. We will narrate an incident 
 that occurred quite recently in a car on the Third Avenue Railroad. 
 
 Five stout built, powerful young fellows, each of whom could be recog- 
 nized at once as a bully, got on to a car which was already full of men, 
 women, and children. At Fourth Street a gentleman of some fifty years 
 of age rang the bell to get off. He was well dressed, and from his waist- 
 coat pocket hung a handsome watch-chain with trinkets attached. Hardly 
 had he stood up before a fellow pressed along to his side, while another 
 placed himself on the left of the door. Two of the thieves who were 
 behind the gentleman also squeezed forwards as if they also wanted to get 
 off the car. 
 
 At the same time the strongest of them, who remained upon the plat- 
 form, held on with both hands to the sides of the door as if he wanted to 
 go in ; and thus hemmed in on all sides the gentleman, in the crowd and 
 entirely off his guard, had his watch and purse taken from him. The con- 
 ductor must have seen it done, but what could he do, even if he had had 
 the inclination, against the five vagabonds, all of whom immediately left 
 the car ! 
 
 We often hear it remarked that the conductors must be in league with 
 the thieves, and there are instances certainly where this has been found to 
 be the case. It is in fact not long since that in the pockets of one of these 
 conductors, who had been arrested, four watches were found. But to con 
 sider that all the conductors or even a greater part of them-' are associates 
 of these thieves would be injust. It is a matter of fact that the conduc- 
 tors know almost all the thieves, but they are powerless against them, and 
 afraid of bringing upon themselves the violence of the whole brood. And 
 if once a conductor has the courage to wish to protect the passengers, he 
 must be prepared, to pay for it either with some personal injury or with 
 his life. 
 
 Not very long ago, it was upon a Sunday evening, in the beginning of 
 December, 1872, several of these thieves got upon a car that was on its 
 way up town. The conductor, a man named Colby, who knew how to do 
 his duty, instantly warned the passengers, and called into the car : " Look 
 out for pickpockets !" The fellows immediately left the car, swearing a 
 volley of oaths ; but when later in the evening the man returned with only 
 a few passengers down town, they were on the watch for him in Grand 
 Street, and springing on the car, they treated the conductor in the most 
 •abominable manner, almost beating him to death. A few days afterwards 
 two of the vagabonds were arrested for it, but it is quite certain that they 
 have never received a punishment equivalent to the crime. 
 
 It would be comparatively easy to remedy this great evil of street-car 
 
the rim w -. \'1'< 
 
 robberies, if the police seriously wanted to, — but they always seem to want 
 either the will or the energy. Since the detectives are well Acquainted 
 with all these thieves, their combers, which are now certainly /oo limited 
 for the purpose, should be so increased that a portion ol them could be 
 devoted to the constant inspection of the city cars. That would soon put 
 the finishing stroke on the entire brood, for just as the detectives know the 
 thieves, so too, do the thieves know the detectives; and they would very 
 soon give up their operations and be cautious about getting on to a car it 
 they supposed that they would be likely to meet a detective there. 
 
 The police have, it is true, twice shown an intention to do something fit 
 this kind, and have made applications for free passes on the roads for 
 themselves and the detectives. But these have never been acceded to. 
 What do these companies care, if the passengers in their cars are robbed 
 every year of thousands upon thousands ! They know well that the public 
 must use their cars and beyond that they care nothing. But cannot the 
 police authorities of the city pay the fares of the detectives so that the citi- 
 zens may be secured from robbery ? It should be understood that when it 
 becomes a question of spending money to guarantee the safety of the citi- 
 zens, niggardliness is a crime. 
 
 The number of robberies which are perpetrated in the city railroads is 
 extraordinarily large, and it would be no exaggeration to assume that on 
 every day at least ten watches are in this way lost to their owners. To 
 give some conception of this, we here enumerate the robberies of this kind 
 which came to our knowledge, partly through the papers, and partly 
 through the reports of the police themselves, as having occurred within the 
 space of three days towards the close of December, 1872. 
 
 A gentleman named J. O'Neil, from Boston, was robbed of a gold watch 
 and chain in a Fourth Avenue car. He offered for the return of it a 
 reward of 8100, " and no questions asked." 
 
 A gentleman who declined to give his name, but who was to be met 
 wi'.h in a saloon on Third Avenue and Twenty-fifth Street, offered, for the 
 return of his pocket-book and gold watch and chain, which had been taken 
 from him on the platform of a Third Avenue car, "to pay more than <i 
 ' fence' would give to buy them.'" 
 
 A gentleman named G. J. Agg was robbed of his gold watch and chain, 
 and $1")1 besides, in a car on the Belt Line, near Murray Street. 
 
 Another gentleman, who did not give his name, but who was to be 
 found at No. 309 Sixth Avenue, was robbed or" a gold watch on the plat- 
 form of a Sixth Avenue car, and he offered to pay $40 lor the return of il 
 u and not to ash amj embarrassing questions." 
 
 Mr. A. Oakley of Xo. 224 West Twenty-fourth Street was robbed of 
 his Geneva watch in a Sixth Avenue car, and offered $50 reward for its 
 return " and no questions asked." 
 
 Messrs. Farrar & Co. of 212 Grand Street, offered $50 reward " and no 
 
126 THE DARK SIDE OF SEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 questions askea*' for the return of a double cased gold watch which had 
 been .stolen in a Third Avenue car. 
 
 A thief who stole a purse in a Third Avenue Car was promised a 
 " liberal reward" if he would bring it back to No. 214 East Thirty-ninth 
 Street. 
 
 A thief who found a pocket-book in a University Place car, was told 
 that he might keep the money it contained if he would send back the 
 papers addressed to Post Office Box 2051. 
 
 A gentleman, who is engaged in the Bowery National Bank, declared 
 himself willing to pay $75 for the return of his gold watch, which had 
 been stolen from him in a -Fourth Avenue car, and he further promised 
 that " no questions should he asked" 
 
 A gentleman who gave his address as No. 38 Warren Street, lost his 
 watch in one of the Broadway stages. He did " not care to know how 
 that happened," but offered to pay S30 for the return of the property. 
 
 Mr. D. Wood, of the Astor Home, was ready to give a liberal token of 
 his esteem to the fortunate person who had "found" and would return a 
 well-filled purse that had been lost in a Fourth Avenue car. 
 
 The " operator" who stole a pocket-book in a car on the Fourth Avenue 
 road, with a quantity of money in it, is promised a suitable reward if he 
 will take it to the Metropolitan National Bank. 
 
 Mr. F. B. Rogers, who had his gold watch stolen in a car on the Third 
 Avenue, offered for its return $25, " and no questions asked" 
 
 Thus within the space of three days there were thirteen such occurrences 
 which were known. But how many were then of which we heard noth- 
 ing? It is a certain fact that not one-half of these losses are made public, 
 or ever come under the cognizance of the police. 
 
 We have already spoken with just censure of the circumstance that the 
 police tolerate this kind of thieves, when nothing would be easier than bo 
 disperse them altogether from the street-cars. But what shall be said 
 when we find the public themselves sustaining these thieves. In the thir- 
 teen announcements above referred to are seven in which the promise is 
 made " no questions asked !" Is not that offering a premium for robbery? 
 And cannot the people who make those offers comprehend that by so doing 
 they degrade themselves to the position of accomplices of thieves, as indeed 
 the receivers of stolen goods? In truth, when the people from whom these 
 things are stolen are themselves so corrupt as to set some personal advant- 
 age against the good of the community, in so much that they not only offer 
 to assure the thief against punishment — an offer in itself bad enough — but 
 they also promise him a reward, it need not be wondered at that things 
 are, as they are. 
 
 So much for the thieves in the street-cars ; now a few words in refer- 
 ence to those who operate in the omnibuses. As already observed, these 
 are only rarely men, but more generally women ; who, appearing in elab- 
 
tiik ril ik.v 
 
 orate to'leta, never create i suspicion that they are thieves. But whether 
 men or women, these thieves always have some piece of clothing, Buch as 
 
 a shawl, mantle, wrapper or something of the kind which Berv< - I i 
 their hands while they are at work. Generally two women operate 
 together, of whom the one who is going to commit the robbery take- i 
 close to the intended victim, whilst the confederate Bits next to the thief. 
 Partly by means of the folds of her dress or of the lady's shawl and partly 
 by her own dress the hands of the thief arc concealed, and she can • 
 insert one of them into the lady's pocket. Then whatever she finds there 
 she passes on to her accomplice, so that in case of an alarm being made, 
 and since suspicion woidd naturally rest upon her as being nearest to the 
 lady who has been robbed, the stolen property cannot be found upon her. 
 The accomplice, however, Boon after leaves the stage, to meet the 
 later in the day and together divide the spoil. 
 
 As a general rule the depredations of these thieves are confined to ladies ; 
 but very often the women attack gentlemen also. Quite recently such a. 
 ■ ase happened in an omnibus on the Fifth Avenue route. A pretty and 
 handsomely dressed woman got in, and a gentleman who was Bitting near 
 the door was very polite to her in assisting her in; he also moved more 
 closely into the corner to make room for her next to him. 
 
 She threw back her veil, and the gentleman's eyes truly lingered with 
 pleasure on his pretty neighbor, whose luxuriant skirts were spread out 
 half over his lap. To his question whether he should close the window 
 behind her, she responded with a most bewitching smile, aud the gentleman 
 i hereupon stood up aud, stooping over her, pulled up the window. Soon 
 after the lady rang the bell and left the omnibus, upon which a gentleman 
 who sat opposite the first remarked to him that his watch-chain was hanging 
 loose. Alarmed, he made a rush for his watch ; it was gone. Another 
 plunge into the pocket where his purse was ; that was gone too. His pretty 
 fashionable neighbor, who had been so fascinating, had got both watch and 
 purse. He instantly rang the bell, jumped out of the stage and went im- 
 mediately to a police station that happened to be near at hand. Hut all to 
 no purpose ; neither watch nor purse was ever recovered. But the lesson 
 f a- valuable, nevertheless, that one can never be too cautious in making 
 approaches to pretty and elegantly-dressed ladies whom we do not know. 
 
 Upon the ferry-boats also many female pickpockets are to be met with. 
 These, however, are not generally of the " fashionable " class ; they are not 
 elaborately dressed, but usually assume the character of a working woman, 
 sometimes having a basket on the arm, as if they were going to or returning 
 from market. They do not always leave the boat even wheu they have 
 stolen anything, but go. perhaps, into the ladies' room or one of the ferry 
 houses, there give up their plunder to some confederate who is waiting for 
 them, and immediately ride back again. Staying on the boat in this way, 
 aud travelling backwards and forwards, they entirely lose sight of their 
 
128 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 victims, and thus in the course of a day are enabled to accumulate a large 
 quantity of plunder. 
 
 Again, upon the steam railroads it is well known that very much property 
 is constantly being stolen. This subject, however, need not be considered, 
 since it lies outside of the limits of our work, which treats only of the dark 
 side of New York life. We will only remark that upon these roads chloro- 
 form is often used, so that it is well to be careful, especially at night time, 
 whom we sit next to. About two years ago, while on a journey to Phila- 
 delphia, and in broad daylight too, the present author had his pocket-book 
 stolen during a short time in which he happened to fall asleep, though it is 
 true he had very incautiously placed it in a breast pocket of his coat. 
 
 It is hardly possible to be too cautious, although there are instances — 
 not very numerous however — where even caution may lead to embarrass- 
 ment. We remember one such instance, which is so ludicrous that we 
 cannot well withhold it in this place. 
 
 A young lady, who was in the habit frequently of making the journey 
 between here and Boston, discovered one day when she arrived in New 
 York that her purse had been stolen. She told her loss to an acquaintance, 
 and he enjoined her to be very careful of any stranger who, during her 
 frequent journeys, should sit near her in the dark tunnels. Accordingly, 
 whenever she passed through the tunnels afterwards, and a stranger chanced 
 to be sitting next to her, she used to put her hand into her pocket and hold 
 fast to her purse. 
 
 On one of her journeys soon after, from Boston to New Yor%, a gentle- 
 man got into the car at Springfield, and took the vacant seat next to her. 
 He was respectable and agreeable in appearance, and tried more than once 
 in a manner that was perfectly polite to get into conversation with his 
 neighbor, but not to much purpose. She always answered him in mono- 
 syllables, showing that she did not wish to hold any communication with 
 him. When the train entered the tunnel she remembered the warning of 
 her friend and her precautions, and put her hand into her pocket to take 
 hold of her purse. What was her astonishment then to find another hand 
 already there. Being a resolute woman she seized it, held it tightly so 
 that the thief could not withdraw it, and determined to hand him over to 
 the charge of the conductor as soon as the train should emerge from the 
 tunnel. The train was slow, the time seemed never likely to end, but, 
 fortunately, the thief made no efforts to release his hands. Either he was 
 thinking how to escape from a very unpleasant position, or perhaps he was 
 pleased at feeling his hand so vigorously pressed by that of a pretty woman. 
 But great was the amazement of the lady, when the train left the tunnel, 
 and all was light again, to see that she had not put her hand, as she 
 thought, into her own pocket, but into that of her neighbour ! And there 
 still she had got his hand and was squeezing it with a will ! They were 
 two droll faces with which the couple now looked at each other ; but an 
 
THE THIEVES, 
 
 129 
 
 explanation followed, and the lady and her presumed thief parted very 
 good friends. 
 
 sneak-Tiheves form again another class in the brood, and a more dan- 
 gerous class than that we have just spoken of, because they come along 
 imperceptibly, and except for the very small chance of being detected in 
 the act, get away with their plunder unobserved. They usually go to work 
 when darkness sets in, their harvest time being in the autumn and winter 
 months, at which time of the year many over-coats, cloaks, furs, and other 
 articles of dress hang in the entrance halls of houses ; left there cither by 
 the inmates of the house or by their visitors. The sneak-thief has seldom, 
 more than one confederate, although quite as often they work alone. If 
 there is an associate, he provides himself with a bag in which the stolen 
 property is immediately concealed and taken away. He also acts as a 
 watch for the other, and gives a signal, in case a policeman approaches ; 
 upon which the thief, slipping out of the house, takes care not to fall into 
 the hands of his enemy. 
 
 Like all other thieves, the sneak-thieves have their receivers, who buy 
 everything from them, from an old umbrella to a valuable over-coat, or a 
 costly fur. They buy everything and anything, and always know how to 
 dispose of them again. Very often a prize falls into the hands of a sneak- 
 thief which he had not quite looked for. That is, generally towards the 
 end of winter, when it is so cold that to avoid the inconvenience of unbut- 
 toning and buttoning up a coat, a person is apt to put his purses in the 
 pockets of his over-coat ; and then, when they reach home, they hang up the 
 coat in the hall without thinking of the purse. Later in the evening it 
 comes back to their recollection, and when they go out from the room to 
 remit their money to a safer place, they find that both coat and purse have 
 disappeared. It often happens that a pocket-book gets lost with a coat, 
 and sometimes there are in the pocket-book papers which are not only not 
 intended to be made public, but which, if published, would certainly bring 
 disagreeable consequences upon their owner. Such papers are carefully 
 examined by the thieves ; if they find anything in them upon which an 
 exaction can be based, they go to work about it forthwith, and it has often 
 happened that such papers have been bought back again by their owners 
 at a very high price. 
 
 When the sneak and his associate have agreed as to what part of the 
 town they will make as the field of their depredations, they wander about 
 all over the neighborhood until they find a house which seems suitable for 
 their purpose. The thief then sneaks up the steps and opens the door with 
 a picklock while his confederate keeps watch, and when this latter gives 
 the signal that the coast is clear, then both set to work to get together 
 everything that hangs in the hall, cram them all into the bag and make off 
 with them. If the prize is too heavy, they avail themselves of the first 
 
 9 
 
130 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 car or omnibus that passes, or sometimes engage a hackney carriage. 
 The plunder is then taken first home to be examined, and afterwards goes 
 to the receiver to be sold. 
 
 The sneak-thief, too, is generally well and respectably dressed, so that 
 his real occupation is well concealed by his external appearance. Besides 
 which it serves him in good stead when he happens to be surprised by a 
 maid servant, or anybody residing in the house etc., who finds him in the 
 hall. He is at no loss for an excuse under those circumstances. He 
 always has something ready, for example, he will perhaps say that he 
 found the door open, and just came in to tell them. Then he takes his 
 leave. — Or he will say that he has come from Mr. Jones, or Mr. Thomp- 
 son, in Madison Square, with a message from that gentleman to the effect 
 that he cannot call this evening, but that he will come around the first 
 thing in the morning. — The girl is requested to deliver the message, and 
 he moves as if to leave. Away goes the girl up stairs to fulfil her mis- 
 sion. But the gentleman of the house knows nothing of Mr. Jones or Mr. 
 Thompson in Madison Square, and says that there must be some mistake, 
 and that the messenger had better be told to go next door. But the thief 
 did not go away when he pretended to. He left the door on the latch, and 
 directly the girl had gone up stairs he went in again, gathered up every- 
 thing in the hall that he could lay his hands on, with the utmost speed, and 
 is off. When the girl comes down stairs and sees what has happened, she 
 does not lose much time in running back to her master wdth the news that 
 everything in the place has been stolen. People cannot be too careful to 
 enjoin upon their servants never under any circumstances whatever, no 
 matter how respectable they may appear, or how plausible their purpose 
 may seem, to leave strangers in the entrance hall ; or, as not unfrequently 
 happens, and as has often led to robberies, to invite them into a room. 
 
 Often when a sneak-thief gets into a house and finds nothing that he can 
 take in the entrance hall, but seesjthat the inmates are down stairs, in the 
 dining-room for example, he makes a survey of the up stairs rooms, and 
 rarely fails to find some plunder that is worthy of his attention. 
 
 It also more frequently happens that whilst the inmates of a house are 
 sitting at table down stairs, the thief climbs up by the balcony of the parlor 
 floor, perhaps to the second story, his confederate all the while keeping 
 watch. He then with instruments, with which he is provided, quietly opens 
 the fastening of the window, and finding all the doors on the upper floor 
 open, as well, probably, as the drawers and cupboards, he makes a rich 
 booty. To escape with it he will sometimes slip cautiously down stairs 
 and go out of the front door, or, throwing the things out of the window to 
 his companion, leaves the house by the same way as he entered it. 
 
 During summer time, the sneak-thief keeps his eye very carefully upon 
 basement dining-rooms. At that time of the year people are very much 
 in the habit of leaving the lower doors open to get relief from the heat. 
 
 
THE TIIIKVK3. 131 
 
 Then, when the table is lai«l for meals, and silver spoons and knives and 
 forks are lying about, before the people of the house are down, he creeps 
 nimbly into the room, sweeps off all the silver in the place, and in another 
 moment is gone. The silver is of course very soon in the melting-pot and 
 all means of identification are destroyed. — In the upper part of the city 
 there are whole rows of houses in. which every house has been robbed in 
 this manner. 
 
 But when the sneak-thief sees the door in the basement open, but that 
 the servant is down stairs, he statious himself in the neighborhood of the 
 open door, while his confederate rings the bell of the house-door, and when 
 it is answered, asks some frivolous question. In the meantime, though it 
 be but a couple of minutes that the girl is away up stairs, the silver takes 
 its departure from the dining-room, and the girl comes back to see with no 
 little astonishment what has happened. 
 
 There are yet two other tricks of these thieves which we have to men* 
 tion. One is practised in a boarding-house, and more especially in those 
 of the better class. They hire rooms in such a house, if possible on the 
 top floor, because that gives them an excuse for going through the whole 
 house. They then wait their opportunity, and when in any of the rooms 
 they see valuables lying about, they go in, take all they can find, and soon 
 after leave. — Not long ago, in October of last year, a thief of this kind 
 named Stuyvesant, but who had also used the names of De Peyster and 
 Cornstock, was arrested. This man, so far as could be ascertained, had 
 in a very short time robbed no less than twelve boarding-houses in the 
 upper part of the city, between vSixteenth and Nineteenth Streets, the total 
 value of his depredations amounting to SI, 105. He was detected at last, 
 through one of the persons he had robbed, sending a personal description 
 of him to all the principal boarding-houses in the city. In consequence of 
 this he was arrested just as he had engaged a room at No. 18 East Forty- 
 sixth Street. 
 
 Then lastly there are sneak-thieves who work, not in private houses, but 
 in places of business. It is well known that in business houses, when 
 goods are got ready for the express men and await removal, it is the cus- 
 tom to hang out a board with the name of the express that is wanted, — i;i 
 order that the driver of any passing wagon may know when he is to call, 
 lie then takes the packages and gives a receipt for them, upon which the 
 persons who send them take no further trouble in the matter. Thieves 
 turn this custom to their advantage. They see a house from which hangs 
 a notice, let us say for " Adams Express." One of them drives up a 
 wagon to the door, while another goes in and boldly asks for the parcels 
 for Adams Express. The merchants cannot of course be expected to know 
 all the servants of every express company and so the thief gets the goods, 
 giving a receipt in the name of the company ; and then putting them in his 
 wagon, disappears. 
 
132 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 We now come to a higher order of the thieving profession, namely 
 Housebreakers, gentlemen who think themselves far above pickpockets, 
 shoplifters, car and sneak-thieves, and who look down upon these latter 
 with a considerable amount of conceit. The term " house-breaker" implies 
 the use of force in entering a house, but force is not by any means always 
 used, for these people seek to attain their ends by various ways, and for 
 the most part probably without violence. In one of these they make use 
 of the sneak-thieves, by whose assistance they are enabled to obtain false 
 keys for the houses which they want to rob. If they are business houses r 
 the sneak-thieves know that the keys are usually in charge of the porter r 
 who takes them home with him. By some means or other they then seek 
 to get access there and to take a wax impression of the key, although to 
 accomplish this they often have to wait a very long time before an oppor- 
 tunity offers. When the impression of a key to a private residence is 
 required, the task is easier. They then make the acquaintance of the 
 maid-servants ; and in due course assume the character of a sweetheart, 
 when it is very easy to get the opportunity wanted without the girl having 
 the slightest suspicion. They do not, however, avail themselves of the 
 opportunities thus presented to do any stealing themselves. Their com- 
 mission for the house-breaker suffices to absolve them from this duty. 
 Neither do they ever take the original key, because the loss of that would 
 create suspicion. Moreover, as false keys are always in much demand 
 among house-breakers, many sneak-thieves make it their special business 
 to provide themselves with the impressions of keys to different houses, so 
 as to have a supply from which a choice may be made. With false keys 
 made by this means the entrance into houses is a very easy matter. 
 
 Often when the house-breaker cannot get a key to any particular house 
 which he wants to rob, he looks for an empty house in the same block. 
 Entering this, he gets out of an upper window and, going along the roof 
 over the intervening houses, comes to that upon which he has decided to 
 devote his attention. Here he carefully opens the up stairs window, and 
 secures an entrance. The family is probably down stairs quietly assembled 
 at the dinner table, or if it be summer time, the members may be seeking 
 a little fresh air near the door. Nothing could be more desirable. The 
 thief has all the up stairs rooms to himself. He ransacks bureaus, closets,, 
 toilet-tables &c. of money, gold and silver, jewelry and everything of value 
 that he can find ; packs them all up together in one of the rooms, and 
 returns by the same way that he came ; while the family do not discover 
 the robbery, perhaps for hours, or till they come to bed. The stolen 
 money cannot of course be identified. Diamonds and other precious stones 
 are taken out to be reset, and the gold and silver being melted down, all 
 clue to the discovery of the thief is destroyed. 
 
 Summer brings to the housebreaker prospects of rich plunder. At that 
 time thousands of the inhabitants of New York go to country houses, 
 
 
tiik rmuvES. ISS 
 
 watering places, the sea-side or to Europe, and return again in the autumn 
 or winter. But the houses of these families are left, with very few excep- 
 tions, quite unoccupied during this time. The keys, perhaps, are given 
 over into the keeping of the police captain of the precinct, and the only 
 protection the place has, depends entirely upon the patrolman of the beat, 
 who sees to it that the door is fastened when he passes it upon his round*. 
 In the twenty-ninth precinct alone, a district which is bounded by Fourth 
 and Seventh Avenues and Fourteenth and Forty-second Streets, there 
 were, during the summer of last year, more than eight hundred houses, 
 whose occupants having gone into the country, left them unoccupied. In 
 all of these were costly furniture, besides all the winter clothing of the 
 families, table linen and very often, too, all the silver plate. Such a house 
 is, as it were, hermetically closed. No servant is in it, nobody to take 
 care of it. Where then could a better opportunity be found for thieves? 
 The window shutters are fastened ; it is impossible for passers-by. or for 
 the policeman whose duty it is to see that the door remains locked, to 
 know what is going on inside the house ; and thus the thieves, who get 
 access to the inside either through the roof or the coal cellar, or perhaps 
 through a window in the back of the building, have a clear field and cau 
 pack up their plunder at their leisure. It has often happened that in such 
 houses the thieves have even taken up the carpets, broken open bureaus 
 and drawers and stripped them of their contents, and taken away all the 
 porcelain, glass, wearing apparel, and linen, of the whole family, without 
 being discovered or disturbed. To require that the police shall protect 
 such houses against robbery, is to demand what is impossible. To do this 
 would necessitate a constant inspection by night and day of all unoccupied 
 houses, and for that purpose the numerical strength of the entire police 
 department would not suffice. 
 
 As a protection against the burglarious entry of a house through the 
 roof, when the house is occupied, a very simple contrivance was devised 
 about two years ago by police Captain Thome ; and where it has been 
 introduced, it has answered well. It consisted merely in connecting the 
 inside of the top window with a loudly sounding bell, which would ring as 
 soon as the window was opened. By means of this very simple expedieut 
 many attempts at burglary have been frustrated and it ought to be brought 
 into use by all owners or occupants of houses in the city who do not wish 
 to have their places entered. 
 
 "We may conclude this section upon the house-breakers by mentioning a 
 case that comes to our recollection where one of them was detected in his 
 offence, and which shows what apparently unimportant circumstances will 
 sometimes lead to discovery. — A large silk house was robbed by burglars 
 of silks and velvets to the value of many thousand dollars. The thieves 
 had broken a hole through the wall, by which they got into the warehouse 
 and' also escaped again, taking the goods with them. They had left no 
 
13-4 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 clue behind. The poliece shook their heads, and the firm who bad been 
 robbed concluded that they must submit to their loss quietly. But the 
 affair was placed in the hands of one of our ablest detectives. He searched 
 the place carefully, and found in a crack of ,the floor, near the hole, a but- 
 ton, to which a piece of plaster was adhering. It was evident that this 
 button had been torn off the clothes of one of the men as he was getting 
 out of the narrow hole. The detective took it, therefore, thinking that 
 possibly it might lead to the discovery of the thief. Now, as we have said 
 before, there are in the city a large number of places where the thieves 
 resort when they are not at their " work." All of these were carefully 
 scrutinized by the officer, and as the thieves know very well that detec- 
 tives are always well armed and moreover that, when necessary, they are 
 not very fastidious about using their arms, no hindrance was ever offered 
 to the examination. The detective, who had the button in his pockety 
 however, kept a sharper lookout than usual upon these places, and this the 
 thieves of course observed, remarking that there must be something in the 
 wind ; yet the officer did not speak to them, neither did they say anything 
 to him. But as it turned out, all these visits of the officer were to no pur- 
 pose. Notwithstanding all his efforts he could not find anybody that was 
 deficient in a coat button ; at least not of such a button as the one in his 
 possession. However, after a time, as he was standing one evening at the 
 entrance of one of the pleasure resorts of the lower classes, a man passed 
 him and went in, the buttons of whose coat were like that which the detec- 
 tive had in his pocket. The latter now felt sure that he had found his 
 man. He followed him, took a seat beside him, and seemed to be taking 
 a great interest in the performance, although, in truth, he was contem- 
 plating the buttons on the man's coat, to find to his gratification that one 
 of them was missing. Having made this discovery, he went out and pro- 
 cured assistance, then getting the man outside the building, he arrested 
 him. But well knowing that the button alone presented only the weakest 
 kind of evidence, and that no judge would hold a prisoner upon such testi- 
 mony, he openly charged the man with the robbery, declared to him how 
 it had been done, how he had lost the button off his coat, and in short 
 managed everything so well, that the thief thinking that some of his com- 
 rades had confessed and betrayed him, made a full confession himself with- 
 out any more ado ; and even took the policeman to the place where the 
 stolen property was concealed. 
 
 But that button led to yet other and more important consequences. The 
 arrest of this thief put the detectives on the track of other burglars, which, 
 being followed up for several months, led ultimately to the breaking up of 
 a most formidable band of thieves. 
 
 Bond Thieves and Bank Robbers do not numbe/ more than about 
 fifty persons, who " work" in six gangs. They usually live in the city, 
 
THE THIEVES. 135 
 
 but do not limit their operations to it. They are here, there, and every- 
 where, sometimes busy in one town, sometimes in another. They take 
 first place in the community of thieves, they are the first power in the 
 criminal ranks, and they merit it by the possession and concentration of 
 a number of faculties which are not often found in any one person, but 
 which would raise them to positions of high consideration if only they 
 would devote themselves to honest ends. Such a criminal must exhibit 
 the greatest patience in everything that tends to the fulfilment of his 
 object ; he must have a profound and practical knowledge of human nature ; 
 be ever prepared for any eventualities ; and enjoy under all circumstances, 
 and in all dangers, the most perfect presence of mind and self-control. It 
 is a noteworthy fact that for a long time past, in the State of New York, 
 not one criminal of this kind has been convicted, if we except Henry Neu- 
 mann, alias Dutch Heinriehs, in whose case, however, a new trial was 
 allowed, and upon that he obtained his freedom. 
 
 The reason for this is no testimony to the purity of society, or to the 
 spirit of that class of people who are usually the victims of this kind of 
 thieves. The business men of Wall and Broad Streets are afflicted with 
 such a ruinous greed for money, that every better feeling seems to be 
 swept out of their hearts. Least of all is their public patriotism. Indeed, 
 from some aspects, there seems to be none left. They care nothing for 
 anybody else so long as their own dollars multiply. If they are robbed of 
 twenty thousand dollars they will gladly give half that amount to get the 
 other halfback. Better, say they, to lose $10,000 and compound a felony, 
 than be mulcted in §20,000 and do a public service by prosecuting the 
 thief. So much for the public patriotism of Wall Street ! And yet such 
 selfish cowardice ought not to be necessary under a more pure or less cor- 
 rupt system ; as witness the American forgeries on the Bank of England, 
 where in spite of a loss of $300,000, the most vigorous prosecution, as is 
 usual in that country, was immediately set on foot by the bank authorities 
 through the very able detective force of London, and so thoroughly and 
 honestly was the matter carried through that in a very short time the 
 alleged criminals were secured, and the money, all but a very trifling sum, 
 recovered. The truth is that in our city the rapacity for money defeats 
 itself in these cases, and protects the thieves from punishment. That is 
 why they are so seldom brought to justice. When a bond or bank rob- 
 bery takes place in New York, negotiations are entered into between the 
 thief and his victim directly there looms up any prospect of his not being 
 able to do anything better with his spoils. The result of this very often is 
 thaf fifty per cent, is retained by the robber by consent, on condition that 
 the other moiety be paid to the rightful owners. It is very rare that one 
 of these thieves is taken in the act. They are too cautious, too wary, too 
 clever, -too bold, too self-possessed, to suffer anything of that kind ; and if 
 
136 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 they secure only tea per cent, by their plunder out of the subsequent nego- 
 tiations, they are not badly paid for the exercise of their talents.*) 
 
 But a thief of this kind must not only be endowed with valuable quali- 
 ties, he must possess a superior appearance and a faultless demeanor. The 
 danger of all this can, however, be testified too very strongly by many 
 banks, brokers, and other prominent business people. Such a man enter- 
 ing a broker's office and asking either to write a letter or to be allowed to 
 look at the directory does not at first create suspicion. His request being 
 granted, he is careful to get as near as possible to the safe, the door of 
 weich is almost invariably, and always very unwisely, left standing open. 
 Whilst engaged in getting the information he pretends to want, or in writ- 
 ing the letter, two of his confederates enter and engage the broker's atten- 
 tion by some enquiries which he thinks may lead to more profits for him- 
 self. Absorbed in this, he gives no heed to the first of his three visitors, 
 who, seizing his opportunity, appropriates anything that lies conveniently 
 in the safe within reach. Then, politely thanking the broker for his 
 courtesy, he leaves. His confederates also take their departure presently, 
 though not with any undue haste ; and it may possibly be some time before 
 the broker discovers that he has lost anything. Robberies of this kind are 
 continually occurring, and yet they are rendered possible only by the care- 
 lessness and negligence of business people, who not only leave their safe 
 doors open, but even allow strangers to come within the enclosure of their 
 office. 
 
 A case which occurred about two years ago in a broker's office in Wall 
 Street serves to show the extraordinary audacity of the thieves. A broker 
 who does a very considerable business, and employs a large number of 
 clerks, was standing one day, during the most active business time, directly 
 in front of his open safe engaged in conversation with a gentleman. Pre- 
 sently a man without a hat, with a pen behind his ear and a sheet of paper 
 in his hand, came in, opened the railing without any ceremony and went 
 through, merely addressing the broker with " Permit me, one moment." 
 The broker, whose attention was quite absorbed in his conversation with 
 the gentleman, took scarcely any notice of the person going in, supposing 
 probably by his manner and appearance that he was one of his own clerks, 
 and he made room for him before the safe ; upon which the visitor took 
 out a parcel of United States bonds to the value of nearly $100,000 and 
 went away. The robbery was not discovered till some time in the course 
 of the afternoon, but not a trace either of the thief or of the property has 
 been found even to this day. 
 
 We have incidentally mentioned the notorious Dutch Heinrich. The 
 
 
 *) At date of our writing (May 31st, 1873) the following announcement appears in a morning paper: 
 "Three thousand dollars worth of the bonds stolen from the Waterford (New York) Bank have been 
 returned by the thieves, who have received thirty-five per cent, and immunity from punishment for their 
 trouble." 
 
THE THIKVES. 137 
 
 man is one of the most daring, as well as one of the most successful, crimi- 
 nals of the class now under consideration. His career has been so remark- 
 able, throwing so completely into the shade all the acts of his associates, 
 and is in many details so interesting, that it may uot be out of place to 
 refer to it a little more particularly. 
 
 The offence for which he was brought to justice iu March 1872 and ulti- 
 mately convicted was the robbery of $33,000 worth of railroad bonds 
 which he was charged with having taken on the 14th of February from 
 the office of Kennedy & Co., at the corner of Cedar and William Streets. 
 The parcel was missed a quarter of an hour after Dutch Heinrich and his 
 confederate had left the counter, and during the interval no one had been 
 in the place except those employed there. Dutch Henry, however, who 
 had been often before arrested and as often escaped punishment, was well 
 recognized by the people of the house. On previous occasions he had fre- 
 quently escaped prosecution either by restoring his plunder or by some 
 arrangement. Independently of the great robbery at Lord's, where, with 
 two associates, he stole United States bonds to the value of SI, 700,000, 
 the amount of this man's depredations during his career has been estimated 
 at more than a million of dollars. 
 
 It may be ten or twelve years ago now, when in company with an 
 equally notorious tbief of the same kind, one Chauncey Johnson, he took 
 two bags of gold coin, each with $5,000, from the Bank of the State of 
 New York. Both separated when they left the bank. Johnson escaped 
 with his plunder, but Dutch Heinrich was arrested with one of the bags of 
 money in his possession. Nevertheless, he was never brought to trial. 
 It is said that Johnson gave back the $5,000 in his possession on the con- 
 dition that Dutch Heinrich should be set at liberty. 
 
 Not long after this Dutch Heinrich snatched a bundle of bonds to the 
 value of $10,000 from the hand of a gentleman before the Astor House, 
 and knocked a man down who attempted to hold him. He was arrested, 
 identified by the person from whom he stole the papers and brought up for 
 examination. But he was never tried ; having given up the greater por- 
 tion of the bonds to their owner on condition that no charge should be 
 made against him. 
 
 Again, a parcel containing 816.000 worth of United States five-twenties 
 was taken from the office of the President of the Central National Bank. 
 Dutch Heiurich having been seen in the bank, there was no doubt enter- 
 tained as to his being the thief. He was arrested. Soon afterwards, how- 
 ever, the police received information that the bonds had been " found" 
 again, and Dutch Heinrich was consequently released from custody. 
 
 One Sunday afternoon, shortly after one of his most successful opera- 
 tions in Wall Street, Dutch Heinrich visited a gaming house in Prince 
 Street and there lost over $11,000. With a curse on his ill-luck he left 
 the house and went home. Soon after, as he was sitting in his room in 
 
138 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 the twilight of the evening, he was suddenly seized from behind, threatened 
 with instant death if he offered any resistance, bound and gagged, and 
 everything he had about him, which he had got by his rascality a few days 
 before, was taken from him. His aggressor, who also arrested him, was 
 the, at that time, police captain, and more recently police superintendent 
 Jourdan, and for a short time Dutch Heinrich found himself once more 
 under lock and key. A part of the stolen money was, however, presently 
 returned, and as a consequence proceedings against the thief were once 
 more set aside. 
 
 It was also, without doubt, Dutch Heinrich who towards the end of 1871 
 stole a parcel containing $54,000 worth of bonds from a gentleman named 
 Blatchford, which that careless wiseacre had laid down on a table in a 
 fruiterer's shop while he was buying some fruit. Another time he was 
 discovered behind the counter in Adams Express Office among a number 
 of valuable packages of money, for the removal of which he was certainly 
 only awaiting an opportunity. He wore a linen coat, and carried a pen 
 behind his ear, so that he was generally taken for one of the many clerks 
 who are engaged in the office. The same gentleman was likewise con- 
 cerned in the robbery of $99,000 worth of railroad bonds, which were 
 taken from the private office of the president of the Union Trust Company 
 in 1871. And in fact there has scarcely been any robbery of any import- 
 ance for some time past in which Dutch Heinrich has not had a hand. 
 
 The career of this, the most important of all our thieves, and his Abso- 
 lute immunity from punishment, show beyond a doubt, and in the most 
 unanswerable manner, how sad, how pitiful, how contemptible, is the posi- 
 tion held by Right and Justice in this great city of New York — the Me- 
 tropolis of the " Land of Liberty !" Corruption in high places has under- 
 mined and threatened everything, and even as it has in past times torn 
 Republics to pieces, so in truth it now threatens to destroy this our Repub- 
 lic of North America. It is terrible, but true ! 
 
 What we have thus far written refers only to those bond and bank rob- 
 beries w r hich have been perpetrated more after the fashion of the sneak- 
 thieves and without the employment of force. But there are also bank 
 thieves, who obtain excess to the places burglariously, and we must say a 
 few w T ords concerning them. 
 
 This species of thief may be characterized by the operations tfpon the 
 Ocean Bank in Greenwich Street, which occurred about two ye&rs ago. 
 The thieves had rented an office in the basement of the Ocean Bauk from 
 a broker named O'Kell, who was afterwards sent to Sing Sing as having 
 been the receiver of some stolen United States bands. In this office the 
 burglars passed their time from Saturday evening to Monday morning, 
 engaged in breaking a way through the ceiling and then through the floor 
 of the bank. Having by this means obtained access to the latter office, 
 they opened the large safe and took from it more than $200,000 in cash 
 
THE TIIIKVES. 
 
 139 
 
 and valuable papers, of which no part has ever been recovered. Much in 
 l he same manner the Third National Bank of Baltimore, Maryland, was 
 robbed in the summer of 1872 ; and again before that the Boylston Bank 
 in Boston. In this case the thieves rented the house which stood at the 
 rear of the bank building, then broke through the walla and so obtained 
 access to the bank. A man named Glover, from this place, one of the 
 confederates in that robbery, attempted to sell some of the stolen bonds in 
 New York, but he was arrested, and being transferred to Boston, he was 
 there sentenced to a long term of imprisonment ; for the people of other 
 States are not always so thin skinned in their dealings with criminals as 
 we in New York are. And yet even in that case the actual robbers have 
 never been detected. 
 
 Again, in the summer of 1872 an attempt of an exactly similar kind 
 was made to enter the First National Bank in Jersey City. Here, how- 
 ever, the thieves did not effect their object, for being discovered while at 
 work they took flight and disappeared. All these robberies were no doubt 
 done by the bank thieves of this city. That is clear from their manner of 
 operating, and is a proof of the foresight of these people, and of the ex- 
 tremely dangerous character of the gangs to which they belong. 
 
 But there are bank robberies, which are not perpetrated by the regular, 
 • professional bank thieves, and an example of these is related by Mr. 
 McWaters, of which we avail ourselves. 
 
 He says: — "I was one day called suddenly to see the president of a 
 bank in Wall Street. I hastened to his office and he informed me that 
 within the previous two hours a bag containing $10,000 in gold has been 
 ; missed. All search for it had been fruitless, and scarcely one of the clerks 
 could call to mind anybody who could have taken it from the shelf where 
 it had been placed. Nor is such a statement surprising when we recollect 
 the number of persons who have business in a large bank, and how each 
 one has his hands full, and attends only, and can attend only, to the duty 
 that is immediately before him. Besides which business on that particu- 
 lar day had been particularly active in the bank. I examined the place 
 carefully, and thought myself constrained to say that no one could have 
 slipped into the place and taken the bag away from the shelf in the safe, 
 because the clerks w r ere engaged at their desks all about, and the thief 
 would have had to get round behind them. But the president assured me 
 that he could not rest the smallest suspicion upon any of the clerks, that 
 without exception the honor of them all had been thoroughly proved, and 
 they had shown themselves quite worthy of all the confidence that had 
 been placed in them. Besides which none of the clerks had that morning 
 left the bank, except at lunch-time, when they never went out singly, but 
 two or three together. That the bag was in the safe in the morning when 
 the bank opened was, nevertheless, an undoubted fact ; — and I told the 
 president that in my opinion where there was at present nothing to take 
 
140 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 hold of, it would be very difficult to do anything, and that it seemed to me 
 that it would be better to keep quiet and wait patiently. If some accident 
 did not lead to a discovery he would be hardly likely to see the money 
 again, for it was very probable that some bold thief, having the appearance 
 of a clerk and who had carefully studied the place before, had slipped in 
 among the other clerks some time during the height of business when the 
 bank was full of people, and so had completed the robbery. That was my 
 opinion, although I gave it with some scruple of conscience. But how was 
 it possible to identify even one of the thousand ten dollar pieces which 
 were in the bag ! That was a difficulty which could not be got over. 
 
 Still I set to work to consider what ought to be done. I got them to 
 show me one of the bags like that in which the money had been stolen, 
 and carefully noted its marks. The president, who was exceedingly angry 
 that such a thing should have happened in his bank, imposed the strictest 
 silence upon all his clerks, and requested the same also of me ; — for which 
 reason I do not mention the name here either of the bank or of any of the 
 persons concerned. 
 
 The first thing I did was to seek out the rag collectors and people who 
 go about the streets buying up old rags and such things, and promised 
 them a good reward if they could find me a bag with certain^markings 
 upon it, such as I described. By this means I in a measure converted a 
 number of people into detectives. I must certainly confess, that if the 
 thief had his right senses about him, he must have destroyed the bag as 
 soon as possible ; still it was just a chance that he might have thrown it 
 on one side, and in that case it would most surely come with other scraps 
 and papers into the hands of the rag-collectors. Besides this I visited the 
 different resorts of thieves and gaming houses to find out whether per- 
 chance any of their visitors had exhibited a quantity of money, and I got 
 the co-operation for this purpose of several other detectives. But time 
 passed on, and in this way we could not discover anything. Indeed, a long 
 while intervened, till at last I heard something from one of the rag men. 
 One of these people at length came to me and informed me that he thought 
 he had seen the bag I wanted, but that he had not brought it with him nor 
 interfered in any way, because he thought it would be better for me to go 
 and see the bag myself. It was in a stable belonging to a rich family in 
 the upper part of the city, and belonged, as he thought, to the coachman, 
 — having seen it there when he called once to buy a lot of rags. It was 
 filled with something, tied up, and was hanging from a nail. He added 
 that he had carefully noticed the marks, was convinced that it was the bag 
 I wanted, and begged me to go with him and see it for myself. 
 
 On the following morning we went together to the stable and found it 
 open, a carriage standing in the entrance. I had previously instructed the 
 rag man that he shonld get into conversation with the coachman about the 
 rag business that he had done with him the day before, so that, without 
 
 
THE THIEVES. 141 
 
 arousing any suspicion, I could get an opportunity to examine the bag. 
 We did so, and in truth it was the identical bag I was looking for. I then 
 sat down on a chest that was standing conveniently and began to chat with 
 the coachman upon things generally ; from which conversation I was 
 enabled to glean that the coachman was quite innocent of the robbery and 
 knew nothing whatever about it. To make a convenient opportunity for 
 fretting close to the bag, I began to walk about the stable, and to look first 
 at the carriage, then at one thing after another, till at last I stood opposite 
 where the bag was hanging and said " What a cnrious mark, it looks like 
 a coat of arms." " No,'* replied the coachman laughing, " It is not my 
 coat of arms, but it is my bag." We chatted on and to the question where 
 he had got the bag from, he replied, that he had bought it some time 
 before of a rag man at the next corner, and had paid six cents for it. To 
 my further enquiry what he wanted it for, he answered laughing that if I 
 fancied the bag so much I might have it. There was nothing in it but 
 some old screws and nails, and these he could easily put somewhere else. 
 
 I thanked him and took the bag. I then asked him whether he had 
 ever seen the man he bought the bag of since, and whether he would know 
 him if he saw him. To this he answered that the man often came around 
 with his barrow. Now I asked the coachman whether, if I paid him, he 
 would so with me and look for the man. He consented, and so we soon 
 set out towards Sixty-second Street, where at that time many rag collectors 
 resided. We got on to a Fourth Avenue car, but had not ridden far 
 before the coachman, who remained on the platform, suddenly gave the 
 signal to stop and calling to me, said : — " Look, there's the man we want." 
 We got off, and he ran to the barrow and stopped the man. When the 
 latter heard that I wanted to speak to him, he seemed a little frightened. 
 But I soon set him at his ease when I told him that I would not detain 
 him long, but that for the time I detained him I would pay him twenty- 
 five cents, at the same time putting that sum into his hand. That gave 
 him confidence ; and now I asked him what route he traversed, for all 
 these rag collectors have certain defined rounds. He told me this, but to 
 my further question whether he knew this man, pointing to the coachman, 
 he was at first unable to answer with any certainty. When, however, I 
 showed him the bag, and asked him if he knew that, he looked at it and 
 after a moments consideration said u Yes, and I think that is the man 
 who bought it from me and gave me six cents for it. Yes, that is the man." 
 
 "Now, my frieud," I continued, "I want to know where you bought 
 the bag. That is what I have been trying to find you for. Can you tell 
 me anything about it !" The man had a good memory and he told me 
 where he had received it. On the same day that he sold it to the coach- 
 man he had bought a parcel of rags and old paper for a few cents from a 
 woman, ,and. as he grumbled about his bargain, that he had given her too 
 much, she afterwards threw the bag hi with the lot. 
 
142 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Now that I had found the rag man, I let the coachman go. Bu-t 
 although I offered him money, he would not take any, but said he was 
 glad he had been able to render me any service. Now I took the man's 
 barrow into a livery stable where I was known, and he then led me to a 
 house in Bayard Street where the woman lived from whom he had received 
 the bag and with whom he often had little business transactions. Upon 
 enquiry the woman well remembered the particular dealing with William 
 — as she called the rag man — and also that she had given the bag into the 
 parcel of stuff he had purchased. She also recollected where she had got 
 it from. She had a daughter in Pine Street, and it was from her she had 
 bought the bundle of scraps and papers, among which was this bag. In 
 answer to further questions I learned that the little transaction referred to 
 had taken place on a date which was some days after the robbery at the 
 bank, and I now induced the old lady to go with me to her daughter. This 
 she did, and in that daughter I found a respectable young woman whose 
 business was to clean a number of offices down town, in which herifrusband 
 acted as watchman. She, too, was quite willing to answer my questions, 
 and she told me that she had received the bag from a young man who was 
 in a broker's office in Wall Street. Now a light began to dawn. I did 
 not know the broker at all and did not care to ask the woman much about 
 him, but to my enquiries how it happened that the young man came to 
 give her the bag, she told me the following tale : — 
 
 The young man often used to come and joke and play with her. One 
 day, it was on a Friday, the day after the bank robbery, she went after 
 business hours into the office to clean the place. While so engaged the 
 young man in joke threw a lot of paper over her head, and which she had 
 to take away with her ; upon which she made a ball of a few pieces of 
 paper and threw them at him in return. This went on for some little 
 time, and when she opened the door to leave, he picked up the bag from 
 under a counter in the office and, crumpling it up together, threw it at her 
 head, too ; upon which with some joking remark she brought it away 
 with her. 
 
 That was the purport of her very circumstantial story, and much pleased 
 I of course was to find that she recollected all so well. This testimony 
 was clear. My next step was to make the acquaintance of the young man, 
 the broker's clerk ; and for that purpose I went the next day to the office 
 to change some money. The clerk was there, and after I had changed the 
 money, I got into conversation with him, having designedly chosen an 
 early hour when I guessed that he would most likely be alone. I found 
 him to be a good hearted, intelligent, and, as it seemed to me, an honest 
 young man. His principal had not arrived, and I went later in the day to 
 see him at a time when I felt sure the clerk would be out. I again took 
 some money to exchange, and that gave me an opportunity to take a good 
 look at the broker. He was a thin, haggard looking man of middle size, 
 
THE THIEVES. 11' 
 
 with a physiognomy which indicated the determination and ability to do 
 any bad and desperate actions. 
 
 I was now quite certain that I had found the man who had stolen the 
 money ; but how was I to get hold of him? I was quite convinced that 
 the clerk was an honest young fellow. I saw plainly that the broker could 
 not be doiug a very large busiuess, and therefore that he could not be pay- 
 ing his clerk a very high salary. I recognized, moreover, the first neces- 
 sity of getting the clerk out of the office, and that, to that end, I must 
 endeavor to provide him with some position where the pay would be 
 better. 
 
 I now called upon the bank president and told him, that I had followed 
 up the clue into a broker's office in Wall Street, but did not mention to 
 him yet the broker's name. I informed him, however, that in that office 
 there was a young man, as clerk, whom I believed to be honest and useful, 
 and that I wanted him removed ; to which end I desired to provide him 
 another situation, and as soon as I had done that I would cause him to 
 give up the present one. 
 
 The president was at once willing to arrange this, and he requested me 
 to call again on the following day when he would have found an appoint- 
 ment for him, at a much better salary, too, than the young man was then 
 receiving. " But now, tell me," said the president, u who the broker is." 
 This, however, I at once refused, as I wished to get the affair in a condi- 
 tion of more certainty first. 
 
 On the next morning the president informed me that he had found a 
 position for the young man ; and as I knew the time when the latter went 
 out in the middle of the day to get his lunch, I watched for him, and we 
 went and had our luncheon together. On our return I slopped suddenly, 
 saying : — u But I must go another way, and shall hope to see you again." 
 At the same moment I took my pocket-handkerchief out of my inner pocket 
 as if I wanted to use it, and with it threw out, as if by accident, two tickets 
 for the theatre with which I had provided myself for the purpose. I 
 picked up the tickets and said "Look here, perhaps you would like to go 
 to the theatre to-night. I have had these two tickets given to me and I 
 can only use one of them." 
 
 He took it. We met at the theatre, sat together, and entertained our- 
 selves between the acts, so that I was sure of getting well into his favor. 
 On our return I spoke to him twice to come and have something to drink, 
 but I found that he would not drink anything but lemouade, and was in 
 every way a very temperate man. Before we reached his residence, too, 
 I had learned from him the amount of salary he was getting at the broker's 
 and when I remarked that he ought to be doing better than that, he said 
 that he had no friends who could help him to a better position. So one 
 thing led to another ; and after, in reply to my enquiries, he had told me 
 that he could leave his present situation at any time, I told him that I was 
 
144 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 willing to procure him a better situation ; for which offer he was very 
 thankful. Suffice it to say that in less than four days the young man had 
 a book-keepers situation, with a salary double that which he had been 
 receiving. I had, however, learned so much from him during the oppor- 
 tunities afforded by my frequent communications with him in the past few 
 days respecting the broker, his late principal, that now no doubt, what- 
 ever, remained in my mind as to his having been the man who robbed the 
 bank. 
 
 I now returned once more to the president, told him the name of the 
 broker and the nature of the proof I had attained. I also added that thus 
 /ar I had said nothing to the young man either of him or of the bag, and 
 we agreed that I should invite the young man to meet him on the following 
 night and that I should also be present. 
 
 As I went with the young man on the next evening to the president, ) 
 had an opportunity to speak to him, and then told him that it wai not I, 
 but the gentleman whom he was going to see that he was indebted to for 
 his promotion. He thereupon lost no time in thanking the president for 
 his kindness, and as he did so I took up a paper from the table as if casu- 
 ally. But I had previously placed the bag under it, so seeing this again, 
 now I looked at it carefully and said to the president, " I beg pardon, sir, 
 but this peculiar mark rather excites my curiosity. Allow me to ask 
 what it means ?" And thereupon I took the bag up and examined the 
 mark more closely. 
 
 *' Oh !" he answered, " it is a kind of private crest." And before he 
 had finished speaking I passed it over to the young man asking him 
 whether he had ever seen such a mark. 
 
 " No, not that I know of," he replied, " and yet it seems 1 ought to 
 know the bag." Upon this he examined it carefully, and presently laid it 
 back upon the table, saying " No, I do not remember ever to have seen 
 such a mark as that." 
 
 The conversation now turned upon his former appointment, and the busi- 
 ness and practices of his late principal, from all of which it was evident 
 that he had no very great respect for him. Finally I directed the conver- 
 sation towards the pretty Sarah, who used to clean and attend to his office, 
 and I said to him u Sarah gave me this bag, and through the kindness of 
 this gentleman it has since been the means of procuring you your present 
 situation. 
 
 The young man gave me an astonished and enquiring look, as though 
 he would be very glad to have an explanation. 
 
 u Well, I will enlighten you. You remember one day (and here I 
 noted the day) when after business hours Sarah came into your office to 
 clean it, and you two romped together and threw balls of paper at each 
 other?" 
 
 
THE THIEVES. 
 
 145 
 
 M Yes, indeed," he replied, " aud I picked up a bag that lay under the 
 table and threw it at her." 
 
 M You are right ; that's just what Sarah told us.. Now let me ask you, 
 do you know how that bag got uuder the table ?" 
 
 "To be sure I do. Mr. (the broker) took it out of his pocket 
 
 two or three days before and threw it there." 
 
 " IIow did the gentleman behave himself on that day? I mean, in what 
 kind of temper was he on that day?'* 
 
 " Oh ! he was very nervous, very much out of sorts." 
 
 " What was lying there, where he threw the bag?" 
 
 u It is a shelf on which things are put out of the way. On the day I 
 threw the bag at Sarah, I had put a lot of old paper there and that was 
 how the bag came into my mind." 
 
 u Then would Mr. not have seen the bag, and thu^ be able to 
 
 remember it ?" 
 
 " No, not unless he stooped down to look for something. " 
 
 Now I understand how it was that the broker had allowed the bag to 
 escape his attention. We now made further enquiries and ascertained 
 that the broker on the day in question was very much agitated, and that 
 he had on that day also bought several building lots in East New Y'ork 
 and paid for them. He speculated a great deal in real-estate, and accord- 
 ing to the opinion of the young man he was quite rich enough to do so. 
 
 Our evidence was possibly now sufficient, but we said nothing to the 
 clerk of the purpose for which we had the bag, nor why it was of so much 
 importance to us. The next thing to be done was to get hold of the broker. 
 We made enquiry about his landed property and it turned out as the young 
 man had said that he was very well off in that respect. 
 
 I now laid my plans, and what I must do in order to attain my object ; 
 for I made up my mind that we must get the money back. The broker 
 was a desperate man, although a nervous one, and I came to the conclu- 
 sion that the best thing to do would be to take the bull by the horns. So 
 I went well armed into his office and asked him to walk with me into his 
 private room ; while I left the bank president out of doors with a request 
 that he would follow me in a couple of minutes. I was speaking to the 
 broker for probably half a minute before I suddenly pulled the bag out of 
 my pocket, held it up before his eyes, and moving towards the front office 
 where the new clerk was, I whispered to him " No noise ! It will only 
 injure you." And then I asked : — " Did you ever see this bag before ?" 
 
 He was quite pale, and reaching out his hand to the bag, he said : — 
 "No, I do not know it." 
 
 " Do you know who it belongs to?" 
 
 " No, I do not," he said, stammering, but with a somewhat decided 
 appearance. 
 
 At this moment the president came in. 
 
 10 
 
146 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 " Then here," I replied, " is the gentleman to whom it belongs." — And, 
 as the president stopped, I asked him " who does this bag belong to?" 
 
 " To me," he replied, " but the gold that was in it belongs to the ■ 
 
 Bank," and then sending a piercing look at the broker he continued, "And 
 you are the man who stole it." 
 
 "Upon my word," said the broker, "I never saw it before," although 
 his whole appearance and manner showed beyond a doubt that he was 
 guilty. 
 
 " Very well," said I, " we will see all about that. Permit me, one 
 moment," and thereupon I went to the door and gave a sign to the old 
 clerk (whom I had caused to be near at hand) to come inf He did so, 
 and immediately there was a strange mixture of terror and astonishment 
 on the face of the broker. 
 
 " Have 'you ever seen this bag before? And if so, where?" I asked the 
 clerk. 
 
 "Yes, in the hands of Mr. ," (the broker). 
 
 " Where did he get it from and what was he doing with it?" 
 The young man now related all that is already known to the reader, and 
 when he had finished I told him that now he might go. He left us, and 
 as he knew nothing whatever of the robbery, he must have been very much 
 wondering what it was all about. 
 Now I turned to the broker. 
 
 " You see that you are discovered. That young man is only one of our 
 witnesses. At present he knows nothing of your robbery. You are sur- 
 rounded on all sides, but if you do not provoke us to anything worse, I 
 will undertake to send out your clerk and to arrange this business on the 
 spot. We must have the money back, and you must restore to the presi- 
 dent the expenses you have put him to." 
 
 The broker seemed to be having an inward struggle with himself for a 
 moment. He was pale as death and his thin pointed chin trembled. He 
 was clearly considering it. But I did not think it well to leave him 
 entirely to his own reflections, and as I was now quite satisfied how he 
 had schemed the theft of the bag, I said to him " You must know, that 
 from the hour, when under the assumed appearance of a clerk you slipped 
 into the bank and stole the money, we have known that you were the thief. 
 We have only been waiting for more evidence in order to bring it home to 
 you. The bag has been our final piece of proof. If we had arrested you 
 sooner, and even if we had found the stolen gold, still we could not have 
 identified it. Nevertheless, we have followed up the business, and have 
 been keeping an eye upon you with untiring patience, and we could have 
 arrested you a year ago, if it had been necessary. You now know your 
 position. We will not prosecute you criminally, if you do not force us to 
 do so. You may in a moment be in a worse perplexity, and have to sub- 
 mit to a search, which would do you lasting injury. We demand, as I 
 
THE THIEVES. 1 W 
 
 jfigt now said, tke return of our money and our expenses ; but we are not 
 going to wait another minute. I think now you understand us. 
 
 The man trembled. He still seemed to be contending with himself. 
 Then with a terrible oath, he cursed his crime and himself to the depths 
 of hell ; and instantly fell back into his chair and a flood of tears roiled 
 down his cheeks. 
 
 " Gentlemen," he began, after a little while. " I give myself up. You 
 •are treating me, as I see, leniently. I have cursed that stolen gold many 
 •days. I was mud when I took it. I had been drinking. It was only 
 one glass of brandy ; but I so seldom take any spirits, that even that one 
 glass did the mischief. I had been reading in a London paper a week or 
 two before the report of a similar daring robbery in Loudon, in which, up 
 1o that time, the thief had not been discovered. That venturesome act 
 incessantly haunted me, and one day the devil must have got possession of 
 me. I w r ent into the bank and saw r it full of people. I took off my hat 
 (a white hat) and hid it here (pointing to the inside of his waistcoat), and 
 almost before I knew it I had committed the robbery. There, now you 
 have my confession. Now do what you like with me. Often have I 
 wanted to return the money ; but I always gave up the thought again, 
 from fear that by so doing my crime would be discovered." 
 
 " Well," I replied, " you now know what we want." 
 *" That you shall have, but for God's sake forgive me and keep the thing 
 a secret. I shall not do the same again. I have suffered enough for this 
 already." 
 
 As he had not enough cash in the safe, he gave the president, by way of 
 security, mortgages to the value of five times the amount of the stolen 
 property, and thus the bank recovered the whole ten thousand dollars." 
 
 Here then we have the account of a bank robbery which was not done 
 by professional bank thieves, but by a man whom one could not well have 
 expected to undertake such a business. We have already expressed our 
 •disapprobation of the practice by which so many crimes against property 
 are hushed up with the return in some way of the things that were stolen, 
 instead of the thief being brought to the punishment he deserves. And 
 this is another illustration of the kind. 
 
 Where a young man commits a first offence against property — led astray 
 perchance by bad associations — it may be well, and it may lead to good 
 results to forgive him, and to set him at liberty again with a warning, 
 even when the stolen property is not restored to its owners ; but surely the 
 concealment of an offence of the kind mentioned is a great injustice against 
 the public weal, not only when the guilty person happens to be a profes- 
 sional thief, but even when without, being that, he is a man of advanced 
 years, who has not the extenuating excuse of youth and misguidance. 
 "The narrator of the above case concludes his statement with the following 
 words : — 
 
148 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 " It remains for me only to say that the broker did in reality reform. 
 His face did not please me, and I had not thought so well of his declara- 
 tions of repentance. There was something gloomy and bad in his per- 
 sonal appearance, but so much I know, that he never committed a similar 
 offence again, and that he afterwards filled the position of a member of the 
 Common Council, to which he was elected after he gave up the brokerage 
 business and became a ward politician." 
 
 Thus then the same man who was guilty of such a daring, impudent 
 bank robbery, became soon after a member of the New York magistracy, 
 one of the " city fathers" of New York, as the members of that body are 
 called ! Would not a prison have been a more suitable place for him ? 
 And ought we to wonder that the government of New York has been for 
 many years so corrupt as it has, when such people are placed into positions 
 of honor and responsibility? In truth it is one of the evils for which, as 
 well as for all others that flow out of it, the citizens themselves are alone 
 to blame ; for in a commonwealth which elects its own officers, and in 
 such an election has the most unresisted choice, evil elements can be 
 brought into power only by the will of the citizens. 
 
 Following next to the bank robbers and bank thieves come the Safe 
 Busters ; or rather, perhaps, they should be enumerated with bank thieves. 
 They fall naturally into three classes ; namely : first those who burst open 
 the safe with gunpowder, — " safe blowers" ; then those who, not using 
 powder, have recourse to mechanical means, these are " safe bursters" 
 par excellence; and lastly, those who, from their custom of smashing open 
 the safe, are known as " safe breakers." The three classes together num- 
 ber about three hundred persons, and as they by no means confine their 
 speculations to bank safes, but also attack those belonging to private peo- 
 ple, and in private residences, they are inflicting a large amount of injury 
 at all times. 
 
 The safe robber, like a description of house-breakers before described, 
 usually obtains access to houses by means of false keys. Once inside, 
 they go to work with a rapidity and certainly which can only be attained 
 by long experience. They drill holes in the safe, near the lock, so as, if 
 possible, to obtain access into the lock itself. When this has been done to 
 a sufficient extent, in their judgment, they fill the bores, so made, with 
 gunpowder, attaching a fuse by which it may be ignited. But now two 
 precautions are necessary. The explosion may, and very likely will, break 
 the windows of the room ; and, moreover, the noise may be heard by some 
 person near by who would give an alarm. As a safe-guard against the 
 former of these obstacles, all the windows in the room are gently lowered 
 about a couple of inches, thus giving egress to the air when the gunpowder 
 is fired. And next, the whole safe is wrapped from top to bottom in a 
 number of wet blankets, as thickly as possible, by which means the sound 
 
THE THIEVES. 143 
 
 of the explosion is made barely audible outside of the room. The fuse is 
 then ignited, the powder tired, and the safe almost certainly blown open ; 
 or at least sufficiently damaged to enable the thieves to get access to the 
 inside in a very brief space of time. But there is danger still, in spite of 
 all precautions, in this mode of opening a safe, and thieves seldom run 
 extra risk without good reason for it. Whenever, therefore, this system 
 is resorted to. we may be certain that the thieves have well informed them- 
 selves beforehand of the reward that will be theirs for a successful opera- 
 tion. They have probably been workiug for some time, learning exactly 
 the time when the contents of the safe are likely to be most valuable, and 
 what the value is. They do not blow open a safe with the chance of find- 
 ing in it only a small prize. 
 
 The same may be said of the second class we have mentioned, the safe- 
 bursters proper. They work more scientifically than the last and conse- 
 quently hold a higher position in the fraternity. They obtain admission 
 to houses by similar means, but do not undertake any " job" which they 
 are not confident will pay them well, if successful. Having perfected all 
 their arrangements, the first thing necessary is to fasten the safe firmly to 
 the floor. This they do with strong iron fastenings and screws. Openings 
 are now drilled into the door, through which are inserted attachments, 
 worked by powerful jack screws and strong levers. The force of two or 
 three men at the most is now sufficient to tear the strongest safe into 
 shreds ; — and a very few minutes suffice to complete the work. It is diffi- 
 cult to form any conception of the ruin which may be effected in this way ; 
 and even persons, who have seen a safe after the operation, have been loth 
 to believe that such complete destruction could possibly have been effected 
 by purely mechanical means, without the use of some explosive material. 
 The risk in this case is not quite as great as in the last, the whole work 
 being completed without any noise or disturbance, whatever ; — and it muse 
 be noticed further that, practically, it is less than it seems, for operators in 
 this method are generally successful, both in getting valuable booty and in 
 enjoying almost absolute immunity from detection. The tools used by 
 these two classes are expensive, for to secure an opening through the hard 
 iron plates with celerity and certainty, they must be very carefully made? 
 and the drills must be pointed with diamonds. 
 
 The third class of these thieves is the low r est. They seldom enter a 
 building by means of a false key, although sometimes a pick-lock serves 
 their purpose. But they prefer the crowbar or "'jimmy ;" and when they 
 get to the safe, they hammer it to pieces with heavy hammers, deadeniug 
 the noise of their blows with blankets. Their method is thus the rudest, 
 and, as might be supposed, the least successful. They are ready to attack 
 anything in the shape of a safe that they can come within reach of, irre- 
 spective of any knowledge as to its contents. Thus they often open a 
 sate without finding enough inside to repay them for their trouble, and, 
 
150 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 moreover, discovery very frequently attends their operations. But they 
 gain practice and experience, both of which are necessary to raise them to 
 the higher grades of their profession, and thus indirectly their labors may 
 be of value to them. Otherwise it is more by good luck than by scientific 
 management if they escape discovery and find their efforts rewarded- 
 They often enter houses by force, especially in the country, and in <he 
 autumn of 1872 there occurrsd an incident illustrative of their mode of 
 operations, in the neighborhood of New York, which we may relate. 
 
 In a not distant village four people had been staying for about two days- 
 They took up their residence at a hotel, and were looked upon merely as 
 people who, like many others, visited the place for a " spree." They often 
 conversed with the proprietor of the house, and enquired of him whether 
 there were many wealthy people in the place, and who the richest man 
 was and where he lived. These questions, made as if for the sake of con- 
 versation, were duly answered, and nothing more was thought about them 
 at the time, till a few days afterwards the explanation became apparent. 
 
 One evening, soon after nine o'clock, a farmer — reputed as being the 
 richest man in the village — having returned home tired, had gone to sleep 
 in an up-stairs room. His wife and daughter were sitting down stairs- 
 reading. At about eleven o'clock the women remarked that a man was 
 peeping in at the window. They opened the door of the house to look 
 who it was, but it was a very dark night and they could not see anything.. 
 So they went in again without thinking of any mischief. Soon afterwards, 
 however, the door of their room was suddenly opened, and three fellows,, 
 with masks on and revolvers in their hands, walked in. The women were 
 so astonished at this sudden appearance of robbers, that they did not once^ 
 call for assistance. One of the men immediately demanded the key of the 
 safe, holding at the same time a revolver to the breast of the wife and 
 threatening her with instant death ; a second, in like manner, threatened 
 the daughter ; while a third kept watch at the door which opened on to the- 
 stair-case, that led up stairs where the farmer was asleep. What could 
 the women do under such circumstances but give up the key ? The thief 
 seized it, and the next moment the safe was opened and its entire contents 
 cleared out. The fellow then locked the safe again and took the key, 
 after which they tied the womens' hands and feet, gagged their mouths to 
 prevent them raising an alarm, and left the house as noiselessly as they 
 had entered it. During the night the farmer woke, and, missing his wife 
 and daughter, he went down stairs, where he found them both helpless- 
 and exhausted lying on the floor. He raised an alarm in the village, and 
 the neighbors turned out and set up a hunt for the robbers ; but in vain. 
 They were never discovered. 
 
 We come lastly to the Eiver and Harbor Thieves, who, of all the 
 whole tribe, undoubtedly, hold the lowest place. 
 
 
THE THIEVES. l»l 
 
 The life of these people is not only of the very roughest, for they are 
 exposed at all times to wind and weather, and must carry on their bu-. 
 essentially in the worst seasons, in storm and rain ; but because their crimi- 
 nalizes, which comprise not only robberies on the wharves, but also pirati- 
 cal depredations on the rivers and harbor, are particularly dangerous, 
 involving, as they do. the necessity of escaping the watchfulness of the 
 police, and in addition the perils of the water and of the tempest. 
 
 Among the general public comparatively little is known of these thieves, 
 but the commercial world suffer much from them, and the more so, because 
 their field of operations is very extensive and the river police is too scanty 
 in its number of men to be able to act against them with the necessary 
 effect. The water front of the city, so far as concern the ordinary ship- 
 ping, begins at Sixty-fifth Street on the Hudson River, runs down to the 
 Battery and from there round and up the East River to the neighborhood 
 of Harlem. In addition to this there are the water fronts of Brooklyn and 
 Williamsburg, as well as of Jersey City and Hoboken, where also the 
 steamship companies have their wharves ; and lastly there remains the 
 whole of the lower bay to Quarantine, where ships are at all times to be 
 found lying at anchor. 
 
 The river and harbor thieves, like the others, are separated into differ- 
 ent classes. The first of these operates on shore, never using a boat, but 
 sneaking around the wharves before daylight, in the mornings and after 
 dark in the evenings, and stealing anything that is left for a moment with- 
 out a watch. 
 
 Then come the so-called " dock rats," who, like the noxious quadrupeds, 
 from which they have their title, live in true nests. They are young 
 creatures from six to fifteen years old, and the peculiar construction of our 
 wharves, which are not solid, but only erected on piles, furnishes them at 
 once lodgings and hiding-places. They build themselves a place of shelter 
 under the wharves with boards and pieces of old planks, and there they 
 sleep and conceal themselves. A few bundles or handfuls of straw fur- 
 nishes their bed, and with a few bricks they make a little fire-place that 
 enables to do as much cooking as they require. When not on a stealing 
 excursion they are generally to be found in these retreats. Usually they 
 herd together in bands of from five to ten in number, but they steal rather 
 to maintain their own wretched existence than to enrich themselves, and 
 accordingly what they do steal is rarely of much value. A few handfuls 
 of coffee, some cotton, bits of old cordage, iron tools, fruit, and such like 
 things constitute the bulk of their plunder. To get rid of these gives them 
 no more difficulty than other thieves have in disposing of their booty, for 
 in many of the streets in the neighborhood of the river banks there are a 
 number of dealers, or junk shops, where for the most part the river thieves 
 find a reception for their goods. It is a part of the thankless duty of the 
 river police to rout out these dock rats and to hunt them down ; but when 
 
152 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 driven out of one wharf, they go straight away and build up a new hidin» 
 place under another. 
 
 The quantity of goods of all kinds that is constantly lying about the New 
 York wharves, and the extreme difficulty of watching them every moment, 
 makes the work of the dock rats much easier than is that of the river 
 thieves, upon whom a closer watch can be maintained. For it is almost 
 impossible to remove by evening all the goods which are unloaded from 
 ship-board during the day ; and in consequence they are allowed to remain 
 through the night under the protection of a watchman or of the police. 
 The wharves of the large steamship companies are, it is true, covered over 
 and closed in. They are also lighted and left in charge of a private 
 watchman ; but the thieves very rarely attempt any inroads in such places. 
 
 When the dock rat has become too old for his present calling, he seeks 
 a wider field for his operations, which, if it be no more profitable than the 
 last, is a little more dangerous. He becomes now a veritable river thief, 
 working mostly in bands of three or four, and going out upon the river in 
 a boat. These bands are numerous, but only two of them practice on the 
 Hudson, and they chiefly frequent the neighborhood of Charlton Street. 
 The others busy themselves on the East River. The reason of this is that 
 the Hudson just here is very little watched, a large part of the place being 
 occupied by steamboat wharves, which are protected, lighted at night, and 
 guarded. Both of the Hudson bands have small fast sailing boats ; and 
 they do not confine themselves in their business to the field presented by 
 the water front of the city ; but often go up the river even as far as 
 Albany, looking out all the while for opportunities to steal, and not 
 despising a little burglary among farm houses or other dwelling places 
 along the shore. 
 
 The last river thieves, who, as we have said, are by far the more numer- 
 ous, have their several rendezvous chiefly about James Street, and at the 
 foot of Cherry, Rosevelt, and Rivington Streets. 
 
 When the weather is favorable, that is when it is very dark, and no 
 moon nor stars are shining, more especially if it be raining and stormy, 
 the river thieves in companies of three or four slip into a boat under the 
 wharf and as fast as possible get away into the middle of the stream. It 
 matters not whether it is a ship on the Brooklyn side with a cargo of tea 
 or coffee, or one on the New York side with a cargo of rice, they always 
 make the effort to reach mid-stream, as they thus have a better opportu- 
 nity to defeat the intentions of any pursuers. Then they row slowly and 
 cautiously to their object and come up to the water side of the ship that 
 they intend to rob. If a rope hangs down conveniently, they climb up by 
 it to the deck ; if not, they move silently round and board her from the 
 wharf. The sailors, wearied with the hard work of the day in loading or 
 unloading, are fast asleep ; so that there is little danger of the thieves being 
 interfered with in their work of plunder. Their attention is always espe- 
 
TIIE THIEVES. 153 
 
 cially directed to staple articles of trade, for instance they prefer to take 
 such things as sugar, coffee or rice, and accordingly they chiefly look after 
 those ships which have such things in their cargo. But they never take 
 away their booty in the original packages. They have with them bags, 
 without any marks upon them, and in these they pack as much rice, coffee, 
 or su.2;ar, as they think their boat will carry ; which done, they row as 
 quickly as they can, but noiselessly, to some place previously agreed upon, 
 near to where their receiver has his den. The return from the ship is the 
 most dangerous part of their operations, since the heavily laden boat sinks 
 low into the water, and moves but slowly in comparison, so that there is 
 additional danger of being overtaken by the police-boat and arrested. 
 This happens sometimes, causing, however, rarely more inconvenience to 
 the thieves than a short loss cf liberty. They are taken to the nearest 
 station-house, but the cargo of their boat is conveyed to police headquar- 
 ters, and when the prisoners are on the next morning brought before the 
 magistrate, the goods cannot be identified. Thus there is but a suspicion 
 against the thieves, and that, of course, is insufficient to justify their deten- 
 tion. They were, it is true, taken in the possession of certain goods which 
 there can be no doubt were stolen, which in fact were stolen. But how 
 are we to reach even a moral certainty as to what ship they were stolen 
 from ? The law requires that stolen property must be positively identified. 
 It is not enough that the captain or the freight-owner shall swear that the 
 ship was robbed on the same night as that upon which the thieves were 
 arrested, and that the goods found in their possession are of the same 
 character as those with which the ship is loaded ; the owner must swear 
 distinctly that the stolen goods are actually his property. But how is it 
 possible for him to know one coffee berry from another, or one grain of 
 rice from another? And the same applies to sugar, cotton, and other simi- 
 lar articles, as long as they are not in the same packages as they were in 
 on board the ship, and which the thieves in their foresight carefully left 
 behind. Thus it is that these thieves so often escape. They then make a 
 demand for the return of their " property," and the magistrate has no 
 other resource but to give them back their stolen things. 
 
 One of the most able members of our river police took in a single year 
 fifty-seven boats with river thieves and stolen property in them ; but out of 
 all this number there were only three convictions, because the goods could 
 not be identified without the original package. 
 
 o r o 
 
 Some years ago, however, a number of river thieves were brought to 
 punishment in a somewhat peculiar way and were sent to Sing Sing. 
 These thieves had robbed a ship that was lying at quarantine and it was 
 upon their long journey back to town that they were arrested. To secure 
 the detention of these thieves for the robbery and to obtain their arraign- 
 ment, the officer engaged in the seizure bethought him to charge them with 
 a breach of the quarantine laws, in having boarded a ship before she had 
 
154 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 been cleared by the quarantine officers. The prosecution was successful, 
 the thieves were convicted, and the conviction frightened others for a long 
 time from operating upon vessels lying at quarantine. — In other cases 
 again a charge was made against the men for robbery and also for smug- 
 gling, and as they were not in a position to prove that they had paid the 
 duties on the goods found in their boats, their conviction, and with it the 
 confiscation of the stolen goods, were rendered possible. 
 
 Another class of river thief is concerned chiefly with stealing cordage, 
 sail cloth, blocks, and such trifles from the decks of ships. These are not 
 usually of much value, and, moreover, they briug very little profit to the 
 thieves. They work chiefly on ships as they lie at anchor in the harbor, 
 climbing adroitly on to the decks, picking up anything that they find lying 
 about, throwing it into their boat, and leaving the ship as unobserved as 
 they boarded her. 
 
 Still another class there is which, disdaining to concern itself about such 
 trifles, aims to get to the cabin and the deck where the sailors sleep. They 
 then steal, often with the aid of the application of chloroform, watches, 
 chronometers, money, and other valuables which they can readily remove ; 
 and they find little difficulty in doing this, because very often ships lying 
 at anchor are left without any watch. It has often happened that by this 
 class of thieves everything found on board has been of sufficient value to 
 be removed ; indeed, it has sometimes been the case that when the sailors 
 woke in the morning and prepared to dress, they had no clothes to put on ! 
 
 There is yet, again, another class, different from all we have mentioned, 
 and, too, the worst, because it betrays a trust and is not readily reached 
 by the law. The police affirm that there are no river thieves so bad as 
 many of the lightermen. One of the lighters takes a cargo of goods on 
 board, perhaps somewhere in Brooklyn, to come to a wharf, let us say in 
 Hudson City, so that the men on board are in fact placed in charge for the 
 time of hundreds of tons of goods. During the trip, and as far as time 
 will allow, perhaps a couple of pounds of coffee are taken out of every bag, 
 a loss which is not recognized on delivery, but which in the aggregate often 
 amounts to a great deal, and leads frequently to serious disputes between 
 the sender and the receiver. 
 
 It must here be remarked that the river thieves often have among their 
 accomplices and confederates the sailors on board ships and lighters, and 
 likewise the watchmen who are placed in charge of the goods lying upon 
 the wharves ; and further that those river thieves who do not work, prob- 
 ably, on the water, but rather frequent and rob the wharves, sometimes 
 engage in great crimes in the streets immediately neighboring to the river 
 sides. Sometimes a belated wanderer or a drunken sailor on his way to 
 his ship, falls into their hands in those lonely streets late in the evening or 
 during the night. An unexpected blow, or the stab of a knife, suffices. 
 The victim, knocked down or rendered senseless, is robbed and the Hudson 
 
the tiiif.n i 9. 155 
 
 or Easl River forthwith receives bis body. Months pass by, perhaps, 
 before it is seen again, and if at last it be found, it is so disfigured that 
 identification is no longer possible, and thus the murder can scarcely be 
 traced. 
 
 The river police are doing their utmost to check the crimes of the river 
 thieves ; but, as we have said before, their number is too limited to accom- 
 plish anything like perfect results. They consist of one captain, three ser- 
 geants, and only twenty-five men, and these have at their disposal one 
 steamer and six rowing boats ; yet this small force is expected to keep 
 watch over the two river fronts of the city, the river in its entire breadth, 
 and the bay even as far as Sandy Hook ! Up to the year 1857 there was 
 no river police, and then the thieves had it all their own way ; but when 
 the metropolitan police came into existence, the river police was a part of 
 the organization, and since then all the supervision possible has been 
 rendered. 
 
 Formerly a station house was established on the shore, and the force 
 consisted of about sixty people. Then it was possible to have at any time 
 at least four boats afloat, but now it is barely possible to have more than 
 one boat, which has then to do duty on the two rivers. That arrange- 
 ment, although there was s: ill left in it much room for improvement, 
 effected very much good and for a time limited very materially the depre- 
 dations on the river. But instead of perfecting the good work, the police 
 commission made changes which very much injured it. The station house 
 on the shore was given up, the force reduced to a minimum, and a steamer 
 provided, which was to be always running about the rivers to break up the 
 bands of thieves, whenever they emerged from their lurking places under 
 the wharves. But the steamer proved of little avail, for against the strong 
 stream, especially on the Hudson, it could not go fast enough to come up 
 with the thieves and their booty. Besides which small boats are necessary 
 if we would place the men in a position to pursue the thieves under the 
 wharves or around the shipping. Consequently the steamer has now 
 become nothing more than a station ship for the force, and as this is too 
 weak in numbers, the six police boats cannot be usefully employed oa the 
 rivers in the interest of commerce. The steamer in question should be 
 given up, and in place of it four or six small steam launches should be 
 added to the six rowing boats. Then the force should be increased to 
 seventy or eighty men, and a station house erected on the bank of both the 
 Hudson and the East Rivers. Then, and only then, it would be possible 
 to make an end of the river thieves. 
 
 The following is an interesting case of river thieving which happened 
 not very long ago. — The mate of a ship, trading between New York and 
 the coast of Brazil, wishing to make a speculation that he thought would 
 be profitable, bought, in Para, the port from which the vessel cleared for 
 here, four very fine Anaconda snakes, from fourteen to twenty-one feet 
 
156 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 long. They were splendid specimens, and arrived at their destination safe 
 and well. But such was the excitement among the " trade" that the mate 
 was fairly besieged with persons coming to buy. The news seemed^to 
 spread as soon as the ship's anchor fell, and the owner of the Anacondas 
 began directly to congratulate himself on the success of his investment. 
 Many offers were made him, but he for a long time refused to sell, hoping 
 to be able to make yet better terms ; although, as the sequel proved, he 
 had better have closed the bargain earlier. An offer being at length made 
 by two men, which the owner seemed to think desirable, he consented to 
 give them the refusal at the price agreed upon till next morning ; and to 
 confirm this bargain the would-be-purchasers insisted upon his accepting 
 the sum of $5.00 as earnest money, all now seemed satisfactory. But 
 during the night two small boats, each manned by three people, were 
 rowed silently up to the side of the ship, the crews went on board, admin- 
 istered chloroform to the captain and mate as they lay asleep, broke open 
 the hatchway, took up the boxes containing the snakes, put them on board 
 their boats, and got away. 
 
 The fact of the robbery being made known to the police on the following 
 morning, there was not much difficulty in tracing the property and arrest- 
 ing the thieves ; for snakes are such a rare article of commerce that their 
 possession could hardly be kept secret. But clear as the whole affair was, 
 it was not found possible to establish the charge of robbery. It was proved 
 tl'iat the leaders of the gang, and the two men who had paid five dollars to 
 the mate, were notorious river thieves, but they now took the position that 
 they were the " purchasers" of the property. Under these circumstances 
 they could not be prosecuted criminally, and could only be reached, if 
 reached at all, by civil process. But that was little comitation to the mate. 
 The poor man took the shorter course and lost his snakes. In truth the 
 young lady whom we call "justice," is, in this country at least, a very 
 trickry little person, 
 
 But we may now repeat the outline of a still more remarkable case of 
 river thieving ; in fact that word does not describe it, for it was a true 
 example of piracy, as much as any that has ever been recorded, even 
 though not committed on the " high seas." Four of the youngsters whom 
 we have already defiued as " dock rats," were one day taking a quiet row 
 in their boat on the middle of the Hudson. Presently they came upon a 
 small sailing boat in which three lads were taking their pleasure. The 
 young thieves at once rowed up alongside, fastened their boat, and by the 
 free use of knives and oaths so frightened the boys, that these latter gave 
 up all the money they had, and a watch. Two of the thieves now took 
 one of the boys into their boat and rowed him to the Jersey shore, where 
 they put him out ; while the other two got into the sail-boat with the 
 remaining two boys and took them to the foot of Thirty-fourth Street, 
 where they intended to put them out, and then go away with their plunder. 
 
THE THIEVES. 
 
 157 
 
 But as they were landing, a detective, who knew one of the boys, was on 
 the wharf. The lad immediately called to him for assistance and the two 
 young thieves were arrested. Soon afterwards their two companions also 
 were taken, and happily all four were ultimately convicted. 
 
 A remarkable robbery also took place, not long ago, upon the wharf of 
 the Cunard Steamship Line in Jersey City. The thieves got underneath 
 the wharf, cut a large hole through the floor, and by that means removed 
 a great number of cases of valuable property. They then fastened up the 
 hole again with strong screws so firmly, that no one could fall through it ; 
 and so they continued their depredations many nights, opening the hole, 
 taking out what they wanted, and then closing it up again. The agent of 
 the company, in order to discover the thieves, took a great deal of trouble » 
 to learn the means they used, but he did not succeed. The watchmen on 
 shore were certain that the dock, which was fast locked up, could not be 
 entered from the land side ; but as there was no indication, whatever, to 
 show that it could be opened from the water side, suspicion began to rest 
 upon the watchmen themselves. One night, however, the river police very 
 opportunely chanced to make an incursion under the wharf, and surprised 
 the thieves in the very act of taking out the cases. 
 
 Having now given in these foregoing chapters an outline of the various 
 tribes of thieves which infest New York, it may occur to the reader to 
 ask: — What do all these people attain to by their criminal proceedings ? 
 With the exception of a few bond thieves and bank robbers — whose time, 
 however, will also surely come — they attain to nothing ; unless it be a con- 
 stant fear of detection, arrest, and imprisonment, with contempt, shame, 
 and a most miserable existence ; dragging along from day to day, and 
 caring for the morrow only by planning new crimes. While the value of 
 their plunder may be set down at hundreds of thousands, their surplus 
 money always goes to the gaming houses, and the result of that is that 
 they have nothing. The receivers are the only people who get any dura- 
 ble profit out of their crimes, buying the goods, as they do, at prices far 
 below their value, often not exceeding one-twentieth part of it. Ane how 
 much skilled energy, how much talent, dexterity, and ability, are thrown 
 away in the service of crime ; w T hich, if they were turned to an honorable 
 end and to good uses, would bring respect upon their possessor, and insure 
 to him an ample livelihood and a peaceful life ! 
 
 A movement has been on foot for some time to establish a company for 
 insurance against robberies on the princsple of the fire insurance compa- 
 nies, with the intention of taking long risks for warehouses and private 
 residences, and shorter risks for the transit of goods by railroads, steam- 
 ships, canal boats, &c, so that the insurer would be recouped for all losses 
 that he might incur by theft, burglary, or any cause of the kind. The experi- 
 ment, if new, is worth accomplishment, and a fair trial — for its use would 
 
158 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 not be restricted to that already given — the insurance against loss of per- 
 sons who are robbed. Such a company would bring people to a sense*of 
 looking more carefully after their own interest and thus it would lead to 
 the detection and the punishment of thieves, thereby striking a blow at the 
 whole criminal classes, from which they would with but great difficulty re- 
 cover. 
 
 FENCES, or Receivers of Stolen Property. 
 
 A well known proverb says that " the receiver is as bad as the thief,'* 
 but, like many other proverbs, it does not reach far enough, for the recei- 
 ver is not only as bad as the thief, but very much worse. 
 
 While the latter is constantly exposing himself to the danger of being 
 apprehended for his deeds and sent to the jail, the receiver sits quietly in 
 his den waiting for the thief, who is to bring the stolen property to him, 
 for which he gives but a mere trifle of its value and thus in his turn cheats 
 the dishonest plunderer. War to the knife against the receivers would 
 take away from thieves, as such, the means of living, and compel them to 
 obtain a livelihood by more honest work. For example, of what use is it 
 to a burglar to have stolen and to have in his possession, let us say, a valu- 
 able piece of silk goods, if he cannot turn it into money, even though he 
 should get but a small portion of its value. But how can he do even that? 
 Respectable merchants, who deal in this class of goods, could not offer it 
 in wholesale, for others in the trade, conjecturing whence it came, would 
 probably give notice of their conjectures to the police and give the man up 
 to justice. Then to offer such goods for sale in small quantities at private 
 houses would be equally dangerous, for if sometimes he should find people 
 who would buy the stuff for a dress, and although getting it cheap, would 
 not make enquiries as to whether or not he came by it honestly, he at the 
 same time might meet with people of a very different way of thinking, who 
 would have him arrested. There is then nothing left for him but to go to 
 the receiver, who, although he fleeces him, at least makes him secure from 
 detection. 
 
 The amount stolen every year in New York and which passes through 
 the hands of the receivers is not less than four or five million dollars, but 
 a comparatively very small portion of this remains with the thieves. By 
 far the greater part goes into the pockets of the many receivers whom the 
 city conceals, and thus enriches the people who are of all others the worst 
 
THE THIEVES. 159 
 
 and the lowest. Aiul how seldom it is that these people caii be brought to 
 punishment! During the year, from April 1870 to 1871, there were 168 
 arrests made for "receiving," but to these only two convictions followed. 
 For these people are not so easy to be caught. They are generally well 
 acquainted with the law and kuow right well how to slip through its 
 meshes. Besides which there is the chance — as we have seen in a former 
 chapter — that the owner of the property will pay to the receiver, who has 
 given possibly only five or ten per cent, of its value, as much as fifty per 
 cont. to have it returned. And this it is that the receiver is encouraged 
 in the continued following of his most iniquitous traffic. 
 
 The " fences"' of New York are a numerous body, and they are all well 
 known to the police. They are to be found in many streets, but especially 
 in the Bowery, Spring, Rivington, Clinton, and other places. Nay, even 
 in Broadway, in the neighborhood of Eighth Street, there is an establish- 
 ment where thieves may readily dispose of their plunder. Then in the 
 neighborhood of the rivers come an immense number of so-called junk 
 shops, which, however, are chiefly receiving places for the river thieves. 
 Many of the receivers are very shabby people, carrying on their business 
 in common little shops ; others play the gentleman, and go about fashion- 
 ably dressed with genuine rings on their fingers. Others, again, ply their 
 ■wretched trade as hawkers, going about every day to the different resorts 
 of the thieves and buying from them whatever they may have stolen, per- 
 haps, during the day. All, however, are alike, in that they are ready to 
 purchase anything that has been stolen ; that they only pay the thief the 
 least possible price for the property ; and when any article is announced as 
 having been stolen or lost, and a reward is offered for its return with the 
 remark " no questions asked," they invariably go for the reward if the 
 article has come into their possession. The police have on many occa- 
 sions taken much trouble to bring some of these receivers to punishment, 
 but very rarely have they been successful, because of the impossibility of 
 getting sufficient proof against them. Receivers well understand, as a 
 part of their business, how to remove all marks by which any goods, that 
 come into their possession, could be identified, and they always attend to 
 that. A melting pot is kept ready at all times on the fire, for the recep- 
 tion of silver-ware, which is immediately put in and melted down. Marks 
 on bed linen, under-clothings or table linen, if stamped or written, are 
 removed by the application of chemicals ; if embroidered, they are cut out 
 with a fine pair of scissors. The gems in jewelry, rings, &c, are broken 
 out, the engraving, if any, is obliterated, and the setting melted down. 
 Valuable velvet or silk dresses are altered so, that in a wonderfully short 
 space of time they are not recognizable by their owners. They are fur- 
 nished with different trimmings ; sharp corners are made round, and round 
 corners are pointed, and the whole appearance is so changed that the lady, 
 who, perhaps, wore the dress in the morning, would on the following 
 
160 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 morning not be able to identify it, and certainly not to swear to i^ In 
 ehort, there is nothing which comes within the possibility of being stolen, 
 that the receiver is not able to alter in such a way as to render identifica- 
 tion impossible. The places occupied by the receivers are so arranged, 
 that hiding places are numerous, secret doors and movable boards, too, are 
 everywhere, leading to dark rooms, and in the partition walls little holes 
 are made, through which anybody coming in can be carefully watched. 
 As already remarked, they are all familiar with the law, as familiar as the 
 Tombs lawyers, whose jurisprudence consists practically in snapping their 
 fingers at the law, and in twisting right into wrong and wrong into right. 
 The receiver is never in any embarrassmeut about suspicions, no matter 
 how strong they may be against him ; he knows that suspicion must be 
 converted into proof, and that he has nothing really to fear so long as there 
 is no actual testimony against him. Among the New York receivers there 
 are numbers, who have been many times brought before the court, but 
 they have never yet been punished. 
 
 Although a " fence" will hardly ever refuse to purchase anything that 
 has been stolen, be it what it may — that is, of course, if the price does not 
 exceed his means — still many of them have special branches in which they 
 prefer to engage. First there are those who go about as pedlers to seek 
 out thieves — especially pickpockets — in their retreats and then to trade for 
 the plunder. Others prefer to purchase new goods, such as they would 
 have from the shoplifters, or from dishonest clerks, or porters, who steal 
 from their employers ; and, again, others would rather buy silks and dry 
 goods in large quantities, as they are procured by burglars. A fourth 
 class are the proprietors of the junk shops, where especially the river 
 thieves dispose of their booty. These junk shops are most generally to be 
 found in basement floors, and especially in South and West Streets. 
 
 Lately we availed ourselves of an opportunity to look over one of these 
 cellars, and what a medley of contents there was ! There were cordage, in 
 whole rolls and in pieces, chains, sail cloth, watches, inkstands, candles, 
 hides, bottles, meerschaum pipes, bags of coffee, zinc pails, anchors, car- 
 pets, kegs of white lead, a sextant, a case of oranges, a compass, knives, 
 axes, lanterns, and a hundred other things, none of which, probably, or at 
 least a very little, had changed owners in an honest way. 
 
 Besides these professional receivers there are also many people who, 
 when perchance an opportunity comes in their way to buy stolen property, 
 do not hesitate to accept. These people buy mostly from amateurs or 
 beginners in the art of theft, from dishonest assistants, carters, &c, who 
 have appropriated goods committed to their care ; and the fact that in such 
 cases, both parties, the thief, as well as the purchaser of the stolen goods, 
 are novices, is the reason why so many such persons are brought before 
 the courts as receivers. As a general rule the transactions with these peo- 
 ple are only in reference to things of comparative insignificance, very rarely 
 
FENCES. 
 
 161 
 
 in regard to the disposal of property of ranch value. Oaly lately there 
 occurred an instance where a great quantity of kid gloves came iuto dis- 
 possession of a pawnbroker in the original packages, and they were found 
 unopened and seized. They had been stolen a year before on the occasion 
 of a great burglary, and the person who sold them to the pawnbroker was 
 without doubt one of the thieves. 
 
 There is, however, also a class of people who buy stolen property and 
 whom we ought to distinguish as "unintentional" receivers. There is for 
 instance scarcely a pawnbroker, or a watchmaker, or jeweller, who has 
 not been liable to become the receiver of stolen goods, that, too, quite 
 unknowingly and quite innocently. Very often a thief, tired of the impo- 
 sitions practised upon him by the regular receivers, goes to them no more. 
 He then visits the first good jeweller's store that lies in his way and offers 
 the stolen watch for sale as his own property. In such a case he does not 
 betray the means by which he acquired the possession of the article by any 
 over anxious desire to sell, or by asking any suspiciously low price. On 
 the contrary he usually seems somewhat indifferent about it. demands a^ 
 price which is somewhere near the real value and usually receives it. The 
 jeweller in most such cases sells the watch without any knowledge that it 
 has been stolen. But if he has any suspicion, he makes all the haste he 
 can to get rid of the thing again and thus to avoid the loss of his money. 
 More often, however, the pawnbrokers are the thieves' victims, and scarcely 
 a day passes when very many of them do not suffer the vexation of being 
 visited by detectives in their search for stolen property. Often, too, the 
 property is found with them, and in that case it is confiscated, irrespective 
 of the fact that the pawnbroker acted in good faith when he took it in 
 pledge. 
 
 The professional trade in stolen goods has been thus far followed in New 
 York without let or hindrance. At first sight it would seem easy enough 
 to exterminate the evil by punishing the receivers, for, as the possession 
 of the stolen property is the point upon which any complaint must rest, the 
 establishment of that fact is perfectly easy. But even if the property be 
 found in possession of the receiver, there are still two difficulties which 
 oppose themselves to his arrest and punishment. 
 
 The first is that everybody concerned seeks to avoid an appearance in 
 court ; the owner desires above all things to get back his goods, the detec- 
 tive does not want to lose his reward, and hence the receiver escapes with 
 impunity ; and not that only, but he often makes something out of the busi- 
 ness, even under arrest. 
 
 The next difficulty, if we suppose that the owner and the detective are 
 ready to prefer the interests of the public before their own, consists in the 
 almost in surmountable obstacle presented to a full establishment of proof, 
 that the goods are really those which were stolen and which are being 
 looked" for ; such is the skill of the receiver in altering their appearance. 
 
 11 
 
162 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 While these two difficulties remain, it is hardly possible that the 
 receivers of New York, who number more than a hundred individuals, can 
 be thoroughly exterpated. 
 
 THE ROGUES' GALLERY. 
 
 Since the year 1864 an arrangement has been in operation at police 
 headquarters in this city which has already been productive of very good 
 results, but which, if systematically adopted, would be of still greater use 
 in the defence against thieves and house-breakers. This is a collection of 
 portraits of thieves and criminals of every kind, which very much facili- 
 tates the pursuit of these classes, so that when anyone has been robbed or 
 assaulted by them, and has any recollection of their appearance, he can 
 point out his assailant in the portrait gallery and thus materially assist 
 towards his arrest. 
 
 This gallery already fills four large folio albums, and contains altogether 
 more than a thousand likenesses, of which 123 are those of women. Look- 
 ing this collection through, we find people of all ages, from, perhaps, six- 
 teen years to old grey-haired men and women too. An examination of 
 the faces represented here must bring the observer to the conclusion, not- 
 withstanding that in a few cases they may lead to error, that they are an 
 important contribution to the study of character. For among them there 
 are very few to be met with of whom no mischief would be anticipated, 
 or where the originals would be mistaken for honest men, while the ma- 
 jority — nay, almost all — bear upon their face the brand of vulgarity and 
 crime. That criminals are averse to being photographed is not to be 
 wondered at, hence it is that in these collections we meet with so many 
 faces that are intentionally distorted. At first the attempt was made to 
 restrain refractory prisoners by the use of force, that plan has been given 
 up since it was powerless to prevent them distorting their faces, and a law 
 for the punishment of such refractoriness failed. 
 
 The first intention in the formation of this portrait gallery of profes- 
 sional criminals is to obtain a collection of those who, having been once 
 previously arrested, have again fallen into the hands of the police for some 
 new offence ; and the police are instructed, whenever they take such people, 
 to have their portraits photographed before they are taken before a magis- 
 trate. But a careful examination of the collection will show that there are 
 many portraits of people who have been but once arrested for some offence 
 
Tiir: ft " - . - ,, UXBBT. 163 
 
 against property, while we may look in vain for the portraits of known 
 and notorious burglars, bond and bank thieves, safe-bursters and the like. 
 In this way then the collection is very incomplete, and cannot fully answer 
 the purpose for which it was intended, although it might be made to do so 
 it the portraits of those who are charged but once were removed, and it 
 to all ihe other portraits were attached the name and aliasses, description 
 branch of criminal occupation, date of arrest, &c. 
 
 They should also be arranged differently, and instead of being as now 
 placed in order of arrest, all mixed up together, a separate album should 
 be devoted to the followers of each kind of crime. Or better still the por- 
 traits might be arranged in frames on the walls of a room for the purpose 
 so that the officers of the police might have them always before them, and 
 thus they would become more familiar with the faces than they possibly 
 can now. 
 
 But the value of this portrait gallery would be considerably iucreased 
 also, if a copy of it were hung in every* police station throughout the city, 
 instead of being limited as now to police headquarters. For while now it 
 is only the detectives who have access to the pictures, they would then be 
 constantly, without exception, before the eyes of all the police force, so 
 that every officer would at any time be in a position to recognize a crimi- 
 nal when he met him. The object at which, in our opinion, we should aim 
 is to make the residence of all criminals in the city disagreeable and unpro- 
 fitable. The best plan would be, however, to have the pictures carefully 
 engraved in wood and distributed to the police quarters in every town of 
 any importance, also perhaps to the country court houses, there to be dis- 
 played ; and to effect such arrangements with the various authorities that 
 each place shall be a branch of one common system. By such a means as 
 that it is more than possible that very soon the whole country would be- 
 come too hot for the criminal classes, who would thus be constrained to 
 seek other regions for occupation. 
 
 It is not the city of New York only, but in truth the whole country that 
 should press forward to the purging of criminality. Any American pub- 
 lisher who would undertake the publication in weekly parts of the portraits 
 in the thieves gallery, well cut in wood, with descriptions, &c, would not 
 •only be rendering a jrreat service to the public, but he would also make a 
 very profitable business for himself. In this way, just as when, in former 
 times the States banks were in existence, a banknote reporter was a neces- 
 sity in every business house to protect the public against counterfeits, so 
 would a "rogue detector" become a welcome friend not only at the police 
 offices, but among all business people, with whom strangers are constantly 
 coming in contact. 
 
164 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 STREET ROBBERS AND GAROTTERS. 
 
 The annual report of the police authorities in this city for the year from 
 April 1870 to April 1871 indicates that, during that period, 320 persons 
 (including nine women) were arrested for street robberies. That makes 
 nearly one every day, and it serves also to illustrate a feature in city social 
 life. The robberies were not invariably committed under the darkness of 
 night, but often in the broad daylight. 
 
 A striking case of the kind occurred quite recently, on the first of Feb- 
 ruary of this current year. A gentleman, who during the afternoon had 
 drawn $600 from the Bowery Bank, was set upon by some scoundrels on 
 his way home, who threw a shawl over his head and robbed him of all the 
 money he had. Having done this, they made off and succeeded in effect- 
 ing their escape. And this took place in the Bowery, a busy business 
 street, on Saturday, too, the day upon which traffic is thickest, and not in. 
 the evening or under the twilight, but in full daylight, before three o'clock 
 in the afternoon ! We mention this case here not because it is anything 
 very remarkable, but because at the time we write, it is one of the most 
 recent examples of the kind. Such cases are in fact very frequent. How 
 often, for instance, are we not hearing of ladies having their purses snatched 
 out of their hands ! 
 
 There are various divisions also of the street robbers. There are some 
 who especially work by daylight ; others who waylay solitary pedestrians 
 in the evening and night ; others who lie in wait about the wharves for 
 seamen returning to their ships ; others who, if they know that, perhaps, 
 only one or two women are left in a house, or that a business man is alone, 
 enter the residence or the store, gag the inmates, and steal at their leisure. 
 Besides these there are in New York a number of street thieves who work 
 with a horse and wagon, and who are known as the " butcher-cart thieves." 
 Formerly these last engaged chiefly in the pig stealing business. They 
 used to scour the upper parts of the city, and if they chanced to fall in with 
 a respectable looking hog on his perambulations they would stop their cart, 
 jump out, seize the pig and be off with him before hindrance could be 
 thought about. But pigs are not as numerous as they once were in the 
 streets oi New York, and in consequence the butcher-cart thieves have had 
 to find some other field for the exercise of their labors. They now lie in 
 wait for bank messengers and such people whom they know to be in the 
 habit of carrying large sums of money to and from the banks, while the 
 cart remains at or near the place where the robbery is to be accomplished. 
 When the right moment has arrived the bag or cash-box, in which the 
 money is contained, is snatched away, while, perhaps, the victim has pep- 
 per or snuff thrown into his eyes, or he may even be knocked down. At. 
 
STUKET RORBKR3 AND OABOTTEB8. 165 
 
 the next instant the thieves jump into their cart and, with a quick horse in 
 the shafts, are gone in a moment. 
 
 There arc many streets and localities in New York, which no resident 
 in the city knowing the circumstances would care to pass through in the 
 evening or night time, unless absolutely necessary. Such are, for exam- 
 ple, the Five Points with their complication of streets, Cherry Street, 
 Water Street, and many others. And then in the environs of the city are 
 certain portions of "Williamsburg and Brooklyn, also the so-called Elysian 
 Fields at Hoboben, the neighborhood of Woodlawn and the foot of the 
 slope which leads up to Union Hill. Such places are cautiously avoided 
 by the New Yorker after night-fall. It is otherwise with new arrivals, or 
 with strangers generally, who, not knowing the dangerous character of cer- 
 tain streets and neighborhoods, come upon them by chance and then suffer 
 assault or robbery, and sometimes even get murdered. The New York 
 papers attest to the frequency of these outrages, and it is a fact that one 
 can scarcely ever take up a daily paper without finding an account of 
 something of the kind. Here is an example of one, as a warning to 
 strangers. 
 
 A well known grazier brought a lot of pigs from Cincinnati to this mar- 
 ket. He sold them aud received some two thousand dollars, which he car- 
 ried about with him. On the evening before he purposed leaving the city, 
 he visited a theatre in the Bowery. On his way home from there to his 
 hotel in Broadway he strolled into Centre Street, instead of following 
 Canal Street into Broadway, and there he found himself in a neighborhood 
 that was quite unknown to him. He now looked about for a policeman to 
 direct him, and while thus engaged he was suddenly knocked down from 
 behind, and lay senseless in the street. After a time he gradually recov- 
 ered himself, but he could not tell what had happened to him, feeling only 
 a violent pain in his hand. At length he managed to get up, and collect- 
 ing his thoughts, he leaned against a lamp post. Presently a policeman 
 noticed him, and thinking that the man was drunk, he took him to the 
 station house. In the meantime, however, he fully recovered his senses, 
 and was able to tell the captain what had passed. Upon the captain's 
 advice he felt in his pockets, and then found that he had been robbed of all 
 his money, and of a breast-piu which he had been wearing. The thieves 
 must of course have struck him from behind, as he had not seen them. A 
 great amount of trouble was taken by the police to try and find out the 
 thieves, but as is too often the case — without any satisfactory result. The 
 man lost his two thousand dollars, and might think himself fortunate in 
 having escaped with his life. 
 
 But it is not only in remote and lonely streets that instances of robbery 
 occur, but also in the full blaze of the gas in Broadway and in the much 
 frequented avenues ; that, too, without the notice of the police on the beat. 
 It is well known that when these thieves meet with any resistance they do 
 
1 66 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. • 
 
 not for a "moment hesitate to use a slung-shot or the knife, as has been 
 proved in numerous instances where persons have been found murdered 
 and robbed. 
 
 The garotters who were in full swing a few years ago have nearly come 
 to an end, since one of the judges seeing the necessity for stopping this 
 kind of crime if it was possible, sent one of the rascals to prison for life,, 
 and two others for twenty-one years each. Since that was done garotting 
 has ceased. 
 
 Gu rotting has its name from the death punishment customary in Spain, 
 where strangulation is effected by means of an iron ring fastened to a post. 
 Here the garotter accomplishes something of the same kind with his hands r 
 working usually in bands of four. They approach their victim generally 
 from behind, and while two of their number hold his arms fast, a third 
 throws his arm round his neck, chokes him, and bends his head completely 
 backwards, at the same time pressing his jaws so closely together that the 
 man can neither breath nor make any noise. The fourth now commits 
 the robbery, after which a knock on the head is usually applied to the vic- 
 tim to render him senseless for a time till the thieves have had time to 
 make their escape. As long as the streets are filled with people in the 
 evening, these companies of scoundrels keep about the side streets, idle 
 around the public parks, or lurk about for solitary passengers along the 
 lonely part of the avenues up town, but as soon as the principal streets are 
 quiet, they make their appearance in them. 
 
 They do not always approach their victim from behind. One of them 
 will sometimes walk up and ask a person some trivial question about the 
 direction to a place, or the name of a street, or what the time is, while his 
 companions remain in the back ground. In such cases, especially at even- 
 ing-time and in lonely neighborhood, the person so addressed should be care- 
 fully on his guard how he answers the enquiries and never to take out his 
 watch. The better plan is not to stop at all, but to turn sharply away and 
 then to be in readiness to ward off any attack. Here is an illustration of 
 this kind of thing. 
 
 An officer of the garrison on Governor's Island had been in the company 
 of a friend in Fourteenth Street. He had ordered his boat to be at the 
 battery at three o'clock in the morning, but leaving his friends house a 
 little later, at which time there were no omnibuses nor street-cars, he set 
 out to make the journey down town on foot. On arriving at the part of 
 Broadway near Trinity Church three fellows suddenly passed him hur- 
 riedly, but directly afterwards turned back, and one of them went up and 
 asked him what the time was. Before he had time to answer he was 
 seized by a second, tripped up and thrown on the foot-path, while the third 
 knelt upon his chest and nearly choked him. The other two now robbed 
 him of his watch and all his money ; which done, they knocked him sense- 
 less and escaped. 
 
IWIMM.XRS. 107 
 
 If anyone wishes to feel himself in some kind of security agaiust such 
 attacks as these he must avoid all isolated and lonely streets, and especi- 
 ally neighborhoods of ill-repute, in the evening and night. For if a reaped" 
 able man who, perhaps, has been working late, or is returning from some 
 society, or, perhaps, on a mission to fetch a physician, is attacked in this 
 way. he will mostly meet only those night-revellers, who, perhaps, under 
 the influence of drink, are returning from boveefl which decent people would 
 not care to enter. And it is not to be overlooked that those are the people, 
 whose heads are a little heated, that the New York street robber prefers 
 to look after. 
 
 We said at the beginning of this chapter that in the course of one year 
 there were 320 arrests on the charge of robbery in the public streets ; 
 truly an alarming number ! Nor must we look for any diminution of sucli 
 cases until all the criminals are promptly prosecuted and sentenced to the 
 severest punishments that the law allows. 
 
 SWINDLERS. 
 
 As it is our chief aim in this book to iuftruct the reader in some meas- 
 ure upon the dangers that threaten him in and around New York, so is 
 that object especially prominent in the present chapter ; and thousands who 
 read it will doubtless call to mind that they themselves have been swindled 
 in one or other of the different ways below mentioned, or will be able to 
 point on the following list to some class of swindlers whose victims they 
 have already been. When the States banks were in existence with their 
 almost numberless varies of notes, every business man was obliged to keep 
 a banknote reporter with a description of counterfeit notes. In like man- 
 ner will this chapter be of use, since whoever is once made acquainted with 
 the various devices of the swindling profession, will hardly himself be 
 deceived ; and persons who receive from strangers circulars or offers in 
 writing which hold out some extraordinary profit, will immediately see 
 whether the concern in question does not come under one of the heads in 
 the annexed list, and then set it down as rubbish accordingly. 
 
 To show the sreat extent of the swindlers realm we will enumerate at 
 once the different branches which are practised. They are as follows : — 
 Adoption swindle — ageucy swindle — Alaska diamonds — the selling-out 
 swindle — building lots swindle — lightning rod swindle — flower swindle — 
 Wall Street swindle — bond and stock swindle — bounty swindle — specta- 
 
168 THE DARK SIDE OF NETf YORK LIFE. 
 
 cles — the bunco game — butter powder swindle — security swindle — check 
 swindle — segar swindle —partnership swindle — confidence swindle — custom 
 house 'swindle — loan swindle — diplomas — dollar stores — envelope swindle 
 — inheritance swindle — express swindle — counterfeit and saw-dust swindle 
 — false firms— gift-concerts and gift^enterprises— mysteries and spirits — 
 alchymy — pedling — advertising swindle — church, school and charity swin- 
 dles — comb swindle — real-estate swindle — circulating library swindle — 
 love powders — lottery swindle — dry goods swindle — music box swindle — 
 sewing machine swindle — note swindle — oil swindle — patent and family 
 rights swindle — perfumery swindle — the pawnbrokers ticket swindle — 
 photograph swindle — the graft swindle — prize candies — the recipes swindle 
 — the repair swindle — the revolver swindle — rhubarb wine swindle — the 
 safe deposit swindle — the secret order of money finders — soap swindle — 
 telegram swindle — tea swindle — watches swindle — whisky swindle — the 
 charm swindle — interest swindle, &c. 
 
 Truly a copious list, which must somewhat astonish those who have not 
 had an opportunity to examine long and thoroughly this feature in the dark 
 side of our social life. 
 
 Many of these branches of the swindling art are practised only here and 
 by the people in person, while the far greater number look for their vic- 
 tims all over the country, and find them — yea, find them by thousands. 
 
 The outside business is conducted by means of printed or lithographed 
 circulars, sometimes, too, by written letters, and the men who conduct this 
 kind of business employ for the purpose a large number of clerks. In 
 these circulars and letters offers are made to the persons addressed under 
 most varied pretences. Sometimes the person written to has been recom- 
 mended by some friend as especially trustworthy ; sometimes the writer 
 wants to appoint an agent for a certain county and offers the appointment ; 
 sometimes the stock of a shop is going to be sold off; sometimes it is a 
 bankrupt stock which will be delivered at prices far below the actual value ; 
 and very often such letters contain besides a warning against other swiu- 
 dlers. Suffice it to say that the swindling fraternity are never at a loss to 
 find a vesture for their offers, and, too, with an amount of success which 
 is well understood by the immense number of people wLo are every week 
 being swindled by them. 
 
 But how do these people obtain the hundreds and thousands of addresses 
 to which they are ever sending their circulars and letters? Perhaps many 
 of the people who receive these communications, and whose names are 
 scarcely known outside of the limits of their own place of residence, feel a 
 little flattered at finding that their name has been heard of at a distance, 
 and at receiving such a mark of confidence as the offer implies. But it is 
 done in the following way. There are in New York, and also in other 
 large cities, people who collect the addresses of all sorts of persons in any 
 kind of business, and who for a small consideration, usually a dollar for a 
 
 
SWINDLERS. 169 
 
 hundred names, dispose of copies. A swindler will sometimes spend as 
 much as five hundred dollars, receiving for it fifty thousand addresses in 
 all places aud in every part of the Union. Now he lays his traps and 
 throws out his bait, and it is a remarkable fact that more than half the 
 answers he receives contain mouey, showing how many people there arc 
 who are ready to be entrapped. But there are other means by which 
 addresses can be procured. First there are the directories of hundreds of 
 towns ; aud if it be necessary to spend four or five hundred dollars in pro- 
 curing these, that is no hindrance. For as long as there are so many fools 
 and simpletons about ever ready to be swindled, the investment will always 
 turn out profitably to the swindler. Often, too, these people interchange 
 their addresses one with another, or cne establishment will buy up the 
 letters of another. In this way recently one " Fisher & Co." purchased of 
 a Miss Nelson, of Brooklyn, some forty thousand letters, in most of which 
 fifty centfl had been inclosed. These letters had been received by Miss 
 N. son in reply to an advertisement in w r hich, for the fee named, she un- 
 dertook to give a description of tho future wife or husband as the case 
 might be, and to foretell the time of marriage. — Another firm of swindlers 
 bought frcm a so-called Reverend Dr. Chambers, of Williamsburg, who 
 pretended to have discovered a certain cure for consumption, two large 
 sacks of letters, in each of which he had received twenty-five cents and a 
 three cent postage stamp. Such firms will sometimes have as many as a 
 million circulars printed at one time, and during the space of a week will 
 pay many hundred dollars in postage for the distribution of those circulars. 
 Indeed, two of the largest of the swindling establishments keep presses con- 
 stantly at work upon the circulars and other printing required in the busi- 
 ness. 
 
 In accordance with the maxim that " a burnt child dreads the fire" one 
 would think that when a person has been once taken in, he would not let 
 himself be caught a second time. But experience teaches otherwise ; and 
 swindlers would often rather buy the letters which others in the same trade 
 have received, and the addresses of people who have been already victim- 
 ized. Sometimes a person will receive a second circular from the firm 
 that has already cheated him ; but which is made to appear as coming 
 from another concern, and gives a different street and a new number as the 
 place of business. These swindlers speculate upon the thoughtlessness, the 
 greed for gain and partly — as in the case of counterfeiters — the evil pro- 
 pensities of men ; and they succeed pecuniarily better by far than many 
 honest business men who harass themselves from morning till night in 
 their offices, or than those others amongst us who are laboring hard for the 
 enlightenment of their fellow-men. There are many people who, having 
 been once bitten, are like the professional gambler, whose passion is only 
 stimulated by his losses. We have lying before us the result of one man's 
 experience, who allowed himself to be swindled ten times, but was cured 
 
170 THE ©ARK SIDE OE NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 by the eleventh. He had paid at different times, and to different ilrms r 
 the following amounts :— $1.00— $2.25— $2.50 -$1.00— 45 cts.— 50 cts. 
 $1.00 — 50 cts. — 30 cts. and 50 cts., and although he had not failed to use 
 reminders and threats, he had never received any satisfaction. Only once 
 did he have an answer, and then it was to the effect that his letter had 
 contained no money ! 
 
 Either the swindler puts the money which he receives into his pocket, 
 and sends no reply at all, well knowing that he has nothing to fear from 
 all the duunings and threats which come to him from his victims at a dis- 
 tance ; or he will answer and say that the first letter with the money was 
 not received ; or that the request had been complied with ; or he will send 
 an article worth nothing ; for .example, in place of a watch worth $150.00 
 one that is not worth $3.00 ; or which more correctly has no value at all. 
 It invariably happens that if anybody lets himself be induced to send 
 money in response to a circular, he is cheated. To make more sure the 
 swindler often sends the names of well known people as references. But 
 that is of no consequence, for it too is a swindle. Either the persons men- 
 tioned know nothing of the use or rather of the misuse that has been made 
 of their names, or else incorrect initials are prefixed to the surnames and 
 thus the whole thing is a delusion. 
 
 Almost all these firms operate under different names, some of them hav- 
 ing as many as ten or even more aliasses. And as they never attach their 
 real names to the circulars, and as a rule give wrong streets and numbers, 
 it is exceedingly difficult to find them in case any one of their victims 
 should come to the city for that purpose. 
 
 As a large number of them, especially those who deal in obscene publi- 
 cations " love powder," &c, distribute their circulars chiefly among young 
 people, and of both sexes, parents, guardians, and principals of educational 
 institutions, should keep a watchful eye over the enclosure seat by mail to 
 their children or wards. The pure mind of many a child has been forever 
 ruined by the wretched work of these rascals. 
 
 Some firms publish a newspaper at a subscription of about a dollar a 
 year, the only object of which is to mark their real business and indirectly 
 to support it. Others have different private post offices, which not only yield 
 a profit to them, but also enable them to have the answers to their circu- 
 lars sent there under different addresses, without any possible interference 
 from the post office authorities. Since the rule has been made not to 
 deliver letters containing money through the post for w r ell known swindlers, 
 such letters are sent to the dead letter office — or unclaimed letter office, at 
 Washington, and thence returned to their senders. But the swindler 
 guards himself against this, and even if he have not an address which has 
 become notorious with the post office authorities, he puts a warning in his 
 circulars not to send money through the post, but only by express. 
 
 If it be asked how it is that such a gigantic system, as is here described, 
 
 
SWINDLER"*. 
 
 171 
 
 can continue for years unchecked by punishment, the answer is that our 
 
 laws are too inefficient to reach the persons engaged in the pursuit. Then 
 there are many lawyers who depend entirely tor their subsistence upon the 
 
 support they givo to rascality and crime. There is oue large swindling 
 firm which especially employs counsel to examine every new project that 
 is put forward, and to see whether it can be carried out without the inter- 
 ference of the law ! This it always does before anything fresh is attempted. 
 
 It is said that the fortune accumulated by one of the leading swindlers 
 here amounts to half a million dollars ; and that many of them receive as 
 much as from six to eight thousand dollars every week, so that we may 
 fairly estimate the loss which the country suffers through these men at 
 from four to five millions of dollars every year. Swindlers are rich, but 
 through whom? Through the simple, the grasping, and the avaricious ; 
 among whom there are very, very many, who, so long as tkey make 
 money, care little or nothing how they make it. 
 
 Since we must now enter upon an account of specialities in the art of 
 swindling, we will begin by noticing those which depend less upon the sim- 
 ple mindedness and folly of the people, than upon the ignorance and crimi- 
 nal tendencies, working — as they do — in the widest sphere, and throwing 
 before the public, as a bait, the promises of a large, if dishonest profit. 
 The chief of these are the counterfeit money and saw-dust swindlers, and 
 the dealers in counterfeit revenue stamps and forged bonds. Of these ras- 
 cally operators the most important and the most wide reaching are those 
 first named— The Counterfeit Money and Saw-dust Swindlers. 
 
 The seizures that have been made in the " offices" of such people, the 
 thousands of letters that have been found in them from all parts of the 
 country, and from persons who in their own neighborhoods are regarded 
 as honorable and good, set forth with startling prominence the depth to 
 which the poison of corruption has eaten its way into all classes of the peo- 
 ple. Many hundred thousand dollars — nay, during the seven years that 
 this system has been in practice, not hundreds of thousands, but millions 
 of dollars have flowed into the pockets of these swindlers ; and all the 
 money has come from people whose sense of honesty was so deficient that 
 they were ready to cheat their neighbors with counterfeit money, although 
 in the end — and this is a bright spot in the black picture — they were them- 
 selves the individuals who were cheated. 
 
 It will not be uninteresting if we relate how this system, which has 
 reached such enormous dimensions, originated. 
 
 In the year 18G7 a young Englishman, named Tumbury, who had tra- 
 velled to this country, was swindled out of all that he possessed. He was 
 afterwards known, under his own operations of a like kind, by the names 
 of Gumbridge, Gunbridge and Gurmbridge, to which he subsequently 
 added, " and Co." He was a young man of pleasing exterior, but who 
 had no great love for work, aud so looked out for some occupation which 
 
172 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 required but little money and no laborious effort. He began a commission 
 business, undertaking to supply orders for persons in the country for things 
 which they could not procure in their own neighborhoods. 
 
 There are many trifling things newly advertised in the New York papers, 
 and which, when purchased here by wholesale, cost only about four or five 
 cents, but for which in the country as much as 25 cents are readily ob- 
 tained, thus turning over a good profit. It is a kind of business which is 
 carried on by many respectable firms, but one which opens out a wide field 
 to men who are not conscientious, for the circulation of obscene prints and 
 other objects with the sale of which honest business men will have nothing 
 to do. 
 
 A couple of years before this time, in 1864, the United States Treasury 
 had granted permission to have photographed copies of the paper money 
 in one quarter of the genuine size, which photographs were intended to 
 protect the public against counterfeits, because being accurate in details, 
 although small in size, a comparison with any suspected notes could be 
 -made. It soon became apparent, however, that these photographs were of 
 little use for the purpose intended, but were bought rather as curiosities 
 and as such had already found a good market. This very much assisted 
 Mr. Tumbury, who presently inserted the following advertisement in the 
 papers : — 
 
 " $5 for 25 cents. — $5 worth photographic fac similes of U. S. Green- 
 backs, will be sent for 25 cents. Address Gumbridge & Co., Nassau 
 Street, New York." 
 
 At that time Tumbury had not the means to rent an office, and in con- 
 sequence he used to wait opposite a place appointed until the letter carrier 
 came along with his letters, which soon grew to an immense number, each 
 containing twenty-five cents. Whether or not Gumbridge & Co. ever sent 
 the photographs is not known ; certain, however, it is that before very long 
 many complaints were made in different quarters, that the orders sent and 
 paid for were not filled, and also that he was doing a business in which 
 his profits consisted of all his receipts. But by means of this 25 cents busi- 
 ness the speculative Tumbury was soon enabled to extend his sphere of 
 operations. The letters of many of the people who ordered the photo- 
 graphs showed that they wanted photographic copies the full size of the 
 originals, and so well done that they could not be distinguished from them. 
 But that he did not care for ; he put the 25 cents into his pocket and prob- 
 ably sent nothing. The business flourished ; for the number of foolish peo- 
 ple and of those who are ready to made a dishonest penny, if it can be 
 done secretly, is great ; and so many ran into his net. 
 
 But about this time the owner of the office, before whose door Tumbury 
 used to get his letters of the post-man, and who was often being worried 
 with enquiries for Gumbridge & Co., caused it to be notified to the post- 
 master that that firm occupied no office in the building ; upon which the 
 
IWIXDLRRS. IT.') 
 
 postmaster gave instructions that no more letters should go out to that 
 address. Tumbury, however, in the mean time had made so much money 
 that he was now able to rent an office and furnish it, so presently he moved 
 to No. 69 Wall Street. 
 
 While here the idea came into his mind to extend his swindling opera- 
 tions, to give up the bagatelle twenty-five cent business, and to climb a 
 good deal higher on the ladder. 
 
 He had seen that most of those persons who had applied to him for pho- 
 tographs, were uuder the impression that they would receive imitations of 
 genuine notes which they could pay away as genuine. This told him that 
 all these people, not encumbered with a superfluity of honesty, were ready 
 to accept arrangements to that end, and so he determined to offer them 
 counterfeit notes, but not just at present to furnish Ihem. He kept the 
 following points in view. First he received and retained the money from 
 everybody whom he could find willing to put counterfeit notes into circula- 
 tion ; then the people he was cheating were not in a position to enter an 
 action, because they themselves would have to be held guilty of the inten- 
 tion to circulate bad money ; thirdly they could not make auy charge for 
 breach of contract against him, because according to law no one can be 
 compelled to fulfil the terms of an agreement which is in itself illegal : and 
 fourthly no complaint against him for supplying counterfeit money could 
 be sustained, because in truth he did not supply any. So armed with all 
 the weapons of a trickster, the cunning rascal went to work. Whether he 
 managed everything himself, or whether at that time he had the services 
 of a lawyer, is not certain. It is an unfortunate fact that there are in 
 New York so many lawyers — infamous pettifoggers — who are always 
 ready to promote the cause of rascality, if only they are paid enough 
 for it. 
 
 Of ceurse Tumbury had now to give up the advertisements in the papers 
 and to devise some more secret way for laying his bait. He must now 
 seek his customers by means of circulars ; and he already had, in abund- 
 ance, the addresses of the kind of people he wanted in the letters which he 
 had received under the 25 cent business. But a printed circular would 
 uot do. He therefore wrote one himself and caused a number to be litho- 
 graphed in fac simile, which most persons would probably mistake for a 
 hand-written and confidential communication. His first circular reads as 
 follows : — 
 
 69 Wall Street, N. Y. 
 Mt Dear Sir: 
 
 We have a large stock of exact copies of genuine U. S. Treasury Notes on 
 hand, made by men skilled in the art which we desire to immediately dispose of, 
 even if sacrificed. They are arranged in packages, each representing over $500, in 
 various denominations, 60 accurate as to be a perfect fac-pimile of the genuine U. S. 
 Notes. W-e will not sell a package for less than $16, upon receipt of which we will 
 
174 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 send it to you ; or if you do not wish to trust us to this amount, we will send it to 
 you on receipt of $ 5 ; the balance, $10, you can send to us as soon after you receive 
 the package as possible. We trust partly to your honesty to do this, at the same 
 time thinking that as you will consider it to your interest to deal with us further, 
 you will comply with our request. 
 
 After you have ordered the package, any informatton we can afford will be 
 cheerfully given. If you are afraid to trust us even to the amount of $6, we will 
 send you the package by Express, C. 0. D., you sending us the balanee, $10, as 
 soon after you receive the package as possible. We would, however, prefer to have 
 the money sent by mail, as it is less trouble, and saves both you and us the Express 
 charges. If you desire to avail yourself of this opportunity, you must do so at once, 
 and address carefully, 
 
 GUMBRIDGE & CO., 
 
 69 Wall St., N. Y. 
 
 We offer special inducements to any one desirous of becoming our confidential 
 Agent. 
 
 It will be noticed that in this first circular Turabury was very careful to 
 avoid speaking of counterfeit notes, as he boldly did in subsequent circu- 
 lars ; and further that he asked for remittances through the post, an 
 arrangement that was afterwards prevented by an order from the post 
 office authorities. However, the circular had the desired effect. From 
 all sides came orders for the "fac similes of genuine notes" with remittan- 
 ces of five or fifteen dollars, while Tumbury sent nothing and lived all the 
 while in rioting and revelling. 
 
 But the circulars from Grumbridge & Co. grew every week more 
 numerous, and the nature of the business soon became so well known to 
 the swindling fraternity, that other swindlers began to think that they, too, 
 might as well grow rich in a short time in the same way as Tumbury. 
 Among these was a man who opened a commission business at 148 Fulton 
 Street, under the firm name of Dai ley & Co., in the same way as Tumbury 
 had done. This man followed out Tumbury's idea, but resolved to con- 
 duct the business on a larger scale. In his circulars he not only took a 
 bolder and more decided course than his predecessor, but he sent them out 
 simultaneously under five different names, one of which was Hitchcock & 
 Co. Thus Tumbury was the founder of this swindle and Dailey the per- 
 i'ecter of it. His first circular was as follows : — 
 
 New York, 27th April, 1870. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 We desire to engage the services of a keen, sagacious Agent in your locality 
 for a business which cannot fail to yield a profit of $10,000 a month, if rightly man- 
 aged. The capital required is comparatively insignificant. And as you are subject 
 to no risk, you will have a clear " walk over." We have been employed during the 
 past three months in preparing plates of the $1, $2 and $5 Greenbacks. They are 
 now oomplete, and a large quantity of the bills have been worked off. These bills 
 are, without exception, the beet ever executed in the country, and cannot be detected 
 
SWINDLKKS. 175 
 
 even by the ablest experts. They are printed on first-class Bank Note paper, and 
 are correctly numbered. The engraving is incomparable. Indeed, no accomplish- 
 ment in the art of engraving or of printing has been left untaxed to render you a« 
 safe in passing these bills as if you were passing good money. We have them put. 
 up in packages of $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000. In consequence of the exceeding 
 excellence of the bills, and of the great expense of bringing them out, we shall have 
 to charge you at the rate of $200 per $1,00J. But to give you a start and to con- 
 vince you that we mean business, we will send you a package containing $500 upon 
 the receipt of $10 or $20, whichever you may see fit to send us, provided you pay 
 the balance within 15 days after receiving the package. You will be required to 
 meet jour bills promptly. We shall insist upon cash payments upon your first fail- 
 ure to comply with our terms. Do not think us unreasonable, for in a business of 
 this kind everything should be conducted on the square. We must have the cost of 
 printing, at least; and 15 days is certainly ample time for the payment of the bal- 
 ance. You may form some idea about the quality of our stock by reading the en- 
 closed extract, cut from the " Herald". Don't exhibit more than $50 or $100 at a 
 time in a place. So many new bills might excite suspicion. If you could manage to 
 come on, we could have a free talk over the matter, and make arrangements for a 
 big business. In case you come on, show this envelope to the man at the desk, and 
 lie will introduce you. When you send us an order, endeavor to send by Express. 
 It is likely to be lost in the mails, but it is perfectly secure from all eyes in the Ex- 
 press. We are exposed to all the risk in this matter, and we implore you not to 
 betray us in any manner. Depend upon it. as long as you are true to us, you will 
 not be out of funds. We would prefer to have you come on or send the money in 
 advance. But if it suits you better, we will send it by Express. Collect on delivery, 
 and pack it in such a way that no one will suspect the contents of the box. A per- 
 sonal interview would, of course, be desirable for both parties. Then you can ex- 
 amine the stock at leisure, and be able to judge better as to the quantity you want. 
 In case any of your friends desire to take a hand, dou't permit it, as we wish to deal 
 with Agents of our own selection only. When you send an order, state plainly what 
 denominations you wish, how much you want, and address, 
 
 A. J. HITCHCOCK and CO.. 
 
 148 Fulton Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 Your letter will be destroyed as soon as read. Be sure and write your nam« 
 and address as plain as possible when you write to us, and either destroy this or 
 send it back with your order. 
 
 The foregoing circular shows that more ability was possessed by Dailey 
 than had been displayed by Tumbury. Ilis circulars very soon began to 
 carry the names of the following five firms : — Dailey & Co., A J. Hitch- 
 cock & Co., Wogan & Co., (Wogac was one of Dailey's clerks, to whom 
 we shall have to return presently) W. J. Ferguson, and John F. Hamil- 
 ton ; while to these aliases he at a later period added very many more. 
 And in order to keep the thing going, when the business had almost come 
 to an ei*d in one office, he had four others, at 13 Nassau Street, 148 Nas- 
 sau Street, 208 Broadway, and 234 Broadway. Whether Adam Smith, 
 Rufws Stockton, Hamilton, and others, who later played their part in the 
 
176 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 counterfeit money swindle, were clerks of Dailey, or only his pupils, we do 
 not know. 
 
 Wogan & Co., the firm before mentioned, became afterwards Logan & 
 Co., Thomas W. Pierce &c, in 89 Nassau Street and 15 Dutch Street. 
 
 Wogan was, as we have said, a clerk in the office of Dailey & Co. But 
 when this firm got notorious, Dailey made an agreement with Wogan by 
 which the new firm was created with the consent of the latter. This went 
 on till Wogan grew tired of holding the inferior position of clerk, and he 
 asked for an increase of salary ; upon which Dailey told him " to go to the 
 devil." 
 
 He did not do that, but he w T ent to the postmaster instead, and told him 
 that the firm of Wogan & Co. had been dissolved, and that he, Wogan, 
 the head of the firm, required that no mere letters should be delivered at 
 the office for Wogan & Co. He wanted them to be given to him, but the 
 consequence was that letters went to the Dead Letter Office at Washington 
 containing in the aggregate some $6,000, all of which of course Dailey 
 lost. So did one swindler betray and injure another. 
 
 Wogan then established himself as Logan & Co., and for a time he did 
 Dailey & Co. a great deal of harm. But he did not long remain in the 
 business, and soon was succeeded by Waters & Howard. 
 
 When Tumbury had carried on his affairs for a long time, the Internal 
 Revenue officers determined one day to arrest him, because he had not 
 taken out a license for his so-called commission business. But it had been 
 far too profitable to leave room for such an incident as that to trouble him, 
 — the matter was " settled." 
 
 At that time the officers estimated his yearly profits at $30,000, and 
 Dailey, who in the space of a week sometimes sent out as many as a hun- 
 dred thousand circulars, admitted that he had already made $35,000. 
 Logan and Co. often fell into the hands of the poliee, and at those times 
 admitted that they often received as many as two thousand letters in a 
 week ; and Colonel Whitley, the chief of the United States detective police, 
 in breaking up another swindling concern found more than 60,000 letters, 
 say sixty thousand, in the office. These letters were from people in every 
 kind of business and from all parts of the Union and the Dominion of 
 Canada, who had sent money for counterfeit notes, or had ordered them to 
 be sent C. O. D., or who asked for samples. Many were from contractors 
 and persons who employed a large number of work-people, and who pro- 
 posed to use the counterfeits in paying these people their wages. On the 
 arrest of a man named Heckling it was found that he had about $10,000 
 lying in two banks, and his books showed that in the short space of three 
 months and a half he had received $56,869 ; and when Dailey and Wogan 
 were arrested, they admitted that they had received as much as $7,000 in 
 one day ! 
 
 These few facts suffice to show what immense sums these people make, 
 
BW1ML>LER8. l << 
 
 and how many there are in the country who are wicked enougb U BCCnre 
 a dishonest profit by the use of couuterfeit money. 
 
 At first these swindlers did their business in such a way that they simply 
 put the money which they got into their pockets, and then never troubled 
 themselves any further about it. But at length it frequently occurred that 
 people who had received a circular, instead of writing and sending money, 
 eame personally to the office. Such people were not to be put off with 
 empty words, if the fellows wanted to have their money ; and hence arose 
 the saw-dust swindle, which has since been practised by almost all these 
 operators, even in .regard to the smallest orders. 
 
 The following is the manner in which this is worked. When the swin- 
 dler has received a number of addresses, as described at the beginning ot 
 the chapter, he sends to each a circular in which he offers counterfeit notes 
 at a certain price per hundred or thousand dollars, and gives prominence 
 to the mode of seuuing the order and the value. 
 
 As a further sample of one of these circulars we here reprint one of the 
 most recent that have come under our notice. It runs as follows : 
 
 Dear Friend : 
 
 We are being at some trouble to obtain the assistance of a smart man who will 
 push our business as explained in this letter ; and we have been informed by a 
 friend, who knows you well, that you would just suit us. As we have done a good 
 deal of business with your friend, and have always found him to be an honorable 
 and upright man, we feel induced to intrust you with our secret. 
 
 If you are agreeable to enter upon this business at once, we will depart from 
 our accustomed business rule of selling only for cash and will supply you upon the 
 following terms : — 
 
 We have on hand a large quantity of $1, $2, and $5 imitation United States 
 Currency Notes, which are as well got up as those issued by the government. If 
 you will forward to us the sum of $10 by Express, carriage paid, we will send to 
 you, delivered at your nearest Railway Station, or by Express, a packet containing 
 $1,000 in our money. For $15 in advance you can have $2,000 of our money. For 
 $26 we will send you $4,000, and for $30 you can get a packet with $5,000. Of 
 course the above named sums do not pay tho whole amount to be due ; they are 
 rather payments on account, and the balance must be paid as soon after as you pos- 
 sibly can. By ordering a packet of $4,000 you may have the rights for your county, 
 and if you take $5,000 you can secure the whole of your State. Our Notes are en- 
 graved to perfection, and printed upon United States Bank Note paper, and would 
 be pronounced genuine by bankers or any competent authorities. We know that 
 you will serve us honorably and faithfully, since you would only injure yourself by 
 deceiving us. Let us know the amount and the denominations that you require. 
 When you send the money, have the goodness to pay the Express charges and to 
 deduct the amount. Under no circumstances write by mail, for we neither enquire 
 for letters at the Post Office nor will we take any letters out from there. Send only 
 by Express. We are fraternally yours 
 
 J. W. LANG & CO., 
 
 NO. 27 Lispenard Street, 
 
 New York City. 
 12 
 
178 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 If it is anyway possible, come on yourself; if not, bs careful to do all the 
 business by Express. 
 
 What strikes us upon the perusal of many such circulars lying before, 
 us, is the fact that these people, whose business is a swindle, and who rely 
 also upon those to whom they write, being ready to cheat their neighbors, 
 should talk of " honor" and " uprightness." To us, such language, under 
 the circumstances, is the most gross impudence— might we not say blas- 
 phemy ? 
 
 We now subjoin a circular issued by W. Dailey, wherein the swindler 
 is more diffuse in his style, and furnishes a new ground altogether upon 
 which to advocate the excellence of his fabrications. It runs thus : 
 
 STRICTLY SUB-ROSA, AND THE SECRET NEVER TO BE IMPARTED TO 
 
 A LIVING BEING. 
 
 My Dear Sir : I take the liberty of sending you a Circular that is printed 
 by myself in my own printing office, in order that its contents may be known only 
 to the few that I conclude to take into my confidence. 
 
 I hope that after I have placed confidence enough in you to send a circular 
 of this kind, relating the nature of my business, that you would not be so treacher- 
 ous as to even breathe the contents of this document to a living being ; should yoftr 
 betray me, J will find means to be avenged in a way perhaps you would not dream of. If 
 you do not wish to enter into this confidential business with me, all I ask is, that 
 you burn this circular and let the secret die with the flame. On the other hand, if 
 you conclude to enter into this speculation, that will in a few weeks make you a 
 wealthy man, I would also advise you to burn the circular and preserve the secret, 
 as when this circular is destroyed all evidence against you and me is obliterated. 
 
 All persons in a business of this character must be true to themselves, and as 
 true as steel to the person they are doing business with. You should always abstain 
 from the use of strong drink, for in that there is great danger, as a person knows 
 not what he might say when drunk. You should also keep the secret of the busi- 
 ness as still as the grave, not even hint at it to your nearest relation or breathe it to 
 your second self. Now, with all the warning I have given you that is most neces- 
 sary to adhere to without a single exception, I will proceed to state facts in refer- 
 ence to the business, which, if managed with care and shrewdness, will lead you to 
 fortune without any one dreaming from whence your wealth came. 
 
 In the first place, I wish to state that I am an engraver, and said to be by 
 those who are competent of judging, the most expert one in America. I have been 
 employed by the U. S. Government for ten years. I superintended the engraving 
 of all the plates for the United States money. When the Government ceased to issue 
 Greenbacks my services were no longer required, and as soon as I found that my 
 time was my own I conceived the idea of engraving a few plates for myself and for 
 my benefit, as I am well aware that a man can never become wealthy working for a 
 salary. I have only recently finished the work that I began almost two years since, 
 that is, the engraving of six plates which are exact duplicates of the Governments. 
 Mine are the Fifty Cents, the One, Two, Five, Ten, and Twenty Dollars plates. I 
 have taken the greatest care in engraving these plates, and I defy the best experts to 
 detect the counterfeits from the genuine. I deposited a few days since a large amount 
 of my money in six different banks in New York ; they all accepted it without saying 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 179 
 
 a w«»k1; my money b/mg all new, I thought it would not be advisable to deposit any 
 Biore, for tfiir they might think something wrong. When it is deposited in b ink- 
 thftrc should be other money that has been in use mixed with it, then there will be 
 no suspicion, and I now need only a few true men to assist me for six months, then 
 am- will secure a fortune that will enable us to enjoy all the pleasures that money 
 can piocure on earth. My bills are printed on exactly the same paper as the I .8. 
 money, so that there is not a possible chance to detect the difference only in one 
 way, which is this: the Government bills are numbered from one up, so are mine. 
 If you should come across two of the same number, one will certainly be counterfeit, 
 and the other genuine. If it is convenient for you to come to New York, I wish you 
 would; then you could see the money, and I would give you a few dollars to pass, 
 then you would see that everybody would take it exactly the same as if it was 
 genuine. 
 
 The price of my money is ten cents on the dollar; one half cash, and the 
 other half as soon as the money is passed. State in your letter, when you order, 
 how many 50 cts, $1,00, $2.00, $5.00, $10.00, and $20,00 bills you wish, so that I 
 will know exactly how many of each to send. You must be sure to seal your letter- 
 perfectly ti>ght, and write my name very plainly. I will make the following dis- 
 counts when large amounts are ordered. For a three hundred dollar order the price 
 will be thirty dollars. You must inclose ten dollars with the order, and the other 
 twenty dollars when the money is passed; and for larger orders at the following 
 rates : 
 
 Send $12 cash, and $28 when money is passed. 
 
 $75 
 $400 
 „ $^)0 
 
 When a large amount is sent, 1 pack it in a box and mark it in such a man- 
 ner that no one would suspect it being money, and send it by Express. Always 
 state when you order how you wish the money sent, and if by Express. 
 
 I will send you a hundred dollars assorted, on receipt of five dollars, so you 
 can see how it passes, then you can order a large lot. 
 
 By all means come at once and see me if possible, and bring all the money 
 you can possibly raise with you, so you will be prepared to buy a large stock, for 
 this may be the last chance you will ever have to make a fortune at a single stroke. 
 After you arrive in the city you can take the Broadway stage and get out at Fourth 
 Street; walk down Fourth Street, west side, until you come to No. 22 ; you will see 
 the sign ' Book Agency J(&* ' over the door of the office. I occupy the ground 
 floor, so you will have no trouble in finding me. But if you can not possibly come 
 on here now, send me 10, 20, 50, or 100 dollars in a thick envelope, by mail, or by 
 express. Do not send by registered letter under any circumstances. All registered 
 letters are supposed to contain money, and Post-Office Clerks are apt to open thorn, 
 take the money out, and then seal them up as before, and send them through. You 
 see if this were to happen it would expose the whole thing. I guarantee to send 
 you back ten times the amount I receive, in the best counterfeit money ever issued, 
 or if you prefer I will send my money to you C. 0. D. by express, and you can pay 
 the money due me to the express agent when he hands you the package. I sew the 
 money up in the lining of a coat, and pack it in many other ways before I ship it, 
 so no one would dream of its being money. Now, my dear sir, I have disclosed this 
 gold r -n opportunity to you in faith and hope — faith in your ability and fidelity, and 
 
 $400 
 
 order 
 
 for $40. 
 
 Send $12 
 
 $500 
 
 >» 
 
 „ $50. 
 
 ,. $15 
 
 $1,000 
 
 »> 
 
 „ $100 
 
 „ $25 
 
 $5,000 
 
 >> 
 
 „ $500 
 
 „ $100 
 
 $10,000 
 
 i> 
 
 „ $1,000 
 
 „ $200 
 
180 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 hoping that one year hence may find us both wealthy and happy, and I here pledge* 
 you my word of honor that while you are faithful to me I will be true to you. My 
 name and address is on the enclosed slip, which you will keep, but burn this cir- 
 cular. 
 
 This is the compact which I sign, and to which you must agree : 1st — We 
 mutually agree not to betray each other, and to disclose this matter to no living 
 soul. 2d — I am to return to you, secure from observation, ten dollars of the best 
 counterfeit money made for every dollar I receive from you. 3d — When you come 
 here to see me, I am to count you out $10,00 for every dollar you give me, and you 
 need not pay me until you have my money in your hands. We must do business 
 under this compact, and let him who first violates it suffer the consequences. 
 
 It is to be observed that this circular was not signed, but that the name 
 of the sender was given on a separate slip of paper. This mode of pro- 
 ceeding was observed recently by many of the swindling firms, as an extra 
 precaution against the interference of the law and the police. 
 
 We must add yet another circular which was issued under the name of 
 the Eureka Manufacturing Company, from Patterson, New Jersey. A 
 high sounding title being calculated to throw dust into the eyes of the peo- 
 ple. This circular is more especially interesting because the Eureka 
 Manufacturing Company wished to appear as particularly honest in the 
 matter, inasmuch as they say to us : " Do not think that we offer you our 
 imitations of good notes in order that you may circulate them as counter- 
 feits. Far from us be such villainy ! We warn you against attempting 
 anything of the kind, an #ct which could only lead you to prison. No, we 
 offer you openly our imitations of the genuine notes only as a means by 
 which you may be able to recognize counterfeit money. " 
 
 And this worthy company went yet further. They abused the " rascals" 
 who had been sending saw-dust to the people ; and said that had only hap- 
 pened because they — the veritable Jacob — who were the only makers of 
 the real imitation notes, had become aware of the doings of the " scoun- 
 drels" and would not allow them to have any more of their bills ; finally 
 offering packets of $1,000 up to $1,688. In fact this circular which we^ 
 now give surpasses everything that went before : — 
 
 PRIVATE CIRCULAR. 
 
 Dear Sir : — We wish to call your attention to a beautifully artistic creation 
 which we are now producing with marvelous success. We allude to a number of 
 perfect fac similes of the genuine U. 3. Treasury Notes and National Bank Bills, 
 which have been executed by some of the most skilled workmen in the United State? 
 in such a perfect manner as to make it utterly impossible to point out the slighest 
 difference between them and the genuine notes. They are exact copies. 
 
 Of course you will naturally infer upon reading this circular that we are 
 endeavoring to flood the country with a lot of spurious meney, for the purpose ol 
 realizing an immense income; this is not so, and we wish you to distinctly under- 
 stand that did we for a single moment thiuk that you would be so base as to pass, oi 
 try to pass, our fac similes, we would not furnish them to you at any price. We ael 
 
SWINDLERS. 181 
 
 them as a DBTECTOB ok counterfeit money, and any person making unlawful uso 
 of them must take the consequences. 
 
 During the pnst few months a number of persons in the city of New York, 
 that most corrupt of all cities, have been sending circulars all over the country, 
 Ftating that they would furnish these imitations of the genuine notes on application ; 
 for a short time they filled all orders (charging an enormous price), but as soon as 
 it became known to us what they were doing, we refused to supply them, and the 
 consequence was that every person sending them money was swindled, as they (the 
 New Yorkers) had no means whatever of filling orders only through us, and as we 
 refused to become identified with such scoundrels, they then pretended to fill orders 
 by sending boxes of saw-dust to persons that had ordered the fac similes; but this 
 soon leaked out, and the different newspapers throughout the country thoroughly 
 •exposed them, and finally compelled them to abandon their nefarious practices. 
 
 In conclusion we would state that we shall be happy to furnish you with 
 exact copies of the genuine U. S. Treasury Notes and National Bank Bills at a rea- 
 sonable figure, providing you use them iu a legitimate manner. Don't attempt to 
 pass counterfeit money, and thereby make yourself liable to go to prison, when you 
 can make an immense amount of money by becoming our Agent for the sale of these 
 imitations in a strictly honorable manner. Everybody will buy them as soon as 
 they see them, at five or ten times the amount we charge for them. Should you 
 conclude to order, send your money by either P. 0. Order, Express, Draft, or in 
 Registered Letters ; all moneys sent in that manner will be at our risk. All orders 
 are filled as soon as received. No deviation from the following prices under any 
 circumstances. Tde cash must accompany all orders. We will send packages rep- 
 resenting $1,G88 for $10, and packages representing $1,000 for $7. Address all 
 -orders 
 
 Eureka Manufacturing Co., 
 P. 0. Box 554. Paterson, N. J. 
 
 One thing is certain, that real counterfeiters, or people who deal in bad 
 money or counterfeit bills, would never issue circulars ; for that would be 
 to insure their discovery and arrest. It is only the swindlers who propose 
 to supply false money to people, but who in reality do not do it, who avail 
 themselves of this method to procure customers. But they take \ery good 
 ■care never to have a bad note in their possession, if it be only a ten cent 
 bill. If such a one come to them they immediately destroy it ; for if they 
 should be arrested, and only one counterfeit note were to be found in their 
 possession, they would probably be brought up as counterfeiters and sent 
 for some years to Sing Sing ; since it is well nigh impossible for the law to 
 reach them in their own peculiar business. They are, therefore, exceed- 
 ingly particular in this matter. 
 
 It will be seen from the above circulars that these most gentlemanly 
 swindlers are wonderfully accommodating, and that they do all in their 
 power to facilitate business. If they can only knock out $10, or even $5, 
 they are satisfied : u We trust you ; you can send the balance when you 
 have sold the notes or passed them." But they must have some " cash/' 
 and five or ten dollars is enough for a small box of saw-dust, hardly as 
 
182 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 large as a little cigar box, and at the same time it is a very respectable 
 priee upon which they can well submit. 
 
 Now the swindlers receive heaps of letters in reply to these circulars, 
 with orders and money, or the promise to pay the amount on receipt of the 
 goods by express. The letters are opened, the money put into the treasury, 
 and then the business is proceeded with. Small boxes of different sizes 
 are kept ready in hundreds. They are filled with saw-dust and some pie- 
 ces of old iron to make weight. They are then fastened down carefully 
 with bands of iron, so that they may not be very readily opened, and the 
 necessary number addressed and sent to the express office. If there be 
 nothing to pay the happy recipient takes it of course without further ado ; 
 if the cash be due on delivery he must first pay out his good money before 
 he can receive it ; ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred dollars or more for a box 
 of saw-dust ! He now takes his supposed treasure under his arm and goes 
 merrily home, no doubt contemplating on the way how much he is going 
 to make by cheating his neighbors. Arrived at home he retreats to a pri- 
 vate room — for his family must not know what he is doing — locks the door 
 behind him and begins to open his valuables. This takes some time, for 
 the iron bands are strong and the nails firm. At last he has the lid off, 
 and his eyes are glistening at the expected prize ; when lo ! nothing but 
 saw-dust. 
 
 He begins to rummage in the saw-dust, getting his hand lower and lower 
 in the hope that possibly his counterfeit notes may be at the bottom ; but 
 alas ! there is nothing but two or three pieces of iron wrapped in some old 
 paper. He stops, wonders, and begins to reason with himself. There 
 must be something wrong — he thinks — the box cannot be right — it must 
 have been changed in the express office. He looks at the address on the 
 lid, and that, indeed, is right. It is his own. The mistake then must 
 have been made by the person who sent the box. He sits down and writes 
 to him. He waits a w r eek — no answer comes. He writes again more 
 urgently. Another fortnight follows and still no answer. He writes a 
 third time, and as week after week passes and still there is no answer, a 
 light begins to dawn upon him, and he comes to the conclusion that the 
 cheater has been cheated. But what is he to do? Shall he make a public 
 complaint? He cannot do that, for if he did he would convict himself of 
 the wish to deal in counterfeit money, and thus render himself a fit subject 
 for imprisonment. There is nothing left for him but to grumble and grieve 
 over his loss in silence. And if he reconciles himself to his fate and ac- 
 cepts it as a punishment for the attempt to do wrong, he probably does the 
 best that can be done under the circumstances. 
 
 But all are not so reasonable. " Deuce take the rascal !" many of them 
 say, " I will go straight to New York, and find the fellow's place out. He 
 shall return me my money." So he puts a good sum of money into his 
 pocket for the journey and sets out. He arrives at New York. He has- 
 
SWINDLERS. 183 
 
 the swindlers circular in his pocket with his name and the address upon 
 it. He finds the house and sees that a number of different firms have offices 
 there, but he does not tind the one he is lookiug for. He enquires in the 
 store on the street, but they do not know the firm. Now he goes to the 
 first, then the second, and then to the third floors, and asks in different 
 rooms upon each floor, but no one in the house knows the people, and they 
 say that they have never had an office in the house. He then begins to see 
 that he has been swindled past help. lie now starts back, and when he 
 reaches home he finds that he has got rid of forty or fifty dollars very use- 
 lessly, and lost time in his business, which, if he had spent iu a more hon- 
 est manner, would have paid him very much better. 
 
 Bui — perhaps he finds the firm he is seeking, and, too, in the. office 
 named in their circular. But " the proprietor is not at home." He has 
 none on a journey for two or three weeks ; and of course the clerks 
 can do nothing. " It is very unfortunate, and the principal will much 
 regret it. Mr. N. N. must excuse him. As soon as he returns home, 
 the mistake shall be corrected and the request complied with at the expense 
 of the office.'' Upon this the victim is satisfied. But two or three weeks 
 sojourn in New York at an expensive hotel, waiting for his friend, does 
 not suit his purse ; so he, too, goes back and waits at home, waits and 
 writes, and waits again. But let him wait as long as he will, still no 
 answer comes, nor counterfeit money eitlier. 
 
 Or, perhaps, he comes to New York and succeeds in finding Mr. Hitch- 
 cock, or Moore, or Logan, or Gumbridge, as the case may be. He 
 demands his money and threatens exposure. Now new apologies are made 
 for the inexplicable mistake by which the wrong box was sent, and he is 
 asked to wait a short time only till the clerk, who forwarded the box, 
 returns, and is sure to be back presently. In the meanwhile they keep 
 their eye upon him. till suddenly a man, who represents himself as a detec- 
 tive, makes his appearance, who proceeds to arrest him as an accomplice 
 of counterfeiters, being found iu their office. Mr. Green now gets fright- 
 ened. He grows suppliant, and promises the detective money if he will 
 let him go. Of course, after much entreaty, this is agreed to ; but poor 
 Green has to give up everything he has got. Money, watch, breast-pin t 
 all have to go ; and then he returns home doubly plucked, while the swin- 
 ler and the pretended detective, who of course belongs to the gang, are 
 laughing in their sleeves. 
 
 Many of the swindlers in their circulars warn people, in case they should 
 come to visit them in New York, not to speak to anybody in the street in 
 the neighborhood of their office. This is done for two reasons. Near to 
 these offices there is always a set of scoundrels roaming about, looking out 
 for people who have the appearance of having come from the country and 
 tl.iy hunt them down. There are also runners from other counterfeit 
 money swindlers, who entice such inexperienced persons to their own chief, 
 
184 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 so that he may enjoy the privilege of plucking them, or they call him to 
 themj represent themselves as detectives and levy contributions from him. 
 In either case he is fleeced ; so that he thinks it better not to make any 
 further complaint, and not again to be in a hurry about coming to New 
 York. 
 
 Some of the swindlers who have in reality a specified office, give in 
 their circulars a password to the persons they address, which these are to 
 use in case they come to New York. This serves less to protect them 
 from undesirable visitors, than it does to intimate to them whether the 
 stranger will know them as Mr. Jones, or Smith, or Thompson, or How- 
 ard, or any of the other aliases, by all of which the proprietor of the con- 
 cern is known. The password also gives further information ; for there is 
 in the circulars a separate password for every State, and the circulars 
 themselves are signed with a different name. For example the password 
 for Iowa is, we will say, " ink," then the circulars using that are signed 
 " Jones & Co." Thus when anybody comes to New York with the pass- 
 word " ink," the swindler knows at once that he has to meet his visitor as 
 Mr. Jones. And so on for all the other States. 
 
 But most of these people, if they have really an office as indicated in 
 their circulars, keep them open, unless when for a time one of their vic- 
 tims may be there who is likely to be disagreeable, in which case the office 
 is kept closed until he is got rid of. One who is connected with the office 
 usually remains before the door to keep an eye upon all that is going on. 
 If a new customer calls he is treated with the utmost politeness, but with 
 a great deal of mystery. Of course he wants to see the counterfeit notes 
 before he buys them ; upon which a number of genuine notes of different 
 values are laid before him as specimens, with the observation, however, 
 that he can only have any of them on the promise that he will not attempt 
 to circulate them in the neighborhood of New York. He is then told at 
 great length how difficult and expensive it is to produce such beautiful 
 counterfeits, and when at last he expresses his desire to take a portion of 
 the notes, they tell him that they cannot supply him just then, because the 
 sale of late has been so great that they have only those few notes now left 
 in stock. 
 
 Then upon a signal, made unobserved by the visitor, a second of the 
 swindlers makes his appearance, and now every possible meads is used to 
 induce the man to give up what money he has on the promise that any 
 notes which he may order shall be sent to him as soon as possible. The 
 second swindler then in a cheerful manner joins in the conversation, and 
 suggests that for the present they should leave business to take care of 
 itself and go and " take a drink," or a little luncheon. This is done ; — 
 and when the stranger is warmed up with a good dinner and a little wine 
 the thoughts that made him cautious before and the want of confidence 
 that he felt are laid aside. This point attained, the accomplice remarks 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 185 
 
 that he has a small box of notes with him that he thinks he can part from ; 
 and thereupon he opens his coat far enough to let the stranger see one end 
 of the box, of which a corner of the lid is broken off, so that a portion of a 
 L-vnnine bill is just visible inside. Now a third swindler comes upon the 
 scene and, in a confused manner, whispers something to the other two. 
 The stranger is then told that there is trouble at the office, that the police 
 are there, and he growing frightened lest he should not get any counter- 
 feits at all, seizes the opportunity that he thinks now offers and buys for 
 cash the box which the man has. The party then separates, and when the 
 stranger reaches his hotel and opens the box, he iinds one good bill and all 
 the remaining space filled with waste paper. 
 
 If people who want to buy counterfeit money go to any of these swin- 
 dlers for the purpose and request that the parcel be sent to their hotel, the 
 men never under any circumstances go there themselves, because if they 
 did the intended victim would probably open the box before paying for it, 
 and tli us would learn prematurely of the cheat that was being imposed 
 upon him. 
 
 Whoever enters one of these offices is always liable to be plundered ; — 
 for the one only object of the person who occupy them is to swindle, plun- 
 der, and rob, everybody who comes within their reach. Everything is 
 done to lure inexperienced people into such places ; and decoys, respectable 
 enough in appearance, are always perambulating the busy thoroughfares 
 for the purpose. Sometimes these men will address a person, whom they 
 think from his appearance to be a countryman or a stranger iu the city, 
 with some such question as whether they have not received a private cir- 
 cular? And if the person interrogated permits himself to be led into an 
 answer, the proposition is presently made to him to purchase counterfeit 
 money ; if then he is dishonest enough to go on, he is slipped iuto one of 
 these offices and plundered nolens volens. 
 
 A few months ago a certain Mr. K came here from Lawrence- 
 
 ville to sell a patent. A short time before that he had received a circular 
 signed T. Bathy. This now occurred to him again, and, as he does not 
 seem to have been a man of very firm principle, he thought he would look 
 up Mr. Bathy. Finding in the directory that the name was connected 
 with a stationary store in Broadway, he went there in the hope of finding 
 whom he wanted. A stranger at once asked him who he wanted? And 
 
 as soon as Mr. K named Bathy, the stranger replied : " That is my 
 
 name, come with me to my office ;" — and so they both went off to an office 
 at 147 Bleecker Street. The business was soon set in motion and the pre- 
 tended Bathy offered K a parcel of 8500 in counterfeit bills. But 
 
 K had only $-40 about him, he therefore paid that over on account. 
 
 At the same moment there was a knock at the door, and a man entered the 
 room, announcing himself as a detective. He arrested Bathy, or pretended 
 to, and wanted to know what Mr. K was doing there, &c. The 
 
186 
 
 THE DAKK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 upshot was that K lost his money and was glad enough to get off 
 
 as weH as he did. 
 
 The different tricks practised by these swindlers to attain their ends, are 
 so numerous, that we could fill almost a volume with them. We must 
 content ourselves, however, with mentioning only a few. 
 
 Milton & Brother, of 307 Bleecker Street, direct themselves by means 
 of their circulars, especially to young people, inviting them to take '* some 
 more" of their goods ; thereby conveying the impression that the persons 
 for whom the circular was intended have already been customers of the 
 firm, but that by some mistake the circular has fallen into the wrong 
 hands. 
 
 1 hey further say in their circulars. " Come to the factory and take the 
 goods from there. It is at No. 10 Fake Street, where over the door you 
 will find a sign with the words Harris & Brother, Fancy Goods." Ring 
 three times, and when the door is opened, merely mention your name. 
 You need not be afraid. I pay the police in order that they may give me 
 timely intimation of any difficulty in the office or the factory. But in New 
 York there is no street of that name, and the whole object, including the 
 mention of the word " difficulty," is to prevent the person addressed from 
 calling, thereby inducing them indirectly to send money and to avoid per- 
 sonal communication. 
 
 Another concern, that of Day & Wallace, 143 Fulton Street, distribute 
 their circulars in the wrappers of the house of Orange, Judd & Co., so to 
 imply that they are in some way connected with that respectable firm. 
 Those wrappers must either have been stolen, or printed expressly for the 
 purpose. 
 
 J. R. Seacord & Co., in Garretsville, Ohio, in which little town, as well 
 as in Parkman, Ohio, the swindling business seems to be flourishing in an 
 extraordinary degree, are following a business very similar to that pursued 
 by Tumbury in the first instance. They have the following notice in the 
 newspapers : 
 
 <£C $10, and $20 (C) Bills sent as a curiosity for 50 cents. 
 q)U f J. R. Seacord & Co., Garrettsville, O. 
 
 The " C" is meant to lead to the inference that they are dealing in coun- 
 terfeit notes. This, however, is not the case. They send a photographic 
 card, about two inches wide and three long, with reduced pictures of notes 
 of the Southern Confederacy. 
 
 D. Masure & Co., of Biddeford, Maine, (the only firm in New England 
 w T hich engages in the counterfeit money swindle) do not send circulars, but 
 write their letters in pencil, and ask that they may be returned to them. 
 
 Many put into their circulars a good ten cent bill as a bait, and a few 
 even send sometimes a good one or two dollar .note as specimens, hoping 
 thereby to make a better and a surer catch. Sometimes these people have, 
 been asked for more samples still, but that request has not been granted. 
 
SWINDLERS, 1H7 
 
 Arthur Dedenham, who says in his circular thai he 1ms been a Free- 
 mason for twenty years and an Odd Fellow for thirteen years, declares in- ia 
 
 a bank note engraver, and formerly was the first in this department of the 
 Treasury at Washington, lie undertaok to send notes which were not 
 counterfeits, but genuine. And attached to his circular is a printed slip 
 which looks like a cuttiug from a newspaper and which reads as follows : 
 
 14 An Over [ssue. — The authorities in the Treasury Department at 
 
 Washington have been considerably astounded concerning and over-issue 
 of " Greenbacks." It seems that some time ago the printing department 
 was required to furnish quite a large amount, and in getting the paper 
 ready a mistake occurred, involving an over-issue of many million dollars. 
 This excess came into the hands of the printers, who, we understand, are 
 offering it at a great discount. Of course the money being perfectly genu- 
 ine is as good as any ever issued." 
 
 Of course all this story from one end to the other is nothing but a swin- 
 dle. The notice never appeared in any newspaper, and what appears to 
 be a cutting from a paper is no cutting at all, but has been printed especi- 
 ally for the purpose ; while the so-called " over-issue" never had any exist- 
 ence at all. Whoever should send money in the expectation of buying 
 good notes cheap would most assuredly not receive either good or bad 
 notes. 
 
 Hudson Wood & Co., of 44 Liberty Street, assert themselves as Odd 
 Fellows and put out invitations to enter upon a secret business. For $10 
 cash they undertake to supply Si, 000 counterfeits. 
 
 Many of the swindlers work through advertising agencies, and send 
 their circulars then to those whose addresses are forwarded. 
 
 Another concern of this kind sends its circulars from here out West with 
 the following caption : — 
 
 THE FOURTH (St.) NATIONAL BANKING 
 HOUSE OF NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 Thomas Peters, Pres. Saml. II. Mapes, Vice-Pres. 
 
 11. D. Morehead, Cash. S. S. Thompson, Seer. 
 
 which heading is intended to make it appear that the circular emauates 
 from the Fourth National Bank. In this circular the swindlers undertake 
 for a remittance of $10 to send a certain amount in the notes of the bank, 
 alleging, however, that the notes must be quickly distributed, because the 
 bank will be declared insolvent on a certain day ! 
 
 D. D. Titus, of 088 Broadway, carries on business ostensibly as a tobac- 
 conist, and in a circular, which he distributes chiefly in Canada, offers to 
 send to order counterfeit sovereigns packed in tobacco. 
 
 Another does business chiefly in counterfeit notes of the Bank of Eng- 
 
188 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 land, and confines his speculations to Canada and the States on the Cana- 
 dian border. 
 
 One says in his circular that he dips all his counterfeit bills in an acid 
 which has the effect of completely ruining them in the spare of two or three 
 weeks, so that by that time all proof with regard to the circulation of these 
 notes would be destroyed. 
 
 Many advise their customers not to order under their real names, but to 
 use a feigned one, so that whatever happens, ho unpleasantness can under 
 any circumstances occur. The real object in giving this advice is, how- 
 ever, to insure that the customer when he finds himself cheated, and if he 
 is foolish enough to make a complaint, shall not be in a position to do so. 
 
 Others affix symbols of free-masonry to their circulars, in the hope 
 thereby to secure the ear of the fraternity. But it must, indeed, be a pretty 
 sort of masonry which would tolerate such rascality ! 
 
 But it is quite impossible to enumerate all the tricks practised by these 
 people to draw the unprincipled into their nets. It is certain that anyone 
 who has his own honor and well being at heart must avoid all contact with 
 such swindlers. There have been many instances where people who, with- 
 out giving any order or sending any money, have answered a circular or 
 enquired for further information, and so given room for the possible doubt 
 that they were willing to entertain the business, have been threatened with 
 exposure by the swindlers, black-mailed, and made to bleed very freely. 
 
 Recently, however, one of these fellows was taken in in a very amusing 
 manner through the cunning of a reporter on one of the New York papers. 
 The story is worth recital. 
 
 For several weeks many of the newspapers throughout the country had 
 "been receiving the following advertisement : 
 
 A MILLION DOLLARS. — Shrewd but quiet men can made a 
 fortune by revealing the secret to no one. Address 
 
 J. West, 688 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Tn different parts of the country this advertisement made its appearance 
 over different signatures. For the State of New York it was Walter 
 Evarts, who was at 688 Broadway ; for the New England States, Zena 
 Walsh ; for the North-west, Abel Jones ; for the West, Edgar Simms ; for 
 the South, Wm. Wray ; and for the South-west, J. West. 
 
 To sift the matter as thoroughly as possible the reporter assumed the 
 character of a young greenhorn from New England, and so went one morn- 
 ing about ten o'clock, as if he had come from Providence, R. I., into the 
 office No. 688 Broadway. It was a small room, not more than eight feet 
 square, whose surroundings showed that it was one of the so-called private 
 post offices.*) Behind the counter, upon which lay in disorder paper, 
 
 *) We Bhall return to the subject of these privaie post offices. At No. 6S8 Broadway letters used to be 
 .received for not less than tweuty-four counterfeit money swindlers. 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 189 
 
 envelopes, and everything necessary for letter-writing, was a young man. 
 Bat as he was just then engaged with a customer, our greenhorn waited 
 till the latter had gone away, when, assuming a mysterious air as if to 
 show that lie had come upon some confidential business, he asked : 
 
 " Is Mr. Walsh in?" 
 
 "Not .tt this moment," was the answer. 
 
 " Where can I find him?" 
 
 "I do not know where he is to be found just now. lint wait here. Hi- 
 letters come here, and he will soon come to get them." 
 
 After waiting a long time the reporter begins to show that he is losing 
 his patience, upon which the clerk, most anxious to keep him, invites him 
 to come and have something to drink in the neighboring saloon. This 
 over, they both return to No. 688. But the clerk, leaving the office in 
 charge of a boy, goes out again and passes down Broadway towards 
 Bleecker Street. During this absence of the clerk our friend has leisure 
 to examine the surroundings of the office. Against the walls were some 
 dusty shelves, upon which a number of novels in the well known yellow 
 covers lay in some disorder. Over the letter holes, which seemed to be 
 tolerably full, were the words " All letter business strictly confiden- 
 tial," and upon another slip was the notice "General Delivery, all 
 letters ten cents." 
 
 The clerk soon returned and announced that Mr. Walsh would be up in 
 five minutes, suggesting that in the meantime they might go and have 
 another drink. Not washing to refuse the reporter thereupon disposed of 
 one more glass, and then sat himself down in a corner of the office to await 
 developements. 
 
 Presently a handsomely dressed man, with black hair, and mustachios 
 waxed a la Napoleon, and wearing a magnificent sparkling diamond 
 breast-pin, came in. He unlocked a letter compartment and took out a 
 small handful of letters. The clerk now informed the visitor that this 
 was Mr. Walsh, — upon which the former introduced himself and upon his 
 invitation both adjourned to the saloon to drink. Then the following con- 
 versation ensued. 
 
 Mr. Green : — " I read your advertisement in the newspaper, and thought 
 I would see whether we could not do a little business together." 
 
 " Oh ! indeed, yes. Did you receive a circular from me ?" 
 
 " No. If I had received a letter I don't think I should have come. I 
 have been swindled two or three times in this kind of business and I am 
 not going to be taken in any more by the letter dodge. You see I am 
 quite cauaid, and it is as well we should understand each other from the 
 beginning." 
 
 " I like you. I see you are a man of business. How much of the money 
 will you take?" 
 
 "Well that depends upon what the notes are. lam not going to be 
 
190 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LLL'E. 
 
 swindled again. If they are really good counterfeits I will probably take 
 a considerable lot." 
 
 " Have I then swindled you?" replied the gentleman of many names 
 with a look of virtuous indignation. 
 Mr. Green couceded that he had not. 
 
 u Now," continued the other, " you must know that it does not answer 
 my purpose for people to come to me to purchase just a few dollars worth. 
 But if you will act as one of mv agents and make a business of it, then it's 
 all right. Where do you say you come from ?" 
 u From Providence." 
 
 " That is good. 1 have no agents there, nor in any part of Rhode 
 Island. Now how much will you take?" 
 " How do you sell your notes?" 
 " Twenty dollars the hundred." 
 
 " Well if the notes are good I will take two or three thousand. But I 
 must see them first. The saw-dust swindle can't be played upon me 
 twice." 
 
 " My dear sir," said the gentleman now full of confidence and hope, 
 " you shall see them, certainly, and if they don't please you, well you need 
 not take them. Come let us have another drink." 
 
 The two went now arm in arm to a side table and after a friendly glass 
 together the man of many names laid down a dollar bill, took up the 
 change, and led off his visitor to an office in 147 Bleeker Street. 
 
 Bleecker Street is about two minutes walk in a direct line from the 
 saloon ; but Mr. Alias took Mr. Green down to the fourth street below, as 
 far as Mercer Street, and then by cross-routes through different streets 
 brought him back at last to Bleecker Street. As they passed Mercer 
 * Street, Mr. Green, who was now of course a stranger to New York, asked 
 what street it was ? 
 
 " Fifth Avenue," replied Walsh. 
 
 No. 147 Bleecker Street is a three storied house, and Walsh now took 
 his visitor up three floors into a small hall-room. The entire furniture 
 consisted of a tottering old desk covered with dust ; a washstand with dirty 
 water in the basin ; a glass cup with the handle broken off; two chairs and 
 a little mirror. When they were entered, Walsh made the door secure 
 and requesting Mr. Green to be seated ; he began to talk about the excel- 
 lence of hie notes and such like matters. But a description from the mouth 
 of one engaged in the swindle ; concerning the manufacture of counterfeit 
 notes, may not be given again. So here it is. 
 
 He said: — "I was a bank note engraver in the bank note department 
 of the government under Lincoln, with a salary of $5,000 ; but being a 
 democrat I was dismissed. I then swore to have satisfaction from the 
 government, and that is the only reason why I am following this business 
 now. I tell you, to convince you how entirely you may depend upon it, 
 
M\ JMH.KKS. IJ1 
 
 that my notes cannot !>»> detected from the genuine. At that time the new 
 issue of 18C9 was decided upon by Congress, and I saw, that I should lose 
 if I did not bring out my notes at the same time with the genuine ones. 
 I went therefore to Washington, and as I am well known in the depart- 
 ment, and as there are there always several of the designs for each kind of 
 note, I succeeded in getting the designs for the one, two, five, and ten dol- 
 lar bills." 
 
 Mr. Green sat with mouth and ears open, and seemed not to be able 1o 
 comprehend how Mr. Alias could so readily have procured the designs. 
 But Alias put on a very inttocent face and continued : — 
 
 "Once I was an honest man, but that time is passed and —however, I 
 need not call the thing by its right name. They all knew me ; never sus- 
 pected any wrong of me, and paid no attention to me. So it lay in my 
 power to — well, to steal the designs. The same evening I sent them by 
 post to my wife, but myself remained some days longer in Washington to 
 •see whether they would be missed, for if I had left Washington directly 
 they would at once have suspected me. But it was all right ; they were 
 not missed and so far that part of my business was complete. I now 
 bought plates and tools which cost me five thousand dollars. I also bought 
 a small farm on Long Island. I took up the boards ou the lower floor of 
 the house and put down new which was chequered, and divided regularly 
 into squares, one of which formed a trap-door. This was not at the side 
 or in one corner of the room, where trap-doors are usually placed, but 
 right in the middle, and was opened and shut with a spring like the traps 
 in a theatre. In this room underground I engraved my plates — and 
 thereupon he put his band in a confidential manner upon the knee of his 
 apparently astonished listener — and you may believe me when I tell you 
 that it has cost me two years hard work to finish the eight plates necessary 
 for the four notes. While my wife was in the room above me keeping 
 watch, I was working day and night. I had at the same time a printing 
 office in Water Street where, to avoid suspicion, I employed seven men 
 and a foreman, while all the time I was at work in my cellar ou Long 
 Island to make a fortune — and here he drew near to his companion ami 
 whispered to him — for me and for you. Just as I had finished my plates 
 I heard for the first time of the new patent paper, and almost lost all 
 patience when I saw no means of overcoming this difficulty. Of course 
 without the paper my plates were useless ; and that was made expressly 
 for the government by only one contractor. But a faint hope seemed to 
 remain. When I was in the department at Washington I became ac- 
 quainted with the fact that the contractor had cheated the government out 
 of some three quarters of a million of dollars ; so I went to Washington to 
 have a talk with him. I told him what I knew, and showed him docu- 
 ments which were evidence and proof against him. Then said I : — Now 
 I have uo wish to briug you into trouble, but this paper I must have, for I 
 
192 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 am going to put five millions of these notes into circulation. He told me 
 that 'he would think the matter over between that and the next day, and 
 finally he agreed to let me have the paper. I received it from him ; and 
 so now you can see how it is that my notes are not to be distinguished 
 from the genuine." 
 
 At this moment there was a loud knock at the door, and as "Walsh. 
 opened it, a fashionably dressed young man was seen standing outside. 
 "Walsh gave Mr. Green a knowing wink, then went out and shut the door 
 behind him. 1£ he could have seen through the door he would have noticed 
 that at the moment when he was alone, Mr. Green had taken a pencil from 
 his pocket and noted something on his thumbnail. It was only the num- 
 ber of the house — 147 — in which he then was. But Mr. Alias had full 
 confidence in the inexperience of his young friend, and when he presently 
 returned he aaid laughiug : — 
 
 " That was another of my agents. Ho came to take another $50,000. 
 He has had already as much as that this week. Now to be brief: I 
 printed the notes and went with some of them to the Eighth and the Tenth 
 National Banks, to Eugene Kelley and to Jay Cooke. I said that I had 
 taken them in the course of my business in "Water Street, but that I had 
 had some doubt whether they were good, and therefore asked them to 
 inform me. All, without exception, declared them genuine, and so now I 
 felt sure that my time and money had not been thrown away. I now 
 began to deposit my notes in the Eighth National Bank, and at Kelley's, 
 and in the space of four months I had a balance there of $ 72 ,000, while 
 at the same time I had effected arrangements for forty-seven agencies. I 
 now want only three more agencies, and then I shall cease to advertise. 
 What business are you in?" 
 
 Mr. Green answered that he was a printer. " That's bad," replied 
 Alias. A grocery is the best business for our purpose. Take my advice 
 and establish a grocery. Five of my agents have opened grocery stores in 
 th- last three months, and one of them has made $40,000 in three weeks. 
 
 The conversation now turned in various directions, and especially as to 
 the amount with which Mr. Green should begin. At last he said that if 
 the notes were good, as from Walsh's description he must believe them to 
 be, he would begin with $2,000. 
 
 " If the notes don't please you, you need not take them. Come with 
 me," said Walsh. 
 
 He now took his visitor a few steps higher, and opening a door, went 
 in. It was a room without a window or any daylight, and with a kind of 
 smell such as rooms have to which fresh air is never allowed access. On 
 a stool in one corner stood a shaded lamp. The lamp was alight, but 
 the wick was turned so low that the place was almost dark. When Mr. 
 Alias turned up the light, some shelves were seen running round three 
 sides ot the room, upon which were a number of sealed up packages. 
 
SWINDLERS. 1 93 
 
 There was also a box from which Alias now took a handful of one, two, 
 five, and ten dollar bills, and handed it to Mr. Green, who took the bills 
 eagerly to look at them more closely. If they were not genuine notes, they 
 were such perfect imitations that it was not possible to wish for anything 
 more perfect. But Mr. Green was not quite satisfied with them and said : 
 " We will take them to the office and see them by daylight." 
 
 " All right," answered Alias. " I wish you to be quite satisfied before 
 you buy." He took out one ten, one five dollar note, and two or three of 
 smaller denominations and gave them to Mr. Green, who, fearing lest 
 Alias should at the last draw back from lis bargain, and wishing also to 
 test the notes, took them into his own keeping. 
 
 The examination by daylight was quite satisfactory, and showed that 
 the best expert could not find any difference between these and genuine 
 notes. 
 
 So Mr. Green said presently " "Well I will take a couple of thousand of 
 these, and if you will come with me to the Astor House I will give you the 
 money for them. You know, as I told you, I have been swindled before 
 this, so this time I made up my mind to go to work carefully. I came to 
 the city yesterday evening and deposited my money in the safe of the: 
 hotel." 
 
 At these words Mr. Alias appeared to be rather, unwell. He grew pale 
 somewhat, but finally remarked — M You had better come back here. BriD«- 
 the money with you, and I will let you have the notes." 
 
 u All right. When shall I come?" 
 
 " Whenever you like. At three o'clock." 
 
 " Agreed. I want to take the boat for Providence at five o'clock. In 
 the meantime (and thereupon he carelessly took up one of the ten dollar 
 bills) this seems all right, but I should just like to take one of the notes to 
 a bank or to the Astor House. Of course you have no objection." And 
 he quickly crumpled the note up in his hand. 
 
 Alias seemed a little embarrassed. " Let us go and have something to 
 drink," he replied, "you can pay for the drinks with the note." 
 
 11 Oh ! that would be no test, for in bar-rooms they will take anvthing 
 you offer them." He then put the note in his pocket. " Now come and 
 have a drink with me." 
 
 "All right." 
 
 Both now went to the nearest bar. But Walsh would not let his young 
 friend pay. When they came out the latter asked " which way must I go 
 now to get to the Astor House?" And as a Seventh Avenue car was 
 going along by Thompson Street Mr. Alias conducted his friend to this, 
 shook him by the hand, urged upon him the most absolute secrecy, helped 
 him on to the car and returned to his office, occupied, indeed, with the 
 pleasant thought that in the afternoon he would get round the stupid 
 " greenhorn," and well indemnify himself for the loss of the genuine ten 
 
 13 
 
194 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 dollar bill which he had taken away with him. But the " greenhorn" did 
 not come back. 
 
 If Mr. Alias could have seen farther, he would have noticed that his 
 young friend, on leaving the car, went immediately into a bank and there 
 asked whether the note was good. As he had guessed, the question was 
 answered positively in the affirmative. And if Mr. Alias had been able 
 to see yet further he would have noticed that his very innocent friend from 
 Providence, as soon as he came out of the bank, went into the office ot one 
 of the daily papers and turned into a reporter, who was merrily relating 
 the circumstances of his morning's adventure am*J the re-echoing laughter 
 of his colleagues. 
 
 The following is a list of the various firms and names under which the 
 counterfeit money and saw-dust swindles have hitherto been conducted : — 
 
 C. C. Alvord — Prof. Chas. Aathon — P. Armstrong— Armstrong & Co. 
 — J. Arnold, jun. — C. Atwood — M. W. Austin, al. W. E. Raymond, al. 
 G. Danvers, al. E. Green, al. J. Price, al. E. Hines— H. L. Austin — J. 
 Baker— Jas. Bannon— H. L. Barnard— T. Barnard— G. W. Bates— T. 
 Bathy— O. T. Benger— Bertini & Co.— L. P. Beuchley— G. M. Blot- 
 Brown & Billings, Philadelphia — Wm. H. Burke, al. Geo. Moorehouse — 
 Wm. Burton— E. S. Cady— B. S. Cary— Peter G. Carey -E. C. Catlin— 
 J. M. Chadwick— A. Chipman— E. M. Clay— W. H. Clement & Co.— 
 W. Clement & Co.— Dr. W. S. Cody— II. Colter & Co.— J. McComb— 
 
 A. J. Cooke— W. Coombs— W. Cooper— W. F. Coudrey— Dr. W. G. 
 Couroy — B. F. Cramer, Brooklyn — C. J. Crandell — B. L. Crowe— Dailey 
 & Co. — Dailey & Waters, al. W. Howard, al. W. H. Jackson, al. Logan 
 & Co., al. Owen Beths, al. Howard & Co., al. Fisher & Co., al. Kane, 
 al. Alison— W. Dailey— H. K. Daniel— H. K. Daniels— Day & Wallace 
 G. H. Dayton, Williamsburg — G. W. Dayton, Williamsburg — S. Davis 
 & Co. — W. Dean — A. Debenham— G. L. Demey — D. A. Dexter, al. D # 
 
 B. Stack, al. E. B. Snow, East Albany — M. O. Doane — P. P. Douglass 
 W. A. Douglas — Aug. Dufiou al. Laura Duflou — Elias, al. J. H. Kirk- 
 head, al. D. Curran, al. H. Oatman, al. L. Haines, al. I. Hoffman, al. E. 
 W. Tarrant, al. H. Andrews, al E. Moore, al. E. Whitcomb, al. M. Bow- 
 ker, al. R. Burdick, al. D. Driscoll— T. P. Elliott— L. Ellsworth— H. W. 
 Elston — Eureka Manufacturing Co., Paterson, Is". J. — M. Evarts — M. T. 
 Fairfield— W. J. Ferguson— J. Fisher & Co.— N. Fitch— S. S. Flint- J. 
 B. Forrest — R- H. Foster, al. B. Yv r . Howard, Williamsburg— W. Foster 
 — N. Francis — T. W. Frank — Miss Ada Frost — S. Fulton— J. Goodwin 
 & Co — R. Gore -A. P. Gould— B. F. Grayson— N. H. Grave & Co.— 
 G. L. Griscomb — Gumbridge & Co. — J. P. Gurney — E. C. Haines— A. 
 J. Hackett — E. S. Hale— J. F. Hamilton — Col. Hammer — L. F. Harness 
 — G. Harrington — G. Harrington, Baltimore, Md. — G. R. Hart, Banes, 
 N. Y.— W. F. Hathorne— J. Havens, al. Hubbcl, al. Hill & Co., al 
 Scott & Co.— F. Heller— Dr. J. Hermans— S. Hirst— A. J. Hitchcock- 
 
SWINDLERS. 195 
 
 II. Hodges — J. A. Holt — Dr. J. W. Homan — Maj. J. Hood, Wilmington, 
 Del.— W. & J. Hood— Miss O. H. Hoover, Hazle B irrens, Mo.— P. D- 
 Hopkins & Co., Parkman, O. — B. W. Howard — J. Hubbard, al. J. Heav- 
 ens— N. Hudson & Co.— Hudson, Wood & Co.— H. E. Hussey— T. Jack- 
 son — L. Jameson — R. M. Jameson — Henry Jennings — J. Jewells — J. P. 
 Ingalls — O. Johnson — A. Jones — D. II. Kappock — M. Keating — II. J. 
 Keene — W. L. Kevley — O. H. Himball — J. A. Kinkead — J. P. Koelsten 
 al. J. R. Emersen & Co. — S. K. Kraiz, Doylestown, Pa. — S. W. Lam- 
 beth— E. T. Lampson— J. W. Lang & Co.— C. W. Lawson— I. R. Lee 
 — Miss Rosa Lee — W. S. Leslie, Trenton, N. J. — J. S. Lewis & Co. — 
 W. B. Logan — B. H. Longstreet — Dr. Lorand, Williamsburgh — S. W. 
 Ludlow— C. E. Macy— W. R. Marquee & Co., Omaha, Nebr.— W. M. 
 Martine — D. Masure & Co., Biddeford, Me. — P. J. Meehan — S. Messen- 
 ger— H. Miller, al. S. Wing— E. D. Milton, al. T. Morgan— Milton & 
 Brother — W. Molster, Jackson, Mich. — J. Moore — J. M. Moore — H. II. 
 Morgan — A. H. Morrow — H. Morton — T. Newell — Northwestern Book 
 Co., Minneapolis, Minn. — Noyes & Co. — F. Ogden — C. Olson — J. B. 
 Page & Bro.— F. H. Park— J. E. Parker— J. W. Parker— II. Parker & 
 Co.— J. B. Parker & Co., Rockford, 111.— J. T. Palmer— C. E. Penn— 
 J. G. Perry— J. Phelps— J. Phillips— T. W. Pierce— J. W. Pine— K. G. 
 pott — W. Potter — J. Price— E. Putnam -A. Ramsay— T. Ray — J. R.ed 
 & Co.— Reid, Delafield & Co.— B. H. Robb, Garrettsville, O.— Chas. A. 
 Roberts — E. D. Robinson — M. A. Robison, Honeybrook, Pa. — J. Rood 
 & Co.— S. W. Rowell, Covington, Ky.— Rufenach, Guide & Co.— E. 
 Sampson — G. Savory — H. N. Sawyer — J. R. Seabord & Co., Garretts- 
 ville, O.— Dr. S. W. Seal— F. Sedan, W r illiamsburgh— C. Shaw— G. G. 
 Sherlevant — E. Simms — E. A. Simpson — A. Smith — A. H. Smith — 
 Smith & Co. — J. Spencer — J. T. Spencer, Philadelphia — C. W. Sprague 
 1 — Standard Bookstore — L. F. Stark*— A. Stephens — H. E. Stewart — R. 
 Stockton— I. P. Strange— D. D. Titus— G. Tobias— A. Todd & Co.— 
 J. B. Turner— R. S. Turner, Williamsburgh— Turner & Wells, Philadel- 
 phia— E. Virgil— W. Wade & Co.— A. Wainright, Trenton, N. J.— Z. 
 Walsh— F. P. Walters— R. M. Walters— J. Warlow— G. M. Washburn 
 — G. W. Washburn— J. P. Waters & Co.— B. B. WVds— C. M. Wells, 
 Chicago— J. West— S. W. Westervelt— N. L. Wevner— C. A. Williams 
 — C. L. Wilson— Wogan & Co.— W. H. Wood— Miss Flora Wood— W. 
 & J. Wood — W. Wray — S. Yetter — G. Young — Young & Moore. 
 
 Thus then we have two hundred and sixty-one firms under whose names 
 the counterfeit money swindle has been carried on. Of these two hundred 
 and thirty-one dated their circulars from New York, while thirty conducted 
 their iniquitous proceedings from different other places. The list, is as 
 complete as we have been able to make it, but as new aliases are constantly 
 appearing — for all these firms are only feigned names, behind which per- 
 haps there are not altogether more than thirty or forty persons — it is very 
 
196 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 difficult to arrive at an absolutely perfect list. What we have said upon 
 this' subject will serve, however, at least to show to all right thinking peo- 
 ple, who receive any of the circulars, the duty of at once putting them into 
 the fire. 
 
 It is worth while to recur for a moment to a remark made on a pre- 
 vious page with reference to the custom of many of these swindlers in hav- 
 ing their letters addressed to private post offices, so as to conceal their real 
 addresses. We do this in order to mention that 22 of them have their let- 
 ters addressed to 609 Broadway, 25 to 34 Amity Street, 24 to 688 Broad- 
 way, 30 to 16 South Fifth Avenue, and 8 to 22 West Fourth Street. One 
 of these post offices has already been sketched under the account of the 
 visit to Mr. Walsh. 
 
 That a swindle of this kind, so extended, so mischievously corrupt, such 
 a school for criminality, should have existed for several years with impu~ 
 nity so far as the law is concerned, seems scarcely credible. But it is a 
 fact. Since the beginning of the current year, 1873, Mayor Havermeyer, 
 at the head of the city government, has certainly taken steps to try and 
 stay the evil, but it does not yet seem that he can succeed. But it is hoped 
 that a law lately passed, which makes the sending of pamphlets or print* 
 through the post with the intention of swindling the public an offence, pun- 
 ishable with a fine of $500 or eighteen months imprisonment, will prove 
 of some assistance in the right direction. Whether this hope will be real- 
 ized is yet to be seen. But we are of opinion that if we can have laws 
 which inflict severe punishment upon acts of murder, robbery, and theft^ 
 the Legislature could and also should pass laws under which swindling 
 might be severely punished, too ; especially a branch of the art which has 
 such a demoralizing and corrupting influence upon the people as the coun- 
 terfeit money and saw-dust swindlers. 
 
 The Internal Revenue Stamp Swindle is very similar to that last 
 mentioned, only of course it cannot be carried on to the same extent, since 
 counterfeit revenue stamps can only be employed by dishonest persons who 
 have to use revenue stamps in their business. The principal roll in this 
 is played by the well-known E. H. Elias, whom we have already men- 
 tioned in connection with the counterfeit money swindle, and by one T. 
 D. Thorp, who is either a pupil or an alias of the former. There is also 
 one T. E. Allison engaged in the occupation. 
 
 These swindlers also send circulars to people who they know use reve- 
 nue stamps, and especially to tobacco and cigar dealers. In one of these 
 circulars is the following passage : — 
 
 "My cousin is superintendent of the government printing office at 
 Washington where all the revenue stamps are printed, and he has supplied 
 me with all the stamps which I have required during the past year in my 
 business. He has told me that it is quite impossible to find out how many 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 197 
 
 stamps are printed. If now you will only bind yourself to secrecy I am 
 ready to supply you with all the stamps you require, at the rate of $20 
 for every hundred dollars worth of stamps." 
 
 If anybody who is dishonest enough to wish to cheat the government, 
 sends money to these people for their counterfeit stamps, the same thing 
 happens with them as with those whose ambition is to circulate bad money 
 — they receive nothing, and prove in themselves but another illustration of 
 m the biter bit." 
 
 Since 1869 a similar swindle has been going on with United States 
 Bonds. In this there are chiefly three people concerned : J. "W Laidlaw, 
 L. A. Brown, and G. Gunshyne (this last surely is a feigned name). Of 
 these the two first gave themselves out as brokers. They spread a report 
 among people whom they thought likely to be willing to entertain a dis- 
 honorable proposition, to the effect that they had come into possession of a 
 large number of stolen bonds which they were willing to sell cheap. And 
 there were so many persons ready to buy the stolen bonds, and in that 
 way to enrich themselves, that quite a respectable little sum of money 
 was turned over. * 
 
 "When now unprincipled persons declared their readiness to go into the 
 business, it was agreed that the matter should be concluded at some 
 appointed place, where the bonds should be handed over and the money 
 paid, — the amount of the latter being usually fifty per eent. of the nominal 
 ralue of the bonds. But the swindlers had neither stolen bonds nor coun- 
 terfeit bonds in their possession, so they managed in this wise. They pre- 
 tended that through fear of police interference the business must be done 
 promptly. They therefore had a packet ready made up of paper which 
 Jooked like bonds, and which had a genuine bond on the top. At the 
 «ioment when the swindler had the money in his hand and had given up 
 >he packet, an alarm of police was given by one of his accomplices, upon 
 which the swindler took to his heels and left the purchaser with the parcel 
 in his hand to his fate. A number of instances of this kind had occurred 
 when the polke succeeded in finding out a person to whom the swindlers 
 had offered bonds to the amount of $126,000, the delivery of which was to 
 be made in the Elysian Fields at Hoboken. The purchaser was now sup- 
 plied by the police with the necessary amount of money in counterfeit 
 notes, and when he had made his payment and received the packet of pre- 
 tended bonds at the place of rendezvous, the real police who had been kept 
 out of sight, came this time upon the scene and arrested the swindler. It 
 now turned out that the packet contained neither counterfeit nor stolen 
 bonds, but only paper laid together so as to resemble bonds, with one good 
 bond for $2,000 on the top. 
 
198 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Among the contrivances which depend for success not less upon the 
 thoughtlessless than upon the dishonesty of people, belong also the repair 
 and interest swindlers. 
 
 The Repair Swindle consists in the swindler informing someone at a 
 distance that the diamond ring he left to have the jewel reset, or the watch 
 he left to be cleaned is now ready, and that the article mentioned will be 
 forwarded by express as soon as the charges for repair &c. are remitted. 
 
 To show how seductive this game is to unprincipled people, we quote 
 here one of the letters with the account : 
 
 1871 Aug. : To re-setting diamond ring . $15 00 
 
 To gold hand and glass for gold 
 Chronometer. — Frockham, 
 13,207 .... 2 50 
 
 To cleaning and regulating the 
 
 watch and putting in one ruby 7 00 
 
 Credit by the old setting of the 
 
 $24 00 
 3 25 
 
 $21 25 
 The letter accompanying that account runs as follows : — 
 
 New York, August 3d, 1871. 
 
 We are surprised that you have not yet advised us concerning the dia- 
 mond ring and the Chronometer which you left with us at the beginning 
 of the year, the one to be reset, the other to be repaired. Both articles 
 have long been ready. We before intimated this to you, when in accord- 
 ance with your wishes we also at the same time gave an estimate of the 
 value of the ring. As we conclude that you did not receive our letter, we 
 will, whilst enclosing a copy of our account, repeat what we therein said. 
 
 We weighed the stones from the ring before re-setting them. The centre 
 stone weighs one and a half carat and is worth $300. Each of the other 
 six stones weigh three-quarters of a carat and is worth $100, so that with- 
 out the setting the stones are worth together $900. In its present very 
 tasteful setting, with which we are sure you will be pleased, the ring is 
 well worth $1,000. As you see we have allowed you in the account for 
 the value of the gold in the old setting. 
 
 With regard to the value of the watch, it is seldom, indeed, in face of 
 the present very high custom duties that such an excellent piece of work- 
 manship is imported. If you wanted to purchase such a watch you could 
 not get it under $400. 
 
 Have the goodness to send us the small amount of our account, and we- 
 
•WIHDLEMi 190 
 
 will then immediately forward your ring and watch by express. In accord- 
 ance with your wish before expressed we have advised our Paris house to 
 give their attention to any favorable opportunity for making a good pur- 
 chase, of which we will immediately inform you. 
 
 Yours respectfully 
 
 RUFENACH GlJLDB & Co., 
 
 44 aud 4G Liberty Street. 
 
 Now it could never occur to the mind of any right-thinking man who 
 knew that he had left neither ring nor watch, to take advantage of what 
 must appear to him as a mistake and to remit money in order to obtain 
 what does not belong to him ; but swindlers speculate upon dishonesty, not 
 upon honesty, and work to cheat those only who are themselves willing to 
 cheat. Such swindlers cannot be successful with honest people. 
 
 Similar letters to the above come here from San Francisco under the 
 signature of G. "W. Parish. 
 
 The Interest Swindle is much of the same kind, and can be best 
 understood from the following letter : 
 
 Saco, Me., Oct. 17th, 1870. 
 Messrs. X. X. 
 
 In answer to your enquiry we beg to state that 
 we have placed to your credit the interest of the money in question, and 
 that now the capital and the interest to date amount to 8152.25, which 
 amount we will remit to you on the receipt of the amount d^e us, which, 
 as you are aware, is Si 1.50. 
 
 But send us your full address, for we understand that another person of 
 the same name lives in your place, and if he should receive your money 
 the loss would be yours ; besides which, as you know, if there should be 
 much talk about this business, disclosures might come to light which would 
 not be agreeable to you. 
 
 Respectfully 
 P. 0. Box 1,021. II. A. Norton & Sons. 
 
 This game as with the repair swindle, very much strengthens the force 
 of the bait, by the hint given in the letter about possible disclosures, so 
 that if the pretended money should indeed come into the wrong hands, the 
 person who should receive it would be on their guard not to say anything 
 about it. Cunningly thought of indeed ? and a fresh proof that swindlers 
 are never at a loss for Hew tricks with which to ensnare their victims. 
 
 'SVe come now to that description of swindlers where the speculation is 
 Qot so much, at least not always, made upon the dishonesty and dishonor- 
 able principles of people as upon their credulity, and the struggles of so 
 
200 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 many people to attain to fortune without trouble, wherein they try their 
 luck' in lotteries. Under this head stand first the so-called Gift-enter- 
 prises and Gift-concerts. 
 
 Every kind of lottery is, it is true, forbidden by the laws of most of the 
 States, but, as is but too well known, laws in the United States are not 
 always acted up to, and serve rather only to be circumvented, much on 
 the plan of the wretched principle which is inculcated in the words " How 
 can there be any perjury where there is no oath taken !" But miserable 
 as are the legislation and the administration of justice in the United States 
 generally, there are, nevertheless, some very good laws in all the States, 
 which, if they were only acted upon and followed out, would amply fulfil 
 the purpose for which they were intended. But there is the point. In 
 most instances the authorities do not do their duties. Regard for political 
 partisans, even though they be the greatest rascals and criminals, and cor- 
 ruption are everywhere. And hence it is that the swindling class have 
 never been run .down, even though they have done so much evil and com- 
 mitted so much fraud. So, too, it is with the gift-enterprises and gift- 
 concerts ; which, since they were introduced, have been contributed to by 
 millions of credulous people, among whom are many poor families, whose 
 money thus squandered and thrown away would have been much better 
 and more usefully expended in clothing, food, and firing, and for the pay- 
 ment of their rents. But it seems, indeed, that fools do not die out, other- 
 wise the gift-concert and enterprise could not have prevailed so long and 
 maintained its attractions, when so many thousands have learned by expe- 
 rience that they win either nothing from them, or else articles of the most 
 worthless kind, — and that most of the gift-concerts that are announced, 
 after being postponed from time to time, never come off at all ; while in 
 other instances there is no distribution of the prizes. 
 
 Only quite lately, in November of last year and in February of the cur- 
 rent year, two such gift-concerts were ostentatiously commenced in this 
 city, and very soon after were stopped by the police. In the first affair, 
 one Geo. W. Wood was arrested as leader of the concern, while the clerks, 
 as soon as they found that the customer who had come in was a police 
 captain, jumped over tables and chairs and took to their heels as fast as 
 they could. — A similar raid was made upon the second concern, and in 
 that a man named Thomas Parker was arrested as principal — Of course 
 both were released upon giving some trifling bail. It is to be remarked 
 here that both these concerns had their headquarters at No. 656 Broadway 
 and there is no doubt that they emanated from the same source. 
 
 The origin of these " enterprises" dates back several years, on to the 
 once popular Art Unions, in which for the out-lay of a few dollars a per- 
 son might win a very ordinary, sometimes a very bad oil painting or other 
 work of art, while losing tickets were guaranteed an engraving. These 
 Art Unions were conducted by the companies which had been formed for 
 
SWINDLERS. 201 
 
 the purpose, and if they had not much influence upon the deveiopement of 
 good taste and artistic talent, they were at least free from anything like 
 dishonesty. 
 
 Then came the book business, in which everybody who bought a book 
 for a dollar got a ticket which gave him the chance of winning a gold 
 watch or something from a hundred other articles. That flourished for a 
 long time. The offices were always crowded ; and many of them, as long 
 as the thing lasted, took as much as some thousands of dollars every day, 
 and as the profits were some fifty per cent., the gross winnings amounted 
 to something considerable. It was asserted by the proprietors of these 
 establishments, that by these means fondness for reading and the improve- 
 ment of the public mind were served ; but that was delusive. To the peo- 
 ple who went into those places to buy a book, the book was for the most 
 part a secondary consideration, while the chief object was the ticket and 
 with it the possible chance of winning something. This kind of book busi- 
 ness was therefore of very little use in promoting the taste for literature 
 and culture, while it did a great deal towards exciting the public passion 
 for gambling. 
 
 To these book businesses and lotteries combined, to which the reproach 
 of swindling could no more be attached than to the Art Unions, followed 
 at last the so-called gift-enterprises. In these the originators introduce us 
 to a regular swindle, speculating upon the credulity, frivolity, passion for 
 finery, and greed for gain which they found in the masses ; and holding 
 out as baits, watches, watch-chains, rings, breast-pins, gold pens, pianos, 
 sewing-machines &c. These have already cost the people of the United 
 States large sums, all of which have flowed into the pockets of the origi- 
 nators. 
 
 The first of these gift-enterprises was established in Philadelphia ; but 
 they soon followed in large numbers in New York, and now they gather 
 their profits in almost all the States of the Union ; although the public has 
 been repeatedly warned against taking any part in them. Besides which, 
 no man in full command of his senses will affirm that any undertaking 
 can possibly stand upon a solid foundation or in fact be anything less than 
 a swindle, which promises to give a very large prize or something of con- 
 siderable value in return for the outlay of a mere trifle. 
 
 These establishments have always one common object then, in so far as 
 they obtain their money through the credulity and greed of the people. 
 But they, nevertheless, take very different ways for arriving at it. For 
 while some throw dust into the eyes from pretentious Broadway stores, 
 others stretch their polypus like arms from little back rooms on some third 
 floor, where the door is always locked, and the interior can only be reached 
 by letters passed through a slit in the panel. And yet these same people 
 invite the public — at least that portion of it which is at a distance and 
 never comes into New York — to come and view their treasures and their 
 
202 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 " gifts," enumerating at the same time, perhaps, thirty pianos, thirty-five 
 melodeons, a hundred and fifty sewing-machines, and gold and silver-ware 
 to the value of many thousands of dollars. But let anybody respond to the 
 appeal and peep through the slit in the panel of the door on the third floor 
 back to try and get a glimpse of the pianos, melodeons, and all the valua- 
 bles, and what will he see? Nothing. Or, perhaps, four bare walls, a 
 desk and a couple of chairs ; which furniture, however, is amply sufficient 
 to enable its owner to open his money letters, to read the orders for tickets 
 and to put the remittances into his pocket. 
 
 So iar as the New York public is concerned, the distribution of circulars 
 in the conduct of these gift-enterprises is not necessary ; only a few flaming 
 announcements in the newspapers and a store whose whole arrangement 
 and ordering are designed to mislead the people. But we will give an 
 illustration of the mode of operation, and the final close of one of these 
 swindling concerns. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1871 the newspapers contained whole 
 column announcements of the " Merchants and Manufacturers Co-operative 
 Distribution ;" tickets for which were offered at a dollar. These were to 
 give the purchaser the chance of winning a prize from a twenty -five dollar 
 watch up to twenty-five thousand dollars in hard cash. This concern was 
 at No. 596 Broadway, where the originators had rented the ground floor 
 and basement. In the former were the articles which had been announced 
 as prizes: Pianos, watches, sewing-machines &c, while in the basement 
 there were a wheel of fortune of very significant length and not less than 
 two feet in diameter. This wheel of fortune stood behind a barrier which 
 the owner of a ticket had to pass through alone by a separate entrance 
 and to make his exit in like manner by another side door. The game had 
 been played for some days before great crowds of people, when police 
 captain Walsh thought he would give it a little of his attention and look 
 into it a little more closely. Dressed in citizens clothes he bought a ticket 
 in the upper office, and then went into the basement to see the further 
 developement there. He went to the wheel — each ticket-holder being 
 required to draw for himself — and drew a blank. He remained in front 
 of the wheel. But that did not suit the gentleman who had charge of it ; 
 and under the pretext that the captain was in the way, he requested him 
 to leave. But the captain remained, notwithstanding ; and as the proprie- 
 tor now began to get rough and to insist upon his going, the captain 
 showed him his shield — and remained. The man who was entrusted with 
 the wheel, now stopped the drawing. But in the meantime the sale of 
 tickets in the shop above was going on, and so as the ticket-buyers were 
 beginning to get impatient and three-quarters of an hour had passed, the 
 captain still persistently remaining, the drawing had to be resumed. After 
 eighty-three more numbers had been drawn, all without any other result 
 than blanks, the captain decided that he had seen enough, and he ordered 
 
SWINPLE1WJ. 
 
 203 
 
 the establishment to be closed. The principal and his accomplices — 
 amoni/ whom was the notorious G. T. Ellias — were arrested and the 
 wheel emptied of its contents. It contained tickets — all blanks — enouga 
 to till three Hour barrels. And yet several of the newspapers contained 
 from day to day lists of prizes to the amount of thousands of dollais that 
 had been won in that establishment ! — So much for the possibilities of 
 New York. 
 
 But for out of town people and those who live at a distance circulars are 
 used, as in the counterfeit money swindle, and in these the names of well- 
 known persons are often used as references, generally, however, without 
 their knowledge. Nor do the swindlers disdain to annex to their announce- 
 ments and circulars what they allege to be extracts from the press, and 
 they even give the names of the papers from which they were taken. All 
 these are manufactured for the occasion, and never appeared in the papers 
 indicated nof in any others. 
 
 Very often they enclose tickets w T ith the circulars, for which if the 
 amount be duly forwarded, they promise that a drawing shall be made. 
 This answers with many people and they send the money for the tickets, 
 but of course receive nothing for it, even though a prize is promised to 
 every ticket. 
 
 These fellows have, however, another mode of operation which is very 
 much in vogue. It consists in this. They send notices round to hundreds 
 and thousands of persons, many of w T hom may have received tickets and 
 have not answered the application, while others have never had nor ordered 
 a ticket at all, telling them that their ticket has w T on a valuable prize. 
 They then offer to send it on to their address immediately on receipt of 
 their percentage and the costs of packing. Sometimes, under a pretence 
 that the originator and proprietor of a gift-enterprise has become bankrupt, 
 the swindler passes himself for a receiver under the bankruptcy. He then 
 writes to Mr. N. N. and announces that on looking over the bankrupt 
 estate he finds his name as the winner of a prize and that, as the official 
 receiver, he is ready to send the prize on to its destination upon a receipt 
 of a certain percentage of its value. We subjoin a circular of this descrip- 
 tion : — 
 
 TO THE HOLDERS OF TICKETS IN WIGGINS, BRADFORD & COS UNITED 
 STATES PRIZE CONCERT, CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 We find your name, as a ticket purchaser, upon the books of Wiggins, Brad- 
 ford & Co., who inaugurated a certain, so-called, gift scheme in Chicago, some two 
 years since, and who, by the most specious promises and artful misrepresentations 
 induced a very large number of persons to invest their money in the vain hope of 
 receiving large returns. 
 
 But, as you are of course aware, the promises of W., B. & Co. were not kept 
 either in the lettfr or spirit. The drawing from which euch golden results were- 
 
204 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 foreshadowed, and by means of which, so many persons were to be made the recipi- 
 ents of their bounty, by receiving from a hundred to fifty thousand times the 
 amount of their original investment, was put off from time to time on various pre- 
 texts, until, at last, when the patience of the ticket-holders was thoroughly ex- 
 hausted, and on the very night previous to the day on which the drawing was to 
 have positively taken place, Messrs. Wiggins, Bradford & Co. closed up their estab- 
 lishment and disappeared ; the place which once knew them knowing them no more, 
 and the ticket-holder's long deferred hopes, were finally and effectually blighted. 
 
 The whereabout of Wiggins, Bradford & Co., these successful chevaliers d'in- 
 dustrie and speculators in the credulity of a too confiding public, remained unknown 
 to the great majority of their victims, and would have so remained to this day but 
 for the shrewdness and determination of a gentleman— Joshua Sears, Esq. — who, 
 having invested largely in the plausible scheme, by accident found a clue to their 
 movements, and following it up with great secresy and caution, finally traced the 
 wily schemers to New York. 
 
 Having satisfied himself of the exact locality of the nest to which these birds 
 had flown, Mr. Sears called upon several of his brother victims, to whom he im- 
 parted what he had done, and his future plans, and asked their co-operation. This 
 was willingly granted, and legal proceedings were quietly instituted against these 
 defrauding sharpers, with the intention of punishing them if possible, but at any 
 rate to force them to disgorge as much as practicable of their ill-gotten gains, and 
 so well were their plans carried out, that one day, very much to their chagrin and 
 surprise, Messrs. Wiggins, Bradford & Co., found themselves within the intricate 
 meshes of the outraged law, and with the bars of the State prison staring them in 
 the face. Not relishing this prospect, they made proposals looking to a compromise, 
 which Mr. Sears and his associate victims were at first disposed to entirely reject; 
 but by the advice of counsel, and in consideration of being enabled to save to at 
 least a portion of the ticket-holders, the money they had been swindled out of, they 
 came to the conclusion that in order to accomplish a great good, they were justified 
 in doing a little wrong, and so consented to a stay of proceeding on the relinquish- 
 ment of the entire assets of the defaulting and fraudulent firm, together with all 
 their books, papers and list of ticket-holders. This they did. 
 
 On examination it was found that the entire number of tickets sold amounted to 
 $367,372.00. 
 
 Of this amount much had been already exhausted in advertising, rent, clerk 
 hire, and incidental expenses, including a large sum which W., B. & Co. had wasted 
 in riotous living, fast horses, etc., etc., in the metropolis; so that after paying law- 
 yers' fees, the costs of prosecution, detectives' services, commissions and other 
 expenses necessarily incurred, the prosecutors found that all that remained of the 
 ticket purchasers money was $131,273.00, which was placed in the hands of a re- 
 ceiver appointed by the authorities, viz.: Messrs. Q. W. Harris & Co., Bankers, 
 No. 694 and 696 Broadway, New York. 
 
 After mature deliberation, and in view of the impossibility of giving back to 
 each individual the exact amount which would be his, on a pro rata division of the 
 recovered money it was decided to distribute it in the way originally promised, that 
 is, in prizes, as being the fairest and most practicable plan, and as being more 
 likely to give satisfaction to all concerned. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 2d day of November, 1869, a drawing was commenced in 
 the following manner : 
 
 The names of all purchasers of the tickets sold by W., B. & Co., were placed in 
 ■oae wheel, and one hundred and thirty-one thousand, two hundred and seventy- 
 
SWIXDLERS. 205 
 
 three slips, on ft proper proportion of which prizes were written, were placed in 
 another. A name was then taken from the first wheel and entered in the Prize 
 Book, after which a slip was drawD from the other wheel, and the name of the arti- 
 ole draws, if any, written down opposite the name, and so on, till all the slips had 
 been drawn from the wheel, and consequently all the prizes distributed. 
 
 It was not considered judicious to have the prizes too numerous as then they 
 would be of such small value as to make it scarcely worth while for the drawer to 
 pay the necessary percentage, express charges, etc. upon them, and the sum in the 
 hands of the receiver was accordingly invested in prizes of considerable value, such 
 as watches, jewelry, silver-waie, pianos, sewing-machines, etc., so that those who 
 were so fortunate as to secure a prize, would receive something substantially valu- 
 able and upon which they could afford to pay the expenses necessarily incurred in 
 the distribution. These expenses have been, by the exercise of discretion, judg- 
 ment, and the strictest economy, kept so low, that they amount to but five per cent, 
 of the gross amount saved, and this includes the brokerage of G. W. Harris * Co., 
 Bankers, to whom the rescued funds and the plan of distribution were entrusted by 
 the prosecuting ticket-holders, as the receivers, appointed by the authorities. 
 
 The drawing having been at last completed, the prizes are now ready for imme- 
 diate distribution, and a notification such as this has been sent to all who were so 
 fortunate as to have their names in the prize list. 
 
 Below you will find a statement of your prize and the amount of percentage 
 due upon it: upon the receipt of which your prize will be immediately sent to you 
 by any means of transportation selected by yourself. 
 
 The money can be sent by mail, in a registered letter, or by express to 
 
 G. W. HARRIS & CO., 
 
 No. 694 and 696 Broadway, 
 
 New York. 
 
 N. B. — No prizes will be forwarded or delivered until the percentage has been 
 paid. 
 
 To this circular was appended the following letter which contained the 
 all important advice to " send the money." — 
 
 Sir: 
 You are hereby notified that under the plan of distribution adopted by us in the 
 interest of the ticket-holders in the "U. S. Prize Concert" of Wiggins, Bradford & 
 Co., late of Chicago, your ticket No. 132,613 has drawn a prize, viz. : 
 
 A Gold Watch and Chain 
 
 valued at two hundred dollars, on which there is due from you for expenses, etc., as 
 explained above, 5 per cent., making ten dollars. 
 
 By forwarding this amount wiihin ten days after receipt of this notice, with 
 directions for transportation, the Watch and Chain will be sent. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 G. W. Harris * Co., Bankers and Receivers, 
 No. 694 and 696 Broadway, 
 
 Nbw York. 
 
206 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 And how many persons were there not — well knowing that they had no 
 ticket <and no claims whatever — who lent themselves to this dishonesty, and 
 sent the swindlers $10 or more to get a gold watch worth $200. 
 
 But for craftiness and impudence the following part of a circular signed 
 by Read & Co. is unsurpassed. Every word of it is only calculated to 
 deceive. It runs thus : — 
 
 Your present will be sent promptly in ten days after the reception of the per- 
 centage. — Don't send for us to ship your present and you pay on delivery. We can 
 not do it, as we should have to employ more help than you would want to' pay, and 
 that lessens the profits to the ticket-holders. Also avoid sending to your friends to 
 call and get your presents ; it not only gives them trouble, but it is a great annoy- 
 ance ; they are always sure to call when we have the most business on hand, and 
 they insist upon being waited on first, etc., etc. To accommodate them we have to 
 Tun through the immense amount of names, and many times we have two of the 
 same name; then we have to refer to our register containing the name, town, and 
 State, to get the correct one. Then, again, if you send by them, or should come 
 yourself, you incur expense, for you know what you have drawn by your notice, 
 and you see by a vote of your committee you cannot collect at sight. No article is 
 delivered under ten days' notice, so you or your friends would have to wait ten days 
 "before being able to obtain what is against your name. We have made this rule and 
 must adhere to it, for those that send us our percentage we feel in duty bound to 
 wait on first ; therefore we ask, as a great personal favor, that upon receipt of your 
 notification, if there is a percentage of a few dollars to be paid, send it by mail, 
 then you will not only have done us a great favor and saved us much unnecessary 
 trouble, but you will, at the same time have kept the matter in a straight, business- 
 like manner so that it will avoid all mistakes by our employees, and you will be 
 sure to get your present at the time specified. 
 
 Those that will be notified that they have drawn presents valued at $10 upwards 
 to $25, and there are many, they have no percentage. We have passed a vote not 
 to deliver any article from the office, but must in all cases be sent by mail or express 
 at their expense, from the fact that we should be so overrun by those living near 
 that we should have to neglect our friends at a distance, so remember to send us 
 word how you want it sent. Write name and town plainly, so any one that reads 
 can read and have no mistake. 
 
 Money can be sent at our risk by mail. The surest way is, put your money in 
 a letter and pay twenty cents to have it registered, if a large amount; but where it 
 is only a few dollars, put it in a letter so it will look small, and then three cents 
 will answer. We .seldom miss letters ; and when a bill of a large denomination U 
 placed in a letter it does not show that it contains anything, and if it looks so it is 
 sure to arrive safe, and then you would save seventeen cents; and as a penny saved 
 is as good as two earned, you can take your choice. 
 
 When you receive your present be kind enough to inform us of the fact, so we 
 can file away as delivered. In case you do not receive it at the expiration of ten 
 days, be prompt in giving us word, so we can look it up. On any business enclo3e 
 stamp for return answer. 
 
 The books will be closed after fifteen days from the date of your notification, as 
 it must be closed as soon as possible in order to relieve the committee, and as it will 
 give all ample time to remit or send their order how the present must be sent. 
 
SWINDLERS. 207 
 
 "We think we have given you all the information required, thus saving you the 
 trouble of writing for information. 
 
 All letters should be addressed, per order of the managers, to 
 
 READ & CO., Bankers, 
 
 No. 6 Clinton Hall, Astor Place, 
 Successors to Geo. A. Cooke & Co. New York City. 
 
 It is with idcb. circulars as these that credulous and money-loving peo- 
 ple are lured, and they take the bait by thousands. But the swindlers 
 catch people also through their vanity and stupidity with glittering offers 
 cf agencies. The following circular was sent to a man who had gone 
 through the late war, ostensibly with reference to a lottery in aid of a 
 *• Sailors and Soldiers Refuge." 
 
 GENERAL AGENCY FOR THE UNITED STATES. 
 New York. 
 Dear Sir: — As we are determined to send a good prize in your neighborhood, 
 and with this resolution we have been looking around for an opening in which, by 
 presenting some discreet reliable person with a prize of a few hundred dollars, it 
 would have the desired effect to increase the number of our customers. We acci- 
 dentally met with your address and the idea occurred to us at once that you were 
 just the person to aid us in our enterprise. AYe therefore make to you a proposition 
 that must strike you as being no less novel than it is liberal, and that you may not 
 suppose that there is any deception in it ; we inform you that the prize money does 
 not come out of our pocket, but out of the pocket of the lottery managers, and we 
 -shall not loose by sending a few hundred dollars in prize money, but shall gain by 
 it in the increased amount of business we shall expect from your neighborhood 
 when you show the "greenbacks," and make it generally known that they are the 
 proceeds of a prize drawn at our office. We make this offer to you in strict con- 
 fidence — the proposal is plain. We are to send a certificate for a chance to draw a 
 prize of a few hundred dollars. You are to show the money. The result will be 
 that hundreds of dollars will be sent to us for tickets. You may be the gainer of a 
 few hundred dollars. We shall be gainers by our sales, and the parties who send 
 for tickets may be gainers by drawing prizes. Every one that sends will of course 
 expect to draw a prize, not knowing the offer we made privately to you, which is as 
 follows: — Send us $10 to pay the managers, and we will send to you, securely 
 sealed, a certificate of a package of tickets in the enclosed scheme ; and to set at rest 
 any doubt you may have of our sincerity, we hereby bind ourselves to send you a 
 second certificate in any of our brilliant extra lotteries, for nothing, if the first we 
 send you does not draw you, clear of all expenses, twelve hundred dollars; and 
 mark this fact, to send you twelve hundred dollars out of the managers pocket will 
 cost us nothing, but to send you an extra certificate will take money out of our own 
 pocket. We mention this merely to show you that it is our interest to send you a 
 prize. We hand you an envelope with our address. Enclose to us $10 and state in 
 your letter whether we shall send you a draft on your nearest bank, or shall we 
 send you the amount ^n " greenbacks'' by mail, which last perhaps will suit you 
 better. Tlease let us have your order by return mail, as we shall have to order the 
 certificate from the manrgsrs for you, and believe us 
 
 Yours, respectfully 
 
 C. A. Taylor 4 Co. 
 
208 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 From this letter the receiver, who was to procure twelve hundred dol- 
 lars t'o show as a bait, must perceive that the whole story was a dishonest 
 one, and that to undertake the sale of tickets was dishonorable and foolish ; 
 and yet he would do it with so much zeal, that besides the $10 which had 
 been demanded of him, he has sent as much as a hundred dollars more for 
 tickets he sold for the swindler, of whom of course he heard no more. 
 Although he had inevitably to hear the reproaches of all to whom he had 
 sold tickets and who henceforth accused him of swindling them. 
 
 Such cases happens by the hundred, and if anybody who receives such 
 circulars decides to come here himself, and, as he thinks, to deal with Mr. 
 So and So personally he may be quite certain that he will not find him, 
 and that he will have to return home, his tasked unperformed. A short 
 time ago a person in Florida received an intimation from one of these 
 swindling concerns that he had won a piano worth $500 and that $15 was 
 wanted for the cost of package, upon receipt of which it would be sent. 
 The person thus addressed knew of no ticket, and he did not suspect any 
 swindler, but he had so little intention of appropriating to himself by dis- 
 honorable means the chance winnings of another, that he sent the letter to 
 a business friend in this city, with the request that as some mistake must 
 have been made he would advise the sender to that effect. But, that the 
 business friend could not find the firm in this city is quite certain. 
 
 The immense sums of money out of which the public has been swindled 
 by these gift-enterprises is shown first by the number and increase of the 
 concej ns themselves, and next by the number of letters and remittances 
 which they receive every day, as has been proved by the opportune seizure 
 of some of the establishments. It is a fact that many of them receive as 
 many as 500 letters daily, and that the receipts of the swindlers amount 
 mostly to from five hundred to a thousand dollars every day. As a rule 
 they seldom remain long, but when they have made perhaps a hundred 
 thousand dollars they disappear without leaving a trace and soon turn up 
 again as some other firm in probably a different place altogether. 
 
 Sometimes it happens that the post office authorities, when it is estab- 
 lished that the affair is a swindle, refuse the payment of money-orders. 
 But the rascals are equal to the occasion. They then write to the sender 
 that by some accident the letter has been delayed in coming into their 
 hands, and that now the order is too old to be collected, they have there- 
 fore returned it and beg that the amount may be sent by express. But 
 it is well known that post office orders do not thus grow out of date. It is 
 only to prevent swindles, and on the order of the sender that the payment 
 of them is stopped. The remark that the money-order is too old, is there- 
 fore nothing more than a swindlers trick. 
 
 Almost every day people in the country who receive the circulars and 
 see through the cheat, send them to the mayor of the town or to the police 
 superintendent, and think that they are informing the authorities about 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 something new. But the authorities have these circulars in abundance, 
 and besides that the police know all the swindlers ; although it is not bo 
 easy to get at them since the mere sending of a circular is nothing. To 
 effect a lawful prosecution, too, there must be a plaintiff. A person who 
 has received such a circular and sent it to the mayor has not been swin- 
 dled ; he has not been injured and therefore has no cause for complaint. 
 Then again the person who has sent money for tickets or for some prize 
 that has been put forward, cannot make a complaint, because his trans- 
 action was illegal ; since all lotteries are forbidden by law. 
 
 The promoters of these swindling concerns have often been arrested, 
 without any practical result having thus far been the consequence. Driven 
 out of one place, they begin the same business, a few weeks later, in some 
 other ; as we have shown already in one particular case where the business 
 at 656 Broadway was broken up in November, 1872, and it re-appeared 
 under another name, in another place, in full force in February, 1873. 
 These swindlers are up to all sorts of devices, but if the public, in spite of 
 all advice and every possible warning will insist on getting caught, it has 
 only itself to blame for the consequences. 
 
 But to the worst kind of these gift-enterprises belong those where 
 u charity" is adopted for the sign-board — Tiie Charity Swindle. And 
 how many of these have there not sprung up during the past year ! We 
 call to mind at the moment that prize distribution so plendidly announced 
 for the benefit of the Gettysburg Asylum ; another u Asylum for Sick and 
 Wounded Soldiers" ; then the " Sailors and Soldiers Home" ; the " Or- 
 phans Institute" ; the " Cosmopolitan Benevolent Society of California, 
 in Aid of Public Schools, Public Library, Orphan Asylum, Fire Depart- 
 ment &c. of Nevada County," besides all those for which the great fire at 
 Chicago, and the necessities of the South after the war, contributed ex- 
 cuses. And vast numbers of these gift-enterprises received the commenda- 
 tion — not pretended but genuine — of people whose names have a good ring 
 throughout the country ; while many other lottery enterprises similar in 
 character for the alleged benefit of schools, churches, libraries, &c, were 
 endorsed by the directors of those institutions, although such persons must 
 have known that all such lotteries are illegal. And if such gift-enterprises 
 or lotteries, as the case may be, should chance to be conducted honorably, 
 how much is it thought would remain for the declared purpose after all 
 expenses are paid? Why, most likely, as it has often happened, they are 
 wound up with a very considerable deficiency ; nay, the monies received 
 have been embezzled, even in opposition to the wishes of the promoters. 
 It would be much more conducive to the objects of charity and benevolence 
 if no attempt were ever made to serve them through the medium of a 
 lottery. 
 
 14 
 
210 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Quite recently there have been two such lotteries brought forward 
 ostensibly for benevolent purposes, both of which turned out the most 
 palpable swindles. — The first of these was the Cuban lottery, established 
 under the pretence of supplying arms and ammunition to that portion of 
 the Cuban people who for some years have been fighting to free themselves 
 from the yoke of Spain. The tickets were to give admission to different 
 concerts that were to be given here, and at the same time entitled the hol- 
 der to the chance of winning from $3 to $25,000 out of a total amount of 
 nearly half a million. People in America are ever ready to lend their aid 
 to nations struggling for freedom ; such an undertaking as this could not 
 fail, therefore, to win much sympathy and support ; till at last the Cuban 
 Junta in New York and other prominent persons who were interesting 
 themselves in Cuban affairs declared that they would have nothing to do 
 with it, and that it was nothing more than a heartless swindle, intended to 
 make in the most unconscionable manner a profit out of the American love 
 for freedom and our sympathies for Cuba. 
 
 The second, which came up later, is a so-called diamond lottery, estab- 
 lished for the alleged purpose of those persons in France who required 
 assistance in consequence of losses incurred in the late war. There were 
 to be 190,000 tickets at $6, giving the chances of winning diamonds to the 
 value of $860,000. The French newspapers in New York, which would 
 certainly rather have given encouragement to any undertaking for the 
 benefit of their countrymen, declared it to be a swindle, and thus this 
 affair, like so many others, was dissipated and the people who had been so 
 foolish as to take tickets lost their money. 
 
 We must mention yet one more of these charity lotteries, which, if it 
 must not be placed in the category of swindles, is, nevertheless, of so pecu- 
 liar a character that it deserves censure. — We refer to the proposed raffle 
 of a farm of one hundred acres in the neighborhood of Washington by 
 means of tickets at $1 each ; ostensibly for the benefit of the Mount de 
 Chantal Academy, near Wheeling, Va., if the circular said to be issued by 
 the " Sisters of Visitation'' is to be credited. In this was the further con- 
 dition that a purchaser of ten tickets should have the privilege of having 
 his own name and that of any person already deceased associated in a 
 mass to be read every week for ten years for the benefit of the Maunt de 
 Chantal Academy. — How the professors of any creed can so far profane 
 the wants of their church, which to them ought to be sacred, by associating 
 them with a lottery, is to us quite incomprehensible. 
 
 If anybody wants to be charitable, he should give directly to the object 
 he would assist. One dollar direct, and without any selfish notice, is 
 worth more than five dollars paid with the design of making some profit, 
 for of the five dollars at least four go away in expenses. 
 
SWINDLERS 211 
 
 Ve come now to the Lottery Swindle. Of the true lottery we shall 
 take occasion to speak separately in another chapter. We allude now only 
 to the cheating concerns which have no organization, in which there is no 
 control, no responsibility, and whose sole object, as in the gift-enterprises, 
 is to swindle people out of their money. These are carried on under the 
 name of Spanish lotteries. It is pretended that they have their head- 
 quarters in Madrid, and the so-called representatives here issue tickets at 
 $1, which, according to the circulars that are sent out, entitle the holder to 
 the chance of watches and such like articles, valued at from $25 to $1,200, 
 as well as sums in cash from $13 to $7,500. But no such lottery exists 
 at Madrid, and the names appended to the circulars put into circulation 
 and offering the tickets are in great part the same as those we find on the 
 circulars of counterfeit money and gift-enterprise swindlers, and the people 
 also address their letters mostly from 22 West Fourth Street and 16 South 
 Fifth Avenue. The very pure individuals who issue these circulars groan 
 over the many swindles which have already been perpetrated in couaection 
 with similar undertakings, and thereupon base the assurance that these 
 Spanish lotteries are quite another kind of thing and quite substantial. 
 Like the gift-enterprise swindlers they offer to their agents a gold watch 
 valued at $200, to show to people as a prize, and thus to secure a more 
 copious sale of tickets in their neighborhood. But — they make it cheaper 
 than the gift-enterprise swindlers, for while these demand $10 for their 
 present, they require but one ! 
 
 The Dollar Store Swindle must rank in some measure with the 
 other varieties of this art, but it must not be supposed that we would class 
 all dollar stores as swindles. The term applies only to those in which the 
 person does not see beforehand what he is buying. At the fairs in Ger- 
 many there have been for thirty years or more stalls in which all sorts of 
 articles, trifles of course, have been offered at the uniform price of five 
 groschens. It was probably on the model of these that the dollar stores 
 were established in which people can see and examine for themselves any- 
 thing that seems to please them and which looks worth the money. But 
 there are certain other dollar stores where the system is widely different, 
 where the business is at a distance, and where the purchaser does not see 
 and cannot examine his purchase till after he has paid his dollar. These 
 dollar stores are chiefly to be found in New England. They send round 
 to certain addresses acknowledging the receipt of one dollar, and enclosing 
 in return ten so-called certificates at 10 cents, on each of which is the 
 name of some article, which they further promise to send on the receipt of 
 a dollar. Whoever goes into this business, will either receive something 
 which certainly will not please him, or, what is much more likely, he will 
 not receive anything. Very often, however, the answer is returned, that 
 the last dollar has come to hand, but that an unfortunate mistake has 
 
212 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 occurred, the check having really been the property of some one who had 
 previously sent the money for the ten certificates, but that the person can' 
 have the object he requires if he will now remit the dollar for the checks. 
 Of course if anyone is foolish enough to send the second dollar, the only- 
 satisfaction he can feel is from the knowledge that he has been swindled 
 twice instead of once. 
 
 The Watch Swindle has likewise made very many victims, and 
 thousands of dollars are spent every year not only on cheap watches, but 
 on watches that cost little and are quite worthless. Oroide watches, and 
 watches in cases alledged to be made out of some newly invented combina- 
 tion of metals to imitate gold, or from some pretended bankrupt watch fac- 
 tory, are being constantly offered through the medium of the newspapers. 
 But the truth is, watches, like gold and silver, are never to be bought in 
 the market below their value, no matter how many watch factories may 
 have become bankrupt. A man might as well expect to buy genuine gold 
 dollars at half-price from a bankrupt bank, as to buy good watches at half- 
 price. Whatever may be said in advertisements and circulars, a man may 
 be perfectly certain of this, that if he buys a watch in a bad case, instead 
 of a gold or silver one, he has paid too dearly for it, or probably he has 
 got something that is quite worthless. A watch is something that must be 
 trustworthy. But to buy a really good watch at a low price, that is below 
 its value, is impossible. A good piece of workmanship, without the case, 
 and allowing only a very small margin to the maker, will cost at the least 
 from eight to ten dollars ; but most of the firms who offer their watches at 
 low prices only operate with distant people, and whoever sends them 
 money will either receive nothing or an article of no value whatever. 
 
 Thus very lately Messrs. Graham & Co., of 6 Whitehall Street, an- 
 nounced a " magic watch" for twelve dollars ; but there was not a trace of 
 any such firm to be found in the building. — Another firm, W. D. Miller 
 & Co., offered in like manner a hundred thousand watches worth from 
 $100 upwards for the sum of $1.25 each ! Now if anyone lets himself be 
 inveigled by such offers into sending money, he has only himself to thank 
 for his folly ; though at the same time such offers would not be possible, if 
 it were notior the super-abundance of fools. 
 
 There are lying before us a circular and a letter from Wright Bros. & 
 Co., which were sent us by a Mr. I. F. in Blackhawk, Wis. In the first 
 they offer 12,600 different gold and silver watches worth as high as $250 
 each, for $10 a piece. Mr. F. ordered a watch and requested that it might 
 be sent by express, the ten dollars to be paid on delivery. The watch was 
 sent ; but as Mr. F. wanted to see it before he paid the ten dollars for it, 
 the express company refused to let the box be opened. He wrote to 
 Messrs. Wright Bros. & Co. and informed them, but their answer was that 
 
SWINDLERS. 213 
 
 they too could not consent to it ; Mr. F. was in fact wanted to "buy a pig 
 in a poke." 
 
 Another firm, Wheeler & Co., undertook to deliver a gold chronometer, 
 valued at 81 25, tor the small remittance of $G. This firm also announces 
 that they hold a special license from the government at "Washington to 
 Baffle watches, a license which neither does nor ever has existed. 
 
 A third firm, lv. II. Foster in "Williamsburgh, promises to send a fifty 
 dollar double cased gold watch for $2.75 ; a iourth says that for $4 he will 
 deliver a good watch whose case cannot be distinguished from gold. And 
 so on almost indefinitely. 
 
 The greatest watch swindle, however, of recent date was that set on foot 
 by the ever notorious E. II. Elias, under the name of the " Great Geneva 
 Watch Company," which, having become bankrupt, had sent its stock here 
 for sale. But no such company ever existed in Geneva, and the swindle 
 was at last brought to an end by the authorities. 
 
 Bat we have said enough to be a warning to people who want to buy a 
 watch, provided always they have the sound use of their live senses. 
 
 The Musical Box Swindle is, if possible, more barefaced than that 
 last named. Here the swindlers announce that for two, three, or five dol- 
 lars they will send a musical box which plays eight, fourteen, or twenty- 
 four tunes. Now by a musical box people usually understand those pretty 
 Swiss pieces of workmanship with barrel and spring, which, when wound 
 up and set in order, do play tunes. But what do the swindlers send? 
 Nothing more than a jewsharp, which could be bought anywhere for fifty 
 cents. 
 
 Among the swindlers of this tri'oe are J. King & Co. and Scott & Paul, 
 "both of whom are in New York. 
 
 Mr. C. W. of Austin, Texas, received from the first of these a circular, 
 •ornamented with an engraving of an open musical box. In reply to the 
 offers it contained he sent eight dollars, hoping in return to receive three 
 musical boxes, instead of which he got in due course as many very com- 
 mon jewsharps, worth at the outside ten cents. 
 
 In like manner Mr. L. Z. of Cincinnati had a little experience with the 
 same firm, and as a consequence the following paragraph appeared in a 
 newspaper published in that city : — " In New York there is a firm — 
 Messrs. John B. Kind & Co. — who declare themselves to be the owners of 
 a large manufactory of musical boxes, and who send out circulars all over 
 the country ofiering splendid musical boxes at very low prices. One of the 
 lucky fellows to whom they sent a circular here in Cincinnati is our neigh- 
 bor L. Z. who some days ago in conformity with the terms named in the 
 circular, seut a dollar to the firm and ordered a musical box at that price. 
 Yesterday he was much delighted when the express agent brought him a 
 •large cigar box just received from New York and which contained the 
 
214 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 object of his wishes. In addition to one dollar for freight the express com- 
 pany-collected also $4 which of course were joyfully paid. The box was 
 cautiously opened, and showed the musical box was very carefully packed. 
 One paper wrapper after another was taken off, and the valuable package 
 kept growing smaller, till finally the last wrapper was unfolded and dis- 
 closed a very elegant little jewsharp, such as we should buy for a child at 
 Christmas for about five cents. Although the beautiful little instrument 
 had a very exquisite tone, and evidently came from the celebrated manu- 
 factory of John B. King & Co. in New York, Mr. Z. persisted that he had 
 been swindled, and tried at least to get his money back from the express 
 company. But he didn't. 
 
 Mr. C. R. of Parkersburg, Va., received from the above named firm of 
 W. Scott and Paul, a circular similar to those sent by King & Co. ; and 
 in reply to.it he forwarded one dollar for one of the musical boxes described 
 and which played eight tunes. He received also a jewsharp, and sent it 
 on to a friend with a request that he would secure the return of the dollar. 
 The friend went to the address of the firm, and there found several dozen 
 jewsharps, such as children use, spread out on a table. He asked to be 
 shown one of the musical boxes such as they offered in their circulars for 
 one dollar, and the representative of the firm placed before him one of the 
 smallest jewsharps ; but in reply to the request that he would cause one of 
 these instruments to play the tunes, as indicated in the circular, the same 
 representative had the impudence to answer : — " It is the business of the 
 people who buy these instruments, and who want to play upon them to 
 learn how to do so." 
 
 Now what remedy have the people who are cheated by them against 
 such swindlers as these ? Their charge is made for the loss of one or two 
 dollars. They pay a lawyer ten or fifteen dollars, and perhaps have to 
 dance attendance in the courts many days before an examination comes 
 on. That nobody will do this the swindlers know very well, and conse- 
 quently they feel themselves secure and never trouble themselves in the 
 exercise of their iniquitous trade. 
 
 Very recently a " Dolly Varden Musical Box" was introduced ; it is 
 exactly the same kind of swindle as we have described. Genuine musical 
 boxes are dear. Those which play six or eight tunes cannot be bought 
 for less than twenty dollars ; and such as play twenty or more tunes will 
 cost as much as eighty or a hundred dollars. 
 
 The Envelope Swindle is another kind of lottery swindle. Envelopes 
 are sold at 25 cents, in some of which are blanks, in others a certificate^ 
 as it is called, with information about valuable gold and silver articles and 
 other things which can be had upon payment of a dollar. This swindla 
 has also cost the public a large sum of money. 
 
SWINDLERS. 215 
 
 The so-called Oroide gold — which is not gold but a mixture of common 
 metals that has slightly the appearance of gold — plays an important part 
 here ; and wherever yon see in a show window these oroide watches, 
 brooches, chains, and other trinkets, there you may be very well sure that 
 the envelope swindle is operated!, If a stranger or a novice goes to a shop 
 of this kind to look at the wonderful things set out there, and which he 
 believes to be real gold, he will soon be addressed by one or other of the 
 runners of the envelope swindler, who are always about, and by him 
 induced to go into the shop, where he will soon be fleeced. Such things 
 are happening every day, and it certainly seems that all the warnings that 
 have thus far been plainly given in the papers are of no avail. These 
 swindling rascals are mostly to be met with in Broadway, in Chatham and 
 West Streets, but other streets are not free from them. And if we would 
 form an opinion from the amounts of money returned to those victims who 
 have applied to the police — and who are always a minority — we are quite 
 justified in assuming that these swindlers in their town business alone 
 cheat the public every week of at least two thousand dollars ; while their 
 business outside of the city is very much more considerable. 
 
 "VYe know a person living in a city in Ohio who once thought to make 
 something by this game. He procured envelopes to the value of a hundred 
 dollars, and was thereby the fortunate possessor of assignments of various 
 articles which together amounted to the apparent value of $2,153, to which 
 he now had a claim if he sent $385 more. That, however, was too much 
 for him, so he selected a hundred certificates which seemed to him to rep- 
 resent the most valuable articles — chiefly gold and silver. He sent for 
 these a second $100, and certainly he received the goods ordered, their 
 nominal value being $599. This was a very fair profit on the $200 he 
 had paid, tf oc*/ tbs nominal value had corresponded with the real value. 
 But in that there was a slight difference. As, however, he thought that 
 all he had ordered and received were gold and silver goods, and as he 
 could not turn them to account, moreover as he preferred to have the pre- 
 cious metals in gold and silver bars, he sent them to a United States Assay 
 Office to be melted down. This led him to the discovery that the actual 
 value of the gold and silver in his five hundred and ninety-nine dollars 
 worth of goods was just $9.62 — say nine dollars and sixty-two cents! 
 Since then that man has been quite proof against the offers of any 
 swindlers. 
 
 We may remark that this envelope swindle is being carried on at the 
 present time very largely in the agricultural districts. The principals who 
 operate in those localities have drummers who go about among the people 
 and speculate as if they were strangers. They apparently win prizes, and 
 the consequence is that the public yields to the temptation. People take 
 chances and invariably get robbed. 
 
216 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 The Circutar Swindle belongs also to these classes which like the 
 counterfeit money swindlers, watch swindlers, and others, relies upon the 
 outside public for plunder. In the lists contained in these circulars we 
 find articles of all descriptions : rings, brooches, watch-chains, coffee, tea, 
 and sugar, hats and bonnets, boots and shoes, dresses, and a hundred other 
 articles. These are all offered at prices below what seems to be their 
 value. But be assured that either nothing at all is sent in reply to orders, 
 or else something that is quite worthless. Thus one of these concerns 
 offers to sell for $2 a ladies casquet which shall contain a $20 '' green- 
 back," rings, ear-rings, brooches, bracelets, pens, paper, envelopes, &c, 
 the genuine price of which is $35.75. The $20 "greenback" is, however, 
 nothing more than a very common address card looking something like a 
 treasury note. The value of the other things may readily be imagined. 
 
 To make the thing more attractive these circulars are generally got up 
 very handsomely, and bear as a vignette the picture of some fine building, 
 which is ostensibly the business place of the firm from whom the circular 
 emanates. But the swindlers have neither any place of business of the 
 kind nor any other respectable shop, only a little room on probably some 
 top floor, such as we have already described. The splendid structure that 
 adorns these circulars is nothing more than the representation of some 
 bank or savings bank in the city, of which they have procured an electro- 
 type, and by altering the title made it to appear with the name of their 
 own swindling concern, such as the " Continental Tea Co.," or the " Me- 
 tropolitan Jewelry Association," or the " Continental Bazaar," &c, &c. 
 
 The Company Swindle began here first in the year 1860 when the 
 petroleum springs in the Oil Region of Pennsylvania were discovered. 
 Since then it has not been limited to profits from the oil wells, but has 
 been applied to mines of all kinds and to various other undertakings. It 
 has brought within its influence many honest people who, anxious to grow 
 rich fast, went into the business without understanding it or having any 
 insight into it at all, and although it is not in such full swing now as it 
 once was, it still finds many victims. To show how it works we must go 
 back to the discovery of the oil springs. 
 
 As when gold was first discovered in California, and people from all 
 parts flocked to the new Eldorado, so it was in 1890 when the first oil 
 springs were discovered in Pennsylvania. Thousands of people went 
 blindly to work and bored along all the water courses for oil. One thou- 
 sand, two thousand, three thousand barrels of oil were taken every day 
 from the springs. Some people grew wonderfully rich in a short time, 
 while very many more after getting rid of all the means they had and find- 
 ing very little oil had to return home quite poor. Now, the supply became 
 greater than the demand ; and the price fell to twenty-five and thirty cents 
 per barrel at the spring, the barrel not included. With the exception o / 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 217 
 
 the proprietors of the richest wells, and some clear-sighted persons besides, 
 all then gave up the business, and sought a new means of gaining a liveli- 
 hood in some other place. 
 
 Bat by degrees, in consequence of improvements in the purification and 
 refining of the oil, and in the construction of lamps, kerosene became more 
 in demand for lighting purposes, and thereupon the price rose ; so that in 
 the autumn of 18G3 the crude oil at the well was worth from five to six 
 dollars. 
 
 When the price had been 81 per barrel the Noble Well at Oil Creek 
 gave three thousand barrels every day, and when the price had risen to 
 §10 the same well continued to give more than a thousand barrels. This 
 well and some others similarly profitable gave new life to the speculation, 
 which rose soon to such a height that the market was flooded with much 
 worthless stock. This led to another reaction, and at the beginning of 
 the speculation in oil lauds had almost quite languished away. Still 
 old wells continued to give good profits, and resolute people went on boring, 
 while mere speculators for the moment drew back. In the autumn of the 
 same year some good new wells were opened, and immediately the shares 
 of some of the companies which just before could have been bought for 
 two or three dollars went up to twenty-five, and some even to forty. This 
 sent up all the shares, and speculators made money. The price of oil con- 
 tinued high, the prospect was brilliant, and in Venango County people 
 were ready to buy up the lands far and wide. 
 
 At the opening of 1865 scarcely a farm was to be found within thirty 
 miles of Oil City, in the neighborhood of any creek, which had not been 
 either sold by its former owner or leased. New companies were formed, 
 new springs opened, and the whole business seemed likely to go to a height 
 exceeding anything it had reached before. The shares of a company with 
 a nominal capital of a million dollars could be sold in Wall Street within 
 a few days, without any regard for the value of the foundation npon which 
 the company was to stand. 
 
 This of course offered inducements for the formation of worthless 
 41 swindle companies," which put out their scrip among innocent but san- 
 guine people who were willing to seize any opportunity to put out their 
 money to good advantage. Every day new companies sprang into exist- 
 ence here and elsewhere, of which by far the greater number were quite 
 or very nearly worthless. Many people of respectable standing were 
 dragged into the general whirlpool and gave the use of their names in 
 connection with such companies, without knowing anything about their 
 circumstances or solidity. Sometimes the names of well-known and promi- 
 nent men were used in the prospectuses without their knowledge, or to 
 deceive people feigned names were made use of which closely resembled 
 the names of such persons, and thus the prospectuses and circulars were 
 made up. 
 
218 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 The books of the internal revenue authorities, however, gave the true 
 measure to the value of these companies, and showed that their true worth 
 was often not as many cents as in their circulars they counted dollars ;. 
 and that companies for whose shares as much as twenty or thirty dollars 
 had been paid in New York, had never from the day of their establishment 
 yielded one cent. 
 
 So much for the early history of these companies. "We now append an 
 illustration to show in addition to what we have said of their origin, the 
 manner in which they conducted their operations. 
 
 We will suppose that a Mr. Oatman has a farm of sixty acres in the 
 Oil Region or the neighborhood of it ; and that Mr. Sharp who lives in 
 New York and is always on the look-out to make money, taking a tour in 
 the locality, visits Mr. Oatman and asks how much he will take for his 
 land. Oatman, who is modest in his demands, and who, although willing 
 to avail himself of the prevailing agitation, does not wish to enrich him- 
 self unreasonably, answers " twelve thousand dollars." This is probably 
 ten times as much as he paid for the farm, but then when he bought it oil 
 springs were not discovered, and probably not one man in a thousand 
 knew what petroleum was. Five years before Oatman would have been 
 glad to take four thousand dollars, and that would have been a very good 
 piece of business. But the times had changed. Now Mr. Sharp is quite 
 satisfied with the price — but he does not pay cash. So he says to Mr. 
 Oatman " I have not got the twelve thousand dollars with me, but must 
 go back to New York to get it. Here, however, are fifty dollars as earnest 
 money to close the bargain, and if I am not back in a fortnight to take the 
 farm off your hands, I am willing to forfeit the fifty dollars and you shall 
 not be bound to the agreement." Oatman is pleased at this arrangement,, 
 which being put into writing, Sharp returns to New York and looks about 
 in Wall Street for a partner for his opera|Jbns. He soon finds somebody 
 — we will call him Cutter — to whom he sells half the farm for twelve 
 thousand dollars, with the understanding that an oil company is to be 
 established there. These two now get together six or a dozen smart peo- 
 ple who are anxious to make money, and who are assured that they shall 
 have their shares at the original price of the land, which has now come to 
 be $750 per acre. All next set to work to establish a company, of which 
 Mr. Sharp is appointed secretary. This gentleman now proposes that the 
 stock capital shall be set at two hundred thousand dollars, of which a hun- 
 dred thousand is distributed among the originators, and the other hundred 
 thousand is to be put upon the market and sold, and form the working 
 capital. 
 
 What is now done with this working capital? First Sharp and Cutter, 
 the latter of whom has in the meantime paid $12,000 for the farm, receive 
 $45,000 for the sale of the land to the company, and this sum is now 
 divided as follows : — 
 
>WIN1»LERS. 219" 
 
 Oatman receives .... $12,000 
 
 Sharp " .... 22,000 
 
 Cutter $22,000 less $12,000 . . 10,500 
 
 But unless the partners in the directory of the new company are quite 
 
 inexperienced. Sharp and Cutter each take five thousand dollars worth of 
 
 shares to inspire confidence. It often happens that the originators of these 
 
 companies are as sanguine as their victims, and then very many having 
 
 full confidence in the undertaking, will put the greater part of the money 
 
 that they take into the stock, or else they take as many shares as their 
 
 credit will allow them, throw these as quickly as possible upon the market 
 
 and leave the company to itself as soon as they are sold. 
 
 But let us suppose that Mr. Sharp is operating in the manner first 
 named. He is appointed secretary ; he has taken $5,000 worth of shares, 
 and the rest he has received in cash. Then some other respectable man 
 is looked for who will take the office of president. It is proposed to him 
 that very little of his time will be taken up if he accept the appointment 
 and in return lor that a certain number of shares are offered to him. And 
 there are many elderly well intentioned people, retired from business, but 
 who in their time were good business men, whose vanity is flattered by 
 being the president of a joint stock company, and who will allow them- 
 selves to be talked over by anybody interested in the concern to accept 
 such an appointment. Directors of well known names being thus secured, 
 the company begins its existence. 
 
 Now let us suppose that out of the second hundred thousand dollars 
 $45,000 have been paid for the purchase of the land, and that to the presi- 
 dent and directors $20,000 have been given, there remains $35,000. They 
 set to work to bore for oil. If all the shares are sold, there is not much 
 said about it. But if not, the prospect is every day announced as becom- 
 ing more and more bright. Perhaps a spring is reached which yields 
 three or four barrels a day, which of course is not enough to cover work- 
 ing expenses ; those three or four barrels are instantly converted in the 
 reports into twenty or thirty, or even more ; as many in fact as the secre- 
 tary chooses in order to raise the shares to the highest figure. Presently, 
 too, a dividend is declared, perhaps two or three per cent, per month, 
 which the shareholders receive as profits already made, but which in reality 
 are paid from the money that is still left of the $35,000. The shares- 
 advance in "Wall Street, and they who are in the secret sell. For a few 
 months the dividends go on in this way, then suddenly all comes to a stop. 
 Either there has been a fire in the works, or the water in the creek has 
 risen very high and done a great deal of damage, or something has been 
 broken in the machinery, or the secretary has been ill and must go into 
 the country to reinstate his health, or the well has from some unaccount- 
 able cause ceased to flow — and so on. Then, perhaps, the shareholders 
 are called together and a further subscription is required from them. The 
 
220 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 shares fall, the shareholders are uneasy and an enquiry is asked for. 
 Then the books show that thus far nothing has been earned, or at least 
 only a very small part of what has been received as dividend. But the 
 capital has gone and the secretary has disappeared, to return probably 
 when the affair has blown over and cheat again. The president and some 
 of the directors are provoked that they have permitted themselves to be 
 the means of inflicting loss upon innocent shareholders, and at last some- 
 body buys the whole concern for a couple of thousand dollars — it may be 
 Mr. Oatmau himself for half of what he once received for the farm — and 
 then he carries on the oil business himself systematically and eco- 
 nomically. 
 
 All such swindle companies turn out somewhat like this, whether their 
 ostensible object be oil or gold, silver, lead or coal. Quite lately a so- 
 called claim in Montana was sold for $70,000. It was of no use for 
 mining, nor for any purpose of the kind, and was not worth one tenth part 
 of the amount. 
 
 And how very many swindling companies of the kind have there not 
 been ! Such as the Broome Mining Co., Canada Lead Mining Co., Cham- 
 plain Copper Co., Chatham Mining Co., Coalbrook Mining Co., Chebucto 
 Gold Co., Colorado Gold Co., Grand Trunk Copper Co., Green Mountain 
 Mining Co., Kent Gold Co., Logan Copper Co., Mahoney Coal Co., 
 American Gold Co., Newton Mining Co., National Lead Co., Oxford 
 Plumbago Co., Strafford Copper Co., Waterloo Mining Co., Glencoe Co., 
 Dayton Co., Roscoe Co., and many others. In all these the same foul 
 game was played. Tricks and stratagem were everywhere employed to 
 bring the worthless shares before the public. And the doings of many of 
 these companies were only discovered by their being obliged to tell the 
 plain truth in their declarations to the internal revenue department. 
 
 For example the " Atlantic Gold Mining Co." had given it out in Wall 
 Street that their shares had all been sold by the brokers and stood at $2 
 premium, but when the company came to pay the fees in the internal reve- 
 nue office the truth had to come out. The officers of the company were 
 compelled to admit before the commissioners that those sales had not been 
 genuine, and that the shares were not worth more than twenty-five cents, 
 probably not as much. 
 
 Many of these companies continue for a long time, but the day comes 
 at last when through a tightness in the money market or some other mis- 
 fortune they collapse, and then the shareholders have to deplore their 
 heavy loss. Any man who cares for what he has earned, probably by 
 hard work, should pause before he has anything to do with shares, no mat- 
 ter what the undertaking may be ; unless at least he well comprehends the 
 circumstances of the company, the actual value which in the first instance 
 was paid for the property, the present returns, and the possibility of return's 
 in the future, and finally, unless he possess as much certainty as can be 
 
SWINDLER9. 221 
 
 attained that the management is in the hands of capable and honorable 
 men. 
 
 The Security and Partnership Swindle has brought heavy losses 
 at various times upon many who have come to New York with a little 
 means to seek some position. In almost every newspaper there appear 
 notices offering a clerkship to any young man who can find security, or 
 that a partner with a few hundred dollars is wanted. In the first case a 
 very acceptable stipend is put forward ; in the second an extraordinary 
 profit from the business is assured. 
 
 If now in consequence of such advertisement anyone applies for a clerk- 
 ship he will have a weekly salary of twenty or thirty dollars offered him. 
 But at the same time he will be told that since money or goods will have 
 to be entrusted to him, and as he is not known he will have to deposit as 
 security so much money, for w T hich a due rate of interest will be paid. 
 If the applicant accepts the conditions and the place, a note at two or three 
 months will be given him for the amount of the security, and he then 
 enters upon his duties. Perhaps the business into which he is introduced 
 is a real-estate office. In that case he will be sent out to gather together 
 descriptions of all real property that he can find for sale ; — and when, per- 
 haps, he has been at work in this way for some days, he will be told that 
 he is not qualified for the post and must leave. He now asks for the 
 return of his security, but receives as answer — that he will have it back 
 when the note falls due, and he must be contented with that, for as he 
 paid his money against the note, he has no right to demand the money 
 before the note is matured. And when this time arrives, then probably 
 he will complain too. But that will not help him ; — for either the swin- 
 dler is not worth the cost of an execution, or perhaps he has disappeared 
 altogether. 
 
 But if through such an advertisement a partner is asked for, the swindler 
 has perhaps a little store standing empty somewhere, rented for a mere 
 trifle per month. There may be in it a number of boxes or cases, which 
 apparently should contain goods ; but in reality it is only those on the top 
 that are lying open which contain goods. All the rest are empty, or if 
 they have anything in them it is something of no value, perhaps stones or 
 bricks. The applicant is told what a wide connection the business has. 
 how well it could be extended by the addition of so many hundred dollars 
 and what a large profit would be the result. If he then allows himself to 
 be beguiled and pays his money, he will soon find, like the clerk who gave 
 out his security, that he has been swindled. Cases of both kinds of pro- 
 ceeding are innumerable ; and it is really unconceivable how people look- 
 ing for a clerks situation and who are willing to give security, or people 
 with a few hundred dollars seeking a partnership, do not enquire into the 
 circumstances and character of the concerns with which they entertain the 
 
222 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW TORK LIFE. 
 
 idea of associating themselves, before they sign a contract. If they would 
 only do that, these security and partnership swindlers would not find it so 
 •easy to get victims. 
 
 The Agency Swindle, in like manner, has been the means of severe 
 losses to many who sorely needed the few dollars they possessed. It is 
 conducted in various ways, but mostly by means of advertisements in 
 which a high salary is promised. The following advertisement for in- 
 stance has been lately appearing in many of the newspapers : — 
 
 dj/IQr a month ! Horse and carriage furnished. 
 vP i Lm\J Expenses paid. Apply to 
 
 Nelson & Co., New York. 
 
 Any ingenuous person reading »;nis and seeking a situation, will and 
 must understand from it that Nelson & Co. are looking for a number of 
 people who will work for them and whom they will pay at the rate of 
 $425 a month, besides paying travelling expenses, and providing a horse 
 and wagon. There are thousands of people in all parts of the country 
 who would be delighted to accept such a brilliant opportunity ; there could 
 not fail, therefore, to be thousands who would apply for it, of whom per- 
 haps ninety per cent, enclose in their letters a postage stamp for reply. 
 They perhaps receive the reply, and it is in the form of a printed circular 
 to the effect that the applicant has quite misunderstood the purpose of the 
 advertisement. Messrs. Nelson & Co. did not mean to imply their readi- 
 ness to pay people a salary of $425, or, indeed, any other salary, what 
 they did mean was that they have a recipe which they are willing to seU 
 for $2.50, and that anybody who would buy it, might travel about the 
 country pleasantly with his own horse and wagon and sell it easily, thereby 
 making $425 per month. It hardly seems possible that such a swindle as 
 this could be successful, but, nevertheless, there are very many fools who 
 have taken the bait, otherwise the advertisement could not have remained 
 so long in some two hundred newspapers. For advertising costs money. 
 
 Other swindlers of this kind work as follows : — They also advertise for 
 agents, and whoever applies receives a circular intimating that Sweet & 
 Co. — this is a firm at Marshall, Mich., which operates in this manner — 
 are looking for agents for the sale of a certain article, and that they will 
 pay $20 per week salary and allow provisionally $8 for travelling expen- 
 ses, but that if they should be satisfied with the energy of the applicant, 
 they would be ready to increase it in the future. 
 
 Appended to this is the notification that the agencies are already almost 
 all given away, but that the applicant can have the sole agency for his 
 own county if he applies quickly. This answer though, be it remembered, 
 is received not only by one in the county, but perhaps by twenty or thirty, 
 by as many in fact as apply. Now, however, comes the all important 
 
SWINDLERS. 223 
 
 poiHt. The agent of course wants an outfit with samples, &c, and for 
 this lie is required to send in advance ten dollars. Of course those who 
 send their ten dollars never see theni a<rain. 
 
 But the most stupid swindle of this kind is one adopted by a man 
 named Allen, of Victoria, Texas, who advertises as follows : — 
 
 {f» P AAA a year ! — How it is made, with a sample, 
 «J)\J|UUU for 35 cents. Address 
 
 R. F. Allen, Victoria, Texas. 
 
 Now if anvbodv sends on the 35 cents he receives a circular and a letter 
 informing him that whoever will send the advertiser the greatest number 
 of addresses, together with 35 cents for each address, will receive at the 
 end of the year a prize of 85,000. It is added further that those persons 
 who work for the prize must send on at least one name every week with 
 the money, that the prize will be paid as soon as 60,000 addresses with 
 the money have been received, and that for every hundred addresses sent 
 in the agents may receive back the sum of $5. Clumsy as this swindle is, 
 so clumsy that it is hard to imagine a clumsier, there are, nevertheless, 
 large numbers of foolish people who have fallen on to the snare, and who, 
 for several weeks, continuously have sent the addresses and the money. 
 
 Whoever buys a cat in a sack, and then puts his hand in to pull her out, 
 will certainly get scratched. And so, whoever troubles himself about 
 advertisements for agents, and sends on money in reply to the demand for 
 an advance on account of outfit, samples, &c, will as certainly get 
 swindled. 
 
 The Patent and Family-right Swindlers have for some years past 
 been making a very good profit. They go about the country and either 
 sell patents, or transfer the agency for the sale of a patent or of some 
 patented article, an implement for instance or something of the kind, for 
 the country in which the purchaser resides. For this they take the note 
 of the buyer. We heard recently of some swindlers who were travelling 
 about and who sold to a farmer what fhey represented to be a newly 
 patented butter tub, which business they managed thus. They showed the 
 butter tub and expressed their readiness to take the buyer's note in pay- 
 ment, the amount to be made due on delivery of the tub. They now pro- 
 duce certain printed bill forms, in which only the name of the drawer, the 
 place and date have to be filled in. A couple of months pass by, but the 
 butter tub does not arrive. One fine day, however, the note which was 
 given by the person ordering it, was presented for payment. The man is 
 naturally astonished since his understanding had been that the sum should 
 be payable on delivery of the tub. But on a closer examination of the 
 face of the note, he finds that he has bound himself to pay five dollars or 
 more for the right to buy such a tub at a higher price, and that the balance 
 
224 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 is to be paid on delivery. He now sees that he has been swindled, but 
 what is to be done ? The reading of the note is clear and he has got to 
 pay it. 
 
 Another patent swindle is conducted thus. The swindler calls upon a 
 farmer, tells him a great deal about a new patent sowing or reaping ma- 
 chine, shows him a model of it, and persuades him to take the agency for 
 the sale of the machine in his own county, by which he assures him he can 
 make a fine profit. The terms are easy. He asks the farmer to pay ten 
 dollars for the county right as soon as he shall have sold machines to the 
 value of $275. This looks to the farmer like a very good bargain. He 
 goes into the business, and signs a note, of which the swindler has a 
 printed form in his pocket, by which note the farmer agrees, as he sees by 
 the wording of the note, to pay the promised ten dollars as soon as he 
 shall have sold machines to the value of $275. The note for example 
 runs as follows : — 
 
 Terre Haute, Ind., April 22d, 1872. 
 
 One year after date, I promise to pay John Jones or bearer $10 when I sell by 
 
 order Two Hundred and Seventy-five Dollars worth of Seeding Machines 
 
 for value received, at ten per cent, per annum said $10, when due, is 
 payable at Terre Haute, Ind. 
 
 Fred. Frei, Agent for John Jones. 
 Witness : John Doe. 
 
 This appears to be all right. But if the note be looked at more care- 
 fully, there will be found in the middle a narrow space which divides it 
 into two parts, of which the left merely contains the promise to pay $275 
 at the expiration of a year, without any reference to the sale of machinery. 
 The swindler now cuts off the right half and then sells the left which con- 
 tains the genuine note at some high rate of discount to any money broker 
 in the neighborhood who knows the circumstances of the farmer, — to 
 whom unhappily there remains no resource but to pay the note at maturity. 
 
 In the family-right swindle people offer by means of advertisements or 
 circulars to give for one, two, or three dollars the right to prepare some 
 article required in housekeeping in accordance with some special prescrip- 
 tion, and as a matter of course the swindlers use some very high sounding 
 title for their wares, for just as the formula for the article is of little value, 
 so much the more attractive must be the name thereof. Thus they have 
 recipes for the preparation of " American Baking Powder," " German Ex- 
 celsior Oil," " Scotch Burning Oil," "Chemical Fluid Gaslight," " Snow 
 White Washing Compounds," " Italian Fire Proof Paint," " Hydro-carbon 
 Egg Preserver,'' " Golden Honey," "Crystal Honey," " Wisconsin Honey/* 
 " Honey Without Bees," &c, &c. A host of names behind which there 
 is nothing useful, nor anything certainly worth the price asked for it ; since 
 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 225 
 
 in every book store books of recipes can be bought for about twenty-five 
 cents or half a dollar, which contain hundreds of recipes that are useful in 
 the household. 
 
 The RECIPE Swindle is very similar to the family-right swindle. The 
 operators in this branch look for their victims by means of advertisements 
 in the newspapers and offer recipes for everything imaginable ; as for in- 
 stance for a " valuable moustach pomatum which was discovered in the 
 ruins of Hereulaneum," or for a u new method of making cider without 
 apples," and many other pretended "new and great discoveries" by means 
 of which anybody can grow rich, if he will only send a dollar or two to 
 become a proprietor of the secret. 
 
 Most of these recipe swindlers live in Maine and even the postmaster of 
 the place devotes himself to the recommendation of one of them. The 
 people who send mouey to these men either receive nothing or else what 
 is quite worthless, what, as we have already said, can be found in any 
 variety in any book of recipes. One of the swindlers used to offer a recipe 
 declared to be worth $500 to anyone who would send him $5 cash — in 
 imitation of the saw-dust swindlers — the balance to be paid when the pur- 
 chaser should have enriched himself by the recipe. Of course this is noth- 
 ing more than a bait, and whoever should really receive the recipe might 
 be quite sure that he would never have the trouble to pay another cent ; 
 but then he would have to deplore the loss of his five dollars. 
 
 The Dry Goods Swindle flourishes under different forms in the prin- 
 ciple of giving away dry goods, silks, calicos, &c, &c, at prices far below 
 their value. In New York it is done in this way. The swindler, or some 
 one sent out by him, calls at various houses, expresses a wish to see the 
 lady of the house, and then lays out before her a number of sealed enve- 
 lopes, each of which contains a pattern of silk, merino, or some other dress 
 stuff. He offers these at 25 cents each, the purchase giving to the pur- 
 chaser the right to have a full dress piece of the same pattern on the fur- 
 ther payment of a dollar. Of course the delivery of the goods never comes 
 off, and all the swindler has to do is to sell off as fast as he can the enve- 
 lopes with the patterns at 25 cents. 
 
 Out of the city this swindle is carried on by means of circulars, in which 
 different assortments of manufactured goods are offered for a remittance of 
 ten dollars ; to be used as samples of different articles for such people as 
 would make a trade with them from house to house. Many have fallen 
 into this trap, too, and have sent their ten dollars, but the assortment of 
 manufactures has never been discovered bv them. 
 
 The newest modification of this swindle arose out of the great fire at 
 Boston. It deserves a careful examination. The swindlers write letters 
 
 I to all points of the compass as follows : — 
 15 
 
44V IUE JJAKii SlUE UH ISJfiW lUKii. L,IJ5\K. 
 
 New York, 1873. 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 I' have bought 1,200 yards of silk reps which were stolen during the 
 Boston fire. I intended to take it out West, but got ill and am still un- 
 well. I had to pawn the goods and the pawnbroker lent me $100 on them. 
 My brother in Cuba sent^ me $100 and I redeemed them. I am still too 
 weak to be able to go about, and the physician tells me that it will be some 
 months before I can travel, so I have thought it well to offer you the goods. 
 I am afraid to offer them in New York. If you were to sell them, nobody 
 would have any suspicion. I will sell them to you at 25 cents per yard, 
 and you can pay me after you have sold the silk, or the payment may run 
 over six months at the rate of $50 per month. If you will have the silk 
 upon these terms advise me and 1 will send it you by express. 
 
 Respectfully yours 
 
 David W. Engle, 
 
 No. 104 Ninth Avenue. 
 
 P. S. — Since the above was written my wife has been to the pawnbro- 
 ker for a pattern of the silk. He tells her that he will charge $10 interest 
 for the loan. As I have only $100 which my brother George sent me, I 
 should be glad if you would send me $10 which I may pay to the pawn- 
 broker. You can deduct it from the first instalment. If you do not want 
 to buy the goods, of course I cannot expect the $10. Let me have an 
 answer as soon as possible, as I want to get the business off my hands. 
 
 In each of these letters there is a silk pattern, and fastened to it is a 
 pawnbroker's ticket, apparently from the establishment of one Harris of 
 599 Broadway, which says that D. W. Engle has received a loan of $100 
 upon 1,200 yards of silk of the pattern enclosed. It must be quite evident 
 that this is only a swindle to obtain the $10, which ostensibly has to be 
 paid to the pawnbroker. But there is a piece of remarkable stupidity in 
 the fact, that in the first letter the writer says that the silk has been re- 
 deemed, while afterwards it is said that he has sent to the pawnbroker's 
 for it. This swindle is at the time we write (March, 1873) quite new, 
 and, it is to be hoped, has not yet found many victims. 
 
 The Street Corner Swindlers drive their trade in the streets of 
 New York. Y"ou may see them standing on a box or a chair at the cor- 
 ners of the most frequented streets, talking and commending their wares 
 with much loquacity, putting up now one trifle, now another, but always 
 finding purchasers. The pickpockets, too, make some booty through these 
 means, and in fact are very often in league with them. Recently these 
 people have brought into vogue a new means for drawing money out of 
 peoples pocket as follows : — 
 
BWINDL1 EtS. 227 
 
 As soon as the swindler has taken his position on a box or chair, or a 
 heap of street sweepings, and has collected around him by a little intro- 
 ductory talk a sufficient circle of on-lookers to operate upon, he opens a 
 travolling-bag, which he carries along with him, and exhibits a dozen 
 -mall pasteboard boxes with gold edges. He then takes up one of these 
 little boxes, holds it out so that everybody may §ee it, opens it, puts a dol- 
 lar note inside, and shuts it up again. Then in another box he puts a ten 
 cent note, and so on, until in the last he has put a ten dollar note. Bui 
 this action is only apparent. The money disappears according to the 
 maxim : — " There is no witchcraft in dexterity." After he has arranged 
 the tw r elve boxes, out of each of which the corner of a note is peepiug, and 
 has observed to his hearers that there are now twelve dollars in the twelve 
 boxes, he offers to sell them, and for that purpose takes up two in his 
 hands. lie asks a dollar a piece for them. To show the bystanders that 
 he does not mean to swindle them, he opens one of the boxes and exhibits 
 d two dollar bill in it. He now puts these two boxes back into his bag 
 and takes out two more, which again he offers at one dollar. The by- 
 standers look at one another. They don't quite know what to think about 
 it, but at present they do not seem disposed to take the bait. After some 
 rousing talk a man out of the crowd buys the two boxes, and to the aston- 
 ishment of the people, takes three dollars out of one of them. This man, 
 however, be it noted, is an accomplice of the swindlers. Now the fellow 
 takes three boxes out and offers these, but no bid follows, for still the peo- 
 ple do not yet believe in the thing. Whereupon he begins to harangue 
 them more keenly, saying "this time is money," and he offers them four 
 boxes for a dollar. Still no bid. He becomes more urgent now and offers 
 five for a dollar. At last, thinking the chance a great deal better, the 
 peoples' inclination is aroused and one of them makes a purchase. A poor 
 working man is the victim. For the five little boxes, scarcely worth five 
 •cents, and a ten cent bill, he has paid a dollar. Directly the purchaser 
 receives his boxes, the swindler requests him to step on one side and open 
 them. He does so and of course the whole crowd, inquisitive to see what 
 he has won, follows him. The man now opens his five boxes one after 
 another, and w r hen he has opened the last, he sees that he has been swin- 
 dled. In a fury he turns round to call the swindler to account, but as 
 soon as he can drag himself through the ever increasing crowd, he learns 
 that the auctioneer of paper boxes — has disappeared. 
 
 This sort of toing is going on every day in the public streets, and under 
 the. very eyes of the police ! 
 
 The Pedling Swindle is a description of the art against w r hich people 
 "\v_ Te in the environs of New York cannot be sufficiently on their 
 guard — not only because these pedlers often offer very worthless things, 
 but also because they often come for some purpose quite different from 
 
228 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 their legitimate trade. Besides which we should never buy of pedlers 
 whom we do not know and the value of whose goods we cannot judge. 
 Usually the business proceeds in the following manner. 
 
 Generally the pedler chooses an hour of the day for calling upon the per- 
 son he means to victimize, when he knows that person is alone. He goes 
 in with proper discretion, offers his goods, sits down, begins a conversa- 
 tion, and perhaps plays with the children. After a time there is a ring 
 and another mau, who from his appearance would be taken for a " green- 
 horn," comes in, and tells a tale how he has lately arrived and intended to 
 have gone " Out West," but that since he has been in New York, he has 
 been robbed of his trunk, which contained all his money. Luckily, how- 
 ever, he has two gold watches, which he bought in Germany before he left 
 home and for which he paid 350 thalers. These he must now get rid of to 
 procure some money to travel with, and he asks the pedler to tell him 
 whether there was not somebody living in the neighborhood who would 
 make him an advance on the security of the watches. He then takes out 
 the watches and shows them. The pedler examines them very carefully, 
 and at last makes the stranger an offer to buy them from him. But what 
 would he take for them? The stranger again says that in Germany the 
 watches cost 350 thalers, but that as he was now in difficulties he would 
 sell them for $200. The pedler examines the watches again, then takes 
 the woman aside and says : " The watches are worth double the money. 
 They are fine workmanship and heavy gold. I should like to buy them 
 myself, and if you will not spoil my trade, I will give you thirty dollars." 
 The woman agrees ; and now the pedler goes to the stranger and asks him 
 to come to a house about a mile distant where he will pay him the money, 
 as he has not so much about him. The stranger answers that he has no 
 time for that, as he must be back in New York that evening and must 
 take the next train. He must therefore raise the money in New York.. 
 The woman now wakes up to the thought that she does not want to lose 
 the thirty dollars which the pedler promised her, and accordingly she her- 
 self offers to advance the money ; or if she does not do that the pedler him- 
 self proposes it to her, and in most cases, if she has it at her disposal, she 
 goes and gets it. She pays the stranger the money, and takes as security 
 the two watches, and the pedler's bundle of merchandize ; while the pedler 
 promises to return in an hour and to redeem both. Both now go away,, 
 the pedler and the stranger, the latter bitterly complaining that he has 
 been obliged to sell his watches so cheaply. But the pedler is not seen at 
 that house again ; and when on another day the woman opens the pack, 
 she finds in it a lot of worthless rags. She then goes to the nearest watch- 
 maker with her watches, and he tells her that they are not gold but Oroide, 
 that the works are bad and altogether they are scarcely worth ten dollars. 
 
 The following incident happened recently in the neighborhood of New 
 York. A man who is engaged in a factory in the place went home one 
 
SWINDI.KKS. 
 
 229 
 
 day about twelve o'clock, when a gentleman drove up in a buggy, got out, 
 WCDt into the house, and asked him if he was Mr. B. Having received 
 *in answer in the affirmative, the strauger remarked that he was the pro- 
 prietor of a large factory and that he was looking round for a foreman. 
 lie had heard in the place that Mr. B. was a well qualified and trust- 
 worthy man, and he had come to ask him whether he would take the 
 place. B., delighted at the prospect of having a higher income, consented. 
 "When the " owner of the factory" was about to leave, a pedler came up, 
 spoke to the two as they were standing in the door, and told them that he 
 was dealing in watches, but that he could not sell anything in that place. 
 Upon that he opened his box and took out what seemed to be two gold 
 watches, remarking that in the custom house at New York he had quite a 
 large number of watches lying, and that he must sell something in order 
 to get money to pay the duties upon them. The " owner of the factory" 
 offered a hundred dollars for the two watches if the pedler would accom- 
 pany him to his factory. This, however, the latter would not do, but he 
 asked B. whether he would not advance him $50 on the two watches until 
 he could go to New York and return and redeem them. B., having just 
 heard that his new principal would pay $100 for them, agreed, paid the 
 pedler the fifty dollars and received the watches as security ; upon which 
 both pedler and "principal" left, the former going off in one direction, the 
 latter driving away in that quite opposite. The pedler did not make his 
 appearance again, and when B. made enquiries in the place where the 
 " proprietor of the factory" said he lived, he found nobody there of that 
 name. The watches were worth eight dollars. > 
 
 But pedlers do the swindle business in many w T ays. One very much 
 favored by them, is by a cleaning for silver and gold goods, which they 
 offer to housekeepers to clean their plate. They take a small piece of cop- 
 per and rub it with their powder ; in less than a minute the copper shines 
 like polished silver and thereby they show that the powder must be the 
 very best that ever existed for cleaning silver. Then usually the house- 
 keeper lets the pedler polish her silver spoons, and he having done that, 
 advises her to let them remain wrapped up for two or three days that the 
 plating may get well established. The two or three days having passed, 
 and the pedler got well away, the housekeeper probably wants to use her 
 spoons again. She opens the box where they are kept and finds that, 
 instead of being bright and polished, they are quite black. 
 
 There are often to be seen upon the streets of New York people with 
 this plate powder, silvering a little piece of copper and swindling the by- 
 standers into buying their wares. But quicksilver, which, as is well 
 known, is employed in the separation of ores, injures the noble metals by 
 corroding them and destroying their polish, so that housekeepers ought to 
 be cautious not to let themselves be swindled into buying plate powder that 
 is made of it. 
 
iur 
 
 230 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 The Loan Swindle is chiefly practised among people who undertake 
 to supply small sums of money and lor this object such advertisements as 
 the following are often to be found in the newspapers : — 
 
 ONEY TO LOAN ! — CLERKS, MECHANICS, 
 and all parties, male or female, can be accommo- 
 dated with loans, not exceeding $100, on their note and 
 reliable reference or security. Re-payments weekly or 
 monthly. Communications confidential. Address N. 
 N., News Office, Box 00. 
 
 Now there are always many people who are in want of money and to- 
 whom such an offer comes very conveniently. If anyone applies to the 
 address given in the advertisement, he does not receive a loan, indeed, but 
 a circular with a form attached in which the questions upon the following 
 subjects have to be answered : — Name of applicant — age — married or sin- 
 gle — number of children — residence — occupation — whether now in busi- 
 ness — name of principal — address — description of the property upon which 
 the loan is applied for — whether the property stands in the name of the 
 applicant — amount of loan asked for — when required, and for how long— 
 whether the re-payments are to be made by weekly or by monthly instal- 
 ments, &c, &c. Finally, having filled up the circular, the applicant is 
 requested to return it and to enclose $1. Herein hVs the essence of the 
 whole thing. If the advertiser receives a dollar from everybody who 
 applies to him, he manages to make out a very good business without dis- 
 turbing the equanimity of life with hard work. 
 
 Larger sums are also sometimes offered in advertisements, especially 
 upon real estate in the South, in which case usually a form like that 
 described above is sent to be filled up, and a payment in advance is like- 
 wise demanded ; but not a dollar only, for it is more often ten, fifteen, and 
 twenty dollars. But solid business men in this do not require payments in 
 advance ; and wherever they are required it is tolerably trustworthy evi- 
 dence that the business will not be carried through nor the money ad- 
 vanced. 
 
 
 People, who, having no compunction about obtaining good profits by 
 dishonest means, are often drawn into a trap by means of the Pawn Swin- 
 dle. This is practised, not in New York only, but in almost all of our 
 large cities. The swindler in this case writes to any people whose ad- 
 dresses he can procure, and tells them that it is now a long time that he 
 has had the valuable gold watch, or the gold ring, as the case may be, in 
 his possession for the loan of ten, fifteen or twenty dollars, which he 
 advanced upon them. The time for which the loan was made has long 
 expired, and the pledges will be sold now within two or three weeks if 
 they are not redeemed. The person addressed is further required to remit 
 
SWINDLERS. 231 
 
 the interest amounting to so much, and upon that the watch, &c, will be 
 forwarded. The receiver of the letter knows perfectly well that he has 
 not got anything in pawn, and the writer of the letter knows it too. Per- 
 haps the former may simply consider it a mistake, but if he is dishonest 
 he remits the trilling amount necessary to appropriate to himself the valu- 
 able watch that does not belong to him, and thus gets caught by his own 
 roguery. Of course the watch never comes to hand. 
 
 The Note Swindle seems to be worked by the same rascals who 
 engage in the saw-dust swindle and operations of that kind, for a letter 
 which we subjoin in this connection is subscribed by the most notorious 
 linn of Th. D. Thorpe, 737 Broadway, which we have already had occa- 
 sion to notice. In this swindle the proposition is made to the person 
 addressed to assist the writer of the letter to cheat his creditors. The let- 
 ter itself is lithographed to resemble hand-writing, and is circulated by 
 thousands all over the country, but especially in the Southern, South- 
 western and "Western States. To the letter there is a note attached, 
 wherein a firm in New Orleans promises to pay to Thos. D. Thorp, three 
 months after date, the sum of $9 Go, and the letter runs as follows : — 
 
 " I should like to sell to you the accompanying note which, when I was 
 in the leather business, I received in payment for goods sold. About two 
 months ago I failed in business and lost all I had. In ten days now I 
 have to attend a meeting of my creditors and be examined. If it comes 
 out that I have this note I shall have to give it up to my creditors. 
 Whether or not they know anything about this note I do not know ; but if 
 I should be asked about it I want to be able to swear that I have sold it 
 to a person out West. My lawyer says that I cannot be compelled to give 
 up the name of the buyer, or the amount I receive for it ; but I may be 
 asked what I have done with the money. Now what I want is this. You 
 keep the note till within about a week of its coming due and then give it 
 to some bank to collect. The bank will not charge more than $j for it. 
 Then when the money is received, you send me $800 and keep the remain- 
 ing Si 60 for yourself. But do not speak of this matter to anybody, for 
 before the note is paid I should not wish anybody to know in whose hands 
 it is. A friend mentioned you to me, and what he said of you convinced 
 me that you are to be depended on. I cannot give the note to anybody 
 who lives in this State, because if I did I should be afraid lest my creditors 
 should come to know of it and move for an attachment. But if the note 
 be in a different State, my lawyer advises me that nothing of that sort can 
 happen. 
 
 In the hope that you will be willing to entertain this I am &c, &c." 
 
 Then follows the subjoined postscript : — 
 
 " Send me only $5. I can spend that and shall then be able to swear 
 
232 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 that I have spent all the money which I received for the note. I enclose 
 herewith a receipt for the $5." 
 
 v As anyone can see, this $5 is the point of the swindle, for the note is 
 false and neither the drawer nor the indorser, as the names appear on the 
 note, have any existence. If anybody determines to assist the swindler in 
 the pretended design of cheating his creditors, and sends on the $5, we 
 have only another instance of a man being caught in the trap by his own 
 spirit of rascality. 
 
 We come now to the Check Swindle, an operation practically by New 
 York swindlers, but more especially in small places where there is a bank. 
 It furnishes a new evidence of the inexhaustible inventive resources of the 
 professional swindler. The plan is as simple as possible, and many have 
 been tripped up by it when unintentionally helping the swindler to the 
 attainment of his object. As we said just now it is only carried on in 
 small places. A well-dressed man arrives at some country town and gives 
 out that he is travelling for some well-known firm in New York. He 
 resides at a hotel, and soon makes the acquaintance of the principal inhab- 
 itants of the place. After some days, having insinuated himself well into 
 their favor — not a very difficult matter in small towns — he speaks to some 
 of them of his desire to cash a cheque of his house drawn upon a New 
 York Bank, and which had been given to him in case he should be in 
 want of money. He asks them further, as he is not known to the officers 
 of the bank, whether they will give him an introduction there. The per- 
 son to whom the request is made, never doubting that the stranger is really 
 the representative of an important house, does this at once. He goes with 
 him to the bank, introduces him to the president or to the cashier as Mr. 
 so and so,. travelling for the well-known firm of Messrs. so and so in New 
 York, and then the cheque which he presents for collection is willingly 
 taken upon which to enable him to obtain a moderate advance. The 
 cheque now goes to New York and it is returned from the bank to which 
 it is sent, either because it is a forgery or because the apparent drawer of 
 the cheque has no funds nor any account in the bank. The end of the 
 story is that the country bank which took the cheque from the swindler 
 has to bear the loss ; a loss which has beeu brought about because a promi- 
 nent and well-known resident in the place, of good reputation, introduced 
 the swindler to the bank as representative of a New York house. • 
 
 The following incident, which is of quite recent occurrence, shows again 
 how easy it is for anybody by the identification of another, whom he does 
 not very well know, at a money office, may, against his will, lend himself 
 to an act of unjust assistance and also bring loss upon a third person. As 
 a very respectable business man, well known here, whom we will call Mr. 
 Fresh, was engaged at the paying teller's window of a bank in the city, a 
 man came in who presented a foreign bill of exchange which was made 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 payable at this bank to the name of the person who had the bill in his pos- 
 session, and who had indorsed it for payment. 
 
 The paying teller, who did not know the presentor, refused the payment 
 on that ground, remarkiug that he would have to be identified. WheD 
 Mr. Fresh heard this, haying known the presentor for some years both per- 
 sonally and by name, immediately identified him as Mr. so and so, and 
 upon that the amount of the bill was paid over to him without further trou- 
 ble. Afterwards it came out that the person who presented the bill had 
 not rightly received it. He had the same name as the man to whom it 
 had been made payable ; — but by some mistake the bill of exchange had 
 come into the wrong hands and the person who got possession of it had 
 dishonorably availed himself of tae mistake to collect the money and had 
 then gone off with it. This case shows beyond a doubt that we ought to 
 be very careful even in the identification of people. 
 
 The Diploma Swindle affects first only the medical portion of the 
 public, but through that it extends to everybody ; since people who not 
 having studied medicine, but being desirous of playing the part of physi- 
 cians, are hereby provided with physicians diplomas, which they hang up 
 in their rooms and thereby cheat people who come to them for assistance 
 and advice, and whose health and lives are thus brought into danger. But 
 when such a swindle as this can go on, as it does, unpunished, there need 
 be no cause for wonder that in this country there are so manv people goin^ 
 about pretending to be physicians, but who in reality know so little of 
 medicine, that anyone would be doing a gross injustice to a respectable 
 animal if he were to place the life of his dog or of his cat in their keeping. 
 
 The University of Pennsylvania is acknowledged to be one of the most 
 important medical schools in the United Ststes, and a professor of this in- 
 stitution undertakes to furnish for money a physician's diploma of the Uni- 
 versity to persons who have not studied medicine. The man calls himself 
 Dr. A. P. Bissell. He puts some masonic emblems against his name to 
 spread the idea that he is a Free Mason, and dates his letters " College 
 Building, 514 Pine Street, Philadelphia. Here is a copy of one of his 
 letter* ; — 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 In case you should know anyone who would like to have a diploma of 
 the University of Pennsylvania, the oldest college in the United States, I 
 can refer you to some one who has such for disposal and who has commis- 
 sioned me to find him a purchaser. The price is 8350. His name can be 
 erased and another inserted without the alteration being detected. This 
 matter is of course confidential ; the owner wants money badly and there 
 is nothing left for him but to sell his diploma. 
 
234 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 I know a number of persons who have done the same thing. If you 
 hear of anybody who wants a diploma, let me know of it and I can procure 
 it for him. I repeat, I address these lines to you in confidence, and I 
 expect that both as a physician and a mason you will treat them with the 
 utmost secrecy." 
 
 During the summer time this Dr. Bissell travels about to sell his diplo- 
 mas to people who have not studied, but who give themselves out as gradu- 
 ated physicians, and who endanger thereby the lives and health of their 
 fellowmen. The occupation of such men cannot be, and is not, unknown 
 to the Pennsylvania University, since a very respectable Medical Journal, 
 " The Bistoury" has already spoken of it. "Why then does not the Uni- 
 versity turn such an unworthy member from its ranks ? And if the fellow 
 really does belong to any lodge of Free Masons, why is he not ignomini- 
 ously turned out of that too ? 
 
 The Alaska Diamond Swindle has now been going on about two 
 years ; and as many as have been found frivolous enough to deck them- 
 selves out with false jewelry, have been made to bleed somewhat freely for 
 their vanity. These Alaska diamonds are not jewels at all, but a value- 
 less crystal, and rings made with them are not worth a hundredth part of 
 their cost. Very often when such a ring is ordered from out of town, the 
 seller asks for a ring to be sent on, from which, as he says, he may judge 
 of the size. Such remittance, if the ring be genuine and valuable, is, how- 
 ever, a little dangerous. 
 
 The Lightning Eod Swindle has already cost many householders and 
 especially farmers large sums of money ; New Jersey and the New Eng- 
 land States being more particularly favored by swindlers in this line. A 
 man of good deportment drives up to a recently finished house, or to one 
 in course of construction, salutes the proprietor, and enters into a conver- 
 sation with him about the usefulness and the necessity of lightning conduc- 
 tors. In confirmation of his assertions he submits a number of clippings 
 from the newspapers, in which are accounts of houses being struck by 
 lightning and burnt down because they had no lightning conductors. If 
 any such instances took place in the neighborhood, he uses these as the 
 more striking testimony in favor of his argument. In this way he induces 
 the proprietor of the house to order a lightning conductor of him, and there 
 is certainly nothing to say against it, for protection against the danger of 
 fire by lightning is very desirable, and should never be neglected, especi- 
 ally in the country, and in the case of houses which stand by themselves. 
 The proprietor of the house now lets the agent make an estimate of the 
 cost of fitting the house with couductors, and as the amount is not high, 
 perhaps sixty or seventy dollars, the bargain is closed. Before the agent 
 
BWHTDLEBS. 235 
 
 goes away he looks over the building once more, and remarks that a piece 
 must be added here and a piece there, without intimating that the price 
 will thereby be materially increased ; if, however, the owner of the place 
 be a cautious man, and he enquires about the price in consequence of these 
 alterations, he will be told that the additional cost will be nothing in pro- 
 portion to the increased security. 
 
 The agent leaves. In the course of a day or two workmen come, bring- 
 ing with them the lightning conductors and everything necessary to fit 
 them to the building. A week later comes the account ; and great is the 
 astonishment of the proprietor of the house at the amount, which, instead 
 of being sixty or seventy dollars, is double or even treble that amount. 
 He goes personally to the office of the company and there demands an 
 explanation. The answer is : that the account is all right — all that is 
 stated has been done and the account must be paid. He then makes 
 known his arrangement with the agent, to which he is told that that placed 
 no restriction against alterations in the order. The man who sees himself 
 cheated in this way now grows jurious, perhaps, and swears hard and fast 
 that he will not pay the money either now or ever ; upon which he is very 
 quietly told that he will be proceeded against for the amount and then he 
 must pay the law costs as well. If he allows an action to be commenced, 
 the agent swears to the correctness of every item in the account, and upon 
 that a judgment is given against him. Thus he has to pay the amount 
 and the costs of court, and of the lawyers besides, which in this country 
 are not a trifle. Cases like this are numerous and prove that in closing a 
 contract one cannot act with too much precision. 
 
 The Flower and Seed Swindle broke out first in the spring of 1872, 
 when a store, alleged to be a branch of the well-known flower business of 
 Lafayette & Co., of Paris, was opened on Broadway. The size and per- 
 fection of the fruit which was set out in the window very soon attracted 
 the attention of amateurs and connoisseurs. Wonders could be procured 
 there, such as hitherto gardners and lovers of flowers had not dreamed of. 
 For example strawberry plants were sold at §10 ; roots of blue moss roses 
 at $5 ; asparagus seed which, instead of requiring three years to arrive at 
 perfection, would produce giant asparagus in three months ; peach trees 
 which would produce peaches without stones and twenty inches in circum- 
 ference ; and so on. But what a swindle it was ! The haute volee, who, 
 like everything that is out of the common way, and who have plenty of 
 money, literally besieged the shop, and the proprietor of it made such a 
 harvest as certainly was never reaped by those who bought the giant as- 
 paragus seed, or the strawberry plants, or the trees that bore giant peaches 
 without stones. This went on very well until three well-known florists 
 and seedsmen, Messrs. B. K. Bliss, P. T. Quinn, and J. Hoops, visited the 
 shop and took a look around as connoisseurs. They found that the giant 
 
236 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 pears which appeared in the window were either made of wax or they had 
 been raised in a hot-house ; the peach trees which bore the peaches without 
 stones they found to be dead ; the blue moss roses were not to be seen in 
 blossom, " because they had not yet become acclimatized," and the roots 
 of a new and most gorgeous flower, that were being sold at twenty dollars 
 a piece, they discovered to be the roots of a species of gentian which grows 
 in our woods. This will suffice. Whoever wants to buy seeds should go 
 to one or other of the responsible florists or seedsmen, of whom there are 
 plenty everywhere in New York. 
 
 In connection with this flower and seed swindle we will here mention 
 the Grafting Swindle. Since the spring of 1872 people have gone 
 about the country undertaking to graft wild trees so that they should bear 
 fruit. They make for every tree a preliminary charge of 25 cents, and 
 they require a second similar sum of 25 cents when the graft has taken. 
 But they have never been known to call again for the second 25 cents. 
 Many farmers have let these people graft their trees, but as yet no satis- 
 factory result has ever been obtained. In a few cases the graft has lived 
 a short time, but almost always it has dried up as quickly as if it were not 
 attached to a tree at all. The production of fruit is possible only when 
 the stock and graft are of the same kind, as apples and fruits of that 
 description, stone fruits, &c, &c. No fruit can be got where the stock is 
 grafted with a scion of some different species. So that farmers who allow 
 themselves to be inveigled into having anything to do with grafting of that 
 kind lose not only their money, but their time and their labor. 
 
 Spectacle Swindlers are the cause of very great mischief. They not 
 only get out of peoples pockets good money for bad spectacles, but they 
 injure the eyes of thousands of people with bad glasses. The spectacle 
 swindle is carried on by people who travel about, usually representing 
 themselves to be the agents either of the Elmira Eye and Ear Institute, or 
 of a certain Dr. Wallace, an oculist of 310 Grand Street, New York. The 
 latter flood the country with circulars of Dr. Wallace. But there is no 
 oculist of that name, and in the house where he is alleged to reside they 
 do not know of any such person. The people who do live there, however, 
 are often deluged with enquiries after Dr. Wallace ; and only quite recently 
 two ladies came all the way from Poughkeepsie and were very much 
 astonished to find that the so-called doctor was not there. A spectacle 
 vender, who had declared himself to be an agent of Dr. Wallace, had sold 
 one of the ladies a pair of spectacles for sixteen dollars, which he had 
 declared to be crystals set in gold. The crystals had, however, turned out 
 to be common window glass ; and the setting, brass. Many years ago a 
 Dr. Wallace did live in New York, and he was esteemed and had a good 
 
8WINDLER8. 237 
 
 repute as fin oculist. He has long been dead, but these swindlers are still 
 trading upon his name. 
 
 It is the Bame with the spectacle vendors who claim to oe agents of the 
 i Eye and Ear Institute. This institute has no travelling agents. 
 The fellows who announce themselves as such only impose upon the pub- 
 !i.- had and dangerous wares for money ; for instead of improving the eyes, 
 bad and unsuitable spectacles only ruin them. No one who sets any value 
 upon his sight should use or purchase spectacles without first taking the 
 advice of a reputable oculist. We do not say an optician. For it is only 
 by a proper examination of the eyes that it can be determined what kind 
 of spectacles would suit them, and what sort are necessary. The oculist 
 will then always recommend an optician, where, in accordance with the 
 directions of the physician, there will be an assurance of procuring such 
 spectacles as are requisite. 
 
 In the Selling-off Swindle the swindler announces a sellin^-ofF of his 
 business and stock in trade in consequence of a failure, not by an actual 
 sale of the goods, but by a raffle. For this purpose tickets are offered at 
 50 cents, under the condition that whoever should win anything by it in 
 the warehouse, no matter what it is, shall pay two dollars more ; the objects 
 to be raffled consisting of gold and silver goods, musical boxes, revolvers, 
 &c, &c. Either the business is confined to the city where the returns 
 from the tickets are very considerable, for there are thousands of thought- 
 less, foolish people abont ; or the advertising system is had recourse to and 
 then it is announced that the ticket of a person addressed has won this or 
 that valuable article, which will be forwarded as soon as the two dollars 
 are remitted. If anybody sends the two dollars, he must add them to the 
 previous loss of fifty cents and be content. 
 
 The Butter Swindle is chiefly practised among housekeepers who 
 desire to study economy. The Patent Butter Association and the Star 
 Butter Co., as well as a concern in Chicago, offer a butter powder with 
 which they alledge that a pound of good butter can be made from one pint 
 of milk. The powder looks like cooking soda, mixed with salt, and it 
 tastes like it, too. Instructions are given with the powder, in which we 
 are told that a pound of butter is to be put into a butter tub with one pint 
 of milk, then some of the powder is to be added and the mixture churned 
 together until the whole has been converted, when it will be found that 
 there are two pounds and a half of fine flavored butter. But the actual 
 result is an useless cheesy mass, which weighs no more than w r hat was put 
 in. The milk with the butter and cheesy stuff contains more than 75 per 
 cent, of water ; now as a pint of milk weighs a pound, it stands to reason 
 that a pint of milk and a pound of butter cannot yield two and a half 
 pounds of butter ; besides which the product is not butter, as we have said, 
 
238 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 but a worthless cheesy mass, which no man with a grain of common sense 
 could for one moment mistake for butter. 
 
 The Segar Swindle flourishes far around New York, and is conducted 
 chiefly by young people who give themselves out as travellers in the trade ; 
 it is also followed by men who dress themselves up as sailors. In both 
 instances, however, the swindlers affirm that the segars are smuggled and 
 that consequently they are in a position to sell them for half their value. 
 The cigars offered by these men are always of the commonest kind, 
 ii stinkadores," but to which the scent of good and genuine segars has been 
 given by means of essences, &c. They are then packed in boxes contain- 
 ing four bundles, each of which contains twenty-five segars. These, when 
 fresh, are pressed tightly together and bound up in imitation of good 
 segars, with a silk band to hold them together ; but the middle segar is 
 taken out,, and a good one put in its place. And in order that this one 
 may be more easily taken out, one is generally chosen a little smaller than 
 the rest. If anyone offers to buy, he of course first wants to try the things. 
 The vendor holds out a bundle for him to take a segar, at the same time 
 pushing out the middle one, an act which is not remarked by the pur- 
 chaser. He draws it out, lights it, finds it a capital segar, and buys. But 
 when, later on, he smokes the others, he finds out, what is as plain as 
 noonday, that he has been swindled, and that he has paid a really high 
 price for very bad segars. 
 
 A great deal of roguery is practised with Gold Pens, the swindlers in 
 this branch offering them in silver holders at extraordinarily low prices. 
 Now a genuine gold pen, even if it has been used for many years and not 
 wiped, will not rust nor get brittle. But these cheap pens are made either 
 of steel or copper, lightly electro-plated with gold. The ink, therefore, 
 corrodes and rusts them, and in a short time they are useless ; — while the 
 silver holder loses its light silver coating and turns black. If anybody 
 wants a good gold pen he should buy it at one of the houses which have a 
 reputation in the business ; he will then have a pen which may be used 
 every day for many years, and which can always be taken up with 
 pleasure. 
 
 The Curling Comb Swindle which flourished about two years ago was 
 the means of defrauding, out of sums that were by no means small, too, 
 thousands of people who were vain enought to want to wear curls. The 
 vast extension of this swindle was rendered possible only because many 
 respectable papers, such as Harper's Weekly, the Rural New Yorker, the 
 Weekly Tribune, and others, admitted to their columns the advertisements 
 of a so-called Electro Magnetic Curling Comb Co. in Garrettsville, Ohio. 
 This company undertook for $1.25 to furnish a comb which would curl the 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 straightest hair. This comb is nothing more than a common pocket comb, 
 made of horn, about three inches long, and worth about five cents ; — but 
 on one Bide of which is a piece of copper and on the other a piece of zinc. 
 But to make it ready for use this comb was to have a quantity of thin cop- 
 per wrire twisted through and round it about eighty times, the purchaser 
 providing the wire and himself doing the twisting. If anybody bought the 
 I'omb, he soon found it was useless for any special purpose. But most of 
 the people who sent their money never got anything for it ; and if they 
 9ted, they received in reply an answer to the effect that the letter with 
 the money had not been received, and that they had better send another 
 remit lance in a registered letter. And if the money was sent again in a 
 registered letter, it would be said that through some deficiency in the stock 
 the order could not be tilled then, but that it would be attended to in the 
 next month. The little town of Garrettsville, in Ohio, from which the 
 Curling Comb Co. operates, is as notorious for its swindlers as the little 
 town of Parkman, in Ohio. There are two swindlers residing there who 
 are ever busy beguiling the credulous public in various ways, now with 
 one idea, now with another. Offers coming from either of these places 
 should always be received with considerable caution. The people in Gar- 
 rettsville have besides found a competition in the little town of Sherks- 
 town, in Canada, in the curling comb line. But it works cheaper. It 
 gives one comb for 50 cents, and two for 75 cents. 
 
 The Locket Swindle is peculiar. It is practised not only in New 
 York, but in small towns. A man in a handsome wagon makes his appear- 
 ance in a small town or village. He stops in the main street, collects a 
 crowd round him, and then in a loud voice announces that he is ready to 
 sell gold lockets for ten cents. Similar offers are not now uncommon, for 
 on Broadway, in New York, almost any day men can be seen offering for 
 sale jewelry of the same description at that price. But as everybody 
 knows, or ought to know, these things are brass with the lightest possible 
 coating of gold put on by the electro-plate process. The locket which the 
 man in the wagon holds out, however, is good gold, as the jeweller in the 
 place, when called upon, testifies. And more. The man at the same 
 time, when he has sold a gold locket for ten cents, offers to repurchase it 
 at a higher price! "Now r then," say the bystanders to themselves, " no 
 matter whether he buys back the locket for a higher price or not ! Ten 
 cents is not much to lose over a gold locket." The wonderful offers made 
 by the man have probably gathered together a crowd of a couple of hun- 
 dred people, all of whom think him mad, and having come to the conclu- 
 sion just stated, they come up one after another to buy. "When the swin- 
 dler has sold perhaps twenty or thirty, he stops the sale, and buys the 
 whole lot back again for a dollar a piece, thus losing in good cash as much 
 as ?27 on the transaction. This is a singular speculation. But now he 
 
240 THE DARK SIDE OF NEAV YORK LIFE. 
 
 proclaims that he has some much finer lockets which he will sell for three 
 dollars, and buy back again for live dollars. In the meantime the crowd 
 around him has been getting larger and larger, and in a short time he has 
 gold fifty. Many people even think that they make a good speculation by 
 buying two or three of the lockets. Now, however, the swindler is so far 
 satisfied with the sale that he does not think he sees around him any more 
 purchasers ; so he good humoredly takes his horses reins in his hands, 
 proclaims that he will be back in two days to buy back the things, and 
 drives off with $150 of good money in his pocket. The lockets which he 
 has sold for $3 are not gold, like the first, but oroide, and perhaps not 
 worth twenty cents. Twice, however, these swindlers have come to grief. 
 Gn the first occasion one of them was most unmercifully beaten, and on 
 the second, another of them was tarred and feathered. 
 
 The Oil Swindle is the more pernicious and dangerous, on account 
 not so much of the plunder it abstracts from peoples pockets, as the danger 
 it brings to their persons and lives by imposing upon them a bad and dan- 
 gerous burning fluid. During the past year there have been a number of 
 burning fluids introduced to the public under different names, such as 
 "Sun Light Oil," French Burning Oil," "Eureka Oil," " Chemical Fluid 
 Gaslight," " Ocean Oil," " German Excelsior Oil," &c, the chief ingre- 
 dient of which is benzine, and which is highly inflammable and dangerous. 
 These oils inflame at a very low temperature, and they explode as soon as 
 the gas which they give off comes in contact with the common air. That 
 the swindlers are never impeded in the attainment of their cheating busi- 
 ness is evident. One of them, a man named Ells, in Charlotte, Michigan, 
 publishes a certificate over the signature of Dr. J. R. Hayes, formerly of 
 the firm of W. K. Chilton, to make it appear as though it emanated from 
 the well-known Boston assayer A. A. Hayes, and the celebrated chemist 
 J. R. Chilton. This man Ells also says that his oil is prepared at the 
 renowned laboratory of Dr. V. Mott, and in connection with that he pub- 
 lishes a certificate from a Dr. B. J. Mott, according to which the right to 
 sell the oil has been transferred to Ells. But nobody should be deceived 
 by such representations or pretended recommendations into burning a dan- 
 gerous oil because it is said to be cheaper. Kerosene is a cheap enough 
 burning fluid, and whoever is in any degree careful will take care not to 
 have an adulterated oil nor one that is readily explosive. 
 
 The Perfumery Swindle is carried on in many of the principal streets 
 by swindlers who for the purpose hire a store for two or three months. 
 The equipments of the store are not very extensive. A counter about five 
 feet high running across with perhaps twenty packages lying upon it, each 
 of which contains six bottles of a wretched perfume, are all the furniture. 
 On an elevation behind this counter is a well-dressed man — all these swin- 
 
SWINDLERS. 241 
 
 dlcr8 are well dressed — and in the front part of the room are four or five 
 of his associates who act as decoy-birds. The doors are thrown wide 
 open, as an invitation and attraction to the passers-by, and then this man 
 begins in a loud voice an harangue in much the following strain : — 
 
 "Gentlemen, 1 am standing here to earn some money, but I also want 
 to give you an opportunity to win some. Here are twenty packets, each 
 of which contains six bottles of the choicest perfume, which I offer to sell 
 you. In one of them you will find fifteen dollars. I guarantee, that if 
 one of you does not find that sum in one of the packet*, I will not only 
 refund to you all the money you will have paid me, but I will forfeit 
 twenty dollars. I will not offend against the lottery laws, but I give you 
 a chance, for I will sell these packets of perfumery at two dollars ; a price 
 which the beautiful perfumery alone is worth over and over again. I 
 shall earn something by the business, but when I shall have sold all the 
 packets I shall not have made more than five dollars. Now then, gentle- 
 men, come and buy, one of you must have the packet containing the fifteen 
 dollars. " 
 
 In the meantime the loud talking has drawn together a number of peo- 
 ple, and the accomplices of the auctioneer have mixed up in the crowd. 
 Now associate No. 1 who plays the first part goes up, buys a packet, and 
 chooses the one containing the fifteen dollars, which, unobserved by the 
 bystanders, has been marked, whereupon by means of some article of dress 
 which he carries he is able to replace it in an instant by a packet that has 
 no money in it. He now opens this and finds of course no money in it. 
 Then if the bystanders still show no desire to purchase, a second accom- 
 plice, and a third, and perhaps a fourth walks up and buys ; and none of 
 them find the money in their packets. Now, as with the sale of each 
 packet the chances improve, the public begin to feel a wish to purchase, 
 and as a rule the packets go off faster and faster. Presently so many are 
 sold that only two are left, the auctioneer then says : " Now, gentlemen, 
 you see that there are only two packets left, and you know that the fifteen 
 dollars must be in one or other of them. Under these circumstances I 
 must raise the price of each packet to four dollars." 
 
 Accomplice No. 1 now walks up again and says : — " I'll try another 
 chance," and as he is about to take up a packet, the auctioneer puts his 
 hand on it and says : — " Stop, I can't sell you this packet except on the 
 condition that you do not open it until 1 have sold the last ; for if you find 
 the money in your packet the last would remain on my hands and that 
 would be a loss to me." 
 
 Accomplice No. 1 takes the packet on that condition, and goes to one of 
 the bystanders whom he thiuks likely to buy. He takes him on one side 
 and secretly opens the packet far enough to let him see inside. But it does 
 not contain the money, and he puts it back, apparently very angry, into 
 his pocket. 
 
 16 
 
242 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 " Now," thiuks the man who has seen it, " the money must be in the 
 last packet, since it was not in the other and I will take it." But at the 
 same time the salesman calls out " this packet I cannot give for less than 
 six dollars." The buyer pays the money, opens the packet, and finds to 
 his intense disappointment that the fifteen dollars are not in it. At the 
 same time accomplice No. 1 takes out the packet with the money in it, 
 which he has had with him all the time, opens it iully, and cries out with 
 satisfaction as he sees the fifteen dollars on the top, " I've got it in ray 
 packet. He then invites the people who have remained in the place to go 
 and drink with him ; and thus ends one act of a play, to be followed pre- 
 sently by another of exactly the same kind. 
 
 Some idea of the gains of these swindlers may be had from the fact that 
 the owners of the houses who give up their places to such dishonorable 
 uses, make the tenants pay double and treble the ordinary rents ; while the 
 swindlers have not only to take the rooms for one or two months, but they 
 must also pay the rent in advance, although they only occupy the place for 
 about a week. For to make the business effectual and profitable frequent 
 change is necessary. 
 
 The rascals who first followed this business established themselves in 
 Fulton Street and the neighborhood ; but now they are to be found in the 
 streets of the upper part of the city. 
 
 The Soap Swindle goes on usually in the agricultural districts and 
 there flourishes. It is chiefly directed to the plundering of farmers sons 
 and farm laborers, and is carried on to such an extent that sometimes six 
 or eight of these swindlers are to be met with in one locality. Nay, once 
 during last year there were not less than twelve met with in two days in 
 the farming lands of Amenia, so that the president of the village had at 
 last to get rid of them with the aid of the police. Unfortunately, though 
 this was uot done before they had made a very good harvest. 
 
 These swindlers have a box with them containing a number of packets, 
 in each of which there is a cake of scented soap. They sell these packets 
 for fifty cents. Upon each cake of soap is a number, and on the inside of 
 the lid of the box is a row of numbers likewise, under each of which there 
 is said to be a sum of money: — 50 cents, $1, $3, $5, and so on. A by- 
 stander buys a cake of soap. He takes the number that is on it, and 
 refers to the same number in the lid of the box, hoping to find some money 
 there. But there is none, and so he loses ; and that is generally the case. 
 Of course now and ihen someone has to win to act as a decoy to others, 
 and that is duly arranged. But the people who win are accomplices of the 
 chief* actor, with whom the spoil is divided. 
 
 The Rkvolver Swindle, so far as we know, is carried on by only one 
 firm, that of Nelson & Co., in Harlem, Mo., who promise by means of 
 
SWINDLERS. 21) 
 
 advertisements to send by post a four-barrelled revolver with a box of 
 cartridges for a remittance of $1.50. But the cheapest four-barrelled 
 revolvers are not to be had for less than $3, and cartridges cannot be sent 
 through the post. 
 
 The WmsKEy Swindle is practised in Kentucky by a firm called the 
 Kentucky Whiskey Co. ; but it is quite at home in New York. In then- 
 circulars the company say that they have fallen into difficulties in conse- 
 quence of legal proceedings which obstructs the sale of certain large proper- 
 ties that they hold in Kentucky, and that on that account they are obliged 
 to sell at half-price the whole of their stock of very excellent whiskey. 
 They add that a dozen bottles to be paid for on delivery will be sent ; but 
 that for larger orders the amount of the order must be sent in advance. 
 Those persons who send large orders, and with them the money, receive 
 nothing ; whilst they who order only a dozen bottles to try it, and pay on 
 delivery, find that the bottles are filled with a mixture of rye whiskey and 
 water, which is neither fit to drink nor for anything else. 
 
 The Tea Swindle is very similar to the last, and is followed by a so- 
 called " American Tea, Coffee, and Spice Company" in New York and an 
 " Empire Tea Company" in Chicago. Both offer to sell goods at about 
 one-half or two-thirds the real market price, and will leave a box of sam- 
 ples for $10, if the amount is either paid beforehand or C. O. D. And 
 further they allow a commission on large orders which may be made in 
 consequence of experience from the samples, and will consent that the 
 payments for all goods so purchased may be made every two months. All 
 this seems very plausible. But the cheat lies around the ten dollars for 
 the samples. Whoever should send the money would not be very likely 
 to receive anything ; and if they should elect to pay C. O. D. would cer- 
 tainly find nothing in the box which he could convert into money. 
 
 Tiie Rhubarb Wine Plant Swindle has also taken money out of the 
 pockets of the farmers. At one time it was worked very vigorously, and 
 lately it has been revived again. This swindle has cost the farmers who 
 believed in the reality of such a plant, many hundred thousands of dollars 
 already, and they cannot therefore be too earnestly warned against it. 
 
 The ExrRESS Company Swindle is this. A person who pretends to 
 be the agent of some express company which has no existence writes to 
 some one in another place and tells him that there is a parcel or a box 
 come for him, upon which the charges amount to so much ; and that it 
 shall be sent on to him immediately upon the receipt of that amount. 
 Perhaps guessing that some friend may have sent him something, and 
 anxious to know what it is, he remits the charges specified and is cheated ; 
 
244 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 for he has to wait a very long time for the looked for parcel. Once this- 
 swindle was carried on for a long time by a person calling himself Z. W. 
 Nulock, and who described himself further as the agent of the New York 
 Central Express Company. But there is no such express company ia 
 New York. 
 
 But in another way this swindle can be practised on the spot. It ia not 
 long since the following case occurred. A man brought to a house in the 
 upper part of the town a,large envelope, which was sealed up like the 
 money envelopes of the express companies. It was addressed to the pro- 
 prietor of the house and bore the words : — " 2,200.00. — Insured. Charge 
 $7. 50." The swindler had of course chosen his time when the master of 
 the house would be out ; and when he received an answer to that effect he 
 asked for the lady of the house. The lady opened the envelope and found 
 inside a check for $2,200 upon a New York bank, a mortgage deed, and 
 a letter, merely intimating that the sender had enclosed the above amount. 
 As the thing looked quite in order, the lady paid the $7.50 and thereby 
 gave herself up to the swindle. When her husband came home the dis«- 
 covery was made. The mortgage deed which had been picked up some- 
 where was old and worthless, and the cheque good for nothing. 
 
 The Telegram Swindle is similar in character. The swindler con- 
 trives by some means to get possession of the envelopes and forms which 
 the telegraph companies use to send their telegrams on, makes up tele- 
 grams which will fit many purposes, addresses them to people in the upper 
 part of the city, and then sends them out at some time when he is certain 
 not to find the person addressed at home. Telegrams when not pre-paid 
 are never given up, except on payment of the charges marked upon the 
 envelope ; and as nobody likes to send a telegram away, because it may 
 possibly contain something of importance, the swindler generally receives 
 the money that he claims ; never more than at the outside two dollars. 
 
 But in the Western States this swindle is more profitable. The swindler 
 there takes to some farmer a telegram which ostensibly has come from 
 some large dealer in corn at Chicago, offering to buy corn and to pay a 
 good price for it, and as the charges for forwarding telegrams in the 
 country are larger than in the city, this costs more than it would here. 
 The farmer, too, willingly pays the fee for telegrams which seems to open 
 up to him good prospects. 
 
 The Secret Swindle is practised especially by a firm of the name of 
 B. F. Gardiner & Co., in Portland, Maine, and is so exceedingly clumsy, 
 that one can hardly think how it happens that people allow themsjlves to 
 be taken in by it. The swindlers offer a secret on the payment of one dol- 
 lar in advance, and if the person receiving it is not satisfied they undertake 
 to pay him two dollars. Of course the individual who sends the one dol- 
 
SWINDLERS. 245 
 
 Ilar hears nothing more about the firm or from them. Maine is one of the 
 States whence above all others swindlers of this kind carry on their opera- 
 l tions and we should always receive with caution any propositions that 
 come from there. There are often to be seen in the newspapers advertise- 
 ments about some secret how to become rich, which is offered for two dol- 
 lars. Before anybody sends on his money in reply to such advertisements 
 he should ask himself why it is that the possessors of a secret which will 
 make the purchaser rich, does not rather prefer to keep it and thereby reap 
 the benefits bv enriching himself? 
 
 The Magic, and Loye Powder Swindle depends for success not upon 
 the credulity of people, but upon a miserable superstition that still prevails. 
 The object it undertakes, is to enforce the affection and love of a person 
 for one of the other sex, and it pretends to do this by witchcraft or the 
 influence of drugs. That such things can be believed by people in a time 
 when mental enlightenment is everywhere extending, by people who live 
 in this nineteenth century, is a proof how low a degree of real education 
 still prevails among a large section of the community. 
 
 Love powder and the power of magic are offered by very many swin- 
 dlers especially in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Michigan, as well as 
 in Xew York, to abstract money from the superstitious. In magic there 
 is nothing tangible ; and what passes under the name of love powder and 
 is sold is either something very innocuous or — and this is more often the 
 case, and more perilous — it is something really harmful and which will 
 undermine the health. Here is an illustration. A young man, whose 
 name, to save him from the public disgrace, we will not mention, was 
 deeply in love with a young lady who did not return his affections, but 
 whose love he was naturally very desirous to gain. He therefore procured 
 some love powder, and having bought a box of figs he put some of the 
 powder into each of the figs, and made them a present to the lady. But 
 she, having already experienced some of the effects of his plans to win her 
 love, distrusted the figs and would not eat any. To quiet her doubts the 
 young man ate some of them himself. But the result was sad. For as 
 soon as he had eaten them, his mouth became covered with blisters, the 
 skin eame off, and he was a long time — some two months — getting well. 
 When at last he was well he had the pleasure of finding himself nicknamed 
 " Shoo Fly," realizing the spirit of the saying that when a man has to pay 
 the price of his own folly he must not mind being laughed at. — Some of 
 the " love powder" remained, and upon examination it turned out to be 
 the powder of Spanish flies, which is well known to be an extremely 
 powerful irritant. The young man had received this love powder from a 
 firm of the name of Reeves & Co. — If swindlers sell innocuous powders in 
 order to cheat the superstitious they are swindlers simply ; if they sell dau- 
 
216 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW TORK LIFE. 
 
 geroys substances under the pretence that they are love powders they are 
 more than swindlers, they are criminals and as such should be imprisoned. 
 
 The Photograph Swindle is worked in different ways. The most 
 dangerous and most ruinous, however, is that where, through advertise- 
 ments in the papers, offers are made to send on receipt of a certain pay- 
 ment, usually from 20 cents to $1, the photograph of a future husband or 
 wife, with the statement as to where the first meeting will be, and when 
 the wedding will come off. At every photographic establishment where 
 there is much business being done, there is a large accumulation of por- 
 traits which these swindlers buy up very cheaply, perhaps at one or two 
 cents a piece, and then they dispose of them in this way. But the danger 
 of this swindle lies in the fact that unprincipled men — and where is the 
 swindler Who is not unprincipled? — often send their own portrait to the 
 girls who answer their advertisements. It then becomes an easy matter 
 to arrange the place of the first meeting, and the further announcement of 
 the wedding day affords an opportunity to mislead thoughtless and foolish 
 girls. Very many instances of this kind have occurred, and very many 
 well conducted and virtuous young women have been led on the road to 
 ruin by this means. 
 
 Another branch of the photograph swindle is to be seen in the adver- 
 tisements which appear with the heading " Make your own photographs." 
 People who know nothing of the process of photography, and who read 
 this, think that for 25 or 50 cents they can learn how to make photographs. 
 But that is not the case. For the 25 or 50 cents they receive some small 
 leaves of prepared paper, upon which a worthless picture makes its appear- 
 ance when they are moistened with a piece of wet blotting paper. 
 
 A third photograph swindle is that of a National Photographing Co. 
 in Detroit, Mich., which offers for $2 to supply an instrument with which 
 anybody, even a child can produce photographs. But such an instrument 
 is a positive impossibility, and whoever offers a photographic apparatus 
 for $2 is a swindler. From the fact that this company have recently had 
 their letters sent to Saginaw, it would appear that the post office must 
 have placed some difficuties in their way. 
 
 The Ghost Swindle. — B ( H. Robb, of Parkman, Ohio, whose name 
 has been already mentioned in this chapter, advertises to teach the art of 
 making ghosts appear in any house. He will do this for 25 cents. 
 Twenty. five cents is certainly not much, but it is too much to throw away 
 and thereby to earn the right to be laughed at for our pains. 
 
 The Alchymy Swindle. — In past ages the art of making gold deceived 
 many, otherwise intelligent people ; and at that time even swindlers noto- 
 rious in history availed themselves of the opportunity it afforded them to* 
 
>\viM>Li;us. 217 
 
 prey upon credulous people and to enrich themselves. But one would 
 scarcely think it possible at the present day to entrap people with such a 
 bait. Oue Dr. Faucher, who calls himself the successor of Dr. Freeman, 
 3 circulars in which he introduces himself to the person addressed, 
 by a note on the margin to the effect that the circular has bceu sent at the 
 request of a friend of the individual, which friend had done business with 
 the doctor and found him to be trustworthy. In this circular a book is 
 offered for sale at Si, which is alledged to contain a full description of the 
 art of making gold ; but in reality that description is nothing more than 
 directions for certain working with metals and for the preparation of com- 
 positions which look like gold and silver. The doctor also offers, if clubs 
 are formed, to experiment himself. But it will best be seen what a genius 
 this doctor is, if we note some of the arts and secrets he undertakes to 
 teach — for the various considerations respectively appended to them. For 
 example : — To make an adversary fear us $6. To overcome all dangers 
 and hardships So. To make one courageous and powerful $j. To com- 
 pel a woman to love us $7. To insure success in business $o. To com- 
 pel a woman to betray all her secrets $5. To make oneself invisible $5. 
 These illustrations are enough. There must, however, be an immense 
 number of fools who give themselves up to nonsense of this kind, otherwise 
 the doctor who offers all these wonderful accomplishments could hardly 
 find it worth his while to work at them. 
 
 The Advertisement Swindle injures in the first instance only a cer- 
 tain class of people, namely the newspaper publishers, who having inserted 
 advertisements for a long time are not paid when the monies come due. 
 It chiefly prevails among those swindle concerns which are mostly unable 
 to carry on their operations without the use of advertisements ; of whom 
 we have noticed many in this chapter. And, indeed, it may be regarded 
 as a just punishment, w r hen newspapers publishers for the sake of gain 
 take advertisements indiscriminately and thereby promote the business of 
 the swindlers, are cheated at last out of their dues. Besides, these adver- 
 tisements, even when paid for, must be useful to newspaper publishers who 
 refuse to take them, because the public cannot fail to lose confidence in 
 persons who in any w r ay encourage the swindlers in their proceedings. 
 The Star Spangled Banner, of Hinsdale, N. II., and the American Agri- 
 culturist make it a special duty to expose swindlers, and give, among 
 others, the following names as those of people who do not pay for their 
 advertisements : — Ch. B. Thompson, Bridgewater, Conn. ; Metropolitan 
 Cash Prize Co. ; B. F. Gardiner & Co., Portland, Me. ; Union Watch Co., 
 &c. &c. 
 
 The Circulating Library Swindle was put into operation by one J. 
 A. Wilson who announced his otfice at No. 80 Ceder Street. He pub- 
 
248 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 lished advertisements in numbers of newspapers out of the city, in which 
 he undertook for a subscription of $2 a year to supply any book that mio-ht 
 be wished for reading. He was to send them through the post and to 
 receive them back in the same way. Now letters containing $2 were cer- 
 tainly received by this nice gentleman in very large numbers ; but he was 
 never to be found at No. 80 Cedar Street. At that address there are the 
 offices of respectable business people, but none of these knew Mr. J. A. 
 Wilson. 
 
 The Mock Jewelry Swindle is a kind of lottery which at times has 
 flourished well. In one of the stores of this branch of the business there 
 are stocks of what appear to be silver goods, gold rings, chains, brooches, 
 and other ornaments. But they are to be raffled for, not sold. In a small 
 box there are a number of closed envelopes, in each of which is a card 
 upon which some object is named, such as a gold locket, a gold brooch, a 
 silver salver, &c. These envelopes are sold at a dollar each. The pur- 
 chaser receives the article which is named on the card in the envelope. 
 But the gold locket, and the. gold brooch, are not gold, but either oroide 
 or brass very thinly electro-plated. The silver salvers, too, are not silver. 
 They are usually made of pewter, also lightly plated. If anybody wants 
 to procure gold or silver goods they should go to some respectable nouse 
 in the business. If they expect to get them at very low prices or by 
 means of lotteries, they only cheat themselves and keep the swindlers. 
 
 We now come to the Sewing-Machine Swindle. Of all recent inven- 
 tions there are none more useful than the sewing-machine. It is a genuine 
 blessing to women. Considering the enormous sales which the large and 
 admittedly good sewing-machine makers enjoy, it was hardly to be expected 
 that swindling would not soon take its place in ttrs branch of business. 
 We need not here dwell upon those makers who furnish ostensibly cheap 
 sewing-machines at from five to ten dollars, and who by means of circulars 
 look for agents and next desire that they purchase a specimen machine at 
 the full price, bu^. in this connection we will merely remark that the 
 makers who have a reputation and are justly celebrated do not find it 
 necessary to look for agents by means of circulars, and especially they do 
 not appoint persons as agents who are not well known to them and in 
 whom they are not well assured that they will find ability and solidity. 
 We will, however, observe that those cheap sewing-machines, which we 
 are assured in the advertisements will do any kind of needle work possible, 
 do not fulfil any of the promises ; but that numerous purchasers of such 
 machines have been already willing to let them go back for half their ori. 
 ginal price if only the vendors would agree to take them. It is further to 
 be observed that some of the makers of these cheap machines give out 
 different specimens of work on various kinds of material, none of which 
 
SWINDLERS. 243 
 
 done by the cheap machines in question ; and which consequently 
 - i ve only to cheat the purchaser. 
 
 Sometimes, however, really good machines are offered at low prices in 
 order to further the sale of machines made by the large and celebrated 
 makers. Such machines, as we have said are good, and yet the pur- 
 chasers should in one respect be cautious, for sometimes it happens that 
 these good and cheap machines have been made by people who have not 
 acquired the right to use the different patents involved in their construc- 
 tion. How well, soever, one of these machines may do its work, the pos- 
 sessor of it is liable to have it confiscated at any moment, for it is not only 
 the maker and the seller of such machines that are answerable to the pro- 
 prietor of the patent, but also the owner ; and it may be taken away from 
 any place, where the agents of those persons whose patents have been in- 
 fringed, whenever he chances to meet with it. We heard of a lady who 
 bought one of these machines. It worked admirably, quite as well as a 
 Wheeler and Wilson machine, but she had not had it two months before 
 it was attached by one of the agents of the Wheeler & Wilson Company, 
 on the ground that some portion of their patents had been used without the 
 right to do so having been obtained by the maker. It is, to say the least, 
 a very unjust law, and one that involves a system of espionage, which pun- 
 ishes the person who buys a machine in good faith, but of which the maker 
 has omitted to come to terms with the holders of the patents. But the 
 law exists, and while it is the law it must be obeyed. 
 
 So much by way of warning upon this matter. But a more genuine, a 
 more common swindle, is practised with sewing-machines by means of 
 advertisements. One Mr. Smith, in Shirley village, Mass., announces, as 
 *' the greatest discovery of the nineteenth century," a new sewing-machine 
 which is capable of doing every kind of needle-work. He offers this for 
 fifty cents and adds at the end of his advertisements " no humbug." But 
 what does he send ? A small instrument about an inch long and the same 
 in breadth with three hooks, which serve to hold the material firmly for 
 ordinary handwork. 
 
 Another man does still better. He advertises a sewing-machine made 
 of the very best material for 25 cents ! and for it sends — a darning needle ! 
 
 The Lot and Land Swindle has already claimed numberless victims, 
 and ruined very many people who were induced to buy a building lot or a 
 farm to establish for themselves a home. Instead of going on at any 
 length upon the nature of this swindle, we will mentiou a couple of exam- 
 ples, which will probably best serve the purpose of a warning to others. 
 
 First in regard to building lots. — A Dr. E. Andrews, of Albany, N. Y., 
 offered, for nothing, 4,000 building lots, each 30 feet wide and 125 feet 
 deep — which were at a distance from Albany about half an hour's walk. 
 In his circulars he said further : — "Each of these building lots fronts upon 
 
250 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 a fine stree: ; and in a short time will be worth $1,300. The plan of the* 
 township of Andrewsville (that is the name of the place where the lots- 
 were) lies in the office of the County Clerk of Albany." 
 
 Four thousand building lots, each of which would in a short time be 
 worth $1,300, in close vicinity to Albany, and all for nothing ! That is, 
 indeed, a generous offer. But let us hear the doctor a little further. He 
 is a charlatan, who sells medicines, instruments, books, everything else 
 possible and impossible, and he is ever looking for — agents. Whoever 
 will work as his agent, and as soon as he has disposed of his goods to the 
 clear profit of $38 and has paid for them, is to be presented with a title in 
 lee simple to one of the lots. In order that the reader may be able to form, 
 an opinion of the value of what Dr. Andrews says and promises, be it 
 here remarked what kind of articles it is that his agents are expected to 
 sell. The following are among them : — " The secret how any man can 
 deprive another of his strength." Price $6.50. " Flower seeds out of the 
 garden of Gethsemane." Price $2. " The seventh book of Moses" — and 
 so on. Then, as to the place called Andrewsville which is half an hours 
 walk from Albany, it is quite unknown in Albany ; and the clerk of the 
 county, with whom the plan of the township was said to te deposited, 
 declared that the whole story was a swindle. 
 
 Concerning the land swindle the following transaction of a land specu- 
 lator will serve to show how indispensible the utmost caution is in all busi- 
 ness of this kind. About fifteen years ago a Mr. R. came here without 
 means. He settled in New York and lived miserably. When the war 
 broke out he enlisted, but deserted almost as soon as he reached the seat 
 of war. After the war he married and bought a large farm on the Hud- 
 son, off of which he took in the first year 15,000 bushels of wheat. Soon 
 after the harvest, when the barns were still full, he one day met a Mr. M.. 
 in New York, to whom he soon after sold the farm for $14,000. The 
 title deed was prepared and the payment made ; but when a few days after 
 Mr. M. went to take possession of his farm, he found the barns and stables 
 empty. R. had sold the contents after the inventory had been made. R. 
 then bought real estate in Brooklyn for $13,500 which was encumbered 
 with four mortgages, one of $5,000, one of $6,000, and two of $1,000 
 each. He then bought in his wife's name a piece of land in Islip for 
 $4,000 from a Mr. S., for which he gave in payment the property he had 
 recenlly obtained in Brooklyn, asserting that this property was worth 
 $15,000 and was encumbered with two mortgagss, only those for $5,000 
 and $6,000. Some months after, however, the other two mortgages for 
 $1,000 each were brought forward, and Mr. S. took proceedings against 
 Mr. R. to secure the nullification of the rascally transaction. In the mean- 
 time, however, R. had apparently transferred the land at Islip to another 
 man. But he ultimately exchanged it for a hotel in Cochecton which 
 belonged to a Mr. T. Of course he said nothing about having come into 
 
 
SWINDLERS. 21 1 
 
 possession of the property by dishonest means and that an aetion for its 
 restoration was in progress. He took possession of the hotel, and when 
 T. came to Islip to enter again upon his property, he realized the fact that 
 he had been swindled. 
 
 The transactions of only one of these rascals will serve to show what 
 swindling is done in these real estate transactions, and how absolutely 
 necessary it is to conduct all business of this kind with the utmost care 
 and caution. In the first place it is most necessary to have the title of the 
 land thoroughly examined into by a trustworthy lawyer who is experienced 
 in this kind of business, also the amount of encumbrances and the mode of 
 inheritance of the previous possessor wkh reference to any possible claims 
 in the way of a widows rights. This costs money, but money so spent is 
 not thrown away ; for if such enquiry preceded every purchase or exchange, 
 such swindling would become impossible. 
 
 A piece of rascality which is very much practised now and which takes 
 for its victims chiefly strangers who come to New York is the Banco or 
 Bunco Swindle. 
 
 This is partly a lottery and partly a game of hazard, in which loaded 
 dice are used. Cases are occurring daily where people, whom the swin" 
 dlers readily perceive to be strangers in the city or M greenhorns" are 
 addressed by someone unknown to them in Broadway, Fulton Street, or 
 some other of the prominent business thoroughfares. One word leads to 
 another. The unknown person goes a short distance with the stranger 
 till he stops before a house, and telling how he won fifty dollars recently 
 in a lottery, adds that this, where they now are, is the office and that ho 
 wants to go in and get the money. Tf the stranger will come up with him 
 for a moment, he will then go on a little further with him. That is the 
 usual manner in which the matter is introduced, and as experience proves, 
 the stranger in nine times out of ten accepts the invitation and accom- 
 panies his unknown companion into the lottery office ; this is, to his own 
 ruin. 
 
 We will call the stranger Smith, and the acquaintance who pretends he 
 has won money in the lottery we will call Schultz. They have gone up 
 Broadway together, have got into Canal Street, and before one of the 
 houses there Schultz has stopped. They go up stairs and enter a well- 
 furnished office where, behind a barrier, a well-dressed clerk is standing 
 at a desk. Schultz presents his ticket and the clerk opens a drawer filled 
 with bank notes and pays Schultz $48 cash and gives him two tickets. 
 
 14 What am I to do with these?" asks Schultz. 
 
 11 They are tickets for a drawing in the bank. We always give two 
 such tickets in winnings of fifty dollars and over, so that the winner may 
 try his luck again." 
 
 " And when does the bank-drawing come off." 
 
252 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 "Immediately, If you like. Whenever you please." 
 And thereupon the clerk rolls off from the table a leather covering, and 
 the top of the table then presents the following form of numbers : — 
 
 31 
 
 32 
 
 8 
 1000 
 
 38 
 
 * 
 
 36 
 
 * 
 
 48 
 1000 
 
 33 
 
 IF 
 
 100 
 
 1 
 
 34 
 
 18 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 100 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 100 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 5 
 4 
 
 10 
 50 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 50 
 
 1 
 
 47 
 300 
 
 1 
 
 42 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 24 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 43 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 29 
 
 ** 
 
 39 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 50 
 
 1 
 
 46 
 250 
 
 1 
 
 28 
 
 * 
 
 41 
 
 10 
 1 
 
 23 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 35 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 37 
 
 * 
 
 14 
 
 75 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 100 
 1 
 
 21 
 25' 
 
 1 
 
 44 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 27 
 5 
 1 
 
 30 
 
 * 
 
 25 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 45 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 26 
 
 • 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 The clerk now gives to Schultz a dice box with eight dice, upon which 
 the latter gives up one of his tickets, and throws 43. They now look for 
 a square on the above table with the numbers 43, 20, and 1. The 43 
 signifies the number thrown ; the 20 the amount won ; and the 1 the stake. 
 Thus Schultz has won twenty dollars, which are provisionally credited to 
 him ; — and he gives his remaining ticket to Smith who has thus far been 
 only a spectator, remarking to him that he may as well take a throw and 
 win something if he can. Smith takes the dice box, shakes it vigorously 
 and throws 43 also. Thus he has won $20, the amount is not paid to 
 him, however, but credited to him, as before. The clerk remarks that 
 Air. Smith seems to be lucky, he ought to try once more. Schultz, too f 
 advises him to do so. He lets himself be persuaded, throws once more 
 and again wins, the winnings being put to his credit. He has now warmed 
 up to the interest of the game ; he takes out his purse and buys tickets, 
 paying for them in hard cash, sits down and goes on playing until he has 
 paid away $130 in tickets and won $1,400, which, however, note well, 
 has not been paid over, only " placed to his credit*" Now he wants to 
 leave ; but the clerk and Schultz talk him over, till he determines to have 
 one more throw. In the meanwhile, during the conversation that has 
 been going on among them all, Schultz has contrived one moment so that 
 Smith should turn his back on the clerk, and at that instant the latter 
 changes the dice.*) Smith throws again — this time 31 ; the first number 
 
 *) Both sets of dice are loaded ; —the first set in suoh a manner that they must win, the second, so 
 Shat they must lose. 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 253 
 
 on the table, and with that, as the clerk informs him he has lost all his 
 previous winnings, together with the $130 that he has paid in cash, and 
 by which amount, therefore, he is poorer than he was half an hour pre- 
 viously. 
 
 Strangers who come to New York should be very careful how they let 
 themselves be deceived by people whom they do not know. Cases such 
 as this we have mentioned are happening every day, and in great numbers. 
 Many people who are swindled in this way go off to a detective, thinking 
 by that means to receive back their money. But it is a long process, 
 besides which the detective has to be paid. Most of them go home again, 
 poorer in pocket, but very much richer in experience. 
 
 The Detective Swindle consists in swindlers falsely representing 
 themselves to be detectives to people in order to levy a contribution upon 
 them, and the trick has received a large amount of success. An incident 
 that occurred at the close of last year will illustrate this. 
 
 It had come to the knowledge of a couple of swindlers that a Mrs. D. 
 had by hard work managed to save $250, and they determined to rob her 
 of this, her little property. One of the swindlers scraped an acquaintance 
 with Mrs. D. husband who is a cripple, and who sells children's balloons 
 in the street. In consequence of this he occasionally visited the family. 
 One day when D. was not at home, the swindler was sitting in his house 
 talking to his wife ; and an accomplice came up and said he wanted to 
 speak a few words to Mrs. D. alone. He then disclosed to her that he 
 was a detective and had called upon a very unpleasant business. H#r 
 husband, D., had been buying some balloons that had been smuggled, 
 which rendered him liable to imprisonment for ten years and to the con- 
 fiscation of all the balloons that he had in his possession. Mrs. D., a 
 simple woman, was greatly alarmed at this, and asked the advice of the 
 other swindler whom she took for a friend. This man counselled her that 
 the business was a very ugly one, and that it would be better for her to 
 " settle" it by some arrangement with the detective. The woman was 
 foolish enough to follow this advice and gave the false detective the $250, 
 her whole possession, and one which she had accumulated only by sheer 
 hard work over a space of five years. If the woman had not lost her head, 
 but had had the presence of mind to insist that the pretended detective 
 should prove that he was a detective, she would not have lost her money. 
 
 The Bounty Swindle has found innumerable victims. Thousands of 
 persons who had taken part in the war and were entitled to bounty money 
 have been defrauded of it. There are here and in all our large towns 
 throughout the Union a great number of these swindlers, and one of them 
 
254 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 at least is known to have put by some twenty thousand dollars. Almost 
 all these claim agents are lawyers who in practice had no good name to 
 lose. _. j 
 
 The mode and melhod of this bounty swindle are as follows : — 
 
 A is a soldier who has received his discharge, and B is a claim agent. 
 A comes to B, and requests him to look after his bounty money. B tells 
 him that before he can draw it, A must let him have the certificate of his 
 honorable discharge, because it is necessary to send that on to Washington 
 as evidence of the justness of his claim. So far the transaction is in order, 
 but now comes the trick. B tells A further, that together with the certifi- 
 cate there is another document required at Washington, a form for which 
 A is to sign in blank. It is a form which the government requires ; 
 though, why, he does not know. A signs the form and goes away with 
 the impression that in a few days he will receive his money. 
 
 But the form which A, in his ignorance of such things has signed, is a 
 full authority under which B acquires the absolute right not only to arrange 
 for the payment of the bounty, but also to endorse the money order of the 
 government and to collect the money at the bank. Thus fully armed with 
 legal power and authority, B draws the money as soon as he has the order, 
 puts it into his pocket, and keeps it there. In due time A asks B whether 
 he has received his money, and is told that at present B has not heard any> 
 thing from Washington. The same answer is given to A everytime he 
 calls, till at length his suspicions are aroused and he peremptorily demands 
 either his money or the return of his certificate. 
 
 This generally leads to a disclosure of the cheat. B admits that he got 
 the money, but that he has paid it away, at the same time making the 
 positive assurance tnat he will make it good as soon as he possibly can. 
 As the claim agent has in his hands unconditional authority from A, the 
 latter is precluded from prosecuting him criminally ; and the only resource 
 left to the poor swindled soldier, who in all probability is a cripple, is a 
 civil process for the recovery of the money. But this is not of much use ; 
 for the swindler possesses nothing which can be touched under an execu- 
 tion, and the soldier is too poor to pursue the matter any further. So he 
 loses his bounty. 
 
 And it has been thus with many thousands. When one remembers how 
 many millions of dollars have been voted by Congress for bounty money, 
 it is easy to understand what large amounts have been swindled from the 
 soldiers to enrich the swindlers. 
 
 In the western papers especially there " are often advertisements to be 
 found in which claim agents undertake to look after the bounties on pay- 
 ment in advance of $2. Such advertisements should not be trusted. Peo- 
 ple who still have bounty money to receive or who have been defrauded 
 out of their just dues, should give the matter into the hands of some honor- 
 able, trustworthy, and well known lawyer. Such a man would attend to 
 
SWINDLERS. 255 
 
 the matter honorably and without putting forward any unreasonable pre- 
 tensions. 
 
 The Secret Order of Money Finders is quite a new swindle, in 
 which the most prominent performer is one B. L. Neal, who calls himself 
 the " grand high priest" of the order, and has his throne in Sharon, Pa. 
 The purpose of this u order" appears to be to swindle credulous fools out 
 •of five dollars, and as the idea is somewhat interesting, we will define it a 
 little more closely. Mr. Neal sends a circular and two cards — a w T hite 
 and a red one — to every person whose address he can get hold of. The 
 white card exhibits only an address. The red shows an open safe and a 
 hand full of bank notes, with the words " Application ticket." ^p 3 " Thi s 
 ticket must be returned with the application for membership." The prin- 
 cipal document, however, is the circular which we here subjoin : — 
 
 Secretary's Office, Dec, 1872. 
 Honored Sir : 
 
 Your name has been mentioned by a companion of 
 our order as that of one who is desirous of entering our fraternity. The 
 purpose of our organization is, as the name implies, to attain the possibility 
 of assuring an independent fortune ; that, too, easily, quickly, and with 
 complete certainty. The preliminaries are already made, and we now 
 only require some trustworthy men, living in different parts of the country 
 who are in a position to give the information necessary for success. 
 These will be furnished with all that is required for the purpose, and 
 guaranteed to participate in the quarterly dividends. 
 
 We have nominated a certain number of our most energetic members 
 as travelling agents, each of whom has his allotted district, the round of 
 which he makes every month. At an appointed place he then meets the 
 local representative of the district whose report he takes and then gives 
 him the password, the instructions and everything required for the next 
 month. By this means we avoid a large correspondence through the post. 
 We must here remark that w T e wish to receive only one letter from each 
 person who gets this circular, that one of application for membership and 
 for which the red card enclosed is to be returned. 
 
 You can readily perceive that it would not be convenient to enter any 
 further into details in this circular, for it is impossible for us to know into 
 whose hands it may come. For the same reason we also refuse under 
 all circumstances to give further information of our plans, except to a 
 regularly constituted member, which you can become when you have sent 
 the admission fees amounting to $5 to the address of the secretary — 
 according to the enclosed card. In return for that you will receive a 
 sealed packet containing the password, tests, plan of operations, and all 
 «ise that may be needed. You must name a place where you can meet 
 
256 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 our travelling agent who will give you complete information and full in- 
 structions with all that is requisite for the first month. In naming a place 
 of meeting have the goodness to select one that is near to a railroad sta- 
 tion, so that our traveller may be as little delayed as possible. The time 
 of the meeting we will fix ourselves. 
 
 If you feel disposed to join us, answer this as soon as possible. But do 
 not overlook the fact that no more information can be given before you 
 become a member. Our rules in this respect are positive." 
 
 And so it goes on. The reader will see that when anybody is so foolish 
 as to send the required $5 he can lay claim to nothing. The whole plan 
 is only a new way to find as many credulous and inquisitive people as pos- 
 sible, out of whom the sum of $5 may be swindled. 
 
 The Prize Candy Swindle is carried on upon all the railroads out of 
 New York, and it annoys the passengers not a little. These packets with 
 so-called prize candy, which are sold at from 25 to 50 cents each, are said 
 to contain, besides the candy, money to the value of from five cent3 to ten 
 dollars. But in reality they rarely contain besides the candy, which is 
 worth 4 or 5 cents, more money than five or ten cents. It is in fact a lot- 
 tery swindle. But it must be profitable, for the people who receive per- 
 mission from the railroad companies to sell their packets of candy in the 
 trains have to pay dearly for it. For example on the New York Central 
 Railroad the people who exercise the right to sell there prize candy and 
 newspapers, &c, pay as much as $10,000 for the privilege. 
 
 The Firm Swindle flourishes chiefly by the defrauding of persons who 
 reside out of the city, and has existed about a year and a half. At that 
 time ago a firm under the title of " Wm. E. Howard & Co., exporters and 
 wholesale dealers in flour, grain and produce, 10 Bridge Street, New York, 
 and 243 King Street, Liverpool," issued circulars far and wide throughout 
 the country to produce dealers and other business men in similar lines to 
 establish relations with them and to receive consignments. A very reputa- 
 ble firm in Toledo was induced by these circulars to write to Howard & 
 Co. relative to the attainment of business relations ; and in return they 
 received a business-like answer which created an exceedingly favorable 
 impression, in which the writers ordered a car-load of flour and said that 
 if the transaction turned out satisfactorily they expected that the associa- 
 tion would be of considerable duration. It was further stated in the letter 
 that the firm made its purchases at thirty days, and in testimony of their 
 responsibility they referred to the president of the Empire National Bank, 
 Mr. M. W. Miller, 704 Broadway. 
 
 This was all very business-like and well calculated to create confidence. 
 But before the Toledo house adjusted the required order for Howard & 
 
SWINDLERS. 257 
 
 Co., they wrote to President Miller and requested the favor of some infor- 
 mation concerning them. To that letter the following answer was re- 
 ceived : — 
 
 " In reply to your favor and enquiries respecting the responsibility of 
 Messrs. Wm. E. Howard & Co. I gladly inform you that they deserve 
 the fullest confidence. The firm has done business for several years with 
 our bank and none of their notes have ever been protested. 
 
 Respectfully 
 
 M. B. Miller, President. 
 
 This, too, was very satisfactory, and at first the house in Toledo almost 
 reproached themselves for having made the enquiry of the president, when 
 suddenly it occurred to them that it might be better to obtain some infor- 
 mation concerning the Empire National Bank itself, where according to 
 Mr. Miller the firm of Howard & Co. had their account. This was done ; 
 and to the great astonishment of the Toledo house it turned out that there 
 was no such bank in New York as the Empire National. The whole 
 thing was a swindle. But it was quite probable that the swindlers 
 operating under this name of Howard & Co. had done considerable injury 
 to very many produce dealers in the West who had been less cautious than 
 the people of Toledo ; for when the swindle under the above name was 
 discovered, it turned out that the fellows had been working under at least 
 half a dozen other aliases. 
 
 The Subscription Swindle is already somewhat old, but it still goes 
 on and injures both respectable publishers and the public generally, because 
 people at a distance who do not know the publishers personally, only too 
 readily mistake the swindlers for solid business people. Very often these 
 swindlers, under the pretence of collecting subscribers for some periodical, 
 offer tliem below the regular prices ; when this is done, it may be quite cer- 
 tain that there is some rascality at work, for no respectable publisher will 
 permit his agent to depart from the prices and terms that are laid down at 
 the office, or to give a preference to one customer over another. Besides 
 which every respectable travelling agent for any such line of business will 
 always be able to show some kind of authority which will prove him to be 
 what he represents himself. 
 
 The Adoption Swindle is something quite new. An advertisement 
 appears in the newspapers to the effect that any respectable family who 
 will adopt a pretty healthy child, five months old, shall receive $5,000 ; 
 and that for the remittance of 25 cents a photograph of the child will be 
 forwarded if the persons will send their address. Now there are so many 
 childless people who would be willing to adopt a child on the consideration 
 
 17 
 
258 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 of receiving $5,000, that the swindler who inserted the advertisement can- 
 not fail to receive many letters of application containing 25 cents. 
 
 A special kind of Lawyer Swindle has also lately come into operation. 
 Some firm of lawyers, for instance, which undertakes to help such people 
 as have been swindled by " gift-enterprises," &c, &c, and to make the 
 swindlers give back their plunder, put an advertisement in the papers to 
 that effect ; and demand a fee of two dollars for undertaking such commis- 
 sion. As there are so many thousands of persons in all parts of the country 
 who have been cheated by swindlers, so there are most likely very many 
 who, in the hope of getting back something, are ready to spend another 
 two dollars. We advise all such who have been swindled once to content 
 themselves with the first loss and not to throw good mone^v away after bad. 
 
 We come now to the Inheritance Swindle. The desire for an inherit- 
 ance, and thereby to have a competency or perhaps wealth, is very excusa- 
 ble ; since a competency is one of the foundations of an agreeable life. It 
 could not be expected then that the existence of such a wish would not be 
 taken advantage of by swindlers to induce them to cast their nets, and 
 probably to maks a rich booty. This kind of cheat is practised chiefly by 
 people who give themselves out as lawyers, and they do it in various ways. 
 
 In one, the swindler writes to persons who reside at a distance, to the 
 effect that an old relative has lately died and left to each of his surviving 
 relations a sum of six or eight hundred, or a thousand dollars, and that the 
 writer of the letter has been left executor. He instructs the person 
 addressed that he must send on such and such papers together with the 
 remittance — and here comes the most important point — of fifteen or twenty 
 dollars ; according as whether the pretended inheritance is greater or less. 
 This kind of swindle has been practised repeatedly, and has lightened the 
 pockets of a large number of people who are in want of inheritances. 
 
 Another method of proceeding is for the swindler to procure from the 
 directories of different towns a list of names which are common, such as 
 Smith, King, Jones ; or the German Muller, Schmidt, Becker, &c. They 
 then write under the feigned name of a legal firm, using in it the names of 
 the people they are going to swindle ; the object of which is to create the 
 inference that one of the partners of the firm has some personal interest in 
 the matter. So that a letter to Mr. King would be signed by a King, one 
 to Mr. Smith by a Smith, and so on. To give the thing an air of business 
 the letters are written upon paper which has an elaborately printed head- 
 ing with the name of the firm, &c. In this letter the person addressed is 
 informed that the writer has just returned from a visit to England or Ger- 
 many, which he made in connection with the management of an inherft- 
 ance ; and that he thereby learned that some time ago a very rich old man 
 of the name of the person addressed had died, leaving many family con- 
 
SWINPI.I B8. '2~>0 
 
 nectkma resident in America. The division of the property had, however, 
 been delayed since it was necessary first to communicate with the relations 
 living here. The writer had, therefore, been engaged by some of" the heirs 
 on this side to protect their rights in the property ; and hearing that the 
 person addressed was a distant relative, lie had written to him in case he 
 should desire to secure his portion of the inheritance. He begged, there- 
 fore, in that case that he would send his pedigree as soon as possible, as 
 perfect as he could make it, and enclose at the same time the sum of one 
 -dollar, upon which the writer would at once send back a copy of the com- 
 plete pedigree of the former proprietor of the property, with which pedigree 
 he was then at work. 
 
 A case of this kind was once given into the hands of a clever detective, 
 and it then came out that to every hundred such letters more than half 
 Mere answered with the accompaniment of one dollar. But the object of 
 the swindler is not to obtain a dollar only. He aims much farther than 
 that ; and the first letter is only the means by which he intends to draw 
 more. The people who answer him, and who send the dollar, are written 
 to again, to the effect that it was necessary for the proper management of 
 the business to engage the services of an experienced lawyer, and for that 
 purpose it had been decided at a meeting of the heirs resident here to raise 
 a fund by subscription, among all who wished their interests promoted, to 
 the amount of ten dollars from each person. The result of this device, 
 as shown by the disclosures made in the case above alluded to where the 
 services of a detective were engaged, was that the people who had sent one 
 dollar invariably sent the other ten after it ; nay, many of them anxious 
 above all things to have their interests furthered and to get the inheritance 
 sent larger amounts than that, many of them up even to a hundred dollars ! 
 The booty made by these swindlers was thus often very great. In every 
 «case which has been placed in the hands of an able detective the latter has 
 succeeded, where the swindler did not care to go to jail, in compelling him 
 to return the whole of the plunder, and also to make a reinbursement of 
 the costs incurred. 
 
 Once, some years ago, a swindler came forward here who thought to 
 extend his operations into Germany, but he was very neatly exposed. The 
 credit of the exposure belongs to the editor of the " Indiana Volksfreund," 
 a paper appearing at Fort Wayne, Ind. ; so we avail ourselves of an article 
 opon the subjecl which the editor published and which reads as follows : 
 
 44 In a number of the " Alb Bote," published in Elburgen, in Wurtem- 
 berg, with which we have been favored, there appears the following notice ; 
 
 AMERICA 
 30,000 Heirs Wanted I 
 
260 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Among the papers published by W. U. Reichert, Director of the German? 
 American Enquiry and Intelligence Office, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, there- 
 is an authentic catalogue of 29,780 names of persons who have died in 
 North and South America, Mexico, and Canada, since the year 1770 r 
 most of whom left fortunes of which the heirs have as yet made no inqui- 
 ries. In this list are the names of many people who fell in the wars of 
 1776 up to 1815, also in the Mexican "War of 1845 up to 1848, and in the 
 Civil War of 1861 to 1865. Some died in hospitals, others on ships of 
 war, but in all cases their relations and heirs are unknown. This alpha- 
 betical catalogue has been prepared from the government archives, at con- 
 siderable labor and expense extending over eight years, and may be pur- 
 chased in parts, each of which contains about 4,000 names, besides much 
 detailed information with regard to the recovery of the property left behind- 
 Price, each number $1. To be had post free from the publisher on receipt 
 of the amount." 
 
 " We should be guilty of a dereliction of duty if we were to neglect to 
 disclose the swindle contained in this advertisement, which very probably 
 has been taken in good faith by other newspapers. Any poor people who 
 take the bait here thrown out with such consummate skill, in the hope that 
 they will obtain an inheritance, will only be throwing away their hard 
 earned money to an unscrupulous swindler. 
 
 There is in Fort Wayne no German- American Enquiry and Intelligence 
 Office, and no Director of it. W. U. Reichert, as he proclaims himself in 
 this advertisement, is William Reich, a swindler as notorious in America 
 as in Germany. He is the same man who some years ago, in Stuttgart, 
 where he was living in great style, announced that he was ready to give 
 employment to the order of an American Petroleum Company to two hun- 
 dred coopers. These were to have a free passage, but they must deposit 
 20 florins as security. Hundreds of poor fellows, coopers by trade, went 
 to him and entrusted him with their hard earned money, whereupon, when, 
 the police began to be somewhat diligent in their enquiries after him, he 
 disappeared from Stuttgart and came over to America. Here he took the 
 name of W. U. Reichert, which he has for the greater part of the time 
 since continued to use and has already made it very nearly to appear as 
 his right name. In Louisville Reich learned the book printing business, 
 and exercised much skill as a compositor, which he understood excellently 
 well how to use for his swindling operations. He ran away from Louis- 
 ville with the cash-box, containing some $1,900, belonging to a "Draft 
 Club" which had been instituted for the purpose of finding substitutes for 
 any of its members who chanced to be drawn for military service. A little 
 later Reich turned up in Berlin, a town of Canada, where he opened an 
 agency office and took money for the alledged purpose of remitting it to 
 Germany. He then went to the State of New York and swindled people 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 261 
 
 under the pretence of being a methodist preacher. After that he made an 
 appearance in various places successively, but always in the same line of 
 business, that of a swindler. He came here as foreman on the " Volks- 
 freund." An advertisement that appeared in our paper relative to an 
 inheritance in America that had fallen to a family from Brunswick, prob- 
 ably gave him the idea of instituting a new kind of swindle out of the 
 desire of our German countrymen to come to an inheritance through their 
 American relations. 
 
 He sent out privately a circular, a copy of which has since come to us, 
 wherein he makes to his "colleagues of the press" the plausible proposal 
 that if they would print a notice " as above" three times he would send 
 them the whole eijrht numbers of his catalogue free. He then went on to 
 select the German sounding names from the official lists published by 
 authority of the United States government of men who had died in the 
 ranks of the Union troops during the Civil War, and to collect them into 
 lists. He had just got the first sheets of these ready when people suspected 
 his intentions and of course he was at once dismissed from his situation. 
 The printed sheets of his catalogue, the whole edition of which was got 
 back in the office of the u Volksfreund," contained a quantity of names 
 with consecutive numbers, and at the top of each on either side was the 
 following printed notice: — "Accurate information concerning all of these 
 may be procured from W. U. Reichert of Fort Wayne, Indiana ;" this 
 showing beyond a doubt that the first dollar, the price of each part of the 
 catalogue was only a means to be used for making further extortions. 
 
 As soon as Reich saw that he was unmasked and understood here he 
 left the town, and is now, as we are informed, in Dayton, Ohio." 
 
 Such was the information given by the editor of the " Volksfreund." 
 And as we find that this work is being read largely on the other side of the 
 Atlantic, we have thought it well to give the case in full as a warning to 
 people in Europe against similar attempts at robbery which by a like 
 -device might be undertaken by people of any nationality against their 
 countrymen. 
 
 The Confidence Swindle, is one which finds its victims partly among 
 strangers who come to New York, but sometimes, too, among New Yorkers 
 themselves. It assumes various forms, but the name explains it. It is an 
 abuse and breach of trust. When the swindlers go upon their hunting 
 excursions they usually hunt up strangers, inveigle themselves into the 
 acquaintance of persons who are not acquainted with New York life and 
 its dangers, and when they would plunder them seek some connection 
 somewhere. As a warning against these swindlers we can do nothing bet- 
 ter than relate some incidents. 
 
 A well-dressed lady drove up before a large business house, made some 
 purchases and requested that someone might be allowed to accompany her 
 
262 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 to receive the payment for them. The wish was complied with. A clerfe; 
 got into the carriage with her and the lady stopped before one of the large- 
 hotels. She got out, took the parcel, and requested the clerk to wait in 
 the carriage, she would come down immediately with the money and then 
 drive on farther. The clerk waited one quarter of an hour, then another- 
 At last he grew impatient, and going into the hotel asked for the lady. 
 But she was not known there and had disappeared through another 
 entrance. 
 
 Some time ago a person named Fiol. who represented himself to be the- 
 Spanish consul at Charleston, went into a large clothing store and ordered 
 two suits of clothes, remarking at the same time that if they gave him 
 satisfaction he would order also a consuls uniform. The clothes were to> 
 be ready upon a certain day when he would pay for them. Two days 
 before that he came and asked whether the clothes were ready? as he was 
 going out with the Spanish consul in New York. But they were not ready 
 and in consequence he took with him a coat that was ready. He also took 
 a hat. It then occurred to him that he had forgotten his purse and left it 
 at the hotel, and vexed at being obliged to go back to the hotel on that 
 account, he presently asked the principal of the establishment to assist him 
 with fifteen dollars till the next day when he would return it. The prin- 
 cipal quite readily did this, willing to aid a good customer. He returned 
 on the following day and gave an order that the account for the clothes he 
 had ordered, the coat and hat he had taken on the previous day and the- 
 cash lent should be sent to a banking house that he named in Wall Street,, 
 where he said a Mr. Ross would pay them. The account was sent, but 
 Mr. Ross was not to be found in the bank, and nothing, whatever, was 
 known of the Spanish consul from Charleston. 
 
 Other swindlers send orders t6 business people in the name of substan- 
 tial houses, the goods to be sent to some place appointed. The people 
 have no mistrust in the order, since the firm named frequently sends for 
 goods in that manner, and it is filled. The goods are forwarded to the 
 place named, generally some pier as if for shipment, where they are taken 
 possession of by one of the swindlers in the name of the pretended firm. 
 He then puts them on to another truck and removes them. And when the- 
 house whose name was used in the order receives the invoice, it is of course 
 returned. But the swindlers are very seldom discovered. 
 
 Another plan is as follows : — The swindler calls the driver of some truck 
 which has upon it easily transportable bales or boxes, and asks him which 
 way he is going. When the driver answers him, he says : — " All right*. 
 
 will you take a small box for me to No. in such and such a street ? 
 
 You are going by there." The driver consents, and the swindler requests 
 him then to come up with him and to help him to bring down the box. 
 They go up two or three flights of stairs, and then the swindler finds- 
 apparently to his disgust that the office is locked. He requests the driver 
 
SWINDLERS* 263 
 
 to wait a moment, his partner has gone out and left the key in the store 
 below. Thereupon he hurries clown stairs, gets on to the truck and drives 
 fast away to BOHM thieves resort where he takes off the bales or boxes and 
 then drives horse and wagon to some by-lane and leaves them there. The 
 cheated driver probably receives them back again through the medium of 
 the police, but the goods are not recovered. 
 
 At an earlier stage of this chapter we took occasion to remark that 
 many of the swindling operations which are in vogue here are practised on 
 the railroads that run from the city. This is iu a measure the case with 
 the confidence swindle. Some time ago a gentleman came here from 
 Cleveland by the Hudson River Road. At Hudson another person got 
 into the car ; he was neatly dressed and had a gold eye-glass and a white 
 necktie, so that he was readily taken for a minister. He looked about for 
 a place and as there was one vacant next to the gentleman from Cleveland 
 he took it ; then drew a newspaper from his pocket and began to read. 
 The Cleveland man who had never yet been in New York, and had 
 travelled but very little altogether began with a very common phrase to get 
 up a conversation : — "Beautiful weather to-day!" The stranger politely 
 replied. And when the gentleman expressed his admiration at the beauti- 
 ful country and neighborhood, the stranger asked him whether he had 
 never been there before. " T have never been in New York yet," was the 
 answer, and after some further words had been exchanged, the stranger 
 said that he liked a smoke and was going into the smoking-car to take a 
 cigar. After that he should return and w r ould do himself the pleasure to 
 take a seat by him again. After a quarter of an hour he returned, and a 
 short time more found both of them in the midst of a very lively conversa- 
 tion, in which the stranger made known that he took great interest in mis- 
 sions, and spoke also much of religion ; so that the gentleman from Cleve- 
 land looked upon with a certain respect and congratulated himself upon 
 having so worthy and agreeable a travelling companion. While the two 
 were thus actively interesting themselves, another mau came into the car 
 who pretended to be looking about for a seat, but seeing the stranger im- 
 mediately addressed him with the words u Hallo ! Mr. Radford how are 
 you? I am glad to see you" and shook hands with him. The stranger, 
 whom we will now know as Radford, returned the greeting in the warmest 
 manner, and auyone could see that a weight had fallen from the mind of 
 the new comer now that he had met Radford. He drew a paper from his 
 pocket, showed it to Radford, and although the conversation was not car- 
 ried on in a loud voice, the gentleman from Cleveland, nevertheless, heard 
 occasionally some of the remarks : — " Indeed, my friend, I cannot to-day. 
 All that I have with me are some $500 bonds, and I am going to New 
 York to sell them, and then I have a lot of little accounts to settle." 
 
 To this the other replied " But I am really in great embarrassment 
 
264 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 to-day, and if you can possibly help me, you would, indeed, be conferring 
 upon me a very great favor." 
 
 After a short pause Radford turned to the gentleman from Cleveland 
 with the words : — " My friend here, whom I have met by chance in the 
 train, has a note of mine in his possession which is just due, and I am 
 going to New York to sell these bonds — at the same time drawing out 
 some bonds and showing them to him — and then to pay the note and some 
 other accounts. But my friend is greatly in need of money and wants the 
 amount this evening. It is only $110, but I have not got so much about 
 me. Can you help me out of the difficulty? As soon as we reach New 
 York, we will go directly together to a broker's office, where I will sell the 
 bonds and return you the $110. 
 
 " Certainly," replied the gentleman from Cleveland with much readi- 
 ness. And he took out his purse and counted out $110 into Radford's 
 bauds. Radford paid the money to his friend who then left the train at 
 Poughkeepsie, but he himself remained in the car and entered into conver- 
 sation again with the gentleman from Cleveland. "When the train reached 
 Garrison's Station, Radford drew the attention of his neighbor to the 
 scenery about West Point, and whilst the latter was looking at it ad- 
 miringly from the window, and was quite absorbed in the beautiful pro- 
 spect, the train began to move slowly on again. At this moment Radford 
 suddenly made a very unministerial spring towards the nearest door, tore 
 it open and jumped off the car. The train went on and presently Radford 
 was out of sight of the Cleveland man who sat motionless with astonish- 
 ment, and was a long time before he could recover from his surprise. 
 
 Of course Radford and his "friend" were accomplices, and when, the 
 former went out ostensibly to smoke a segar they had arranged the opera- 
 tion together. 
 
 But it is not men only who are engaged in the confidence swindle, 
 women, too, enter upon it ; — and they are the more dangerous. For they 
 deceive the men partly through their feminine attractions and pretended 
 virtue, and sometimes by playing the part of unfortunate widows, thus 
 falsely preying upon the good intentions of honorable men who are ready 
 to do an act of kindness. 
 
 The following case occurred lately. — A woman of middle age, plain in 
 appearance and possessing no very winning attractions, came to a respect- 
 able man in easy circumstances and told him that her uncle had recently 
 died in Germany and had left her a considerable property which she 
 wished to secure to her children before marriage. As she had heard the 
 gentleman mentioned as an honorable and trustworthy man, she requested 
 him to undertake the guardianship of her children and the management of 
 the property. But she wanted the small sum of about thirty dollars to pay 
 a lawyer's fees, for the preparation of the necessary papers, and as she was 
 without means she requested Mr. N. to kindly furnish her the trifling 
 
SWINDLERS. 2G5 
 
 amount required. He did so, and the woman came to him no more. 
 Some time afterwards, however, Mr. N. ascertained where she resided 
 and had her arrested. When she was tried it came out in evidence that 
 she had by similar means swindled quite a large number of respectable 
 people, together to the amount of $3,000. Most of the persons she had 
 applied to had taken the bait, thinking thereby to obtain the management 
 of a considerable property. 
 
 Here is another case. — A well-known member of Congress from the 
 West, whom we will call Pride, came at the end of the session to this city. 
 He went to the Astor House, and on the following morning his name 
 appeared among the list of arrivals in the newspapers. He had dined and 
 was sitting in the gentleman's parlor when one of the servants of the hotel 
 brought him a neat note which had been sent up for him. He opened it 
 and found a letter written on a sheet of gilt-edged paper in a very good 
 lady's hand and signed : — " Celia Brownley." He did not know the name. 
 But the letter informed him that the writer was a young lady who once 
 had lived in good circumstances ; that her father had been ruined by 
 another man and had died of grief; that her mother was ill and that she 
 was living in very miserable circumstances. "When she was looking 
 through the papers in the morning in search of a situation as governess or 
 teacher she had accidentally fallen upon his name in the list of arrivals, 
 and as she had often heard her father mention him as a man of great liber- 
 ality and kind-heartedness, she had taken the liberty of applying to him, 
 she would not have ventured to write to him if she had not felt constrained 
 to seek his advice by the sickness of her mother ; and she thought it might 
 be possible that among his numerous acquaintances he could procure her 
 some kind of situation in a good house. She knew that if he was the Mr. 
 Pride of whom her father had so often spoken she could trust him, and 
 that if he would meet her at such and such a place and time in the evening 
 he would be conferring a great favor upon a very afflicted young woman. 
 
 Now, although Mr. Pride was not acquainted with the name of Brown- 
 ley, he knew that he must be the same " Pride" of whom the father of the 
 writer of this letter must have so often spoken ; and as he was not unwil- 
 ling to render assistance to a helpless yo-ung woman, he went at the time 
 appointed to the rendezvous. The lady was there waiting for him, and 
 very soon she had fascinated him by her beauty, and interested him by her 
 story of poverty. She did not ask money from him ; but she spoke so 
 earnestly of her anxiety for her poor mother that he offered her twenty 
 dollars which she accepted, but only as a loan, and after much reluctance. 
 She said she would ask him to accompany her to her mother ; but she was 
 still very proud and their dwelling was very poor ; but she would talk to 
 her mother, and if he wished it she would take him to their place on the 
 following evening. 
 
 The next night she was there and so was Mr. Pride. The loan of the 
 
266 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 previous evening having supplied their immediate wants, she was very- 
 tranquil, and Mr. Pride found in her a still more pleasant companion* 
 They walked backwards and forwards and engaged in conversation, the 
 lady all the time, however, observing the utmost decorum. Mr. Pride 
 invited her to go with him into Thompson's Saloon and take some supper r 
 but this she positively declined lest, as she said, there might be some 
 friends of her mother there who might then see her in company with a 
 strange gentleman. " Besides," added she, " Mr. Pride, are you not mar- 
 ried?" Mr. Pride answered, — that he had been married, and then re- 
 marked further that if he were a younger man he should consider it a most 
 pleasant duty to make himself her protector for all time ; to which sugges- 
 tion she replied that " she liked grey hairs on a man very much." 
 
 The conversation was continued for a long while. Mr. Pride grew every 
 moment more and more enamoured of his pretty and interesting vision, 
 and as he was a widower he thought he had made a conquest, the happy 
 consummation of which could only be a question of time. 
 
 On the third evening Miss Celia was drowning in tears. The hard- 
 hearted landlord had threatened to retain their furniture for the rent that 
 was owing and to turn her mother and herself into the street. They must 
 now leave New York, — and then they would not be able to redeem her 
 father's watch and the jewelry, &c, of her mother and herself which they 
 had been obliged to pledge. Mr. Pride thinking that now was the time to 
 show his good intentions, and hearing that a hundred and fifty dollars were 
 all that was needed to dry up the tears of his pretty little friend, induced 
 her to accept that amount at his hands. She also promised him that she 
 would meet him at the same place on the following evening. 
 
 Mr. Pride went home and dreamed all night of Celia Brownley, nor 
 could he patiently await the return of the next evening to see her again. 
 He was punctually at the appointed place, but Celia was not there — nor 
 did she come. Mr. Pride had, however, been robbed by the swindler to 
 the amount of $170. 
 
 Again, as was the case with Mr. Pride, two gentlemen came from the 
 interior of the State. It was the time of the so-called Anniversary Meet- 
 ings when ministers and lay-members of many persuasions assemble in 
 New York to discuss the affairs of their respective churches. These two 
 gentlemen came here for that purpose, and put up at a private boarding- 
 house. We will call the one the Rev. Mr. C. and the other " Squire" T» 
 They had not been here two days before the minister received a letter very 
 similar to that which had cost Mr. Pride $170. This minister was a man 
 who could not think of the possibility of such a letter being written from 
 improper motives, and, ever ready to render assistance, he accepted the 
 invitation, and was so affected by what the writer of the letter told him, 
 that he took out his purse and gave her fifty dollars there and then. Also r 
 in the anticipation of making the acquaintance of the young lady's mother, 
 
BWINDLER9. 
 
 2C7 
 
 he promised to meet her again at the same place on the following evening. 
 Hifl intention was to induce the mother to go to his residence where he 
 could then procure the daughter a situation as teacher and thus both mother 
 and daughter would be having an adequate competency. So he left her, 
 contented with himself at having done a good deed and perhaps rescued an 
 innocent girl from ruin. 
 
 The minister said nothing to his friend T. of this meeting ; he only told 
 him that he had something in preparation which he hoped would soon bear 
 good fruit. 
 
 "When the young lady did not make her appearance on the next night, 
 he attributed her absence to the rain. But on the next night again she did 
 not come. Could she then te ill? On the fourth evening he was again at 
 the appointed place, and while he was waiting, walking backwards and 
 forwards, he met his friend T. They nodded at each other and each went 
 his way. A few minutes afterwards they met again, and soon after that 
 they met a third time, and it then occurred to each of them that possibly 
 the same object had brought them both there ; but they said nothing and 
 again nodding to each other they went on. At last they met the fourth 
 time and stopped ; and as each was explaining to the other the cause of his 
 presence, there the young lady made her appearance at the corner of the 
 street where they were, but the instant she was recognized she turned 
 round and disappeared again. The woman had thought that after she had 
 fleeced the minister of 850 and he had waited for her two evenings in vain, 
 he would not come again ; so she then had tried the same game on Squire 
 T. Now, however, when she saw both gentlemen together, she speedily 
 made her escape. The two friends went away, the preacher fifty dollars 
 poorer, both, however, richer in experience, and they returnsd arm in arm 
 to treir residence. 
 
 The only way for strangers who come to New York, and who want to 
 avoid swindlers of every kind, is, as we have said before, to have nothing 
 whatever to do with people whom they do not know ; no matter whether 
 they are men or women, old or young. 
 
 The Patent Safe Swindle is only practised on "greenhorns", and is 
 a kind of dishonest wager. The instrument known as a patent safe is a 
 brass ball, which looks as if it could not be opened, but which in reality is 
 very easily opened. Two swindlers are necessary to work this operation ; 
 —one, who has the ball to get into conversation with some stranger whom 
 he thinks is fool enough to be Gheated in a clumsy way ; and another who 
 comes in and joins the conversation as if by chance. 
 
 The first swindler shows the stranger the ball, which he says he has 
 found, and then gives as his opinion that it cannot be opened. The stranger 
 takes it into his hand, examines it all over, tries whether pressing will. 
 
208 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 open it, and finally concludes that it cannot be opened. The second swin- 
 dler who now comes up as though accidentally asserts the contrary, and 
 offers to make a bet with the stranger upon the matter. They argue on 
 both sides, till the stranger gets warm upon the subject and accepts the bet. 
 The money on both sides is deposited with the first swindler. The second 
 swindler opens the ball and — the stranger is swindled out of his money. 
 
 A similar swindle is that with the " patent pad-lock." — The swindler 
 opens this with a key, but asserts that the stranger cannot open it. When 
 he puts the lock into his hands he changes the key for another which he 
 had kept out of sight, but which is a very little different from the other. 
 With this of course the stranger cannot open the lock. Then when a bet 
 is made, the swindler, who in the meantime exchanges the key again, open3 
 the lock and the stranger loses his money. 
 
 Pocket-book Dropping is a swindle in which strangers only can be 
 ^hindered, and it is practised in the open streets. When the swindler sees 
 anyone coming who seems to him to be a suitable acquisition, he lets a 
 purse fall unobserved upon the foot-path, in which are some counterfeit 
 notes of considerable amount, perhaps fifty or a hundred dollars. The 
 stranger comes to the place where the purse is lying, sees it and is on the 
 point of taking it up, when at the same moment the swindler stops and gets 
 hold of it. Each contends with the other as to who was the actual finder. 
 The swindler opens the purse and sees inside a $50 note. "Now I'll tell 
 you what it is," says the swindler, " we won't quarrel about this, but 
 divide the money." You take the purse and give me $25. Now the con- 
 science of the stranger is sufficiently elastic — and the swindler speculates 
 upon this — to induce him to appropriate even what does not belong to him, 
 so he pays over the $25 and is to that amount swindled. This game is 
 played with different variations, but the result is always the same, that the 
 victim comes off with a portemonnaie full of worthless notes. 
 
 The Union Brotherhood Swindle is no child of New York, but 
 comes from Massachusetts. One John Jones, clerk, (Address A. P. Cro- 
 well, West Yarmouth, Mass.) writes to people in all parts of the country, 
 that if they will send him 25 cents and a postage-stamp, he will return to 
 them a policy of the Union Brotherhood ; the purport of which is that if 
 during the next six months any bodily misfortune should befall them, they 
 would receive, according to the extent of the injuries done them, $50, or 
 $100, or $200. He adds to this " I am rich enough to be able to do much 
 good in this manner." Then he goes on to say " When you answer this, 
 write to me also what you think of the counterfeit money business of R. H. 
 Lewis and of the Loan Brokers Union in New York. In my next I will 
 tell you something of importance." It seems then that this swindler 
 
SWINDLERS. 260 
 
 amnsed his victims with the hopes of the counterfeit money bait, so as to 
 draw out of them something more than the twenty-five cents first demanded. 
 
 Tite New York Loan Brokers Union spoken of above is put forward 
 as the name of a company of money lenders. They distribute thousands 
 of circulars in which they set forth that shortly their next half yearly sale 
 of unredeemed pledges will come oif. Two of these circulars of different 
 dates are lying before us. In one the 27th and in the other the 28th sale 
 is announced. The former gives as the number of the pledges 43,460, 
 worth over a million of dollars, upon which the sum of $207,450 has been 
 advanced. In the second the pledges are 67,500, worth also over a mil- 
 lion of dollars, which are pledged for $315,210. But it is not a genuine 
 sale, and the swindle is executed with a kind of envelope game. The 
 swindlers offer sealed envelopes for 50 cents each, in which are certificates 
 for the splendid things that have been pledged and not redeemed, and 
 among every hundred envelopes there are supposed to be at least twenty 
 certificates for gold and silver watches. But whoever wants to take the 
 article that he finds upon the certificate has to pay another sum of $4.50. 
 Now think for a moment ! In one year this so-called Loan Brokers Union 
 must have accumulated 110,000 unredeemed pledges; or 354 per day ! ! 
 Now swindlers are accustomed to throw on numbers, their experience must 
 tell them, however, that there are very many foolish people about. It can 
 readily be understood that there is no such institute as that named, and the 
 pretended head of the concern, R. H. Lewis, is not to be found at the 
 address he gives, No. 4 Bond Street. 
 
 The Broadway Safe Deposit Company is the name of another 
 swindling concern which ostensibly preserves valuables from injury iu fire 
 and burglar proof safes. This concern writes letters to numberless ad- 
 dresses in the country, in which each of the persons addressed is informed 
 that the sealed packet left with them, of the declared value of so much, 
 perhaps $300 or more, will be sold according to the law if the costs already 
 incurred to such and such a date are not paid. Of course the person has 
 deposited no such packet, but the letter is simply a bait for dishonest peo- 
 ple who would take advantage of any possible mistake and get into their 
 possession things that do not belong to them. But whoever lends himself 
 to it will find himself punished with the loss of the money that he sends. 
 
 We come finally to the Wall Street and Stock Exchange Swindlers, 
 those swindlers who conduct a legitimate business for themselves, among 
 whom thousands are always held in suspense and whom people generally 
 term exchange gamblers ; and justly, because their business, their constant 
 speculation in the rise and fall of stocks and gold is in reality nothing more 
 than a game of hazard. To-day it makes them rich, to-morrow poor, and 
 
270 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 brings untold misery upon numbers of families whose heads give them- 
 selves up to the game ; nay, it has led many of its operators to theft, cheat- 
 ing, counterfeiting ; and at last to jail. 
 
 On that part of Wall Street opposite Broad Street, where now stands 
 the fine building of the Sub-Treasury of the United States, once stood the 
 old City Hall when the citty of New York had a much smaller circuit than 
 at present. It was from the balcony of that building that the immortal 
 Washington was inaugurated as President of the United States. Wall and 
 Broad Streets consisted at that time chiefly of dwelling houses, and Wash- 
 ington himself lived in a house on the lower part of Broad Street. Now 
 Wall Street is the financial centre of the country, where the millionairs, 
 the great speculators, and the monied controllers of the exchange have their 
 headquarters, and where, as well in a few neighboring streets as in Broad 
 Street, are the offices of the brokers through whom almost all the specula- 
 tion in exchange is conducted. 
 
 In Broad Street are the gold and stock exchanges where the purchase 
 and sale of these speculations are effected. The Board of Brokers is old, 
 and has existed since the year 1794. At one time the entrance fee was 
 fifty dollars, now it is three thousand. Whoever wishes to become a mem- 
 ber must have his name proposed by a member, and it must remain upon 
 the list of candidates for ten days. If no exception be taken to it during 
 this time, the candidate is ballotted for with balls, and if fourteen black 
 balls are cast, the admission is thrown out. The rules of this board are 
 very strict and any violation of them is followed by dismissal. Every con- 
 tract made there is looked upon as a financial affair of honor and must be 
 fulfilled to the letter ; if not, the party at fault, no matter how high his posi- 
 tion may be, must yield to the customary punishment. For instance one 
 broker buys of another stock of the Erie Railroad and the seller delivers 
 it. The amount must be paid before three o'clock. In this way stocks 
 and gold in amounts of millions change hands every day, and although the 
 rules of the board are interpreted in their entire strictness, there has been 
 only one member expelled for fraud during the whole time the board has 
 been in existence. But the newspapers often show the sacrifices, the high 
 interest, which it often costs to raise the necessary sums at the moment 
 they are wanted ; for we constantly read of a rate of interest of an eighth 
 or a fourth of one per cent, or more per day being paid for short loans. 
 Some of the most active and bold financiers who influence the market to 
 their own advantage, would gladly pay the three thousand dollars entrance 
 money if they could become a member of the board ; but they will not be 
 admitted because their financial reputation is not good, and in consequence 
 they have to let their business on the exchange be undertaken by some one 
 else who is a member. v 
 
 On going into the building the members pass first through an ante-room 
 in which they have to show their tickets of membership ; and if these are 
 
SWINDLERS. 271 
 
 round to be correct, they then are allowed to enter the hall or gold room. 
 This hall is got up with lavish splendor, but is both elegant and tasteful. 
 Tlu- soft cushioned arm-chairs are richly inlaid and the walls in place of 
 the ordinary hangings are covered with green silk. The ceiling is deco- 
 rated with paintings, rich chandeliers hang from it, and the seat of the 
 president is a most elegant piece of furniture. The president receives no 
 salary, his office is purely honorary. The chief business is to conduct pur- 
 chases and sales. This is attended to by the first vice-president who offi- 
 ciates in the monotonous work as auctioneer of stocks and gold, for which 
 he receives a yearly salary of seven thousand five hundred dollars. A list 
 of the stocks that are for sale is prepared for each day. Shares that are 
 ■not on the list cannot be sold at the board, which, as a body, has power to 
 tlecide upon the admission of stocks to the list. 
 
 During the hours of business the hall, which will well hold a thousand 
 people, is quite crowded, and scarcely a day passes that some stockholder 
 does not create an agitation in the exchange, induced by some unexpected 
 rise or fall in stocks. The sale of the great majority of the different stocks 
 -usually goes on quietly, but when such are called, upon which speculation 
 is especially directed, the whole assembly falls into an uproar. They 
 stand up, crowd together and shout out their bids. All speak at once, and 
 there is one prolonged universal din, as though the wild huntsmen of the 
 story books with their visionary packs were indeed a reality. Hundreds 
 of people raging with excitement, mad with anxiety, are roaring, scream- 
 ing, gesticulating, stamping with their feet, shaking their fists in each 
 others faces, vociferating one against another, while within the circle they 
 seem not to hear them and the presiding officer sits quiet and silent. But 
 when the noise becomes too strong, he uses his hammer to command peace. 
 When a sale is effected, the president repeats the name of the purchaser, 
 and if any objection be taken to his decision, the disputed question is settled 
 by a vote of the board. Very often a hundred thousand dollars may be 
 depending on that decision, but whatever that decision be, each party is 
 required to abide by it. 
 
 In this hall assemble the elite of the financial world of New York. 
 There is, however, also another section of that world, for here are to be 
 found the curbstone or " corner" brokers as they are termed, because 
 before this place was available to them they used to meet on the street 
 corners and do their business there. This hall is open to all who pay an 
 annual entrance fee of one hundred dollars. The people who assemble 
 there are not restricted by any set rules and laws, — and thus there are to 
 be found there people who without any character meet to speculate as they 
 like ; but these have not the entrance to the upper hall where the Board of 
 Brokers meet. Nor do they tie themselves to the building ; but often 
 adjourn to the street where they continue their noisy talk and negotiations 
 and contentions, and not unfrequently annoy the neighborhood with their 
 
272 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 shrieks and quarrels. Very often the passers-by can hardly squeeze through 
 the mobs that obstruct the foot-paths, and which frequently extend over a. 
 part of the carriage way. As many of these people have nothing to lose 
 and all to win, there cannot fail to be many unprincipled ones among them 
 who are not very particular as to the means by which they attain their 
 ends. 
 
 While changes of fortune and failures are no rarities in New York, it is 
 among those who deal in stocks that they are not frequent. No game of 
 chance is more seducing or more pernicious than this kind of speculation 
 and the good luck of the few who grow rich by it leads thousands to ven- 
 ture upon a sea of delusions. Men of every calling, tradesmen, small capi- 
 talists who have withdrawn from active business, managers of other peoples 
 money, farmers, physicians, nay, even ministers and widows, seek fortune 
 here to try and grow rich in haste. Storekeepers who have money in the 
 bank and who do not want it immediately in their legitimate business, 
 hotel proprietors who have made anything, bank officers, cashiers and 
 clerks, and very many besides who speculate with money that does not 
 belong to them are tempted to enter into stock speculations, and thereby to 
 bring ruin upon themselves, their families, and all who are dependent upon 
 them. 
 
 People who speculate in Wall Street lead a frightful life and soon grow 
 old. Their whole thoughts are directed, from weeks end to weeks end, 
 Sundays and business days, to the hazards of a wild speculation. They 
 live expensively, drink much, and in the evening exchange the excitement 
 of speculation for that of the gambling table. Need we wonder when we 
 see so many business people of New York whose hairs are grey before their 
 time, so many young grey headed men, languishing away their existence 
 almost before they have attained to manhood. These are dumb, but elo- 
 quent witnesses of the pernicious influence wrought by the passions of the 
 stock-gambler. 
 
 The sudden ruin of happy families, the sacrifice of elegant residences, 
 sales of costly furniture, of silver-ware and equipages, the downfall to sub*- 
 ordinate positions of people who held a good station in society, — these are 
 events of daily occurrence in New York ; and almost always they are the 
 consequences of people allowing themselves to be led aside into stock 
 gambling from their own legitimate business, which, if respectable and 
 sufficient to provide a competency, they still think does not enable them to 
 grow rich fast enough. New York is full of rascals and unprincipled 
 speculators, who have no hesitation in drawing into their nests the incau- 
 tious and trusting, simply in order to plunder and* to ruin them. But it is 
 not only thoughtless people who are beguiled, but people who have been 
 successful in business and yet who knowing nothing of stock speculations, 
 place themselves at the mercy of others and are by them deceived. In 
 this way people lose by a reckless business which they do not understand 
 
 
SWINDLERS. 2711 
 
 all that they made in a solid business which they did understand. But the 
 .hope of a great and sudden fortune is very captivating. The first begin- 
 ning is made with a small sum, and to save that the speculator goes deeper 
 ■and deeper, till the speculation has ruined the good business which was 
 going well. And thus a respectable property, accumulated by diligence 
 and ability, is lost through the senseless longing to make fifty or a hundred 
 thousand dollars in a few days. The wild desire to speculate in stocks 
 and gold has brought to the surface a peculiar kiud of people, and whereas 
 the stock business was once in the hands of the most solid and wealthy, it 
 is now controlled by men who are unscrupulous and often desperate. 
 Whoever has a hundred or a couple of hundred dollars can call himself a 
 broker, he at once begins to speculate in stocks or gold, and then no gam- 
 bler is more daring than such people. 
 
 The constant changes of fortune in Wall Street are greater than most 
 people who reside at a distance have any conception of. A man who pos- 
 sesses, let us say half a million, when in the morning he leaves his home 
 fitted with every comfort, may return to it a poor man at night. Among 
 the richer speculators it often happens that in one day such a one will lose 
 and pay away, to cover his exchanges, as much as $100,000 ; and not long 
 ago an operator, well known in Wall Street, having to deliver stock and 
 being unable to do so, drew a cheque for a quarter of a million of dollars 
 to clear his obligations. And this was the loss upon one transaction only. 
 
 This irrational rage for speculation, so destructive of all discretion, leads 
 at the same time to an equally irrational and prodigal model of life, unfits 
 the man for any legitimate and substantial business, and pervades more or 
 less all sections of society. As we have said before, women and ministers 
 do homage to it, and the latter have furnished some good illustrations of 
 its effects. — A minister well known in this city is a remarkable example, 
 of the degree to which a man can become forgetful of his personal dignity 
 when he gives himself up to stock gambling. This man began with a very 
 iittie and won something. Then he set himself to make it five thousand 
 dollars. But his covetousness continued to grow with his success and at 
 latt it pointed to a quarter of a million. And this speculation, this strug- 
 gling for riches, made the parson a changed man. He grew thin and hag- 
 _anl with wild staring eyes. He could not sleep, and used to buy up every 
 different issue of all the papers to study the stock list. And ii an extra 
 edition of any of them were cried out in the streets, he would rush out 
 from any place to buy that. He was the first at the Exchange in the morn- 
 ing and the last at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in the evening, when the even- 
 in- fitting of the board was held there. Whether a quarter of a million is 
 worth all that it has cost this man, he alone can best say. 
 
 A young girl came to New York from the New England States. She 
 was the daughter of an artisan and had grown up in very limited circum- 
 stances. A well-to-do man, whose reputation was not remarkable, but 
 
274 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 who was at least amiable, offered her his hand. She did not expect love* 
 from him, neither had she any special inducement to esteem him ; but in 
 place of these essentials to a happy marriage he offered her an elegant 
 house, costly adornments, and carriage and horses. So she suddenly found 
 herself in the top rank of society. She now made a great show and looked 
 down with contempt upon her poor friends and acquaintances. Her hus- 
 band then went heavily into speculations on the Exchange and — lost all his 
 property. To help himself out of his difficulties he began counterfeiting, 
 got into jail, and had all the rest of his possessions sold by the sheriff, 
 while at the same time her jewels, which had cost fifteen thousand dollars, 
 likewise disappeared. She had been suddenly raised from obscurity ; but 
 through stock gambling in the first instance and then counterfeiting as a 
 consequence of it, she was quite as suddenly plunged back again into 
 poverty. 
 
 We do not think we can give the reader any more faithful and stirring 
 picture of stock speculation than that furnished by an account of the cele- 
 brated "Black Friday." 
 
 On Wednesday, the 22d of September, 1869, one of the most powerful 
 efforts ever made by the bull*) party to raise the price of gold was first 
 begun. It succeeded to such a terrible degree that if its consequences ha<$ 
 gone much further it would have completely broken down the market, 
 rendered all values mutable, and brought a ruinous money crisis over the 
 whole country. As it was, those disgraceful efforts brought terrible losses- 
 upon the community, and among stock exchange people dozens were ruined 
 and many of the strongest houses engaged in the stock and gold business 
 went through the whole of that day without knowing in the least how they 
 stood. 
 
 On the day mentioned the premium on gold stood, at 12 o'clock, at 37£. 
 At two o'clock it reached 39, and before evening it had got to 41 ; an in- 
 crease of 3J- in five hours. At the same time and in consequence of this 
 sudden rise in the value of gold, stocks correspondingly fell. New York 
 Central Railroad stock to 23 per cent, and Harlem River Railroad 13 per 
 cent. Loans had become almost impossible to procure, and the most enor- 
 mous interest was demanded for the use of money for only twenty-four 
 hours. The financial storm was steadily reaching to an annihilating hur- 
 ricane. 
 
 While the purpose of the bulls was in the meantime well understood, the 
 
 *) The opposing parties on the gold and stock exchanges are known as " bulls " and " bears ". The 
 bulls aim at raising the prices of stock, the bears endeavor to lower them. The names thus appropriated 
 from the animals, take their origin in the idea, that the bull throws into the air whatever he takes upon 
 his horns, the bear, on the other hand, crushes down whatever he seizes in his paws. Tho purpose of 
 these parties is a purely selfish one, and has only the object of turning some personal profits, no matter 
 what the consequences may be to other people who hold 6tock of the same kind, whether they be made 
 to Buffer loss or even ruin. And it is this peculiar purpose on the Btock exchange that distinguishes it 
 from all honorable and legitimate business, where in place of buyers and sellers speculating tn ruin each 
 other, the advantage of both is kept in view. 
 
SWINDLERS. 2~~> 
 
 boar? made a firm stand and combated the difficulty as well as they cotald. 
 Whatever efforts the bulls at first made to conceal their purpose, they soon 
 threw off the mask ; and the proprietors of tin Erie, with the daring and 
 unscrupulous James Fisk, jun., (since murdered by Stokes, another stock- 
 gambler) at their head, assured the bears who wanted gold to fulfil their 
 engagements, that they could not settle up too quickly, since the ring held 
 calls to the amount of hundred millions, and that they must either be con- 
 tent to pay 150 or else the price should be put up to 200 and kept there. 
 The movement had extended among all who were in any manner interested 
 in stocks and gold, and among these were of course besides very many out- 
 side speculators — people, who having a little surplus money, allowed them- 
 selves to be misled into speculating in shares, and who now had been con- 
 tinually making fresh payments to the brokers who had been buying for 
 them on time to enable them to hold their stocks and so perhaps avoid a 
 more serious loss. 
 
 On Thursday morning early gold started at 141 J and immediately after- 
 wards it jumped to 144. Now the bulls began to draw the screws tighter 
 and peremptory orders were given to all those who had bought on time to 
 increase their margins.*) At the same time the rates of interest for short 
 loans overnight had reached such an enormous height, that no one could 
 stand against them long. Stories were set in circulation that the Govern- 
 ment at Washington would not interfere in the matter and that no help 
 could come from the United States Treasury to help the distresses of the 
 bears now brought to the brink of ruin. A lock up of gold was next talked 
 about, thus making all loans impossible, and this report received some 
 authentication afterwards from the fact that on that day one bank alone 
 had certified cheques to the amount of twenty-five million dollars. Many 
 brokers lost courage and some settled at once as w r ell as they could. The 
 Exchange was in an indescribable uproar, and the couflict extended itself 
 at the Fifth Avenue Hotel far into the night. 
 
 In the meanwhile the press had given prominence to all the proceedings 
 and thereby invoked a general agitation on the matter. Friday morning, 
 therefore, saw Wall and Broad Streets filled with unwonted faces. All 
 the population of New York that had the leisure flocked thitherward, and 
 among them very many little people, who beguiled into taking a part in 
 the game of the Exchange, had risked their all, and now dreaded the 
 threatening loss. Long before nine o'clock these melancholy people crowded 
 through in the hope of possibly finding a place in the gallery of the Ex- 
 change. They had made good their margins up to 143, the figure at 
 which gold stood the night before, and now were waiting in intense anxiety 
 to see what form things would take. They had not long to wait. Scarcely 
 
 
 *) When stocks or gold are booght on time, that is for delivery on some appointed future day, the 
 purchaser makes a deposit, which usually amounts to ten per cent, of the purchase money, to make pro- 
 vision for any detrimental alteration* in values. 
 
276 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 was the Exchange opened, when one of the bulls in a loud voice offered to 
 take twenty-five thousand dollars at 145. This offer set the gallery in con- 
 sternation, for now all that they possessed was in danger. Would their 
 brokers stand firm ? It was for these poor people a fearful time. The 
 bears closed round the aggressors. Shrieks filled the air and a terrible 
 scene ensued in which fractional bids were heard now and again till 146 
 was reached. The crowd on the floor of the room increased every moment 
 and gold still kept going up first to 147, then to 149, and after some twenty 
 minutes had elapsed it reached 150J. The regular business hours were 
 now passed, but the room continued to get more crowded, and the din to 
 rise higher. 
 
 At eleven o'clock the rate had been 150J-. In six minutes it shot up to 
 155. All restraint now seemed to be let loose. The hall shook with the 
 raging noise, which would hardly have been taken for the result of human 
 voices. Clenched fists, livid faces, pale brows from which the perspiration 
 rolled in huge drops showed the inward sufferings of the combatants and 
 gave them such an excited aspect, that one might have expected every 
 moment an outbreak of general insanity. The work of years was gliding 
 away with every advance of prices. And when one thinks that here, in a 
 moment, whole fortunes were disappearing, that the sale and purchase of 
 five hundred millions in gold was going on, that every moment the rates 
 were threatening to go higher, and then again the exulting shout arose 
 ■above the tumult which said that the Government was coming to the 
 rescue, a report, too, which new arrivals brought into the hall — we need 
 .hardly wonder that it should seem as if everybody present had gone mad, 
 .and bought and sold with scarce a thought either for the present or for the 
 future. Then came the terrific bid of a broker named Speyer, who offered 
 160 for any number of millions and had his offer immediately accepted by 
 another broker up to two and a half millions. But the bids did not relax, 
 .and rates ran to 161, 162, 162^-. For five minutes the Board of Brokers 
 seemed powerless. Seconds seemed hours. At last a broker, acting in 
 behalf of the great banking-house of Baring Brothers, of London, sold five 
 millions to the bulls at the highest price of the day. Another followed the 
 example, and thus the bears gained courage. The news now arrived that 
 the Secretary of the Treasury had interfered and gold fell at once from 160 
 to 140, and in a few minutes more to 130. The end of the crisis had been 
 reached, and the exhausted bears streamed out into the street to breath a 
 little fresh air. But peace had not come to these men. In some of their 
 offices the customers who had irrevocably lost their deposits were assembled 
 in dozens, hurling out threats of the worst kind ; while excited mobs were 
 Steadily gathering before others ; — so that as evening came on, Broad and 
 
 ^Wall Streets had all the Appearance of soon becoming the scene of a riot. 
 A great crowd of people besieged the doors of Smith, Gould, Martin & 
 <Co., and of Heath & Co., while Fisk was assaulted and his life threatened. 
 
 \ 
 
SWINDLERS. 
 
 277 
 
 Deputy-sheriffs aud police officers made their appearance, and in Brooklyn 
 a company of troops was held in readiness to march upon Wall Street. 
 
 As night approached, Broad Street and the neighboring streets bore a 
 most unusual appearance. Usually after seven o'clock in the evening 
 everything there is dark and death-like, but to-day hundreds of windows 
 were a-blaze with gas-lights, and brokers, clerks after a hasty meal were 
 hurrying back to their offices. Long, indeed, after the bells of the Trinity 
 clock had greeted the new born day, many could be seen still sitting over 
 their books, making preparations for the coming morning. 
 
 But Saturday brought no relief. The Gold Board met only to adjourn, 
 since the Clearing House, encumbered by ever uewly announced failures, 
 could not complete the task of settling the accounts. Small brokers had 
 gone under by the dozen ; and rumors of the probable downfall of some of 
 the largest houses gave rise to fresh fears. The Stock Exchange was now 
 the centre of general attraction. If this yielded, all was lost. To sustain 
 it and to prevent a further downfall of prices was of the most vital import- 
 ance. But where was the rescueing hand to be looked for? Throughout 
 the whole of the preceding day shares had been falling. New York Cen- 
 tral went down to 148, but recovered to 185 J. Hudson River Railroad 
 shares fell from 173 to 145. Pittsburg fell to 68 and North Western to 
 62^. The shrinkage of all securities of this kind had extended to thirty 
 millions, and the question now was whether the prices would fall still 
 lower. The Stock Exchange presented a picture of the utmost confusion. 
 But financial men sitting quietly in their offices and watching the state of 
 the market presented to them by their telegraphs saw that Vanderbilt was 
 supporting the New York Central, and that the weakness in other shares 
 was not sufficient to call back early fears. It was soon known, too, that 
 capitalists from Philadelphia, Boston, and the great towns of the West had 
 thrown themselves into the breach and by bold purchases not only earned 
 money for themselves, but by sustaining prices exercised a healthy influence 
 ou the money market. The knowledge of this had a soothing influence ; 
 but still the pulse of Wall Street w r as beating with too much fever to be 
 altogether quieted by such means. A report spread that the Tenth Na- 
 tional Bank was weak, and in consequence crowds of people beset the place 
 throughout the day, anxious only to withdraw their deposits. But the 
 bank held out. A similar scene was going on at the Gold Exchange Bank, 
 where enraged brokers were threatening the clerks if they did not give 
 them an instant settlement. The details which the press had given of the 
 occurrences of the past few days, had damaged the credit of some of the 
 best houses ; for in a crisis like that of Black Friday the sluices of other 
 pa^ions are opened than those w r hich have regard only to gain and loss. 
 Under the mantel of genuine mistrust came reports of the instability of 
 good houses, reports which were founded on no other ground than old 
 enmities growing out of jealousy and malice ; se the most substantial firms 
 
278 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 had to suffer the stabs of ancient animosities. The knowledge that certain 
 houses were the holders of large quantities of certain stocks was the signal 
 for an attack upon the shares, all of which had the effect of influencing 
 securities and tightening the loan market in spite of outside orders to very 
 large amounts. One, one and a half, two, nay even as much as four per 
 cent, had to be paid for money to enable holders to carry over their stocks 
 till Monday. 
 
 When the Gold Board met on Monday, September 27th, it was only to 
 be informed that the Clearing House had not yet completed the work of 
 Friday. Important accounts were still kept back, and the business which 
 had swelled to a total of five hundred millions had not yet been settled 
 even, although all the clerks had been engaged on the work. A proposi- 
 tion was made to go on with business irrespective of the Clearing House ; 
 for a moment the fate of this was in doubt ; but almost immediately after 
 the proposal was laid on the table. The proposition was in fact a device 
 of the bears, for no Exchange can transact business when distrust hangs 
 over the honesty of its dealers. As the majority of the brokers were more 
 or iesss implicated in the transactions of the previous day, the consequence 
 of an acceptance of the proposition would have been general bankruptcy, 
 whereby property to the value of some sixty millions of dollars would have 
 been brought under the hammer. It was at length resolved that the Ex- 
 change should remain open for loans, but that dealings of all kinds should 
 be for the time suspended. The effect of this was that gold had no certain 
 value and that in one house it was bought for 139 and in another probably 
 for 133. 
 
 Such is the story of Black Friday ; and it must be admitted that the 
 occurrences of that day will have justified us in placing stock-gambling 
 under the chapter on swindling. Where men deal not in actual, but in 
 presumptive values, as in the arbitrary and violent raising or lowering of 
 shares, and where in a moment whole fortunes may be lost by speculation, 
 then the business must be placed in the category of gambling and swindling. 
 
 The effects of transactions which are based and depend upon the falling 
 and rising in value of stocks cannot possibly be foreseen, and is but little 
 influenced by the ability and activity of the parties concerned ; for any 
 powerful clique can at any time so drag down the value of the security it 
 holds as to lose its chief import ; — and no one who gives himself up to 
 these speculations can say on Monday what his position may be at the end 
 of the week. Of any ten people who speculate in gold or stocks, nine are 
 losers ; and especially those who not being acquainted with all the opera- 
 tions and tricks of the business are only groping in the dark when they 
 meddle with them. Stock-gambling holds its victims with an iron grasp 
 even as does gambling at the green table, and the only safe way for those 
 to go who are striving to be or to remain in good circumstances, is that 
 which enables them to keep at a distance from all speculations on the 
 
SWLNDLRRS. 279 
 
 Exchange, whether it be in stocks or in gold. Where one man is made rich 
 by the sudden rise of values in the securities he holds, hundreds in a single 
 day may be losers by the equally sudden downfall in the value of theirs, 
 and it is in this way that so many old and well proved firms have been 
 forced to give way. 
 
 To make this chapter more complete, we mu*t for a few moments return 
 to the saw-dust and counterfeit money swindle with which we began it, 
 since, during the passage of that account through the press, two interesting 
 cases came to our knowledge. One occurred here, the other in Germany. 
 
 On the 14th of March the police made a raid upon one of these concerns, 
 when some interesting revelations came to light. The establishment 
 belonged to one A. Menager, 568 Broadway, who conducted his operations 
 under the following aliases : — Geo. E. Ward, 205 Mercer Street ; Samuel 
 Parker & Co., 74 Bleecker Street ; Walter Lane, Dr. Appleton, and J. 
 Ward Emerson, 566 Broadway. Besides a whole cart-load of circulars 
 and correspondences; the police took also all the books of the concern, 
 from which it appeared that thousands of people from all parts of the 
 country had ordered counterfeit money in the expectation that they would 
 receive it, and for that purpose had sent money. Further than this the 
 manager had an account in the East River Bank of $3,748.19 made out 
 of his business, another of $1,197 in the Manufacturers and Merchants 
 Bank ; and besides that it was shown that during the past six weeks — 
 mark, six weeks only — he had deposited in different savings banks no less 
 than $22,000 ; and that within the space of one week, from the 15th to the 
 22d of November of last year, the United States Express Company had 
 collected for the manager as much as $3,221. What a miserable condi- 
 tion of society ! What terrible corruption these facts display ! Where 
 thousands of people, calling themselves citizens of the United States, givo 
 orders for counterfeit money in order that they may cheat their fellow- 
 citizens and enrich themselves by the most disgraceful means ! But yet 
 another interesting fact was brought very prominently to light by this 
 seizure by the police. This was a list of a number of the people who 
 ordered the false notes. This list was copied from a receipt book of the 
 United States Express Company and comprises the names for only the 
 short period named above. We append here the names, and to each of 
 them we have affixed the amount which each person remitted : — 
 
 Thomas King, Berlin, Mich., $38 ; Daniel Parkhouse, Vernon, Mich., 
 $31 ; Noah Drum, East St. Louis, Mo., $23 ; K. Smith, Pleasant Plain, 
 Ohio, $32 ; R. Bailey, Neponset, 111., $24 ; Eugene P. Haydock, Candor, 
 N. Y., $32 ; J. D. Kingsley, Argenta, Montana, $54 ; P. Root, Doyles- 
 town., Wis., $10; Geo. M. Milhouse, Paragon, Ind., $18 ; Thomas R. 
 Murphy, Chambersville, 111., $12; C. Tanner, Sharon, Pa., $9 ; W. W. 
 Bolinger, Bradford, Pa., $1 ; H. L. Dodds, Independence, Mo., $54; G. 
 
280 TUE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 H. Loomis, Franklin, Pa., $12; Richard Gore, Bardstown, Ky., $88;; 
 Joseph G. Norton, Knoxville, Tenn., $13 ; R. M. Steign, Paris, Tenn.,. 
 $30 ; Daniel O. Hesler, Ada, Ohio, $14 ; Samuel Akin, Mason Depot.. 
 Tenn., $12 ; John M. Geret, Jefferson, 111., $52 ; Henry B. Williams r 
 Canon City, Colorado, $30 ; N. M. Johnson, Murfreesboro, Tenn., $34 ;. 
 Edgar McChesney, Bath, III., $32 ; Wm. T. Martin, Logansport, Ind., 
 $32 ; E. L. Tunnidiff, Richfield Springs, N. Y., $23 ; George Stupplebeer, 
 Palmyra, N. Y., $28 ; C. P. Glaspie, Rome, Mich., $24 ; H. S. Reist 7 
 Coopersville, Mich., $28 ; J. J. Cox, Worthington, Ind., $28 ; J. W. Mc- 
 Spacn, Mill Springs, Mo., $24 ; W. R. Wilcox, Washington, Kansas, $28 \ 
 S. A. Hightower, Lebanon, Ind., $64 ; Serano F. Thomas, Reed City, 
 Mich., $28 ; William B. Galbraith, Concord, Ohio, $8 ; George Ford, Put- 
 man, Ontario, Canada, $16 ; R. S. Burrows, Keokuk, Iowa, $24 ; W. S- 
 Morgan, Colo, Iowa, $12 ; E. M. Messenger, Clinton, Mo., $34 ; C. W. 
 Odell, La Crosse, Ark., $32 ; W. J. Bloom, Jr., Ashland, 111., $9 ; George 
 Goldsmith, Cairo, 111., $5 ; Isaiah Frasure, Logan, Ohio, $32 ; J. Terry r 
 Draper, Utah, $24 ; John Getschell, Chicago, 111., $34 ; James A. Baird r 
 Findlay, Ohio, $38 ; Harry C. Sharer, Cedar Springs, Mich,, $14 ; Benj. 
 C. Lougist, Beaver, Utah, $28 ; C. W. Young, Loveland, Ohio, $28 %. 
 Elisha Morton, South Union, Ky., $6 ; F. M. Shook, Taylorsville, Ind.,, 
 $32 ; Elisha Marvin, Findlay, Ohio, $32 ; W. Perkins, Akron, N. Y. r 
 $34 ; J. T. Miller, Penn Yan, N. Y., $34 ; Peter Brumer, Pr-arieburg,. 
 Iowa, $32 ; J. W. Rice, Geneseo, 111., $34; Ed. Trimble, Filmore City, 
 Utah, $32 ; C. Williams, St. Joseph, Mo., $500 ; Thomas Penrose, La 
 Anse, Mich., $28 ; H. Carnon, Pleasanton, Kansas, $32 ; J. B. Duther- 
 age, Arkadelphia, Ark., $32 ; G. W. Duff, Frankfort, Ohio, $32 ; Charles 
 Robertson, Chetopia, Kansas, $32 ; Noble Anderson, Jacksonport, Ark.,, 
 $32 ; George H. Leslie, Austin, Minn., $48 ; Frederick Erb, Brookfield,. 
 Me., $24 ; William Chambers, Colorado Springs, Col., $25 ; D. B. Nor- 
 man, Paris, Tenn., $34 ; Marion Morin, Negaunec, Mich., $54 ; David 
 Thompson, Berbank, Ohio, $54; E. M.Wheeler, Brattleboro, Vt. $18 ; 
 William Lemont, Youngstown, Ohio, $32 ; E. S. Stevenson, Portland,. 
 Mich., $10 ; C. Carmichael, Valley Ford, Ohio, $32 ; S. McCrosky, Mon- 
 roe, Iowa, $18 ; B. C. Churchill, Chicago, 111., $18 ; Charles W. Siming- 
 ton, Juliet, 111., $12 ; B. T. Murphy, Toledo, Ohio, $44 ; G. B. Adkins, 
 Van Buren, Ark., $54 ; Mrs. " E. J.", Ovid, Mich, $32 ; L. S. Ross, Oc- 
 tagon, Ind., $32 ; John Lynch, Milwaukee, Wis., $32 ; William F. Keith, 
 Jr., Shelby ville, Tenn., $5 ; William Nebel, Muscoda, Wis., $16 ; Chas. 
 Shoppa, Albion, Pa., $32 ; Malcom Taylor, Caledonia Station, 111., $32 ; 
 George D. Faulkner, Council Bend, Ark., $32 ; C. W. Hinckley, Bing- 
 hamton^N. Y., $32 ; E. H. Wilcox, Jefferson, Ohio, $32 ; H. J. Runkle, 
 Siadia, Mo., $34 ; John Crov. Colchester, 111., $34 ; William Burghart, 
 Paterson, N. Y., $14 ; D. D. Divine, Jeffersonville, Ind., $28 ; James H» 
 Wilson, Versailles, 111., $8 ; N. S. Mitchell, Tremont, Wis., $32. 
 
SWINDLERS. 28 L 
 
 During two months the New York post-office stopped between sixteen 
 and seventeen thousand circulars which had been mailed by that concern ; 
 thus giving a fresh demonstration of the astonishing extent to which the 
 swindle had spread. 
 
 From the revelations here recorded, which are, indeed, disheartening to 
 every true patriot and every honorable man, it is pleasant to turn to the 
 history of a similar swindle as it comes to us from Europe. Four Ameri- 
 can swindlers tried to introduce the saw-dust swindle into Germany ; but 
 it turned out badly, for very short work was made of the rascals there. 
 Their names are : Frederick Langguth, a Dutchman, but who had lived 
 in this country more than 20 years ; Sebald S. Trau, a German who emi- 
 grated to Canada in 1856 ; Peter Sal, Cohen, born here, of German 
 parents, and Edw. Ryan, an Irishman by birth, who had formerly lived ill 
 San Francisco and Iowa. These people rented an office in Leipsic Street, 
 Berlin, and furnished it welL They pretended to carry on a banking busi- 
 ness under the name of AVatson & Co. They distributed — after the fash- 
 ion of the saw-dust swindlers here — an immense number of circulars 
 throughout all places in Germany, in which they offered counterfeit United 
 States bonds for about one-fourth the value of the genuine. But the people 
 of that country were too honest for the rascals to make much out of them. 
 Although according to the statements of the authorities of the Berlin post- 
 office they had distributed many thousands of circulars, they had had only 
 two answers, and in one of the very first transactions they entered into 
 ihey received a check. A Polish jew being caught by the bait and swin- 
 dled, denounced the swindlers. They were arrested on the 3d of Decem- 
 ber, tried on the 16th of January, and each of them sentenced to five years 
 penitentiary. 
 
 Here, in the Republic of the United States, not one of these swindlers 
 has been convicted, although not content with being the most consummate 
 rascals themselves, they induce numberless others to be as bad ; — while in 
 imperial Germany they are promptly punished. What a contrast ! And 
 how humiliating to our republicanism ! How long then shall we allow 
 ourselves to be shamed in honesty and the proper administration of jus'ice^ 
 by monarchical Germany ! 
 
 In the chapter now closing we have — we are convinced — disclosed such 
 a picture of this foul spot on the life of New York and the United States,. 
 as has never before been shown either in our own or in any other language. 
 If we have somewhat exceeded the limits w T e had prescribed for the subject 
 in order to mention all the swindling concerns that have been presented to 
 us, and many of which are practised outside of New York, it seemed neces- 
 sary to do so to render the account as complete as possible ; and it was. 
 only by completeness that we could convey the information and the warn- 
 ing that we desired. We hope, therefore, that this chapter will be especi- 
 ally useful in serving to protect others from loss ; for whoever will have 
 
282 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 read it must certainly be in a better position to defeat the swindlers no 
 matter what new form their plans may be made to assume. 
 
 Swindling, often underrated and even laughed at, occupies in reality no 
 subordinate position among crimes ; and it is so much the more dangerous 
 inasmuch as the swindler, unlike the thief, seeks his objects not by contend- 
 ing against the will of others, but by making that will subservient to him- 
 self; an act which he accomplishes by deception and flattery. The swin- 
 dler is essentially a scorner of all fidelity and trust ; and as the enemy of 
 -confidence and truth he is the soul of that immoral traffic which shakes 
 from its foundation the whole fabric of society, strengthens corruption and 
 fosters indifference to injustice and crime. 
 
 We bave already given a list of the principle saw-dust and counterfeit 
 money swindlers, we propose to append at the close of the work a further 
 list to include as far as possible the names of all other firms of swindlers. 
 
 GAMBLING HOUSES AND THEIR VICTIMS. 
 
 It would be strange if in a city like New York, where among hundreds 
 of thousands of good and industrious people there are also the most doubt- 
 ful and the most depraved characters gathered from all the nations, as it 
 were to a focus, opportunities were not found readily enough to gratify a 
 passion which has prevailed from earliest times as the most corrupt ten- 
 dency of mankind ; one, however, which at all periods of history and among 
 all people has been followed with a zeal, may we not almost say, with a 
 iury, which seems to justify the assertion that the inclination lies deeply 
 ingrained in human nature ; and that its fascinating allurements find in the 
 hearts of individuals a sympathetic approximation which makes it evident 
 that they will be put forward in the future for their destruction. 
 
 We speak of gambling, and its ruinous consequences to individuals, to 
 families, and to the entire community. 
 
 And here alas ! we have to recognize the fact that, like the two other 
 deities who conduct men to the brink of ruin — Bacchus and Venus — to 
 whom in the proud city of New York temples and palaces of unparallelled 
 splendor have been erected ; so, too, the presiding goddess of the gaming 
 table, dame fortune, has had broad halls placed to her honor with the most 
 artistic taste, luxury, and refinement in which speculating upon the nobler 
 -emotions of the human breast men are allured so enticingly to ruin. 
 
 It is quite incomprehensible how a man who has five sound senses to 
 

 GAMBLING HOUSES AND TIIKIK VICTIMS. Z&8 
 
 <niide him can come to such a place to sacrifice time, money, and health, 
 at the business of card playing, which should be followed in an innocent 
 manner and in leisure time by way of recreation and amusement. We 
 take exception not to what is allowable, but only to the excessive use of 
 "•ames of chance. But it seems contrary to all reason that otherwise 
 fitted men are unable to see the snares and traps which are laid for them 
 by crafty rascals at the gambling table ; and that the purpose of these 
 rogues is not sociable entertainment and amusement, but rather the means 
 to lead an idle aud voluptuous life at the expense of others. Yes, even the 
 open disclosures of the frauds that are perpetrated do not suffice to keep 
 such people from the grasp of these social pests. Instances are known to 
 us where people — respectable, well situated, and honorable citizens, — could 
 not deny themselves the temptation even though by hard experience they 
 knew that they would be cheated ; and after a time they would again 
 become slaves to the spirit of gaming, not with other persons, but, and this 
 is most strange, with the very same people into whose nets they have run 
 before. Justly, indeed, does the line of the old poet apply to them : — 
 " Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat." 
 
 There is only one explanation to this apparently inexplicable state of 
 things, that the dazzling aspect of the gaming table always conceals the 
 consequences. Whether winning or losing is alike immaterial to the game- 
 ster, who seeks excitement for its own merits. The interest concerns him 
 so much, that next to winning the sweetest pleasure is to lose. The mo- 
 tives which lead to gaming are very different, however. Many persons 
 have recourse to it to deaden the recollection of misfortune, of grief, of 
 family discords, or of injustice, which the inner consciousness may be ever 
 conjuring up before the mind. These are the grounds upon which many 
 give themselves up to the vice of drunkenness. And we have remarked 
 that it is not those addicted to drinking, but another class which takes 
 refuge at the gaming table ; a class made up of well-to-do and capable men, 
 to whom the restraint of circumstances does not lay open an arena where 
 they can give full play to an excess of power. They enter with ecstasy 
 into an occupation which, while it agitates their innermost existence at the 
 behests of the purest chance, gives nourishment to fancy, and at the same 
 time challenges their every energy by the difficulties that follow in its 
 train. 
 
 Only in this way can we understand how a genius like Lessing, for 
 instance, could, as history tells us, throw himself for years into the arms of 
 fortune at the gaming table. There is but one means known to us to 
 oppose the uneasy impulses which flow from this source ; that is an earnest 
 devotion to work and intellectual employment. Duty, in its purity* and 
 integrity, lies far away from the limits of this vice ; but it rectifies the exi- 
 gencies we have spoken of by opening out a rich field where activity and 
 energy can be exercised. 
 
284: THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 The desire for power forms another motive to excessive gambling. A 
 man is ambitious to control fate, and thinks to be able to set up a system 
 for a thing, of which the very existence depends upon the fact that there is 
 no system. The strange multitudes who are in search for the philosophers, 
 stone could once have been seen in crowds at the now closed German 
 watering places. There they would sit all the day long, pricking with 
 needles upon little cards the progress of the game, and drawing from the 
 past their conclusions as to the future ; conclusions which soon proved to 
 be fallacies. 
 
 It would be a great error, however, to take these for short sighted peo- 
 ple. On the contrary, there were many very able people, scholars, states- 
 men, military men, merchants, officers ; every occupation sent its contin- 
 gent ; even distinguished mathematicians were found among them. From 
 a medical point of view these people should rather have been classed a3 
 monomaniacs. More than once we have heard a remark of this kind from 
 one or other of them : — " I can do nothing, and yet that fool who cannot 
 hold a candle to me succeeds again and again." — And so it was ! In these 
 proceedings the most stupid among the stupid who knew nothing whatever 
 of the laws of chance. were more lucky than the cleverest of the clever. 
 To such will apply the thoughts of Polonius i; If that be madness there is 
 method in't." 
 
 These we have mentioned are among the most respectable inducements 
 which we can discover for the gambler. But there is a good series of 
 others less excusable, down to the impulses of the professional gambler 
 who practises the art as d business by which to gain his livelihood, first 
 perhaps honorably, then to improve his luck and so down until he sinks to 
 the level of criminality. These rascals find their chief associates in the 
 ranks of idle men, among whom are many young people who thereby re- 
 lieve the tedium of idleness. Vanity, pleasure seeking, ostentation, are the 
 chief aids to ruin. To these points the agents of the bank keepers apply 
 their levers — those miserable creatures more contemptable than the players 
 themselves, who from the worst dregs of vice sustain themselves by pander- 
 ino- to others, and by their services scorn and set at defiance all sense of 
 conscientiousness and honor. Such men are known as " cappers," 
 " decoys," or " ropers in." 
 
 It is clearly perceptible that the rage for play, as we have described it,, 
 is a positive passion, which may have its origin in not unworthy instincts 
 and only misses its direction^ while only indirect motives lead to gambling. 
 The latter would soon disappear from the world, if parents by the proper 
 education of youth would break up the roots, instead of pampering them 
 and increasing them to an abnormal size. A strict adherence to industry 
 would restrain the weak points in character, and save the young from 
 recourse to the temples of gaming. Just as an inveterate gambler finally 
 loses all inclination for honest labor, so will the man who engages zealously 
 

 GAMBLING HOUSES AND THEIR VICTIMS. 285 
 
 in industrial pursuits acquire no desire, whatever, for the allurements of 
 the gambling table. 
 
 In this reference our State administrations are much in the wrong un- 
 sanctioning institutions of the kind, especially lotteries, of which we shall 
 have to speak in another chapter. 
 
 But this by the way. It may have interested the reader to have fol- 
 lowed us even thus far into the rationale of a passion that is so deeply im- 
 bued in our social life, while at the same time we do not remember to have 
 found any searching investigation as having been made upon the question. 
 It is not any part of our province to enter further into the philosophy of 
 human errors and their origin. It is facts and experiences rather that we 
 have to deal with in the present work. 
 
 In this direction then our Metropolis of Xew York offers to the gambler 
 and to all the appurtenances of his trade a field at ouce wide and unfor- 
 tunately rich. 
 
 It would probably be as easy to suppress the thousands of drinking places 
 and whiskey saloons that we have amongst us, as it would to root out all 
 the gaming houses. These houses flourish, and remain open both dav and 
 night. Very many persons in the city of New York who live in utter 
 ignorance respecting their incomes, and who are not constrained to gam- 
 bling as a profession, nevertheless, unfortunately give themselves up 
 repeatedly to the vice whenever they happen to have no inclination to work. 
 
 In Wall Street men gamble in stocks and gold on the Exchange, while 
 others are trying their luck at the faro bank. That is the only difference 
 between the two sets of people, however, displeasing and unpleasant the 
 fact may seem. Recourse to these gambling hells, as such places are most 
 justly called, generally leads to inevitable ruin, though sometimes people 
 are to be found in them who risk a small sum, and then when they have 
 won five and twenty or fifty dollars they leave. But people who gamble 
 in this way are regarded by bank keepers and the proprietors of such 
 houses with suspicion and even aversion. " They come to make out their 
 expenses," say they ; and when such persons enter the place, their usual 
 reception is only a look of contempt. 
 
 The banker loses most, when he loses at all through those who gamble 
 to gratify a constant passion, and who are inextricably in the toils. But 
 the man who systematically goes away after he has won fifty dollars 
 annoys the proprietor above all the rest. Their object is to dupe others ; 
 but by these men they feel that they themselves are victimized. 
 
 Travellers are especially marked as fair game by this confederacy of 
 sharpers. The possession of money and convenient leisure seems to these 
 rascals a situation highly favorable to their pernicious work ; and so they 
 follow up their designs with ni3re dexterous skill and greater precaution, 
 such as only long experience can teach them. Their plans, too, are car- 
 ried out vi h a craftiness and a degree of patieuce that are checked by 
 
286 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 nothing, so long as the prize they are playing for seems large enough. It 
 is perhaps hardly to be wondered at that new victims should be constantly 
 turning up, when we find them looked after with so much ability. The 
 artifices of the rogues are so alluring, and their demeanor so well adapted 
 to the purpose sought, that their true and proper character is generally 
 quite concealed from a stranger. Their perseverance and tenacity should 
 be most commendable if they were only to apply them to some honor- 
 able end. 
 
 There are many persons acquainted with the pursuits, and, too, with the 
 names of these gamblers, who do not recognize them when they come in 
 contact with them. These are but a few who have not heard of the differ- 
 ent swindlers and their tricks, and there are thousands who from year to 
 year are being constantly taken in by their devices. People, for instance,, 
 know very well that the " patent safe" is a cheating contrivance, and yet 
 they allow themselves to be robbed by its means. There are people, too, 
 who have been well informed at some time or other as to the single inten- 
 tion of this kind of deceit, and yet they are so forgetful of it that they 
 readily allow themselves to fall into the toils of an artfully laid seduce- 
 ment. After all there are only a few who know how to be sufficiently 
 aware of a shrewd and experienced scoundrel. 
 
 In the city of New York there are about a dozen gambling houses of the 
 first class. They are situated in the most fashionable parts of the town. 
 Both externally and internally they are fitted up and arranged in the most 
 elegant manner ; and they are to be distinguished from the neighboring 
 dwelling houses of prominent residents only probably by a large silver- 
 plated door plate on the outer entrance. Venetian blinds and heavy cur- 
 tains, kept closed and drawn during the day, shelter visitors from the eyes 
 of the curious. If anyone would enter he rings the door-bell and the door 
 is opened by a well-dressed colored servant ; for in all these houses the 
 attendants are colored. These servants are well trained to their duties,. 
 are silent and polite. After the first greeting the porter asks " Whom do 
 you wish to see ?" The proprietor is mentioned, or that of some friend or 
 acquaintance, and the visitor is at once shown into the parlor. The ele- 
 gance of this apartment is bewildering. The doors are of rosewood. 
 Costly imported carpets cover the floor ; mirrors of unusual size extend 
 from the ceiling to the ground ; valuable paintings by prominent artists 
 adorn the walls ; and fine frescoes cover the ceilings. The furniture is of 
 the most exquisite workmanship, made in rosewood, ebony, and the most 
 costly woods, and upholstered with velvets or satins of the first quality. 
 
 The basement of the house is devoted to the ordinary purposes as in a 
 private residence. A room on the first floor is the dining-room and here 
 we have presented to us a peculiar feature in the management. Dinner is 
 placed on table at six o'clock. The most costly viands are there, served 
 up from the best cooks. Gold and silver-plate and rare china adorn the 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND THEIR VICTIMS. 287 
 
 table. The sideboard groans with the rarest wines, and in the dessert will 
 be found the finest fruits. The dinners and all connected with them am 
 unequalled in any houses in New York, and their high qualities are main- 
 tained and enhanced through the rivalries that exist among the proprietor* 
 of the different houses. Dinuer is in fact a part of the business of tli- 
 establishment, and every proprietor strives to earn the reputation of giving 
 the best. But these dinners are free. All visitors to the house are wel- 
 come. No charge is made. Call for the choicest wine or the rarest 
 liqueur and it will be brought, but no money will be taken for it. No 
 questions are asked. No price is demanded. No one is solicited either to 
 eat, to drink, or to play ; but they are free to do either, or all, or none. 
 And in spite of this liberality the proprietors grow rich in a marvellously- 
 short time. 
 
 The play-room is usually the third from the front, built expressly in the 
 yard with solid walls, and no windows ; the light coming through a glass 
 dome in the roof. On one side is a sideboard upon which is an abundant 
 supply of rare wines and rare refreshments, all of which are supplied by 
 well trained attendants without any charge. All are welcome to anything 
 the house provides. The roulette table is ready and the " lay-out" of cards 
 is on the faro table. The keeper of the bank and the dealer of the card* 
 are in their places, the latter using a patent silver case for shuffling the 
 cards. Everything necessary for gambling is there, in the most costly 
 materials and got together in the most consummate style. 
 
 The dealer shuffles the cards at a table eovered with green cloth. Some. 
 players risk only small sums and leave off when they have lost five or ten 
 dollars. Others play for large sums and often suffer ruinous losses. Some- 
 times a hundred thousand dollars change hands in a single night. Mer- 
 chants, bankers, clerks, often gamble away every dollar they have, and at 
 last pledge their watches, jewelry, even their salaries, and thereby incur 
 debts of honor to gratify the morbid passion that inflames them. And theu 
 the visit to these fashionable hells leads to defalcation, peculation, fraud, 
 theft, forgery, and — the jail. 
 
 Not long since a man lost three hundred thousand dollars in one evening 
 at one of these places. Another, still in New York, who plays on a syste- 
 matic principle has won as much as two hundred thousand dollars in an 
 evening, thus enabling him to reach the highest ambition of a gambler and 
 to break the bank. Gamblers of this kind lead fast lives. The money 
 they win is soon dissipated in women, wine, or the gratification of sensual 
 passions and vanity. If luck go for a time against them they descend to 
 the lower class houses, and when dame fortune smiles again they return to 
 the more fashionable resorts. But in the end they save nothing, probably 
 not a dollar in a year. 
 
 Access to the higher class establishments is only attained by those who 
 conduct themselves as gentlemen. Their must be no breach of decorum. 
 
1288 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Play goes on by the hour in perfect silence, — no words are uttered beyon 
 the few whispers of those who have charge of the game. In aspect, not 
 unlike the rooms of a first-class club house, these apartments are filled by 
 men of the first rank in society and down town ; leading men on the Stock 
 Exehange, merchants of the highest position, and others whose names are 
 among those of the most respected of our citizens. Some read and enter- 
 tain themselves. Others look in, take a glass of wine, move about and 
 observe the game with apparently indifferent interest, and leave. The 
 greatest gamblers are generally those whose business it is to gamble, who 
 gamble at the " hell" at night, and on the Stock Exchange throughout the 
 day ; but the inexperienced in such matters would be surprised to see that 
 visitors generally are taken from all occupation in the higher ranks of 
 society. 
 
 The usual amount of the play is from five to twenty-five dollars. Checks 
 are purchased, and when these are used the moderate player generally 
 leaves the table. But others continue on under the influence of the weird 
 fascination, and at times old men and mere boys may be seen side by side 
 staking alike their money and their reputations, throughout a long evening. 
 
 One of the most celebrated proprietors of the fashionable hells is John 
 Morrissey. This man's life is remarkable ; and contains some points that 
 are fertile themes for consideration, of which not the least important are 
 those wherein we find prominent men who consider themselves above the 
 level of ordinary society lowering themselves ( ?) to use this man for their 
 own private ends. But the custom is common enough in New York, 
 among those pretentious worshippers of mammon who strain their necks to 
 reach above their fellows in the false glow of greenbacks, while their bodies 
 and all else lie grovelling in the filthy depths of trickery and corruption. 
 
 John Morrissey was once a resident of Troy, and not of the most " aristo- 
 cratic." He kept a drinking saloon ; not of the largest, nor of the most 
 reputable. But he had many patrons. Pugilists, gamblers, thieves, pro- 
 stitutes, loved to honor themselves by supporting him. In fact he had so 
 many friends and those friends were endowed with such marked character- 
 istics that the authorities in a paroxysm of virtue closed his house. John 
 Morrissey's friends did not now help him through ; they were too much 
 like other friends to aid a man when he needs aid. They deserted him ; 
 and he, poor, penniless, almost shirtless, gravitated towards New York. 
 He had been a pugilist, and, as we all know, brute force is generally at a 
 premium here ; but less now, happily, than it was then. At that time it 
 carried the elections, and as elections are frequent, Morrissey's abilities 
 soon found a field. " Vote early and vote often," was not then a joke ; it 
 was the principle upon which the " sovereign people" put the best men into 
 the best places ; — or thought they did. The " bloody sixth" held posses- 
 sion of the city. Respectable men, opposed to the corruption of that day 
 and who went to vote, were intimidated, driven from the polls, or half 
 
v 
 
 GAMBLING HOUSES AND Tlll.in VKTIMS. 2#9 
 
 killed. The police were among the worst of the bad. Instead of pro 
 in<* the liberty of the citizens they sought only to protect themselves, and 
 for that purpose, too, often leagued wiih the ruffians who ruled the place. 
 Amid such a state of things John Morrissey's qualifications became invalu- 
 able and he did not fail to apply them. A city election was at hand. The 
 friends of order could carry it, if they dare to vote, and if the minority 
 should not destroy the ballot-boxes and smash the beads of the presiding 
 officers. But there was the difficulty. And to meet it, John Morrissey 
 tendered his services. He offered to defend the ballot-boxes in the inter- 
 ests of order, if he were paid for the sacrifice. lie undertook to raise an 
 army of ruffians who should stand at no act of violence that might seem 
 
 expedient. 
 
 The late Mr. Kennedy was then Superintendent of Police ; and the fol- 
 lowing storv is told in connection with this matter. 
 
 Mr. Kennedy one day came into her husband's private office and said 
 " There is an awful looking man at the door who wants to see you. He is 
 dirty and ragged, and looks so savage. He is the worst looking fellow I 
 ever saw. Don't go to the door ; he certainly means mischief." 
 
 "Is he a big fellow?" asked Kennedy. 
 
 "Yes, broad shouldered and tall, with his nose turned on one side." 
 
 " Oh ! I know, let him in ;" said the superintendent. 
 
 Mrs. Kennedy obeyed her husband's behests and in walked John Mor- 
 rissey. The thing was soon settled. The services were accepted, the 
 army of desperadoes was raised, the ballot-boxes were defended and John 
 Morrissey rendered his first public service to his fellow-citizens. He did 
 that in his capacity as pugilist, &c. He has done many since in another 
 position. He was then not a very attractive looking man — but " fine feath- 
 ers make fine birds." The " honorable" John Morrissey, in his gaming 
 house at Saratoga, dressed in black, parading the saloons amid the dazzling 
 radiance of a diamond breast-pin and multitudes of diamond rings, is quite 
 a different being from the quondam plaiu John Morrissey, pugilist and bar- 
 tender ; and now the pretentions in the land are proud to do him homage. 
 For he has money, — he controls the great diety of America to the extent 
 they say of half a million ; and that in the eyes of our people is well worth 
 worshipping, even in the person of the once poor outcast of Troy. 
 
 But it is not often that a gambler makes money. His life is a life of 
 excitement, and excitement kills. He works late, drinks hard, lives upon 
 stimulants, and — dies of stimulants. Begin as cautious as you will, the 
 road is down hill. Start at the most fashionable houses, and you will be 
 pulled up sharp one day at the gate of perdition, in the lowest depths of 
 infamy. There are, it is true, a few who keep themselves afloat and who 
 have been known as gamblers for half a century mayhap. But they are 
 extraordinary men, men of iron nerve and a determination of purpose such 
 as lew possess. They never yield to fascination, never drink, never allow 
 
 1Q 
 
290 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 themselves to be allured out of the well resolved purpose they themselves 
 have fixed. Some live in luxury and are respected in themselves and in 
 their families, though the latter rarely know the source from whence the 
 means are obtained. 
 
 There are two principal kinds of game in New York. The one is known 
 as the " square game" and is played in first-class houses ; the other is the 
 " skin game" and is played in the lowest parts of the town. In houses 
 where the square game is played no visitor is solicited to play, but where 
 the skin game is in vogue a visitor must either play or be prepared to have, 
 at least, his head broken. These accommodating establishments employ 
 agents who visit even the first-class hotels to enveigle victims, and sweep 
 them together from all places of public resort. 
 
 Their mode of proceeding is simple. They keep their eye upon the 
 visitors books at the hotel counters, and when a stranger enters the place 
 they note his name and person so as to identify him again. In the evening 
 the agent hunts him up in one or other of the rooms and soon gets into 
 conversation with him. The stranger, hardly knowing what to do to kill 
 time, is glad of a temporary companion ; and the " roper-in" knows this. 
 Moreover, he is misled by the pretence that his new acquaintance knows 
 friends of his in the place he came from, the note in the registry book being 
 again made use of. The next step is to adjourn to the bar. Nothing can 
 be done without a " drink." But it moves on the business a long way. 
 The health of certain persons in the stranger's town, supposed to be mutual 
 acquaintances, is drunk. Other drinks are taken, — till in a short time 
 several glasses have probably been emptied, and the stranger has been 
 brought to the condition most suitable for the assaults of the roper-in. The 
 two friends next adjourn to the front steps of the hotel. Here the roper-in 
 asks his victim indifferently what he proposes to do with himself, and a3 
 the latter is probably more ignorant upon that point than upon any other, 
 he is not at all reluctant to let his new acquaintance answer the question 
 himself. A suggestion to visit a private club house is made and at once 
 accepted ; and the two walk off arm in arm to the destination. More 
 *' drinks" are of course indulged in, and after a few personal introductions 
 the visitor is asked into the card room. After a little politic delay the 
 roper-in suggests that his new friend try his luck for some small amount. 
 He " is not much of a player himself, but he sometimes risks a dollar or 
 two." Now the bird is caught. A dollar is not much to risk. He plays 
 and wins. He plays again and wins, drinking in the interludes. For 
 drinking is essential. When this has gone on long enough and the man is 
 heated with wine and his winnings, he is induced to increase the stakes. 
 Still he wins, and still he drinks. He plays again, and wins, and drinks. 
 Now the stakes are doubled, he plays, and loses. But the loss only acts 
 as a stimulus to try his luck again to recover his past fortune. He goes 
 on but, loses still, and drinks. Money gone, he risks his watch, his chain, 
 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND TIIKIK VICTIMS. 291 
 
 his rings, and still he loses. By this time his senses, too, are gone ; and 
 in a helpless state of intoxication he is summarily turned into the street. 
 
 In these places vast sums of money are sometimes lost in a single night, 
 .and if the victim has sufficient consciousness left next morning to find his 
 way back to the place ; the gamblers are gone. No vestige of their pre- 
 sence, no indication of their existence, is left. 
 
 There are also gaming houses where the same kind of business goes on 
 by day. These are usually in close proximity to the business centres in 
 the lower part of the town, and chiefly within the space bounded by Ann 
 Street, Wall Street, "Water Street, and Broadway. They rely for support 
 upon business men, merchants, bankers, stock gamblers, clerks, &c. They 
 have their ropers-in just as the night houses have, and pay them generally 
 by a commission on the amount lost by the victim. These agents haunt 
 the corners, the curbstone, the restaurants and refreshment rooms, every 
 place in fact where they think it possible to find their game. Having once 
 marked their man, they hover after him from place to place to seize the 
 first faint opportunity for addressing him. Looking out for strangers they 
 offer them assistance, either to conduct them to some place they want to 
 go to, to take them to a place of amusement or to see the lions of the city. 
 The gambling saloon is of course in all such cases the actual destination, 
 — where they meet thieves, swindlers and stock exchange people, — and are 
 readily fleeced of all they possess. 
 
 These day saloons are useful in one way. The police constantly resort 
 to them to find anyone who may be especially wanted, and they are not 
 seldom disappointed. Missing bonds and securities frequently turn up first 
 ra these places. " Confidential" clerks resort to them to gamble with the 
 funds entrusted to them, and many such have thereby exposed their weak- 
 ness to a detective who was present unobserved. Thieves who snatch 
 pocket-books, cash-boxes, &c, indeed all the criminals who feed in good 
 apparel upon the business classes of that particular part of the town resort 
 to these rooms ; where they are readily but unwittingly picked out by the 
 police. We have already mentioned instances of this kind under another 
 chapter. 
 
 If the night houses are demoralizing, these day houses are far more 
 dangerous ; — inasmuch as lying in the way of young business men they are 
 largely frequented by them ; and are the scenes where many a clerk, other- 
 wise honest, has been tempted to dissipate the monies entrusted to his keep- 
 ing and thereby bring misery and sorrow upon himself and his family. 
 
 The men who open such places generally seek a building where the 
 rooms are let in floors. A large structure in which there are many offices, 
 a common staircase, and much traffic is preferred. The rooms are then 
 carefully prepared for the purpose intended. Close partitions are erected. 
 The windows are secured with shutters and curtains. The floors are 
 covered with soft carpets. The furniture is suitable, elegant, and costly. 
 
292 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Roulette and faro tables are indispensable, and soft lounges and luxurious^ 
 couches surround them. More precaution is used here than in the night 
 houses. The rooms are darkened, and only gas-light admitted. Profound 
 stillness reigns, broken only occasionally by the smothered voices of the 
 men who have charge of the game. All who enter are scrutinized closely, 
 and persons who may be quite unknown are usually denied admission. 
 
 If we go in we see at a table the dealer of the cards, a man of perhaps 
 45 to 50 years of age. There is a wonderful similarity in the style and 
 appearance of the mea. They all seem to be turned out of the same 
 mould, are short, thickset, sturdy fellows, possessed of little or no feeling, 
 but ready in a moment to back up their roguery with violence. 
 
 The proprietors of the day houses in the lower part of the town often 
 hold the same relations with the night houses up town, opening the latter 
 when they close the former. But notwithstanding the mischief created by 
 both, it is certainly greater in those places which are placed to entrance 
 and infatuate young men in the course of their daily business. Nothing 
 so surely as the gambling table justifies the sentiment of the poet, when he 
 tells us : — ' 
 
 " Vice is a monster of so deadly mien 
 That to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
 But seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 
 
 For certainly no form of vice is more seductive or more perilous. 
 
 With soft promises, and sweet yet delusive hopes, the syren breaks up 
 all the fondest dreams and anticipations of life in one inevitable, irretriev- 
 able ruin. 
 
 It would, indeed, be an easy matter to moralize even to the end upon 
 this subject, and the temptation to do more in that direction is hard to 
 avoid ; for no admonition is strong enough, no warning can be often enough 
 repeated against the danger which this quicksand of life threatens to so 
 many, and into which hundreds of men are every day falling. 
 
 The capital invested in the gambling houses of New York has been esti- 
 mated at over a million dollars. That is the sum yearly paid away for the 
 maintenance of these establishments. If the same amount were expended 
 from year to year for the erection and maintenance of some benevolent 
 institution, a rich harvest might be the result. But when we consider that 
 this money is devoted to undermining the honor, the good name, the self- 
 respect of so many, how is it possible to estimate the terrible miseries to 
 body and mind which this vice carries in its train ! 
 
 Then note the vast number of these gambling houses. Tuey are to be 
 found in almost every street in the city ; nay, in many of the streets they 
 are so numerous as to enter into a vigorous competition one with the 
 other. 
 
GAMBLING BOUSES AND Tlli.ii; VICTIMS. 293 
 
 la the first-class gambling houses the most desirable visitors are they 
 who are rich, or those who sooner or later expect riches. But why is it 
 generally so difficult to obtain entrance to these aristocratic hells? In 
 great measure because it might be inconvenient for the patrons of these 
 establishments to be liable to meet others. In fact it is for this and for no 
 other reason, to avoid the inquisitive looks of perhaps fathers, brothers, 
 sons and principals. The young counting house clerk with a salary of 
 perhaps from eight to twelve hundred dollars a year — and there are many 
 such who spend more than that in one week at the faro table — would not 
 care to be found in such a place by a principal whose money probably he 
 was squandering. Nor on the other hand would the merchant, who per- 
 haps is continually inculcating into his clerks and apprentices the strongest 
 maxims and doctrines of probity, rectitude, and frugality, care to be seen 
 by any one or other of those young men at the roulette table. 
 
 The following case will illustrate how victims fall at the gambling table 
 even from the highest circles. 
 
 Major P., a resident of Philadelphia, was in the year 1864, through the 
 influence of a senator, nominated to a paymastership in Sherman's Army. 
 As he was known to be a man of irreproachable character and unquestion- 
 able patriotism, he was frequently entrusted by the Treasury and the War 
 Department with missions where he had the control and expenditure of 
 large sums of money. Upon one such occasion he came to New York and 
 lodged at the St. Nicholas Hotel. As he had resided all his life in Phila- 
 delphia and had had many opportunities to observe the dark side of life 
 and its doings in the Quaker City, he had no apprehension, whatever, that 
 lie would fall a victim to the cunning of any rascals here. There were at 
 that time among the visitors at the hotel a considerable number of officers 
 among whom was a captain of artillery whom we will call S. On the first 
 night after his arrival Major P. went with this man to the theatre, on the 
 next night to the opera and other places of amusement. At last came the 
 night next preceding the day upon which the major intended to take his 
 departure. 
 
 Being then invited by his friend S. to take a walk they set out together. 
 He also accepted without any hesitation the captain's further proposition to 
 pay a visit to an acquaintance. They entered thereupon a marble build- 
 ing fitted up in the interior in the most palatial style. After our friend 
 from the Quaker City had been introduced to everybody present, with all 
 of whom Captain S. seemed to be upon the best of terms, they partook of 
 a sumptuous supper made up of the most delicate dishes and the most costly 
 wines. This over they adjourned to a back room where a little friendly 
 game was going on. Major P. now accepted with pleasure an invitation 
 to join in with the others "just to pass the time." Presently he risked ten 
 dollars and won. They played again and fortune still remained friendly 
 to the paymaster. The third time the stakes were doubled and the Major 
 
294 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 lost. The game became continually more exciting and the luck changed 
 about. At last the fickle goddess deserted him entirely. He lost continu- 
 ally. He plied himself with brandy and drank deep. The young well 
 bred son of the Quaker City became reckless. His continued run of ill- 
 luck made him desperate. His last dollar was gone. Then the demon 
 tempted him further. An idea struck him. He took the money entrusted 
 to him by the Government, in the hope of winning back at least a part of 
 the money he had lost. Thousands of dollars were laid upon the table and 
 — lost. Now the last bank note was placed upon the card and this too in 
 another moment was swept into the box of the bank. The thought in- 
 stantly rushed through the young man's mind that he was ruined, — his 
 character, his honor, the confidence that had once been placed in him, all 
 gone. The pangs of conscience crushed him down. Hastily drinking 
 another draft of strong liquor he drew a revolver. In another moment a 
 report resounded through the room and there fell to the ground a self- 
 murderer, the victim of the detestable vice of gaming. 
 
 It is difficult for persons who are not gamblers to understand the acute 
 pleasure that seems to be derived from gaming, and it seems almost impos- 
 sible to give a sufficient explanation of the ensnaring spell which seizes the 
 victims of the love for play. Sooner or later to their inevitable ruin these 
 unfortunates run blindly on, obstinate slaves to their own passions and 
 covetousness until they plunge madly down into the abyss that lies across 
 their path. The passion (for it is nothing else) has its origin in ninety- 
 nine cases out of a hundred in so-called business circles. Cards and domi- 
 noes in segar stores, drinking places, oyster saloons or refreshment houses 
 of any kind are objectionable, although the greater number of those who 
 from day to day and from night to night devote themselves to the practise 
 will question the assertion. Betting is another and more dangerous form 
 of gambling. The propensity to acquire money easily without working is 
 developed by it and if once aroused, it is very difficult to withstand the 
 influence induced by it. 
 
 Americans are unusually prone to give themselves to the passions for 
 betting, and it is to this that so many have to ascribe the loss of their char- 
 acter and fortune. 
 
 It is not often that " country greenhorns" are among those who are 
 fleeced in aristocratic gambling hells. Such small games are not in 
 demand. While we speak, however, of the aristocratic gambling hells, we 
 do not mean to say that gambling has yet been recognized among the fash- 
 ionable vices in this country. It is not legalized in any of the States. The 
 clubs throw restrictions around it ; and if any member of society who for 
 the sake of varying the entertainment should introduce a faro table into 
 his house, would soon find his saloon deserted and himself and his place 
 exposed to public contempt. What is a custom in Paris is regarded as. 
 shameful in New York ; and those who squander their money in Baden. 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND TIHIK VICTIMS. 
 
 Baden before all the world at Rouge et Noir would be bitterly reproached 
 if they did the same thing here in their own houses. To say of anybody 
 that lie is a gambler is to give him the worst kind of reputation possible. 
 Every respectable man shuns such a person. He would be tolerated in no 
 good company, and every calling, every employment, where trust and 
 honor are indispensable, would be closed against him. His passion is a 
 curse upon him, and his only acquaintances are the acquaintances of the 
 gaming room. 
 
 This condition of things we owe to the simple and pure manners of olden 
 times and to the value of tradition and custom even though they be but 
 feebly respected. For our ancestors, the Fathers of the Republic, were 
 the most decided enemies of the loose manners of European countries and 
 determined not to permit the vice of gaming to be introduced into the new 
 world. 
 
 Although then as we have seen gambling houses of every kind and 
 degree abound and flourish, they are, nevertheless, under the ban of the 
 law, and may at any moment be put down by the police. 
 
 Broadway, between Spring and Tenth Street, is the locality where cheap 
 eating-houses abound. In almost any of these, at a late hour of the night, 
 may be found one or more of the lowest class, the Canaille, of gamblers, 
 men who hang about the places where they can at once become devotees 
 to the passion that has enstaved and ruined them, and at the same time 
 win a precarious existence either by small bets of their own, or by captur- 
 ing strangers and leading them off to some place where they may lose any 
 money they happen to possess. They are improvident, reckless, dissipated, 
 in their habits ; dirty, greasy, and thread bare in their appearance ; and 
 coarse, and unclean in their language. Their appearance in short is that 
 of the lowest order of the tribe known in " sporting men." They live a 
 hazardous life, depending for their food very much upon the free feeds that 
 are common in the little hells they patronize, and requiring only to make 
 special provision for their beds and clothes. 
 
 But they are very different from their fraternity in the higher ranks of 
 the gambling classes. These are wonderful, and very conspicuous, for the 
 gorgeousness of their vestments. They frequent Broadway with much 
 pertinacity, and may be seen there any afternoon lounging carelessly along, 
 with evidently no better defiued object than the display of their adornments 
 and the exhibition of themselves : — " Fine feathers make fine birds ;"' and 
 taking the Broadway loungers as a class, it may generally be concluded 
 with some certainty that the solidity of their characters is inversely pro- 
 portioned to the perfection of their attire. But among them there are 
 again two classes. The better of the two are men of good manners and 
 gentlemanly deportment. The proprietors of the higher grade of gambling 
 houses are not to be excelled in the superficial elements of good breeding. 
 They can always, &nd as a rule they do always conceal their true character 
 
296 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 under a semblance of being gentlemen. It is a part of their business 
 to do so. To throw off the mask and appear in their true characters 
 would be to ruin their business. Men from the best circles of New York 
 society — men known in science, art, literature, politics, and even religion, 
 frequent these establishments and they have at least to equal these in the 
 amenities of society. Nor must it be supposed that they are ignorant men. 
 Many are highly educated, and highly talented. Mention is made of one, 
 now dead, who was the son of a Portuguese nobleman, a finished gentle- 
 man, one, too, who had received all the highest advantages of European 
 universities. Such men are to be pitied, even while we condemn the 
 means by which they travel through the world. Believing in the empti- 
 ness of human life, they devote their talents to an empty trade. They 
 know and acknowledge the injury they are doing and the illegality of their 
 proceedings. Yet they are influenced by a sense of honor, peculiar though 
 it be, under which they would scorn to take a dollar by any means which, 
 according to their code, would be deemed dishonorable or unfair. A simi- 
 lar sense of honor would be very useful, if it were more prevalent among 
 what the world calls honest men. 
 
 But the other class of these Broadway loungers is very different, — and 
 deserving of no consideration whatever. They, too, ape to be fashionable. 
 But their massive gold chains are not gold, nor are their dazzling diamonds 
 much else than glass. They are coarse, vulgar, gaudy men ; animal in 
 their passions and appearance, beastly and blasphemous in their language. 
 They are either the proprietors or the ropers-in for the third or fourth rate 
 hells, where no spark of honor ever existed, where victims are fleeced by 
 fraud and cheating, and the vilest liquors flow to aid the cause. The 
 wonder is that such men can do the business they do, — that strangers can 
 be so infatuated and foolish as to be inveigled by them ; for the name of 
 swindler is visible to the man-of-the-world in every line of their features 
 and on every article of their clothes. Such companions should be avoided 
 as some beast of prey, which they very much resemble in all their ways 
 and proceedings. As soon as faro ceases to be profitable, these vagabonds 
 are ready to turn to something else, it may be a " poker" party or it may 
 be a robbery. Anything to get money without working for it ; for to them 
 work is the most degrading occupation of man. When all else fails them 
 they become confidence operators, or rank themselves among some or 
 other of the swindlers whom in various forms we have already described. 
 They have the most admirable confidence in themselves. Self-esteem is a 
 ruling feature in their organization. They believe themselves capable of 
 cheating anybody, and th* belief strengthens their boldness and self- 
 reliance. But it is not up^ta such men that the low class hells directly 
 depend for their support. One of such men winning or losing from one of 
 his fellows brings little good. It is like taking money from one hand to 
 put it in the other. It is the victims whom they inveigle that form the 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND THEIR VICTIMS. 207 
 
 real food for the faro houses. It is the occasional gambler that supports 
 those places, and he does it in proportion to the money that he chances to 
 be able to control, for he is seldom allowed to escape before he has lost all 
 that he possesses. The man who plays only now and then may think that 
 his patronage is very small to support the gamblers, but in truth the gam- 
 bler could not live without him. It is just such occasional playing that 
 does all the mischief. 
 
 "We will now examine more closely the games most prevalent in New 
 York, to show that even in what is known as the " square game," that is 
 the honest game, how the chances preponderate in favor of the bank. 
 
 Iu both " commerce" and games with dice there is the purest chance, 
 but besides these there are games in which reasonable calculations may 
 not be quite excluded, but where chance still prevails. 
 
 It is to be expected that in New York, the place where people from all 
 nations of the earth come together, the games of all nations, too, are to be 
 found. And so it is. The Englishman cultivates whist ; the Frenchman, 
 piquet and ecarte ; the Spaniard, f hombre ; the Hungarian, tarock ; the 
 German his native scat, solo, binocle, sechsundsechzig, &c, &c. 
 
 With these games we have here nothing to do, although by means of 
 heavy stakes, which, however, are not usual, they may assume the charac- 
 ter of games of chance. At the same time, among such games of games, 
 we have besides roulette and keno to notice, especially games with cards. 
 To make our account more complete we must mention the dice also, since 
 they are much used in New York. But a mere mention will suffice, for 
 according to our experience the use of the dice here, when used fairly, is 
 confined merely to the settlement of drinking scores, hardly ever for money, 
 and these are so light that they do not involve the ruin of either player. 
 The only evil that the practise brings in its train, being the inducement it 
 offers very often for people to drink more than they require. The various 
 kinds of games with dice are, however, very numerous. They amount to 
 more than eighty. 
 
 Faro has so much the preference here amoDg all games of chance, that 
 it will be better to notice it first. 
 
 It is played with the ordinary whist pack of fifty-two cards, which is 
 divided into the four suits of 13 each. The different values of the several 
 cards are immaterial in faro, all depending upon which side a card chances 
 to come. Throughout the game the dealer draws his cards and lays each 
 down — the first on the left, the second on the right, the third again on the 
 left, the fourth on the right, the fifth on the left and so on throughout the 
 whole. One pile thus formed constitutes the winning cards, the other the 
 losing cards ; the left side being in favor of the bank, the right of the 
 players. Before beginning the latter have to declare upon what card and 
 to what amount each bets, and according to whether the particular card 
 falls on the side of the bank or of the player, he loses or wins the amount 
 
298 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 of his stake. This is placed by the player at the commencement either 
 upon a card of the same kind as that upon which he bets, or a so-called 
 " temple" or lay-out is used. This consists of a board or table or piece of 
 cloth upon which the 13 different cards of the whist pack are either pasted,. 
 or represented in the same number of separate squares. 
 
 The chances in favor of the bank in this game are very considerable. 
 As the top card is readily visible, the dealer before beginning the first 
 "turn" shows it, so that upon this bets can only be made three and not 
 four times as is the case with the other cards. On the last or 2Gth turn, 
 also the dealer has nothing to pay. He wins all that is placed on the left 
 side card of this turn, the last card but one in the game. This gives him 
 a chance of about four per cent, over the player. He derives another 
 advantage . from the "splits." These occur when two cards of the same 
 kind come out in the same turn, one on the left, the other on the right. 
 In this case the bank takes half the money bet ; — and the advantage it 
 gains is reckoned at from four to six per cent. In this way then without 
 any risk there is a chance amounting to about ten per cent, in favor of the 
 bank, a fair proportion, indeed, and one which secures a continual suc- 
 cess. 
 
 One would think that with such disadvantages there would be few play- 
 ers at faro. But the opposite is the case. Each person trusts to his own 
 good fortune, and never calculates the chances that are against him. 
 
 It is very easy to cheat at faro. While the cards lie in the hand of the 
 dealer, he can have so arranged them as to understand the order in which 
 they come, so that he knows exactly the value of the next card which is to 
 fall to the left. By a little careful handling he is able whenever he wishes 
 to draw, not the uppermost card, but the second, and thus to make a card 
 fall to the left which ought to go to the right. This is the secret of the 
 " skin game." 
 
 To remedy this they have introduced in New York a metallic box into 
 which the cards are placed, instead of having them open in the hands of 
 the dealer. At the bottom of this box is a strong spring which presses the 
 pack upwards. On the open surface at the right side, under the rim 
 which retains the cards, is a small slit just large enough to let one card 
 pass through. By this contrivance the dealer must take out the cards in 
 their proper order as they are in the box. He cannot change them about 
 at his pleasure. 
 
 In order to know clearly the cards that have been already drawn, an 
 arrangement has also been introduced where a person connected with the 
 bank notes all that are drawn and duly records them on a tally, so that 
 every player may see at a glance how many kings, how many queens, &c, 
 have been drawn and how many there are still remaining in the packv 
 This is done by means of small round ivory dices which are placed upon 
 wires or rods, and as each card is drawn they are moved from one end of 
 
GAMP.!. IXC lid 3ES \M> THEIB VICTIMS. 2'JD 
 
 the frame to the otherwhere the card is represented, much in the same 
 manner as the contrivance generally used for counting the points made at 
 billiards. 
 
 1 1 seems scarcely credible that with such securities as these there can be 
 anything unfair at faro, and many persons fancy that with them there is 
 every guarantee for an honest game. Nevertheless, it is a fact that false 
 drawings of the cards do happen. The dealer needs only to enlarge the 
 opening through which the cards pass so as to permit two to go through 
 instead of one, and immediately the way to cheating is opened far and 
 wide. Then before the beginning of the game the dealer has ample time 
 to mark every card and so to impress the marks upon his own memory 
 that he knows each card by its feel ; thus it is easy enough by adroit 
 manipulation to take out the card upon which he stands to win most and 
 in the same manner to prevent the drawing of one that is at the moment 
 unfavorable to the bank. Then if in one round the knave, for example > 
 appears only three instead of four times, the marker has to give it an extra 
 mark as though it had been drawn, but for this purpose there are concerted 
 signals between him and the dealer, which are not known to nor remarked 
 by the uninitiated. A player very seldom keeps account for himself as to 
 how often this or that card has been drawn. He leaves all to the marker, 
 and thus the very thing which was originally intended as a protection is 
 perverted into exactly the opposite. If at any time any one should keep 
 the account and mention the circumstance, he is furiously charged with 
 having made the mistake himself, and as certain evidence of this he is 
 shown the card in the pack already drawn, where of course it is met with 
 once ofteuer than the perFon making the complaint had calculated. 
 
 Next to faro, the game common in New York, is rouge et noir. In the 
 European watering-places, where gambling has been common, this game 
 has assumed the form of trente et quarante, but here the original character 
 has been maintained. We will endeavor to explain the difference. The 
 whole of this game — rouge et noir — depends upon betting upon the particu- 
 lar color of a card which will come up at a particular time. In trente et 
 quarante the value of the card comes into consideration, each court card 
 counting as ten and all the others according to the number of pips they 
 have upon them. Two rows now are used on the table, the upper one for 
 the black cards, the other for the red. 
 
 The dealer now draws out cards and places them on the first line till 
 their value amounts to more than thirty. Thirty-one is the lowest number 
 that a row can have and forty the highest. The row where the number 
 comes nearest to thirty wins. A " tableau" having a black and a red divi- 
 sion is used for the stakes, and every time that this or that color wins the 
 amount of the bets placed upon that particular color is either paid out or 
 taken up for the bank. If the number be the same in both rows, a new- 
 deal is made. But if the number in both rows be 31, the bank then takes 
 
500 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 half of all the stakes. This is called the refait. It is the only chance in 
 favor of the bank, and as a percentage is a little less than that in faro. 
 
 Tlie prescribed form of rouge et noir leaves no room for cheating. For 
 this the principle and method must be extended. Six whist packs are used 
 at once ; although for the game common in New York two only are em- 
 ployed. They are used as before, but three cards are now drawn from the 
 back of each. Of these two are turned down, the other up. According 
 as to whether this last is red or black, the corresponding color wins, and 
 the stakes are paid or won. Bets may also be made upon the two red 
 colors, hearts and diamonds, or the two black, clubs and spades, and the 
 winning then is three times the amount of the stakes. If a man puts his 
 money on the knave and there comes out a knave at the next drawing, he 
 gets eight times the amount of the stake ; if he lays it on a particular 
 knave, as of hearts for instance, or spades and so on, twenty-seven times 
 the amount is paid. Here the knave forms the " refrait." All who have 
 not laid on the knave, but have played only on the greater chances of color, 
 lose half of their wagers if a knave comes up at the nex drawing. 
 
 At this game a man may lose or win much more quickly than at faro, 
 since the bets are settled at every drawing of the cards and are not laid 
 over to the end of the pack. As a general rule it is resorted to as a kind 
 of aid at the wish of some player who has been losing at faro, and who 
 wants to try a new chance for recovering his money. 
 
 Keno and Roulette are no card games. The former resembles the Ger- 
 man game of " Lotto." As in that, cards are dealt out in several rows 
 one under another as many as you choose, but five in each row. Corre- 
 sponding numbers are inscribed upon little wooden or ivory counters, 
 which are placed into a large drum or box and shaken well together. The 
 drum has an opening at one end through which, by an arrangement with a 
 spring, a counter can be taken out, but only one at a time. The number 
 inscribed upon this counter is secured by all those who find the same num- 
 ber upon their cards. Whoever wins two numbers has an " aulb" ; three, 
 a "ternion" or "trey"; four, a " quaterne" ; five, a " quinterne" ; and 
 upon every such combination a prize is fixed. 
 
 Next to faro this is perhaps the most widely extended game of chance 
 in New York. It is practised in very many gaming houses constantly. 
 It is also adopted into many private places, even as we find it in Germany 
 and some other parts of Europe, although there the stakes are seldom 
 higher than a penny or two. 
 
 Tn gambling places it is very frequently played dishonestly. By means 
 of accomplices there is nothing easier than so to regulate the drawing 
 arrangements as to bring out certain desired numbers. These are known 
 to the associates of the bank, to make the highest winnings as a bait to 
 others, but which afterwards are returned to the bank. The public gets 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND THEIR YICTtMB. 301 
 
 nothing. Complaints ia this direction are loud, and where an enquiry is 
 instituted they are generally found to be well grounded. 
 
 is likewise a game of numbers. In a box standing by itself or 
 in the middle of a table is a disc or cylinder which turns freely in either 
 direction. The side of this is divided into 37 partitions, half of which are 
 red aud half black, inscribed with ciphers from and 1 to 3G. On a small 
 tablet the same numbers are ranged in 12 rows of 4 figures each, with the 
 at the top. Besides these there are also six squares or diagrams upon 
 which the player can bet on the chances, * ; red or black"', " odd or even," 
 "high or low :" the numbers 1 to 18 being low, 19 to 3G high. A certain 
 sum is now placed upon any particular number (en plein) or upon two 
 numbers (<i cheval), upon three numbers, as for instance 1 to 3, 34 to 3G, 
 called a transversals, upon four numbers (quarrc), or, indeed, upon six or 
 twelve consecutive numbers. In twelve numbers the player may take all 
 in any three vertical columns. The or zero may be treated with as any 
 of the other numbers. The dealer or manager of the game now places a 
 crossbar in the perpendicular support of the cylinder and sets it rapidly in 
 motion, while at the s:ime time he puts a small ivory ball in motion in the 
 opposite direction. This runs in the hollow ring upon which the disc or 
 cylinder turns. Presently the ball strikes into one of the partitions that are 
 colored and numbered, and the game is over. Each single risk wins a 
 single stake. All placed on the correct number is multiplied 35 times. 
 It a stake is made a cheval, the payment is made 17 fold, if a tran.srersale y 
 11 fold ; a quarre, 8 fold ; upon six numbers, 5 fold ; and upon twelve, 3 
 fold. The advantage of the bank consists in this, that when the zero comes 
 out it takes up the half of all the single stakes. 
 
 Roulette is not played as much in Xew York as faro ; still there is gener- 
 ally a room for it in first class gambling houses and people can go to it if 
 they like. The course of the player is immensely exciting ; the game is 
 completed every minute, and as long as there is anything left in the pockets 
 of the gambler, the hope always remains to him of a possibility that with 
 his last dollar even he may recover something, if only he can quickly hit 
 off the numbers. 
 
 Of another game, monte, we shall speak further. But we should be 
 guilty of an omission, if we were not to take up the purely American game 
 of poker, called also by some draw-poker. This game requires a full 
 whist pack. From three to six players may take part in it. The dealer 
 goes round the parts. He has no advantage over the other players. Each 
 receives five cards and in one form of the game he has to play with it ; but 
 in another he may draw to improve his hand. Bets are then made as to 
 who has the best hand. 
 
 Each player, when he has a bad hand, seeks to discourage the others 
 from playing, and so induce them to withdraw and leave their stake in the 
 general pool. The player who has a good hand seeks to conceal it, and 
 
302 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 thereby to lead his companions into making high bets, which he himself 
 will finally put into his pocket when the decision comes to be made as to 
 the best hand. 
 
 The most valuable combination which can be held consists of four cards 
 of the same value in one hand. Of such the four aces are the best, then 
 the four kings ; the twos being the lowest. 
 
 A flush, or all the cards of one suit, constitutes the next best hand. The 
 best flush runs from ace to ten, the lowest from two to six. 
 
 Next comes the full hand. This can only be when three of the five 
 cards are directly consecutive in value, the other two also ; or for example 
 three aces and two kings make the highest full hand, and two threes and 
 three twos make the lowest. 
 
 In the hand that stands fourth in value there must be three cards of the 
 same kind.. Three aces are the highest, three twos the lowest. 
 
 Next comes the " run", that is five cards which succeed each other in 
 value ; reference to color not being necessary ; for instance the ace of 
 spades, king of clubs, queen of diamonds, knave of hearts and ten of 
 spades. 
 
 The hand that comes sixth in value is where there are two pairs ; for 
 instance among the five cards there mu3t be two alike, as for example two 
 aces and two kings, down to two threes and two twos. 
 
 The seventh hand in value has one pair, from a couple of aces down to 
 two twos. 
 
 The combinations are of course manifold. The chief attraction of the 
 game consists in the tricks and artful devices by which the player seeks to 
 deceive his opponent. It is dangerous just as he is bold enough to set up 
 the value of a card, perhaps, of the least worth and thereby to raise the 
 belief of his fellow-players that he has a wonderfully good hand ; then 
 strengthening the illusiou by drawing no card, to improve his hand, thereby 
 intimidating his partner into withdrawing, and laughing afterwards not at 
 the value of the cards, but at the diplomacy by which he is enabled to rake 
 in the bets he has won. In this way each player bluffs his opponent, 
 whence manifestly comes the name of " bluff" which this game, commonly 
 has, especially among the Germans. Generally there are at last only a 
 couple interested in the pool who remain in the contest, each trying to out- 
 do the other in cunning devices ; all the rest having withdrawn, preferring 
 a certain but small loss to the chances of a heavy risk. Experience tells us 
 that, as in gambling, under the games before mentioned, so here, nothing 
 leads more forcibly to misfortune than not being able to bear a present 
 piece of ill-luck without obstinately seeking after better fortune. At 
 " bluff" many people will throw away ten dollars in order to recover one. 
 It is so alluring, so fascinating, to feel that with nothing, whatever, one 
 may be able to out-bluff somebody else. This, however, often happens, 
 that when one intends to withdraw and has allured the " bluffer" on as far 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND THEIR victim-. $08 
 
 as he can, he suddenly out-bids him on the ground of his good hand in such 
 a manner as to make his hair stand on end. 
 
 It is clear that of all possible card combinations in this game there are 
 only two that cannot be beaten, namely four aces, and four kings where in 
 the last the fifth card is an ace ; because under these circumstances there 
 cannot be four aces in another hand. It is only these hands, too, that have 
 an absolute value, in the others it is merely relative. Four kings are in 
 themselves worth nothing, because they maybe beaten in the same deal by 
 four aces. But four high cards so seldom come together in one hand, that 
 the probability of a combination of the four highest in one hand is always 
 very small. Nevertheless, it happens sometimes. It is easy enough to 
 calculate how often it ought to happen ; and in some of the German gaming 
 houses the calculation has been made quite closely how often a certain run 
 of color, red or black, should be made. 
 
 Meanwhile nothing has been won by it. For the looked for consumma- 
 tion only comes in with a long run of losses, and the moment when it will 
 come cannot be realized. It has been found, for example, that a red or 
 black series of 18 can only be regarded as a probability once in eighteen 
 months. Nevertheless, it is.a fact that in the year 1842 the Spanish envoy 
 at the late German Diet, at Frankfort on the Main, in a gaming house at 
 Homburg, had a run of 18 on the red on the same day, between the hours 
 of twelve and one. He began with the stake of one gold Napoleon and 
 relieved the bank of 100,000 francs ; and in the evening, at seven o'clock, 
 he had another run of 18 on the red, by which he drew in stakes to the 
 amount of 200,000 francs. Now if anyone, after the first run of 18, had 
 come to the resolution, as many people do, to play a " martingale" against 
 the series — the name is taken from that of the appliance used in breaking 
 in untrained horses — trusting to the calculation that such a run would not 
 recur in less than a year and a half, he would have lost an immense sum 
 of money on the evening of the very same day. 
 
 Probably, however, no series of 18 red occurred again for three years ; 
 and yet it might not have been impossible for two runs of 18 on the red to 
 have occurred even on the next day and no further repitition to have taken 
 place for six years. The proposition that at last there must come an 
 equalization in the results of gaming, where the chances are even, is im- 
 plicitly correct, because based on mathematical formula, only gamblers 
 overlook the fact that they cannot hold out with time and capital, and this 
 fateful oversight ruins them. 
 
 " Bluff" is played very much in the German as well as in the American 
 circles of New York, and if the conditions which would restrain the players 
 are not carried too high, there is much in it to entertain a company. 
 
 The more inexperienced the victims of a dishonest player are, the more 
 boldly do the latter defraud them. Travellers and our " dear cousins from 
 the country" furnish admittedly one of the finest fields of operation. Some 
 
304 AHE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 interesting examples of the tricks and infamies practised upon such people 
 have come to our knowledge, which we will not withhold from our readers. 
 
 Upon almost all the steamboats and railway lines between New Orleans 
 and Boston the passengers are pestered with every kind of so-called con- 
 fidence men, gamblers, pickpockets, and men of that stamp. These travel- 
 ling rascals generally go in companies of three, four or more. 
 
 Under the words " a party of pleasure" one of the commonest snares is 
 laid in which nothing like harm can even be guessed. One of the sharpers 
 usually comes on board the boat or into a car at one place, looks out for 
 his victim and is then joined by some of his accomplices at two or three 
 other places. These then seek to get near the person whom they have 
 decided to plunder, treating the first comrade of course as a stranger. By 
 and by they scrape an acquaintance, which ends later in a little game. 
 At first they only play for " love" — but presently someone makes the pro- 
 position that they have a small stake just to increase the interest. As soon 
 as a stranger makes up his mind to play under such circumstances, he may 
 be certain that he will be cheated. If he consents to anything through 
 kind feeling or amiability just to please his fellow-travellers, he is lost. 
 
 There are three or four different ways by which these scoundrels fleece 
 their victims as soon as they have agreed upon a game for pleasure. The 
 first is a fair game of euchre in which the player confines himself within 
 the limits of ordinary rules. In this game the chance of the traveller is as 
 one to three, because one of the swindlers who plays as his partner is iu 
 reality playing against him. When this method of robbery goes on too 
 slowly, — if they cannot bleed their victims freely enough, — or if he shows 
 an inclination to venture more money, they have recourse to the devices 
 offered by " poker." One of the players so deals the cards that the novice 
 gets three queens and a " pair" ; while to one of the others he gives three 
 aces and two other cards. In the mean time one of the accomplices takes 
 a view of his cards, and says with a knowing look " If I were playing 
 poker now I would not wish for a better hand." If the novice does not see 
 through this, somebody calls out " Well I doubt whether the cards are bet- 
 ter than mine." Upon which the first replies : — " I don't want to win your 
 money, but I could throw two cards away and still beat you." " Oho, I 
 am willing to play poker with my cards for any sum," responds the country- 
 man. The other confederates discuss the matter. The result finally is 
 that a large stake is played for, and that is just what the rogues are aiming 
 at. When the cards are about to be played, after the professional player 
 has thrown away his two cards, the unfortunate victim calls out " full hand 
 with three queens." He then shows his cards and expects to take the 
 stakes. But his antagonist only says : — " Full hand with three aces !" and 
 takes up the money. 
 
 " Not so fast," says the victim. " those are only three cards — a full hand 
 beats that." 
 
GAMBLING IIOUSES AND THEIR VICTIMS. 305 
 
 Certainly they are only three aces, but they were in my hand, and " full 
 hand with aces" always beats a "full hand with queens'', if I understand 
 the game. 
 
 44 That is the strangest way of playing poker I ever heard of. I'll leave 
 the question to any gentleman iu the car." 
 
 The two accomplices of course stand by their own acquaintance. Other 
 disinterested persons are surprised at the device, but the victim has only 
 his own folly to thauk for the loss, in having consented to make a bet in 
 such a way. 
 
 Sometimes the cards are simply laid out, that is without any ulterior 
 design behind. A very good hand for poker is dealt out ; but the antago- 
 nist receives one that is a little better ; and an occurrence of this kind the 
 following observations will explain. 
 
 In the smoking car of a train on the Hudson River Railroad a gambler 
 beguiled a traveller from the West into playing. After some rounds had 
 been played very pleasantly, the western man found the four queens aud 
 an ace in his hand and offered at once to bet. "Very well," said the 
 player. " I'll bet you a hundred dollars against your gold watch that I 
 can beat you with my cards." 
 
 The bet is taken. The watch and the money are placed in the hands of 
 an acquaintance of the scoundrel who happened to be standiug by. The 
 cards were shown. The gambler had four kings and took the watch. As 
 the train neared Peek skill the player prepared to go, but a friend of the 
 man he had cheated immediately set himself in the way, prevented him 
 from getting off and demanded without further ceremony the return of the 
 watch. The gambler placed himself in a position of defence, but the friend 
 was by no means intimidated. He drew a revolver and, holding the 
 weapon at the head of the fellow who had the watch, he said quite coolly: 
 — "I'll give you ten seconds to return that watch. Out with it, unless 
 you would rathfT have a bullet through your head." The player returned 
 the watch aud there the matter ended. 
 
 But it is not every passenger who has the same courage as this brave 
 backwoodsman ; hence the gamblers who in such numbers infest the rail- 
 way trains generally get good plunder from the western people. 
 
 The third and most infamous method of knavish intrigues of this kind is 
 where false cards are used. In New York there is a large business done 
 in the manufacture of cards expressly for the purpose ot cheating people. 
 Marked cards are not in common use, but the gambler uses them geuerally 
 ior no other purpose thau to plunder the victim whom he has espeeially 
 turned his attention to. When a player is alone, seeking for prey on his 
 own account, and working his calliug for himself only, he makes use of 
 cards of this kind. But when they go in parties, they usually practice one 
 of the methods already mentioned. The most usual way of marking the 
 
 20 
 
306 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 cards is by means of very fine piercers, which enable them to ascertain the 
 value of the card by the touch. 
 
 From what we have said of the extent and degree to which gambling is 
 carried on in New York and by New Yorkers, it will hardly be thought 
 possible that the practice is forbidden. Yet it is. The law upon this sub- 
 ject speaks out as plainly and as unequivocably as can possibly be desired. 
 
 The statute which makes gambling illegal in New York was passed in 
 1851. It is chapter 504 of the State laws, and runs as follows : — 
 
 Every person who for the purpose of gambling keeps or exhibits gamine 
 tables, rooms, apperatus or impliments, or any such material for faro or 
 -any other game of chance, whereby money or property of any kind is to 
 depend upon the result of such game, or who deals in or sells lottery tickets, 
 cards, &c, or who issues any publication, document, or any other notice 
 for the purpose of a bet or the advising of the numbers drawn in any pub. 
 lie or private lottery, or a book or any other publication issued for the pur- 
 pose of selling lottery tickets to other persons or dealing in the same shall 
 be treated as a common gambler and shall be punished as such. The 
 penalty for such offence shall be imprisonment for not less than ten days 
 with hard labor in the common jail or confinement in the States prison 
 with hard labor for a period not exceeding two years with a fine of one 
 thousand dollars, and in the event of this fine not being paid, the prisoner 
 to remain in prison until such time as it is paid or until it shall have been 
 remitted. 
 
 Every person who owns a building, or a ship, or any other kind of ves- 
 sel which he permits to be used for purposes of gaming, as, too, any pro- 
 prietor, agent or superintendent of such place who knowingly lets or per- 
 mits it to be used for purposes of gaming, and knows that it is used for 
 such purpose, shall be liable under this act. 
 
 Fvery person who induces another to visit a gaming house and there 
 causes him to gamble, shall be liable under this act and shall in addition 
 to the prescribed penalty be held liable for any money or other property 
 lost by such person in consequence of such inducement, and may be pro- 
 ceeded against by civil action for the recovery of the same. 
 
 It shall be the duty of all sheriffs, police ofiicers, constables, and prose- 
 cuting attorneys, to lay an information against and to prosecute all such 
 persons whom they may have sufficient reason to believe are offenders 
 against this law. And any neglect on the part of such ofiicers shall render 
 every such officer liable to a penalty not exceeding $500. 
 
 Every person who at any time by gaming or betting shall have lost to 
 any other person so gaming a sum of money or property equal in value to 
 $25 or more, and who shall have paid it or any part thereof to the person 
 so winning it, shall be entitled within three months of the date of such loss 
 to enter a suit in civil action for the recovery of said money or of any 
 property lost in the manner aforesaid. 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND TIIKIR VICTIMS. 307 
 
 Provided that in case any such person who may have lost any such sum 
 or value shall neglect within the specified time and in the manner aforesaid 
 and without any secret understanding with another person to take action 
 for the recovery of the lost value, it shall then be competent for the district 
 overseer of the poor in the place where the offence was committed to enter 
 proceedings and to recover from the winner of the same three times the 
 amount of the loss and the amount 30 recovered shall be applied to the 
 benefit of the poor. 
 
 This then is a rigorous law. And yet. in spite of it there is not a towu 
 in the Union where there are more gaming houses than there are in tae 
 chief city of the State of New York. There are in this city more than 
 two hundred, probably nearer three hundred lottery offices and other places 
 where games of chance are more or less practised ; and there are some two 
 thousand five hundred persons known to the police as professional gam- 
 blers. It seems, however, that they forbear to carry out the provisions of 
 the law against this class of offenders, and thus from year to year gambling 
 goes on unhindered. 
 
 The following interesting disclosure respecting the practical tricks and 
 devices of ordinary gamblers, was made by a professional player residing 
 in the upper part of the city, who after a severe sickness gave up his pre- 
 carious calling. He said : — 
 
 " I once knew a gentleman from the South who, although he could not 
 "be reckoned among the regular professional players, still did a very con- 
 siderable business at the gaming table. He gave out that he was very 
 fond of a little game to pas3 the time ; but the curious part of the thing was 
 that he invariably won, and as he moved in the best circles of society both 
 in consequence of his high connections and manner, she had intercourse 
 with persons of ample means, and as a result his winnings were consider- 
 able. I often played with him, but, notwithstanding, my experience as an 
 old player I regularly lost. I was convinced that there must be something 
 here not quite right, and I resolved to find it out if such a thing were pos- 
 sible. I examined the backs of the cards most carefully, and as I was 
 well acquainted with all the tricks that are practised in that direction, I 
 soon became satisfied that so far as this was concerned there was nothing 
 wrong. I observed the way in which he dealt the cards. He did this 
 with great rapidity ; but his shuffling of the cards was perfectly fair. 
 
 One day I provided myself with a powerful magnifying glass, and ex- 
 amined very closely a pack of cards with which we had played on the pre- 
 ceding evening. A long and thorough examination revealed a number of 
 very minute notes upon all the aces and pictured cards. These were so 
 exceedingly small that they could not possibly be discovered by the naked 
 eye, although they could be readily felt by the tips of the fingers. Later 
 observations exposed his mode of operation. On the inside of his signet 
 ring he had an extremely fine pointed instrument concealed, and at the 
 
308 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 beginning of every game he so arranged it that by bringing the right side- 
 of the aces and pictured cards against this contrivance he could prick them 
 with one or more very small punctures, and by this means mark the cards 
 for his own purpose. His sense of touch in the fingers was so extremely 
 delicate that even while dealing the cards he could ascertain their value by 
 touching them with the middle finger of his left hand. And although he 
 dealt with great dexterity, he always knew where the best cards were. 
 This of course gave him an immense advantage and the result was that he 
 almost constantly won." 
 
 We mention this example of cheating at the gaming table to show to 
 what devices in roguery gambling will lead, and to what unsuspected and 
 inconceivable tricks the honest player who is not looking for anything 
 wrong, may be subjected. 
 
 To the oldest and most transparent deceptions that used to be practised 
 against the unexperienced belongs the game of three card monte. Duriug 
 the past year many persons who either for health or recreation have gone 
 to Coney Island, have had to suffer annoyances from a class of bullies and 
 vagabonds who in many instances have enticed them into this infamous 
 swindle. At different times energetic efforts have been made to prevent 
 these rascals visiting the Island, but thus far they have not succeeded and 
 the fellows carry on their knavish trade more vigorously than ever. One 
 would think that no man who has sense enough to find his way to the 
 Island could be so foolish as to let himself be cheated by such miserable 
 cheats. For no one ever saw these people lose at play. They always win. 
 They come there for no other purpose than to take people's money, to 
 steal, and to rob and plunder their neighbors. 
 
 It is especially on Sundays that these despicable rascals are mostly to be 
 met with in Coney Island ; and as the authorities of Long Island, under 
 whose jurisdiction the place is, trouble themselves very little about the 
 wretched business that goes on there ; there is no check to the impudence 
 with which these people carry on their calling. During the past summer 
 we noticed especially two such cases in which the people were perfectly 
 well known to the police as proprietors of the most dangerous gambling 
 hells in the lower part of the city. 
 
 Each of them has two or three decoys or " ropers-in" in his serviee ; and 
 it is the business of these men to resume an air of simpleness and inex- 
 perience so as to get their intended victim to instruct them in the mysteries 
 of three card monte. If he is once drawn into the game, he frequently 
 stands by it. 
 
 The manner of the player is this : — He takes three cards in his hand, 
 for example an ace, a queen, and the seven of hearts. A small table is in 
 front of him on which he can at his pleasure throw the cards from side to 
 side. Holding the cards in both hands and throwing them quickly about,, 
 he calls upon the people in something like these words : — " Now, come 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND TIIKIH VICTIMS. 300 
 
 .along, gentlemen, just to pass away a little time. I'll show you a little 
 game that you can all learn. It is so simple. Watch me, gentlemen, and 
 you'll understand it in a second." 
 
 Saying this, he throws the cards dexterously one over the other. — 
 K " Look ! here is the ace, there is the queen, and that's the seven. Well 
 then. Now who will bet ten, twenty, or fifty dollars, that he will guess 
 any of these cards. Yes, gentlemen, I have some money and I'm willing 
 to make a bet that there is no one here who can pick out either of these 
 cards, which ever he chooses." 
 
 Whilst the speaker turns away his face, perhaps to spit or to blow his 
 nose, one of his confederates who stands among the on-lookers slyly marks 
 one of the three cards. In his pocket meanwhile there are cards belonging 
 to a pack of exactly the same make. Now if no one can be found who i3 
 willing to take up the bet with his associate, the fellow himself plays with 
 the pretended stranger, and lets him win through his knowledge of the 
 marked card ; thereby deceiving the crqwd. But if a " greenhorn" lets 
 himself be induced to bet that he can find the card, another card is by a 
 rapid manipulation made to take the place of the marked one. This card 
 has the same marks, but is of another suit. The money wagered is placed 
 in the hands of an accomplice of the rascal who is near by ; the card is 
 turned and — of course it is not the one upon which the victim betted. 
 
 The whole secret of this swindling game consists in the vagabond who 
 practises it being a good talker and a dexterous manipulator of the cards. 
 It is generally played at agricultural shows in the country and at horse 
 races in small places. 
 
 On the occasion of one of our visits to Coney Island last summer a case 
 •occurred which seems sufficiently worthy to receive notice here. 
 
 One of the bystanders near a gambling table, stepped up to the man who 
 had charge of the bank, after most of the crowd had gone away, and 
 -addressed him as follows : — " You are the most stupid, careless set of gam- 
 glers I ever saw. Why don't you get some fellow to do the " roping-in" 
 for you, who knows your work? Look at that sporting fellow there, the 
 man is here in the same way every Sunday. This is the twelfth time I 
 have seen him here." 
 
 "And who the devil are you," growled the person addressed, while his 
 •comrade made a sign to put a bullet through the head of the audacious fel- 
 low, or a knife into his breast. But the man kept very quiet and replied 
 " I am a gambler, too, but I play on the square. I can beat you in your 
 own game, and will bet twenty, thirty, fifty, or a hundred dollars, that you 
 don't know how to pick out the knave. The banker accepted the challenge 
 and the stranger took the cards. He shuffled them with wonderful dex- 
 terity and then offered to make a bet. The monte man began to feel a 
 little nervous, but at last he concluded to bet twenty dollars and took out 
 .two counterfeit ten dollar bills. But the " honest" stranger would not 
 
310 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 accept this. The bet was taken back and another made for ten dollars,, 
 the swindler, though very unwillingly, depositing this time a genuine ten 
 dollar bill. He now endeavored to pick out the knave — and lost. " Do 
 you understand now what an awkward fellow you are?" said the "honest" 
 player, as he very quietly picked up the ten dollar note, walked away, and 
 left the astonished sharper w T ondering who he was. 
 
 Among the many peculiarities of the city of New York the Chinese gam- 
 bling houses ought to be enumerated. The number of Chinese in the city 
 is about 6,000, and the places chiefly frequented by these for play are 
 mostly in the Sixth Ward. 
 
 But these pig-tailed sons of the East do not render themselves specially 
 remarkable amid our life of civilization ; they are a very quiet, harmless 
 people who go their own way in a peaceful, unpretending manner. But 
 all who are acquainted w T ith the Chinese character know well that of all 
 passions those of opium-eating and gambling are the most prominent defects 
 among the Chinese. The inhabitants of th^ Celestial Empire are the most 
 abject slaves to these two vices. 
 
 Gambling is a habit with the Chinese which is as difficult for them to* 
 overcome as is the habit of drinking to the drunkard. These Chinese live 
 in a lane which runs out of Chatham Street and is known as " Donovan's 
 Lane." The third house on the right as you go down is a Chinese gaming 
 house. The old tumble-down place has nothing peculiar in external 
 appearance, which serves to indicate the business that is carried on inside 
 of its walls. At the door there is neither a bell-pull nor a knocker. The- 
 shutters are closed and there is no other way of seeking access to the inside 
 than by knocking loudly on the door. After this has been repeated several 
 times the door is opened. A Chinaman asks in broken English " What do 
 you want?" 
 
 " I want to come in," is the brief answer. That is enough ; the Asiatic- 
 shuts the door again and carefully bolts it. A little money put into his 
 hand seems to relieve him of all scruples. He leads in through a long 
 narrow passage to another door, which is likewise carefully locked and 
 bolted on the inside. Our guide knocks in a peculiar manner and this 
 door is opened immediately. 
 
 A little court yard is now crossed. On the opposite side of this we 
 observe three windows, from which a clear light is shining, indicating to 
 us that we have nearly reached the end of our journey. The same cere- 
 mony of knocking and of signals is here repeated and suddenly we find 
 ourselves in a brightly lighted room. Immediately the eyes of all present 
 are directed upon us. Our companion whispers some words and the eager 
 players who for a moment had been disturbed, renew their game with wild 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 The room is not larger than any ordinary reception room, and it can 
 readily be understood that in such a place forty people — for there are 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND THEIR VICTIM?. 311 
 
 generally as many as that — all talking together create a considerable amount 
 of noise, which is out of all proportion to the place. Our guide who, as it 
 appears, is the proprietor of the establishment, takes no active part in the 
 game himself and only makes known his authority by now and then calling 
 cut something which at once causes silence in the room. It is, however, 
 very soon followed by such a din that the principal has again and again to 
 repeat the magic words. 
 
 While the Celestials go on playing with all eagerness, they seem to fall 
 sometimes into a complete state of madness, although we saw very little 
 money upon the whole of the three tables that the place contained, and 
 around each of which there were from ten to twelve Chinamen assembled. 
 
 The game is called Cha Mei and is played for " tseen." This is a small 
 copper coin of less value than a cent, — but yet small as the sum is, the 
 players get most agitated and excited over it. On the table stands a ves- 
 sel which is pierced with holes all round. Into this vessel each player puts 
 as many tseen or cents as he pleases up to a given amount ; for there is a 
 limit put. A spring in the interior of the vessel drives all the coins into 
 one heap, and then each player tries to guess how many tseens there are put 
 in, he who guesses nearest being entitled to the stakes. At first sight this 
 game seems very simple, for anyone might think that the players would be 
 sure to put in the smallest amount. But that is not the case ; for each one 
 endeavours by craftiness to outwit the rest. Sometimes a player Mill put 
 in a sum far exceeding all the rest and then it is not difficult for him to 
 make an estimate nearly correct. It is interesting to the looker-on to 
 watch the mode and manner of the game and the way in which it is con- 
 ducted, one man trying to make the others believe that he is going to put 
 in a large number of tseens, while probably he only puts in two or three. 
 Another will make his hand so small as to seem as if he had only a few 
 cents in it, while the reverse is the case. And especially amusing it is to 
 observe, amid the progress of this Mongolian amusement, the applause and 
 the incessant chattering that go on in apparently the most disorderly 
 manner. 
 
 During the course of the evening we were invited to take part in the 
 game, and for an American quarter dollar we received a perfect heap of 
 Chinese coins. 
 
 The exciting moment of the whole game is that when all having made 
 their estimates, the amount in the vessel is about to be counted. 
 
 The proprietor of the house receives only a small per cent, of each stake. 
 Spirits are very little drunk in these places, lemonade and tea of inferior 
 quality being the principle refreshments. The house is closed shortly 
 before midnight, and the several visitors go one after another through the 
 dark passage out into the street. 
 
 We close this with the recital of a long officially authenticated gambliDg 
 affair, which differs from most of such stories in having for its termination 
 
312 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 the fact that the amount which had been obtained by the swindle was 
 recovered without any loss. 
 
 It is an interesting case related by the well-known Detective McWatter's, 
 and it illustrates both the proceedings of the gambler and the dangers they 
 incur who allow themselves to be seduced into gambling houses. Mr. 
 McWatter's says : — 
 
 I had just returned from a business journey, and wondering at not find- 
 ing my companion at the office, I concluded that he had suddenly been 
 called away to a distance. To pass the time I went to the St. Nicholas 
 Hotel, and while I was walking backwards and forwards in the entrance 
 there 1 noticed a gentleman whom I had seen a few days before in a car 
 on one of the Western Railroads. lie got into the train at Painesville, 
 Ohio, and by different peculiarities of dress and manner he made himself 
 remarkably conspicuous. I found it difficult to make out what he was. 
 At first I thought he was a merchant, then I fancied he was a lawyer, and 
 at last I took him for some well-to-do young fellow who was travelling for 
 pleasure. At any rate I thought it would be worth my while to watch 
 him a little. I do not know why I did so, but I did it so thoroughly that 
 I could not readily have forgotten the man again. 
 
 Well the first person whom I met in the hotel was this young man and 
 curiosity leading me to learn something more about him, I went to the 
 clerk and enquired of him the stranger's name. I learned that he was one 
 Charles Purvis of Louisville, Kentucky. "Purvis?" said I to myself, 
 " Purvis?" Where have I met a man of that name before? The name 
 was known to me and I wracked my brain to think about it, till at last the 
 story occurred to me which one of my colleagues had told me long before 
 on one of the Mississippi steamers ; and in which the name of " Purvis" 
 had figured in connection with a criminal case. 
 
 Perhaps, thought I, this is the very man ; and as I had nothing particu- 
 lar to do for the next two days, I undertook to myself to watch the stranger 
 at a distance. 
 
 I lett the hotel with the intention of returning in due time in the evening 
 and of keeping an eye upon his movements. On my return I found Mr. 
 Purvis in a very cheerful mood at the bar counter. He treated several 
 friends in a very iiberal manner, but otherwise kept himself reserved, not 
 making any lurther acquaintances among the guests of the hotel who thus 
 far had been unknown to him. At last he left the bar by himself and went 
 slowly through the corridors like one who has nothing particular to do and 
 is trying to think how he can amuse himself. Near the outer door there 
 stood three men who were keeping up a lively conversation among them- 
 selves, but they were people whose character any experienced detective 
 cou'.d see at a glauce. Respectable looking people, well dressed, of courte- 
 ous manners and crafty aspect, people whose power ot conversation is at 
 times very striking, but who -well know how to measure their words and 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND THEIR VICTIMS. 313 
 
 to fit them to the person with whom they may be at the moment brought 
 into contact. They belong to a class of gamblers who devote themselves 
 to u roping-in'' strangers, and taking them to the several gambling houses 
 bv which they are employed. 
 
 Two of these fellows presently approached Mr. Purvis, having first taken 
 leave of the other in a very cordial manner. Wishing Mr. Purvis a very 
 special " good evening," they seemed to indicate that they looked upon him 
 as a person of consiuerable importance. They went out into Broadway. 
 Mr. Purvis hereupon got into conversation with the man who remained 
 behind and who began it with the remark : — " A very pleasant evening to- 
 night." 
 
 " Indeed, a splendid evening. I guess you don't often have such beauti- 
 ful evenings here in New York." 
 
 " I don't know that it is so very unusual. The evenings here are gener- 
 ally fine. Are you a stranger in New York ? if you permit me to ask the 
 question ?" 
 
 " Not exactly a stranger, but I do not reside in the city. I have been 
 backwards and forwards here often enough to know the city pretty well." 
 
 " That has been the case with me the last two years. At one time I 
 lived here for some years. It is a gay and pleasant place to stay in as 
 soon as one knows the streets and places of business and amusement." 
 
 " Certainly it is," replied Mr. Purvis, " but I have never had much 
 opportunity to make many acquaintances here." 
 
 " Well, I don't know many people here, but I manage to find my way 
 about without much difficulty, for I generally meet with some of my old 
 friends from Connecticut, my former home. Many of them are settled 
 here in business. 
 
 " From Connecticut are you ? Do you know Hartford," said Mr. 
 Purvis. 
 
 " Yes, indeed, I was born there. And a very pretty little town it is. 
 The people are well-to-do and very superior." 
 
 " Yes, that is so. Some years ago a cousin of mine from Arkansas was 
 there at Trinity College. He was a fine young fellow, named William 
 Sebastian. I visited him there while he was a student, and spent a week 
 most pleasantly. Old Sam Colt was a first rate fellow, too. We passed 
 many a pleasant evening with different jolly people through in the rooms 
 of the old City Hotel at Hartford. You know it I suppose?" 
 
 " That hotel is the favorite resort of the students of Trinity College. 
 Many a pleasant hour I have had there." 
 
 " I am glad to hear that you know Hartford. I shall probably make a 
 visit there before I return home. Do you expect to go back there soon?" 
 
 " Yes, perhaps I shall be going early to-morrow morning, But I may 
 possibly stay here two or three days. I don't quite know yet. If you 
 
014 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 should be ready to start when I go, I shall be pleased to have you as a 
 companion." 
 
 " If I should decide to go there I shall hope to have the pleasure of your 
 company. Have the goodness to give me your card, here is mine. My 
 name, as you see, is Purvis, from Louisville." 
 
 The loafer felt about in his pockets, and pretending to miss something, 
 said " I haven't a card about me, but my name is George Ellsworth." 
 
 "Ellsworth? That's a good name. I have often heard my Uncle 
 Throckmorton talk about the Ellsworth's of Connecticut." 
 
 It was clear to me that the name of " Ellsworth" had done much to 
 ingratiate him in the confidence of Mr. Pnrvis, about whose character I 
 began to be in some doubt. At first I had associated his name with a 
 criminal offence, but notwithstanding, it now seemed to me from his man- 
 ner in the conversation with Ellsworth that my suspicions were unfounded. 
 
 Presently that conversation, which had already become as confidential 
 as between two old acquaintances, was carried on in a subdued tone. I 
 therefore endeavored to get nearer to them, and opening some papers, pre- 
 tended to be in deep thought about something. 
 
 " Is not this too bad? Mr. Purvis," said Ellsworth. " I have been wait- 
 ing here an hour at least for a friend who was to have gone for a little 
 walk with me, but I guess he has had to leave me in the lurch." 
 
 " Well, the evenings now are tedious, especially for strangers. One is 
 lonely in these large cities without acquaintances. Will you take a glass 
 of wine, Mr. Ellsworth?" 
 
 " I drink very seldom ; but when I am travelling I take a small glass 
 now and then." 
 
 " Come to the bar with me. I would invite you to join me in a bottle 
 of wine in my room ; but the hotel is so disagreeably full that they had to 
 give me a room at the top of the house." 
 
 " All right ; but you must not mind if I don't take more than one glass* 
 The evening is long yet, and we shall have plenty of opportunity to drink 
 many times, for I know well, too well, how liberal and generous the South- 
 ern people are." 
 
 " Certainly ! Well we are a little inclined to kick over the traces ; but 
 come along." — And the trusting Purvis carelessly took his new friend s 
 arm and went away with him to the bar. 
 
 I at first thought of following them, but changed my mind and awaited 
 their return. They remained away much longer than was necessary to 
 drink a glass of wine, and when they came back they remained only a 
 moment at the door, but went together down Broadway. Ellsworth has 
 his game in hand ; thought I to myself. Where are they going now? 
 
 As I never doubted that some mischief would be done before the evening 
 ended, I followed them at a suitable distance and noticed that they stopped 
 for a moment before a house in Broadway. Ellsworth seemed to be mow 
 
('.A Ml", I. INC. HOUSES AND THEIR VICTIMS. 5l9 
 
 ■ndecided as to what lie would do, than was Purvis. As I got near to 
 them I fell into the middle of a number of people and without being noticed 
 Iv Purvis I was able to hear the following conversation : — 
 
 " If you think we shall not disturb them, let us go up and look for your 
 friend." 
 
 " Oh, no," replied Ellsworth, " we shall be quite welcome ; but I was 
 thinking whether we should be able to find room." 
 
 Nevertheless he went in followed by Purvin. At that time the place 
 gambling hell, kept by the disreputable son of a well-known physi- 
 cian. I had never been in it, but I had heard that it was much frequented 
 by young men who used to go for a game at cards ; and that sometimes, 
 too, faro was played there. As I was afraid that as Ellsworth had possi- 
 bly seen me a good deal about the St. Nicholas Hotel, he would suspect 
 something if I were to go in alone, I loitered about till my friend W., a 
 detective also, came along. He was about my height, and wore a blue 
 coat. Mine was a black one. I took Henry into the little passage and 
 whispered to him : — " There's business overhead. Change coats ; and if 
 you have a pair of mustachios about you, lend them to me." 
 
 "I haven't any mustachios, but I have something that will -do as well,'* 
 said Henry, taking a wig out of his pocket. My hair happened to be cut 
 very short, so the long haired wig just suited my purpose. 
 
 To change coats and put on the wig was the work of a moment only ; 
 and promising Henry to see him on the following morning we parted, and 
 the next instant I was in the card room. Without any ceremony I went 
 in, walked up to the sideboard, as is customary in these places, took a 
 glass of wine, and began to look about the room. My friends Purvis and 
 Ellsworth were there. The latter seemed to be explaining to the former 
 the ways and customs of the place and what was to be done there. 
 
 In one of the rooms faro was going on on this occasion, and in the other 
 room, ordinary games of cards. 
 
 After a little while I heard Ellsworth say "I never play for money, but 
 I have no doubt you will find somebody here who will have a game with 
 you for amusement if you like." Whereupon the two " friends" went arm 
 in arm into the card room, where they very soon found a party ready to 
 play a game. Ellsworth, however, declined to play, but took a seat by the 
 side of Purvis to watch the game. The stakes were small. Presently 
 Purvis lost more than he had in his purse, and in consequence he opened a 
 well filled pocket-book which he carried in his breast pocket. I noticed a 
 peculiar smile on Ellsworth's face as his eyes rested on the pocket-book, 
 and from that look it became quite evident to me that I should have some- 
 thing to do. I looked on at the game with apparent indifference, but as 
 far as possible kept a close watch upon Ellsworth who seemed to be getting 
 very uneasy. People went in and out, especially to and from the next 
 room, and Ellsworth's face was constantly turned towards the door whenr 
 
316 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW JfOItK LIFE. 
 
 ever a fresh face came out, or he heard a new voice or an unknown 
 footstep. Suddenly he seemed to brighten up. He got up, went into the 
 next room, took a glass of wine and as he was coming back he turned as 
 though he had just spied a friend ; then he called out " Hello Williams ! 
 liow are you ? How did you get here ? I waited for you for more than 
 .an hour at the St. Nicholas Hotel." 
 
 " I was very late. — I didn't know where I should find you, and came 
 liere I hardly know how ; but it is lucky we have met," said Williams, 
 flapping Ellsworth on the shoulder. 
 
 All this was said in a way that Purvis must hear, unless he was quite 
 absorbed in the interest of the game. The two confederates now went into 
 the card room ; — " allow me, gentlemen, * said Ellsworth, " to interrupt the 
 game one moment." — Then taking Williams direct up to Purvis, he said 
 " Mr. Purvis, I have the honor to introduce to you my friend, Mr. Williams, 
 for whom we were waiting so long this evening. Is it not lucky that he 
 dropped in here?" 
 
 After the usual courtesies had been passed and Purvis had assured Mr. 
 Williams that it gave him much pleasure to make his acquaintance, he 
 added : — " The game will soon be over and then I shall be pleased to 
 Decomc better acquainted with the friend of my friend Ellsworth." 
 
 But who was this man Williams? the reader will naturally ask. I did 
 not know Ellsworth, but Williams I had seen before. He was fashionably 
 dressed, even better dressed than Ellsworth, and not inferior to him in 
 manners ; although it was quite apparent to any experienced observer that 
 he was really a much commoner man than Ellsworth. He seemed a 
 shrewder man and much better adapted to the performance of any ille- 
 gality. He belonged in fact to the most crafty set of pickpockets in the 
 city, and had long been known to me as " Billy Reaver." 
 
 When the game between Purvis and the stranger had come to an end, 
 Williams proposed to join in another game, but as he was alone, Purvis 
 sat down to it, not forgetting first to refresh himself well with wine. I 
 noticed that Williams took occasion to go with Purvis to the sideboard, and 
 I heard Williams say to him : — u Let us have a glass of red wine" ; at the 
 same time pouring out a glassful which Purvis at once swallowed. I did 
 Dot doubt in my own mind that Williams had drugged this wine and was 
 eager, therefore, to watch what would follow. 
 
 Later in the evening I took part in a game myself at another table, 
 taking care, however, so to sit that I could readily observe the movements 
 of Purvis and his partner. For some time Purvis played a very good 
 game, but by and by he betrayed a most marked carelessness, and Wil- 
 liams, who was very pleasant company, began to relate a number of droll 
 -Stories. 
 
 He took every imaginable pains to keep up the falling spirits of Purvis 
 hj means of jokes and good humor. Purvis was repeatedly going to the 
 
GAMBLING IIOUSES AND THEIR VICTIMS. 31 T 
 
 sideboard, while the mixture he had was doing its work. He lost con- 
 siderable sums of money all the while, too, and was obliged to be con- 
 stantly having recourse to his pocket-book. 
 
 At the end of about au hour, Ellsworth, who had not taken part directly 
 in the game, made the remark " Isn't it about time for decent people to go 
 home?" Upon which Williams replied "As you like, I dare say Mr. 
 Purvis will be wanting to go back to his hotel." Then looking at the clock 
 on the mantel piece, he said " It is, indeed, later than I thought it was." 
 And so very soon the three left the place, Mr. Purvis finding it no easy 
 matter to drag himself along. 
 
 When they got on to the foot-path, Ellsworth said to Williams : — "Let 
 us accompany Mr. Purvis to his hotel," and taking him by the arm they 
 went towards home. The distance was so short that, as I had heard the 
 conversation on the step, I did not think it well to follow them. But 
 hardly had the rascals been gone a minute, before suddenly a fire, which 
 broke out at the corner of Houston Street and Broadway, attracted my 
 attention, and when, after a few minutes, I turned round to look for the 
 three companions they were gone. I hurried to the hotel. But ihey had 
 not gone there. I asked the clerk whether Mr. Purvis had had his key 
 and gone to bed. But no one had seen that gentleman since quite early in 
 the evening. 
 
 Where then could the rascals have taken him? Feeling convinced that 
 the Kentuckian had been taken into one of the coaches which at that hour 
 of the night were about the hotel, and that he had been driven away ; and 
 knowing that it would be the height of folly to follow the thing up any 
 further at that time, I resolved to go home and to defer any further enquiry 
 till the next morning. I took the clerk of the hotel into my confidence and 
 told him confidentially that I feared that Purvis has been made the victim 
 of a set of swindlers, by whom it was not impossible that he might lose his 
 life. I begged the clerk to say nothing about it in case Purvis should 
 return on the next morning. 
 
 "Keep a watch," I said, "upon any person who comes back with him. 
 Observe him well and try to find out the number and the name of the 
 coachman, also whether he has been robbed and especially what has been 
 done with him. To-morrow morning give me all the information you pos- 
 sibly can." 
 
 The clerk promised me that he would do all this carefully, and I went 
 contentedly home, feeling assured that that officer of the hotel would do his 
 duty. The next morning I was awoke by him at about seven o'clock. 
 He told me that about an hour before Mr. Purvis had been brought into 
 the entrance of the hotel in a perfectly unconscious condition ; and so 
 strongly had he been stupified by some narcotic that, after spending about 
 half an hour in trying to restore him, he had been obliged to send for a 
 physician. As soon as the identification of the man had been made com- 
 
318 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 plete in the vestibule of the hotel, the clerk had hurried out into the street 
 and had seen a slim man running down Broadway, while a coach was 
 being driven at a gallop in the opposite direction. It was, however, uncer- 
 tain whether the coach had anything to do with this business. 
 
 "But," he continued, "I examined the person and the clothes of Mr. 
 Purvis and found them covered with spots ot blood ; and on the right side 
 of the coat I found a slit which, however, did not seem large enough to get 
 a large pocket-book through." — As the side pocket was tolerably large, I 
 thought that probably on leaving the gaming house the rascals aad tried to 
 take the money through an opening in the coat, and as they had failed in 
 the attempt, they had taken their victim away in order to accomplish the 
 work in some other way. I immediately dressf d myself and hurried away 
 to the hotel. 
 
 Purvis had been carried to his room and a physician was rendering him 
 all the assistance that could be given. Medecine had been administered 
 and all that was necessary was being done. 
 
 The physician's assistant said that he was a native of Louisville and 
 knew the Purvis family very well. Moreover, he would gladly himself 
 give five hundred dollars to find the swindlers who had so shamefully 
 robbed his townsman. I was much prepossessed in favor of the young 
 Southerner, and wheu the physician went away I asked him to remain a 
 little while — which he did. We staid over an hour by the side of Purvis 
 before he had sufficiently recovered to be able to open his eyes to recognize 
 his acquaintance from Louisville and to answer my questions as to how 
 much he had lost. The last was what I chiefly wanted to know. He had 
 not the smallest idea where he had been ; but he knew that on the previous 
 evening he had in his possession a thousand and sixty dollar. He had a 
 thousand dollars in his pocket-book which he carried in his overcoat, and 
 the other sixty dollars in small money were in the pockets of his other 
 clothes. On the day before he had in the fulfilment of a commission paid 
 a large amount away to a number of residents in Louisville, in consequence 
 of which this was all the money he had left, and half of that was not his 
 own ; which, as he said, " made the matter so much the worse." 
 
 After I had learned this much, I knew enough to enable me to take steps 
 by which I hoped to be able to take Ellsworth and Williams ; and I had 
 then no doubt that they were still to be found in the city. But as all con- 
 jectures about their designs were very doubtful and as it seemed to me 
 advisable to have some assistance in my movements, I took my young 
 friend, the young physician, with me, for he was very enthusiastic in the 
 matter. But as we had to use the utmost precaution in order effectually 
 to defeat the enemy, he went to his lodgings and I to my office to make 
 all the necessary preparations. We agreed to meet again in an hour at 
 the St. Nicholas Hotel. When we did so, it occurred to me whether Pur- 
 vis's pocket-book may not have had some particular mark by which it 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND TIIEIR VICTIMS. 319 
 
 could be known ; we went, therefore, to his room where we learned that it 
 was a present of his brother's, and under the cover had the imprint " C. 
 II. P., Louisville," in gold letters, which were now nearly rubbed out and 
 illegible. 
 
 Upon this we began our round of inspection. I thought I could easily 
 find out Williams's lodgings ; and that I should there probably discover him 
 and his friend Ellsworth taking a nap ; but in this instance I had reckoned 
 without my host. 
 
 Although we spent the whole day in going from one place to another, at 
 nightfall we had discovered nothing and were tired out. But as we passed 
 Roosevelt Street on the way to the Williamsburg Ferry, a tall, slim man 
 slipped by us, in whom I immediately recognized Williams. He wmt into 
 a small oyster saloon and we followed him. He took a seat in the farthest 
 and darkest corner of the dirty place and there ordered some soup. He 
 seemed to be quite exhausted, as if he had just come off a long excursion. 
 He was so nervous that he threw a part of the soup over his clothes. And 
 it seemed to me as if he himself was still under the influence of some nar- 
 cotic drug. I did not doubt for one moment that it was he who had stolen 
 the pocket-book, and probably he had it still in his possession, but as I had 
 •no warrant with me, in order to make myself more secure, I had to follow 
 him up further. As soon as he had finished his soup and had moved in 
 the direction of the door as if to go away, the slovenly looking proprietor 
 of the place — an Irishwoman — called out to him just as he had got his 
 hand on the door : — 
 
 " Hillo you sir ! — Do you call yourself a gentleman, and go away with- 
 out paying for what you've had?" 
 
 Williams, who, indeed, hardly knew what he was about, had, as I sus- 
 pected, never intended to cheat the woman, was very much irritated at the 
 coarseness of her manner, turned round and cursed her warmly ; upon 
 which the woman called out to us " Gentlemen, will you sit there guilty 
 and let a man cheat an honest woman ? such a miserable vagabond as this, 
 too. Take hold of him !" 
 
 My excitable friend, the young physician, did not wait for any further 
 invitation, but quickly threw his strong arms round Williams and cried 
 out : — Here scoundrel, pay this poor woman before you go out, or we'll 
 keep you here all night.'' 
 
 Thereupon he dragged him up against the dirty counter behind which 
 the woman was standing. Williams, still half drunk, and held in the grip 
 of the stout young fellow who had him as in a vice, was soon quieted and 
 began to feel about in his pocket for money. While this was going on he 
 unintentionally pulled out a silk scarf, which, as we found later, had been 
 stolen, and with it fell out at the same time the well-filled pocket-book. 
 
 Williams, who was drunk, as I at first expected, appeared not to take 
 much notice of what had happened ; and after he had found some small 
 
320 THE DAEK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 change in his waistcoat pocket and paid the old woman, I took hold of the 
 pocket-book and spoke to him : — " Here, don't forget this, — yon may per- 
 haps want it." He looked at me with an air of surprise and came towards 
 me. Without further ceremony I opened the flap of the pocket-book, and 
 found there # the gold lettered imprint described by Purvis. " I'll take this 
 thing for myself, Mr. 'Williams," said I, " then I can look after it. My 
 good woman, this man is a pickpocket.'' Then turning to my friend, I 
 requested him to bolt the door, which he immediately did. 
 
 " You take charge of Williams, while I examine the pocket-book. You, 
 old lady, keep quiet ; and, Williams, if you dare to make the least noise, it 
 will go hard with you." 
 
 I soon finished the examination and found 930 dollars, a part of which 
 was in Kentucky bank notes ; also a beautiful lady's watch and chain, from 
 the latter of which some links had been broken, and which had evidently 
 been stolen by Williams quite recently. 
 
 The fellow presently realized the fact that he was in custody, but he 
 protested that he had not stolen the money and declared that Ellsworth 
 alone was guilty. I was also inclined to credit this, for I knew that Ells- 
 worth had been the " roper-in" of Purvis. As it was of more consequence 
 to me to catch Ellsworth than to hand Williams over to the authorities, I 
 promised him that if he would tell me the whole truth, and let me know 
 where Ellsworth staid, I would let him go as soon as Ellsworth was found. 
 He then gave me all the details. 
 
 On the previous night they had taken Purvis to Ellsworth's house at 
 Williamsburg, where the latter ostensibly lived with his family. There of 
 course it was easy enough to effect the robbery. As they had no proper 
 place to put Purvis, and as it seemed dangerous to keep him there any 
 longer, they, before daylight, took a coach and Williams had gone alone 
 with Purvis to New York. 
 
 The driver had received fifty dollars for the journey. He had just 
 returned, he said, from Williamsburg and they were to meet, he and Ells- 
 worth, on the next day at a house in the Bowery to divide the money. 
 
 I handed Williams over into the care of a police officer who on the in- 
 formation of the fraud took him for the time into his custody. On the 
 next day I went to the place indicated by the thief. Williams, in charge 
 of a police officer, was there at the right time and expressed his surprise 
 that Ellsworth did not come as he had promised ; a circumstance, however, 
 at which I by no means wondered. We returned now to the hotel. 
 
 It is hard to imagine any man more delighted than Purvis was at the 
 return of so large a portion of the money, all of which he thought had been 
 lost. 
 
 I followed up Ellsworth very eagerly, visited his " family" in Williams- 
 burg, but I could not get hold of him till he fell into my hands in another 
 town, where I made use of him for the discovery of several other scoundrels. 
 
GAMBLING HOUSES AND TI1KIR VICTIMS. S21 
 
 When I took leave of Purvis he told rae that if the whole thousand dol- 
 lars had boeu lost to him, he should still have eousidered that he ha 1 
 bun-lit his experience very cheaply," 
 
 AVe think that iu the chapter now brought to a close, we have presented 
 such a picture of the proceedings of the gamblers iu the hells of this city, 
 and of the dangers which beset their victims, as should be a sufficient 
 warning to all sensible people to avoid the gaming table. Even in the 
 houses — aud there are but few such — where the play is conducted fairly, 
 that is, where there is no actual cheating, the chances of the bank are at 
 ail times greatly out of proportion to those of the plavers ; — aud experience 
 teaches us that even in these places not one in a hundred of the visitors 
 win anything. Sooner or later loss is certain. But to those who visit the 
 gaming table there is something jeopardized which is of far more import- 
 ance than money, namely : — peace of mind, contentment and — character. 
 
 
 PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 
 
 We come now to one of the saddest sections of our work on the dark 
 side of life in the great city— the so-called " social evil"' or prostitution. 
 
 Till lately this theme was unfortunately ranked among those which a 
 mischievous prudery would only permit to be brought in the faintest pos- 
 sible manner, if at all, before the notice of the public. An excessively 
 moral pedantry was long accustomed to content itself with the knowledge 
 that the social evil was a necessity which could not be extirpated. And 
 as it had to be tolerated patiently, the argument was carried on further 
 that under the circumstances it were better not to speak about the thin? 
 more than was absolutely necessary, that thereby people might not be 
 reminded of their happy ignorance of its existence, nor led to fall into the 
 snare. In consequence of this mode of regarding the matter, it became the 
 custom to ignore the evil altogether in the public press, no matter how 
 glaringly it obtruded itself into notice, aud to leave the management and 
 control of it altogether to the police. 
 
 It is true, a consideration of the social evil brings necessarily to the 
 front many things which together present a terrible picture, and wirhal a 
 disgusting one, of the social condition of our city. The theme is no agree- 
 able one, and it would be better if it never came within the cognizance of 
 the innocence and inexperience of youth. No thoughtful man", however 
 would assert the possibility of that. No vice veils its publicity under such 
 
 21 
 
322 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 allilring forms as does prostitution. None weaves its toils or sets its 8nares 
 more systematically or with more deceptive cunning, than does prostitu- 
 tion. No vice, no criminality is conducted to its shameful purpose more 
 openly or more fearlessly than this same evil, which at the same time in 
 all its varied forms seems to enjoy the toleration at least of the law. It is 
 the more dangerous, inasmuch as it seeks out its victims among those who 
 in the innocence of early life are unsuspecting of evil, and who, whence 
 once they have fallen into its snares, have no way of escape left open to 
 them. But wherefore should so dangerous a rock lie hidden in the seas of 
 life just where the inexperienced are about to begin the steering of their 
 own life bark? It is, indeed, a very curious philanthropy which, aiming 
 at one thing, through well intended but false opinions brings about the 
 exact opposite ! For our part we belong to that class of reformers, who 
 believe in the maxim that in order to remove an evil, the first step must be 
 to expose and lay it bare. We are ready to acknowledge that the discus- 
 sion of this subject is a task of some delicacy. But " to the pure all things 
 are pure," says an old proverb ; and it is not the discussion of a subject on 
 its own merits, but the causes that induce the discussion which justify it as 
 a warning against a dangerous allurement. Our readers know well from 
 the previous sections of this book, that our aim is not to write a merely 
 sensational work which shall serve only as an empty curiosity, or to serve 
 up a little empty frivolity as a piquante stimulant. It is rather to be use- 
 ful and practical. 
 
 As in our former chapters, we shall remain true to the same design here. 
 But as we cannot take our readers around to the allurements which abound 
 in the streets or show them personally the interiors of the hells where vice 
 is cultured, it must be our aim to strip off its glittering exterior and so to 
 lay open in all its hatefulness the grinning skeleton that lurks behind. As 
 very many know nothing beyond the enchantments of outside appearances 
 as they are presented to their eyes by the vice of prostitution, we see the 
 reason especially why so many hopeful lives are wretchedly victimized to 
 this deplorable vice. But we will not moralize, nor seek to paint all the 
 misery, sorrow, and despair, that are summed up in the one word " prosti- 
 tution." Such a picture will rise up in dazzling form enough from the 
 following details in our delineation. It will give its own impressive lesson, 
 one, however, which without the details we shall offer would not be pos- 
 sible. 
 
 It is no secret with anybody that the crime of prostitution prevails to a 
 most lamentable degree in our city. But it is difficult to estimate the 
 degree in figures. If we would depend upon the well meant views of some, 
 it must be regarded as an evil that spreads in the most terrible manner 
 over a very wide circle. For example, Bishop Simpson of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church in a lecture at the Cooper Institute in 1866, made the 
 number of women who were either occupying well-known houses or who 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 
 
 ■were following a life of shame, to be as numerous as the members of his 
 own church, namely 20,000. 
 
 Such a statement was indeed frightful. The calculation was afterwards 
 accepted by Dr. Reeves and Dr. Sawyer without probably further proof of 
 its accuracy. But for this reason the figures should be taken with some 
 degree of caution ; although they found many believers and, as might be 
 supposed, they created some sensation. From the pulpit and the columns 
 of the periodical press there emanated long and edifying jeremiads upon 
 the degradations of the modern Sodom as indicated by this declaration. 
 It remained for the then Police Superintendent Kennedy, upon whose man- 
 agement such a propagation of prostitution cast no flattering reflection, to 
 vindicate the reputation of the city. He immediately required an enumera- 
 tion to be made of all the houses in the city which were used for prostitu- 
 tion and of their occupants. The result was as follows : — That in January, 
 1866, there were within the city limits 615 houses of prostitution, 99 as- 
 signation-houses, and 77 so-called concert and drink saloons. In these 
 there were 2,670 prostitutes and 747 waiter or bar girls, whose calling and 
 reputation were much the same. Thus then in round numbers there were 
 about 3,400 women who made a trade of prostitution. 
 
 This official statement gives a far less terrible picture than did Bishop 
 Simpson with his legion of 20,000. But it must be evident to any person 
 who will give the matter a thought, that such an enormous multitude as 
 that of the devotees of Venus in a city whose population is only between 
 900,000 and 1,000,000 were impossible. If we take the population even 
 at a million and the female portion of it at half a million, there must be, 
 among every 25 women, including children and old people, one prostitute ! 
 Now what man having any knowledge of life can have the courage to 
 "believe in such an enormity? And yet in the spring of 1871 the same 
 statement was repeated as a fact before a public audience by the Rev. Dr. 
 Bellows. 
 
 The report made by Police Superintendent Kennedy placed the condi- 
 tion of prostitution at a point assuredly high enough for a city of the size 
 of New York, without there being any necessity to cling to exaggerations 
 arising from well intentioned zeal. Mr. Kennedy proved this to a gentle- 
 men who thought that the numbers given by the police were too small. 
 "How," said he, " can you think this too favorable to the city when you 
 remember that, if all the houses that are devoted to prostitution were to 
 De placed side by side on both sides of Broadway, they would reach from 
 the Battery to Houston Street?" But even if in any events this calcula- 
 tion be taken as something less than the truth, it must not be forgotten 
 that in the year 1866 prostitution in New York exceeded what it had been 
 in former years and probably what it has been since ; for with the termina- 
 tion of the war the whole elements of prostitution which had gathered 
 around the army was thrown back upon the towns, and of course New 
 
324 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 York' received the lion's share. The number is, however, one that fluctu- 
 ates from year to year, and if we take the present number at 5,000, we 
 probably do not set it too low. This number comprises, it must be under- 
 stood, only the public prostitutes and those waiter-girls who rightly or 
 wrongly are included by the police in the same category. Women who 
 visit or frequent as .ugnatiou-houses, to enslave themselves and sell their 
 purity for extravagant Iress or the love of pleasure, and who yet seek to 
 clothe themselves i the mantle of respectability, it is of course impossible 
 to number. At any raio it ought not to be very large ! 
 
 It is not, however, by the number of the courtesans who at the moment 
 are in the service of this vice that the extent and the terrible consequences 
 of the social evil have to be estimated. The Moloch of sin consumes its 
 devotees in a truly frightful manner. By statistics formed through the 
 intervention of medical science it seems that the longest time that a prosti- 
 tute is able to pursue her calling does not exceed five years. From this 
 then it must be evident that every five years a new 5,000 girls and women 
 are necessary to fill the places of those who in the same time have yielded 
 to the destructive effects of their shameful life. 
 
 Five years ! and the short life of the unhappy victim of prostitution has 
 run out ! Exceptions to this rule are only few and rare. And what a life 
 it is ! " Pleasure is short indeed, and repentance is long" — and no where 
 is the first part at least of the saying more true than in the case of prosti- 
 tution. In no other calling of life do the delusive flowers which adorned 
 it at the beginning fade more quickly or more suddenly, and none ends 
 more surely and inevitably in the slough of hopeless despair. The poor 
 deluded creature who goes on the way of shame in the first-class palaces 
 of prostitution with all the grace of youth aud beauty, little dreams that the 
 glitter of a fast life and the whirl of pleasure in which she lives can ever 
 come to an end. But thoughtless excess is one of the worst enemies of 
 female beauty. Nothing strips off the magic freshness of youth more 
 quickly or more surely ; and puts in its place the unconcealable marks of 
 decay. As a rule this fatal change comes in less than a year, even upon 
 the fairest ; — and it is to it that the proprietor of the establishments where- 
 they live prepare themselves. She cannot permit any falling off to occur 
 in the attractions of her house ; she therefore takes care to renew them 
 from time to time with fresh goods, while those already worn out and 
 faded are cast pitilessly out of doors. And through the well known indis- 
 cretion that affects girls of this kind, the poor creatures leave their homes 
 thus driven away with little more in their possession than the clothes they 
 stand in and the tawdry finery they can put upon their backs. 
 
 This is but the first realization, yet it forms the turning point, where the 
 hitherto flowery path of vice leads suddenly downward, and at every step 
 becomes more comfortless and more terrible. When next we see the 
 unfortunate girl, she is probably in one of the common houses of prostitu- 
 

 PROSTITUTION AND ITS \ l< nut. 325 
 
 lion, where her treatment is far harder and her service more sorrowful 
 than any she had hitherto known. She may possibly last out in these 
 houses two or even three years. But this is more than sufficient to brand 
 her with every mark of a professional prostitute. In the company of rough 
 and reckless visitors, all her former graces and polished manners have dis- 
 appeared ; and a repulsive shamelessness protrudes itself under the bright 
 paint that conceals the worn aspect of her face. She has been too much 
 D8 d also to have recourse to the excessive use of strong drink, either to 
 bring oblivion over her sorrows or to revive her physical failings, and 
 while following only the natural consequence of her mode of life, she im- 
 poverishes herself. 
 
 But when she has arrived at this stage, she is no longer fitted for the 
 class of house she now occupies. She is again sent adrift, and must once 
 more seek out a new field where she can turn into money the last rem- 
 nants of her attractions and so at least for a time save herself from starva- 
 tion. And thus she becomes a common street walker, or an occupant of 
 one of the lowest dens of sin ; an instrument for gratifying the lusts of the 
 roughest class, the acquaintance and consort of thieves and swindlers, and 
 not unfrequently too she herself a thief! She is regarded as the slave of 
 her possessor and as such she is treated. It is only men who physically 
 and morally are sunk as deeply in the depths as she, who hold any com- 
 munication with her. Disease in its most loathsome form consumes her 
 body. She soon begins to make a frequent acquaintance with the police 
 courts ; and if she lives, she finds herself ere long in all probability an 
 inmate of the penitentiary or of a sick bed on Ward's or BlackwelTs 
 Islands. 
 
 Soon she reaches the last stage of her journey. Every trace of woman, 
 hood has deserted her, even as all sense of honor had left her long before. 
 Opium and the vilest spirits have become her means of support and the 
 only objects of her faith ; and the fact is plainly enough marked in her 
 expressionless, bloated face. Then too often a draught of poison, or a leap 
 into the waters of the bay, taken in the terrible despondency arising from 
 absolute hopelessness, terminate a life of misery and woe. 
 
 This is the career of ninety-nine women out of every hundred who addict 
 themselves to prostitution ! Even though the beginning of it may not 
 always be so attractive or so glittering, the end is seldom less miserable. 
 
 " Hopelessly lost" is that woman who once heads the path of shame. 
 It is very rare that one such feels even a momentary wish to better her- 
 self, and still more rarely does she possess the moral force necessary to do 
 so. It would seem as though society is so fashioned that every possible 
 difficulty shall be placed in the way of those who, having once fallen, desire 
 to return to an honorable life. The man may descend deep indeed, and 
 society is ever ready to receive with open arms the debauchee and to for- 
 get the past. But it is not so with woman. She may, by years of virtuous 
 
326 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 life, .have made atonement for the false step long since passed away P 
 yet society spurns her again the instant when by any chance a light is 
 reflected upon the one dark spot of her life. Whilst the oppression of scorn 
 thus stands in the way of the prostitute and prevents her escaping from the- 
 mire of vice, and whilst society pitilessly hurls stones on the unfortunate- 
 woman, it can find no weapon against the man whose unbridled passions 
 have made him accessory to the crime, and who very often by his coldly 
 planed seduction delivers over new victims to the monster : prostitution.. . 
 This is a subject upon which public attention, with all its ostentatious dis- 
 play of humanity and Christianity has been very much too little bestowed.. 
 
 The victims of prostitution understand this and the injustice of it very 
 well, and in consequence they feel the bitterest resentment against society. 
 The way in which this feeling pervades all classes was shown one day iu 
 a most striking manner at one of the police stations. The police had made 
 a raid upon a house of prostitution and had taken all the people found in it 
 to the station. The male portion of the company was discharged,, but the 
 women were detained with a view to further proceedings. Among the- 
 number was one quite young girl, pretty and attractive, to whom the police^ 
 captain addressed a few well intentioned words and then he enquired of 
 her how it was that she could thus throw herself away to pursue a life so> 
 full of shame and misery? Upon this the girl in a state of hysterical 
 excitement said : — 
 
 " Men have made me what I am ! Only one year ago I lived, an inno- 
 cent girl, in my father's house. I had a lover and was engaged to be mar- 
 ried to him. I loved him truly and fervently, and my father trusted him 
 implicitly. Was it a crime if I was weak? Yet this weakness was my 
 misfortune ; for he proved himself a common scoundrel, and he betrayed 
 me. He deserted me, and soon the consequences of my weakness could 
 no longer be concealed. Yet I might then have been saved ; but my father 
 cast me away and all my friends turned their backs upon me. In the 
 whole town there was not one soul who would pity me so much as to give- 
 me a night's shelter or a crust of bread. But he, my betrayer, who had 
 deliberately taken advantage of the most sacred trust was received, except 
 by my own family, into every circle of society. What remained for me if 
 I would not starve ? To destroy my life I had not the courage. So I 
 came to New York, to the house whence you have taken me. You call 
 that a " disorderly house." It may be so ; perhaps it is. I know that it 
 is bad enough, but are not the men, whom you found there and took away 
 when you took me, at least as bad as we are? You, captain, do not seem 
 to think so, for you let them go, while we girls are kept here. I am still 
 young, but I am old enough to know that all the shame and punishment of 
 this thing falls upon us girls, while the men go free, although it is they m. 
 truth who make us what we are. ,, 
 
 The logic of this little rebel against social custom can hardly be 
 

 PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 327 
 
 combatted. She had, if not the law, at least justice on her side. And if 
 we could trace back the histories of most prostitutes to the moment where 
 their life took the momentary turn towards the path of shame, we should 
 have to acknowledge that while proportionately very few of these women 
 might deserve contempt, by far the greater number would justly claim our 
 pity and deepest sympathy. 
 
 What is it now that impels so many thousands of girls and women to 
 devote themselves to a life of shame? a life which sooner or later will 
 assuredly come to a miserable end. 
 
 In this relation there are two classes of prostitutes to be distinguished : — 
 Those who take the step of their own inclination without any sufficient 
 cause, and those who enter upon it against the impulse of their own moral 
 sense, but dragged down by adverse circumstances. The reasons which 
 influence the former of these are : — fondness for an untrammelled life, 
 freedom from parental control, indolence and thoughtless levity, the desire 
 to lead a life of pleasure without work, and lastly resentment at the faith- 
 lessness of a lover, where to avenge one who has deceived her she con- 
 sents for a past wrong even to sacrifice herself. In the second class are : — 
 first, necessity, arising out of the want of work, which may be due to many 
 causes ; then seduction which ruins many girls who are barely out of the 
 limits of childhood ; and lastly compulsion on the part of unnatural parents 
 who live upon the shame of their children. 
 
 These are the most frequent, but not by any means the only causes 
 which are ever bringing new recruits to the armies of prostitution. There 
 are for example cases where the victim, so to speak, springs out of the cir- 
 cle of honor and virtue into that of vice at one bound without any apparent 
 cause whatever. Here is an illustration of a case of this kind : — 
 
 In one of the most palatial abodes of vice which are to be found in the 
 fashionable part of the city there was till recently a young girl whom, 
 whether we consider her high birth, her physical endowments or her 
 accomplishments, no man would ever have looked for in such a place. 
 Her beauty would have corresponded with Raphael's ideal of a Madonna, 
 and a careful education had brought out her talents to a more than ordinary 
 degree. Skilled in drawing and painting, highly accomplished as a musi- 
 cian and singer, her winning manners striking all hearts in the circles of 
 society where she moved, she seemed born to take an enviable position in 
 life and to enjoy as much happiness as fortune can bestow. 
 
 She was the child of wealthy parents belonging to one of the oldest fami- 
 lies in New England. There after having completed her education in one 
 of the highest educational institutions in the country, she lived, the pride 
 and joy of her parents and the pampered darling of all who had access to 
 the family circle. One may imagine then the anguish and alarm of the 
 family when one evening the child thus cherished failed to return from a 
 visit she had been makiug, and when all enquiries after her and all search 
 
328 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 to find her proved in vain. Days and weeks passed away and still nothing 
 was learned respecting her, till at length the parents in despair gave up 
 their child as dead and mourned her as the victim of some terrible crime. 
 
 It would have had been better for the poor girl if this conclusion, terri- 
 ble as it was, had been a reality. But that was not to be. One day the 
 parents of her, whom they believed to be dead, were astounded with the 
 news that their daughter was one of the residents in a notorious house in 
 New York ! The explanation now seemed easy — the uufortunate girl had 
 either by force or stratagem been decoyed into the house of shame and she 
 would with joy hasten back to the open arms into which her fond parents 
 were ready to receive her. But even this very natural hope was destined 
 to be shattered ! Far from being affected at the sight of her father and 
 mother who came to take their unhappy child home again, she showed 
 them only the coolest indifference. Neither the distress of her mother nor 
 the grief of her father softened her, — great as they were when the old peo- 
 ple found it necessary to leave her again in that atmosphere of vice for 
 which the unnatural girl had left the house of her parents. Alike fruitless 
 were all later attempts, which both the parents and many young friends of 
 the fallen girl made to rescue her from her miserable condition. " Learn 
 to think of me as of one that is dead !" was the invariable answer which, 
 without personally seeing them, she caused to be given to her friends and 
 relations whenever they expressed a desire to see her. Her resolution was 
 and remained irrevocable. What it was that induced her to leave parents, 
 home, and friends without any stated cause, and then to pursue the path 
 of shame which leads to certain misery, while the road to the brighest hap- 
 piness that life affords lay open before her, is an impenetrable mystery ! 
 It is a secret that she alone can unveil. But will it ever be disclosed ? It 
 may be. But hardly before the worm of despair has began its gnawings 
 in her cold heart ; and she, sinking deep into the slough of her vicious life, 
 shall curse the moment in which she thrust away the hands that would 
 have saved her ! 
 
 The following case seems to be even more mysterious and more inex- 
 plicable. It is, however, an actual incident ; and one which comes to us 
 from the narrative of a detective. — Here, too, the victim was a bright, 
 young girl of not more than 17 years of age, who, under the anxious and 
 watchful care of her parents living in the city, had received a most excel- 
 lent education. Gentle and good in disposition, and carefully guarded 
 from every doubtful association, there seemed no room left in the heart of 
 this blooming girl for even the germ of any evil. Religiously brought up, 
 she offered up her daily prayers at the altar of home and was a zealous 
 attendant at the Sunday school. But on one Sunday when she went to the 
 school she did not return. At first the anxious parents rested on the hope 
 thatishe had gone to visit some friend. But when evening came, and then 
 the night, and still no news of the absent one, the anguish of the parents 
 
PR03TITUTI0H AN!» ITS VICTIMS. 321} 
 
 knew no bounds. Grief laid her mother on a sick bed. Hie father 
 
 wandered through the city far and wide in search of her, arousing his 
 friends and acquaintances on all sides aud anxiously enquiring for the lost 
 sill. But nobody could give him information. At last uuconsoli'd he 
 returned home, having first referred the whole affair to the police. The 
 unhappy pareuts reckoned little, however, now upon any favorable result 
 to their search. They seemed impressed with the idea that their child 
 was no longer alive, and that she had either been the victim of some fear- 
 ful misfortune or had lost her life by the act of an assassin. 
 
 The suggestion of a detective that she might perhaps be found in some 
 house of ill-repute was treated by the faimily almost as an insult. u A 
 child so good, so pure, so devout, in a house of ill-fam3 ! Impossible ! How 
 could anyone suggest such a thing !" Nevertheless, the detectives, armed 
 with a photograph of the girl, made it their business to look for her, and 
 they began their investigation in the houses of public women. 
 
 It was not long before, in a fashionable establishment in Broadway, 
 they traced out a young girl whose face at least, if not her dress, seemed 
 to resemble the photograph very closely. Further enquiries left the detec- 
 tives in no doubt, whatever, that they had found the cage into which the 
 little bird had fled. The girl, it appeared, had gone to the house on one 
 Sunday afternoon and had told the proprietor that she had just come from 
 Sunday school and wanted to take up her quarters there. Thereupon she 
 had put off her hat and mantle and requested that she might be supplied 
 with clothes equal in appearance to those worn by the other girls in the 
 house. And as the girl was young, pretty, and handsome, the occupant 
 of the establishment did not hesitate for a moment to comply with the 
 request. 
 
 In this way was the unhappy child — hardly an hour out of the Sunday 
 school — started on the road to vice and shame ; and she trod that road, 
 too, with a nofrchalence as though it were especially made for her. 
 
 The detective now announced his discovery to the parents, and the 
 father went with a sad heart to see if what seemed to him impossible could 
 indeed be true? And, indeed, it was true ! Hardly had the door of the 
 house of vice been closed upon him, before his daughter threw herself into 
 his arms, and embracing him, covered his face with burning kisses. The 
 father, in whose breast grief and anger contended for the supremacy, was 
 rooted as it were to the ground motionless and speechless, till his daughter 
 led him away into one of the parlors and seated herself beside him on a 
 sofa. There she sat with closed hands, her head lowered, and her eyes 
 fixed upon the ground, listening to the prayers, the entreaties, and remon- 
 strances, which fell from her father's lips. But she had no answer to 
 them ; and icfused most resolutely to give any reason for the terrible step 
 which she had taken. 
 
 Entreaties and prayers were alike useless ; and the father had to leave 
 
330 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIF.2. 
 
 the -house of shame — his heart full of despair — where his daughter declared, 
 it was her unalterable determination to remain. — A visit from her mother 
 was equally ineffective. "With every appearance of child-like affection the 
 mysterious girl threw herself into the arms of her mother and wept long 
 and bitterly on her breast. But that was all ! She still persisted in refusing 
 to leave the house or to say upon whom or upon what the blame must be 
 thrown for the course she had taken. Prayers, entreaties, and the repeated 
 promise that if only she would return to her father's house all should be 
 forgiven and forgotton, were as ineffectual in the hands of her mother as 
 they had been in those of her father. " Oh ! mother, dear mother, it is 
 too late !" This was the only answer over and over again repeated which 
 the daughter had for everything that her mother urged. Yet from time to 
 time this fallen girl will return to her father's house. There as in the 
 happy days of her childhood, she hangs her hat and shawl in the accustomed 
 place ; and then falling on her mother's breast she sobs and weeps as though. 
 her heart would break. But when evening comes she gets up quickly,, 
 clears away her tears, and prepares to leave. No entreaties . restrain her.. 
 The sorrowful lamentations of her family are of no avail. She goes, after- 
 having first kissed her mother, back to the place where some devilish, 
 power seems to draw her into the pursuit of her self-chosen calling. 
 
 Both these illustrations are apparently inexplicable psychological puz- 
 zles. Neglected education and poverty, the two factors which go to make 
 up more than half the victims of prostitution, are wanting here entirely*. 
 Every impulse and influence seems in these two cases to be tending to the 
 side of virtue. And yet what a deep inexplicable fall ! One is almost dis- 
 posed to explain and excuse such incidents as these on the theory of in- 
 sanity, recently grown so popular iu reference to murders and other crimes. 
 It would be at least as justifiable. 
 
 Among the causes which we have mentioned as helping to fill up the 
 ranks of prostitution, we gave that where unnatural parents sacrifice their 
 children in order to live upon the price of their shame. Unfortunately 
 examples of this are not wanting. But more rarely the companion picture 
 presents itself to us where girls through filial affection have recourse to 
 prostitution in order by the proceeds of sin to obtain means to support poor 
 and aged parents, who have no idea whatever as to how the money is pro- 
 cured. The following instance of this kind is full of interest : — 
 
 One of the principle bookbinders iu New York employs many girls in 
 his factory. The proprietor of the business is very particular to have only 
 respectable girls and women in his place, and to keep all doubtful charac- 
 ters at a distance. He goes so far as to engage none who cannot bring 
 the most satisfactory references as to character. Among the girls who 
 were working for him some time ago there were two sisters. Both were 
 perfect patterns of respectability in their behaviour, of neatness in their 
 outward appearance, of diligence and punctuality in their work. In all 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 
 
 331 
 
 their doings with their co-workers they kept themselves at a distance ; aud 
 their timid seclusion, combined with an earnestness unusual in girls so 
 young, seemed as though there were some deep cause for trouble lyiug 
 concealed, which was weighing heavily on their young lives. This could 
 not be kept from the proprietor of the establishment, and he soon began to 
 feel a special interest in the youug couple. He approached them with the 
 best intentions and sought in many fatherly ways to win their confidence. 
 But he did not succeed as he wished. The girls did not admit him within 
 the circle of secrecy and reserve where they had long kept themselves 
 apart from their other surroundings. Their only wish seemed to be left 
 alone, and their well meaning employer seeing this, desisted from further 
 troubling them. 
 
 One evening as he was going home along Broadway he was addressed 
 by a girl at the corner of Houston Street, who asked him to accompany 
 her. It was rather dark. He did not see her face, but he thought he 
 recognized the voice. At the next gaslight he looked her directly in the 
 face. Her eyes caught his at the moment and uttering a lond scream the 
 girl immediately fled from his side and disappeared up a dark street. 
 The recognition had been mutual. The girl had seen in him her employer, 
 and he had recognized in the street walker one of his own work girls, that 
 too, to his amazement, none other than one of the two sisters whom he 
 had hitherto been accustomed to regard as models of discretion and respect- 
 ability. The bare possibility that he may have been deceived was dis- 
 sipated on the following morning by the fact that the tw r o sisters usually 
 so punctual were, neither of them, in their places ; and never made their 
 appearance there again ! 
 
 Further enquiries which were made by the work girls in the establish- 
 ment concerning the two mysterious sisters brought no further information 
 either as to their character or as to their past career. Only one of the 
 girls who more than all the rest seems to have enjoyed their confidence 
 made a statement which possibly might be taken as the key to a psycho- 
 logical puzzle. The sisters had confidentially told her that their father 
 was old and in all-health and that his farm was deeply encumbered. They 
 must on this account have denied themselves every pleasure and possibly 
 have earned much money in order to discharge this indebtedness and thus 
 prevent their father in his old age from being turned out of his house. 
 
 If ever the Jesuit axiom that " the ends justify the means'* was applic- 
 able in any case, it assuredly was so here. 
 
 But after all such cases as these are exceptional. Seduction is always 
 the most common cause that leads to prostitution ; and it brings about the 
 ruin of young girls in the most various ways. Instead of pity, the poor 
 creature who has been betrayed meets with nothing but cold repulsion. 
 Not only does the world turn its back upon her, but her parents, too, and 
 her friend desert her. Bitter misery becomes her lot, and in very many 
 
OK 
 
 332 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 instances there remains for her at last but the bitter choice of starvation 
 in the streets, or protection by a means where the cloven-foot of satan is 
 but too apparent. However dreadful the consequences may be, who under 
 such circumstances can condemn a girl when at such a moment she first 
 yields and then falls? In such a case the saying of Madame de Stael is 
 especially applicable : — " to understand all is to forgive all." But an 
 illustration of an instance of this kind will be most useful and as such we 
 select the short sketch of a life which was published here in one of our 
 weekly papers by a courtesan of the city, who was well known in former 
 days as much for her abilities as for her beauty. She wrote as follows >-J 
 
 "My home was in one of the finest portious of the State of Virginia. 
 I received an excellent education and moved in the best circles of society. 
 A young man of good family paid his addresses to me. I was young, 
 romantic, and of ardent temperament, and I loved him. He was my ideal 
 of honor and manliness, and I thought it impossible that he could be guilty 
 of anything that bore even the appearance of wrong. One day he proposed 
 to me that we should go together to New York, there be married, and then 
 surprise our parents and friends by returning a i man and wife. The pro- 
 position was one that in its romantic character pleased me, and never for 
 a moment suspecting anything wrong, I consented. The plan was soon 
 carried out, and to New York we came. We staid at an apparently 
 respectable hotel where my companion registered us as husband and wife. 
 In other respects, too, he began to lay claim to the privileges of a husband. 
 He easily overcame my scruples and objections by the representation that 
 we already belonged to each other and that in the morning we should be 
 married. The morning came and the day passed, but the marriage did 
 not take place. My lover told me that he could not obtain a license, 
 because he was not known here. He expected, however, either that day 
 or the next the arrival of a friend who was a prominent citizen of New 
 York, and when he came the matter could very soon be settled. But when 
 this friend did not seem to make his appearance, and while I regretted it 
 much, I still lived on as before in the fullest confidence in him whom I 
 had grown to regard as my husband. One day then my lover went out, 
 as he said the expected friend had arrived to have the thing definitely 
 arranged. It was then a happy moment for me, a morning full of the 
 sweetest hope ! In every foot-fall on the stairs I seemed to hear the 
 arrival of my future husband with the happy news that all was in readi- 
 ness. But evening came and he had not returned. Night came, and 
 through the long hours as I lay sleepless and alone the most terrible 
 anxiety grew up in my breast. Had some accident happened or was I 
 betrayed ? 
 
 This last I could not believe. But the morning came and he did not 
 even then return. On the contrary the proprietor of the hotel sent up to 
 imy room a bill for $24 which he requested should be paid immediately. 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 333 
 
 As I had not a cent of money, I thought by telling the hotel proprietor the 
 true facts of the case I could at least induce him to give me a little time. 
 But lie only laughed in my face, and declared that my u man" — as he 
 Called him — had told him that in case he did not return on the previous 
 evening, I should leave the hotel to-day and go after him. What now 
 could I do ? betrayed and without either money or friends in a strange 
 <itv? the cruel hotel man threatening to lock me up if I did not imme- 
 diately find the meaus to pay him? 
 
 One of the "guests" in the house then took pity (?) on me and paid the 
 824, to rescue me, as I in my despair believed, from prison. But he did 
 not do it for nothing ! lie came to me only too soon with an imputation 
 which iu the first bitter feeling after my betrayal and in the bewilderment 
 of my anguish I did not at first reject, and at last even half willingly 
 endured. The first step was already passed and there was I nothing better 
 than a dishonored girl. I need not tell further details of my fall, and of 
 my rapid descent. My family know nothing of me, and believe that I am 
 dead. Often comes the wish upon me to return to them. But imme- 
 diately upon it a hopeless despondency seizes me, and as one. who is lost 
 and degraded I have not the courage to return to the condition of sur- 
 roundings where in happy innocence I dreamt the first happy dreams of 
 my life."' 
 
 A story not less sad, of the ways by which a well educated and virtuous 
 girl fell into the pool of prostitution, is told by a respectable storekeeper of 
 our city whom we will call Mr. L. 
 
 Returning home from his office in William Street one evening late, he 
 was addressed by a female in the neighborhood of Fulton Ferry, and 
 requested by her to go home with her. Indignant at the impertinence, his 
 first thought was to send her away, when the gentle tone of her voice 
 raised a feeling of sympathy in his heart and caused him to enter into a 
 conversation with her. His sympathy was still further increased when by 
 the light of the lamp he observed under her veil a face in which the marks 
 of a dissolute life had not effaced a peculiarly noble expression. 
 
 He soon found that the conversation of the unfortunate creature in- 
 dicated much superiority, and showed a careful education and culture. 
 His interest now increased yet more when the girl in response to his ques- 
 tion, how it was that she had sunk so low, broke out^fnto convulsive sobs 
 and weeping. He soothed her with kind words, took her arm in his own 
 and went back with her to his office. There he caused some refreshment 
 to be brought for her from a neighboring restaf/rant, and finally requested 
 her to give him some account of her life. 
 
 The poor girl was won over by the friendly treatment which Mr. L. 
 gave her and thanked him heartily. " The story of my life," she said, 
 " is very short. My name is Henrietta S. My father, a man of comfort- 
 able means, lived in Stamford, in Connecticut, where he had a good busi- 
 
334 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 ness. My mother died when I was only six years old and as an only child 
 I received from my father the most careful education. I grew up in plenty 
 and affluence without even a thought of care or want. ! Two years ago my 
 father died suddenly. Thereby I lost my only protector at an age when a 
 father's guidance was most necessary to me, but more than that it appeared 
 at the settlement of the affairs of the estate that, during the few years just 
 preceding his death, my father had suffered very heavy losses. In a word, 
 I was penniless ! I had no relations and now that my father's affairs 
 turned out so badly, all my former friends deserted me. And this it was 
 that I a spoiled child was driven to think how to make my own way in the 
 world. After many fruitless efforts I at last found a place in Norwalk, 
 whether I had gone as work girl in a factory. There I toiled day and 
 night without being able to earn more than would procure me the barest 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 I constantly heard New York spoken of and how easy it was to earn a 
 living there. I came to the city. The little money I possessed just suf- 
 ficed to defray the costs of the journey, and when I came here I found 
 myself without money and without friends, not knowing where to turn my 
 steps. Then for the first time I felt the terrors of my position ! A feeling 
 of despair began to overtake me when I stood helplessly upon the landing- 
 place long after all the other passengers had gone away to their destina- 
 tions in the city. Presently a well-dressed and respectable looking woman 
 came up to me, spoke kindly to me, and invited me, after she had heard 
 the particulars of my solitary condition, to go home with her and to remain 
 there until I could find a suitable situation. 
 
 This offer filled me with rapture, and from my heart I blessed my fate 
 to think that at the moment of my deepest need I had so unexpectedly 
 found such a rescuing angel. And yet she w T as the blackest fiend, whom 
 under the mask of an angel I accompanied in the most innocent confidence. 
 To what my pretended preserver brought me, you, sir, can well under- 
 stand ! 
 
 Quickly enough my eyes detected the nature of the place where she took 
 me. I tried constantly to leave the house, but always in vain. I saw 
 myself treated as a prisoner, and inducements of every kind and at last 
 threats were used to make me yield. 
 
 I resisted both, and it was only by force that they made me what I now 
 am. One night, when I had even cried myself asleep, this woman came 
 into my room with a man, and almost before I knew what was happening 
 to me, my honor and with it the power to make further resistance were 
 alike gone/* 
 
 So with artless interest, ran the story of this unfortunate girl. Mr. L. 
 listened to it with emotion. He saw that in his first impressions he had 
 not been deceived, and that he had one before him who deserved indeed 
 the deepest pity, but by no means condemnation. The very natural wish 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 835 
 
 which arose in his breast to assist the poor girl and to bring her back to a 
 better condition was, however, in vain. All his suggestions and proposal 
 to that end were answered by her in the most hopeless self-abandonment 
 with the words : — "It is too late. I am lost both in body and soul, but I 
 thank you from my heart for your kindness and good will which you have 
 shown me." 
 
 Saying this she left the office and although Mr. L. requested her to come 
 back, she was speedily lost in the darkness of the streets. Mr. L. has 
 never seen nor heard of her since. 
 
 It is strange, perhaps, that very few prostitutes, even of those who have 
 been drawn into a career of vice against their inclinations, have the moral 
 courage to restore their reputation by a return to a respectable life. Ardent 
 ■desires and empty wishes are all that we see, and the words " It is too 
 late" form the general refrain to every well meant remonstrance or encour- 
 agement. It certainly is not pleasure and enjoyment in their mode of life 
 which restrain these women. The chief influence is undoubtedly the fear 
 of difficulties which society so implacably places in the way of fallen women 
 whenever they seek as penitents to return. And besides this, there is the 
 fact that too often, while plenty of cheap philanthropy in the form of fine 
 words and sermons is offered to the penitent Magdalene, there is shown 
 her no practical means of support, by which she can escape from the toils 
 of vice. The following illustration is to the point. 
 
 Some years ago there was a pretty and intelligent girl of about seven- 
 teen taken up in this city as a prostitute. She obstiuately refused to give 
 up either her name or her residence, or to furnish any information concern- 
 ing herself. The case came to the knowledge of the then mayor, who 
 caused the girl to be brought before him, and used his powers of persuasion 
 to induce the girl to give some disclosures as to her life. The only reply 
 he got for his trouble was this : — 
 
 "I know all that you say about the disgrace and the degradation and so 
 on of my mode of life. But what can I do? I have received a good 
 education. I am a musician, and skilled in all female accomplishments. 
 I abhor the life I am leading, and twice I have tried to give it up. Each 
 time either by accident or by some malicious scandal my past shame came 
 to light, and then without any consideration for my blameless conduct 
 afterwards the door was closed upon me. What then remained for me, 
 but either to starve or to return to my former vicious life?" To the further 
 suggestions of the mayor that she ought not on that account to be discour- 
 aged, but that she should again venture the experiment, ihe virl replied 
 with the question : — " Would you yourself take me iuto your house as work 
 girl or as music teacher to your daughters?" 
 
 The mayor was silent. 
 
 "If then you," coutinued the girl, " who pretend to take an interest in 
 me, have neither the courage nor the incliuation, do you think that 
 
336 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 anybody else will be more inclined to do so?'* All other conversation was 
 to no purpose. In spite of her youth and her talents the girl was beyond 
 redemption ! 
 
 It must not, however, be taken for granted that all prostitutes have been 
 made so through seduction, and that they having been once pure and inno- 
 cent have had recourse to a vicious life in opposition to their own better 
 feelings. A large number of them have grown up in poverty and uncared 
 for, without even an idea of virtue or female honor ! For such as these 
 prostitution is little else than a kind of natural developement. " Like sire 
 like son" is an old saying which even the field of prostitution profusely 
 illustrates. 
 
 The ranks of the public women .a New York are repaired and aug- 
 mented from all parts of the Union. New York itself supplies proportion- 
 ally far less than might be expected. A large number of the unfortunate 
 women come from New England, and especially from Maine, whence an 
 excess of female population every year streams in multitudes towards New 
 York. Unacquainted with the conditions that surround them in a strange 
 city, tbey soon find the difficulty of getting situations. Many of them are 
 overtaken by want and difficulty which together with their inexperience 
 make them fall easy victims to the many allurements that in so many 
 forms surround them. Besides these there are very many girls and women 
 constantly coming to the city from all parts of the country for the purpose 
 of hiding the consequences of some false step from the knowledge of their 
 acquaintances, little thinking when they do so that they are there only 
 more frequently placed in contact with circumstances where they are more 
 likely to be made for the rest of their lives the victims of a life of shame. 
 
 Let us glance now at the various forms in which the poison of prostitu- 
 tion insinuates itself through the limits of the city, and first the form in 
 which it is presented before the eyes of even the most innocent, that of the 
 street walker. 
 
 If in the region of woman's shame we can make any classification, then 
 this one must be awarded the lowest place. Her common character is, as 
 her name implies, that of one who walks the streets, and either by gesture 
 or language solicits prostitution. It seems hardly to be credited, but many 
 of these girls work regularly during the day in factories or other establish- 
 ments were female labor is employed. But as this kind of work is usually 
 very badly paid, they in the evening have recourse to this disreputable 
 mode of getting the means either to supply actual necessities of life or to 
 supply the higher demands of dress and enjoyment. As a rule though, 
 vice is the only calling by means of which the street walker subsists. It 
 is a terrible fact that among this class of prostitutes there are too to be 
 found many young girls who are constrained to a life of shame by their 
 parents in order that these may indulge in drink or lead a life of idleness ! 
 
 Most of the street walkers have begun their career of prostitution a* 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 337 
 
 such. Others have taken to it after their services in the fashionable houses 
 of ill-repute have been no longer required, while only a few of these 
 unfortunates can lay any claim to beauty of form or appearance. 
 
 The greater number carry the stamp of roughness and impudence in a 
 manner which neither rouge nor an affectation of respectability can con* 
 ceal. As a rule they are given to the excessive use of spirituous drinks, 
 and medical experience shows that most of them suffer from loathsome and 
 dangerous diseases, which are spread among them in the most terrible- 
 forms. For this reason their lives are necessarily short. After, at the 
 most, two years one after another of the street walkers disappears, and in 
 some hospital for the poor her living body wastes into the grave. Her 
 moral ruin is little less complete than her physical destruction. Thefts 
 perpetrated on the men who go with them are of common occurrence. 
 Often, too, they are the associates of thieves and robbers into whose hands 
 they lead their victims. 
 
 But in connection with the common band of shame and social presciip- 
 tion there are many who, although in the same limits of classification, by 
 their youth or personal attractions are enabled to take their business walks 
 in more or less fashionable parts of the city. No part of the town is free- 
 from them. Prostitution in New York has long been raised to the charac- 
 ter of a business. In accordance with that unknown law, whereby certain 
 branches of business are in some manner concentrated in certain portions 
 of the town, so has street prostitution taken hold of a tolerably well defined 
 part of the city as its principle scene of action. This ?s Broadway and the 
 streets running parallel to it from Canal to Twenty-fourth Streets. More 
 particularly is it to be met with in Broadway and the neighborhood which 
 lies between Grand and Amity Streets. The neighborhood of the hotels, 
 the theatres, and other places of amusement on Broadway are especially 
 favorite places for parade, — and Chatham Street and parts of the lower 
 Bowery serve as favorite places of rendezvous. 
 
 The omnibusses and street cars, too, as well as the theatres and places 
 of entertainment themselves are fields of operation, which are by no means 
 neglected. 
 
 The street walker is not hard to recognize as she goes on her profes- 
 sional tramp. She wishes to, and indeed she must have her calling known. 
 Just when in the evening the legitimate business activity begins to die out 
 in the streets, these lost children of darkness, one after another begin to 
 make their appearance. Walking backwards and forwards on the foot- 
 paths, her look tells every man plainly enough what her calling is. The 
 more impudent among them seek besides, either by a familiar greeting or 
 by a special request in half-toned words to entice men and to induce them 
 to accompany them. The police on Broadway now do not allow any 
 prostitute to stand still and hold conversation with a man. But if she finds 
 that any man has bestowed a look of attention and wishes to follow her, 
 
 22 
 
338 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 she gives him a sign and turns quickly into the next side street, where the 
 police take very little notice of them. 
 
 In the more frequented streets and places that are looked after closely 
 by the police, the street walkers are obliged as far as possible to keep 
 within the bounds of outside respectability. But in more remote streets, 
 such as Green and Marion greets, or the neighborhood of Thompson, 
 Sullivan, Broome and Grand Streets, where the haunts of the lowest order 
 of street walkers are, the shamelessness and impudence of these girls know 
 no bounds. Singly or arm in arm they parade the streets, using the most 
 obscene language ; or they stand in groups upon the street corners, and 
 waylaying every man that comes along ; their conduct is oftentimes so 
 scandalous, that the police are forced to interfere. Yet among these 
 wretched creatures are probably many who have not yet passed beyond the 
 years of childhood ! 
 
 Street walkers are not at liberty to ply their vocation anywhere they 
 please. In this respect long custom has made it a kind of law among 
 them, which they all with a certain kind of punctiliousness unite to obey. 
 Those of them, for instance, who patrol Wooster, Green, Bleeker Streets 
 and so on, look upon this route as their own special quarter, and they never 
 go beyond it, not at least for " business purposes." On the other hand the 
 girls elsewhere having other routes, as for example the Amity Street route, 
 have no right to come within the limits of her Wooster Street sisters, and so 
 to come into unwelcome competition with theo. It is very seldom that 
 these regulations are infringed upon, and if they are, the intrusion seldom 
 goes unpunished. Scratched faces and disarranged toilets are the inevit- 
 able consequences of any errors of that kind even though it be uninten- 
 tional. 
 
 Broadway alone is a piece of common ground, although it is not of much 
 use for the poorer or lower class of night wanderers to come and place 
 themselves into competition with their better dressed and more attractive 
 sisters in shame. 
 
 The more fashionable classes of street walkers do not limit their energies 
 to the street pavements of New York only. In summer time they sojourn 
 at the different watering places, and often find a journey on the night 
 steamers both pleasant and profitable. They often infest the Albany and 
 Boston boats in large numbers. Two or three of them together take a 
 r;tate-room, which they use as the headquarters whence to conduct their 
 operations for the conquest of the male passengers. The annoyance created 
 by these girls in this manner has in many seasons been allowed to grow to 
 such an extent, that respectable ladies have often been prevented from 
 travelling by the night boats at all. 
 
 With the time when the theatres, drinking saloons, and other places of 
 entertainment close, comes also the time when the promenades of these 
 girls are ended. If they have not obtained a companion earlier, and so 
 
riiOSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 839 
 
 retired before, they now return to their dwellings, or to the places where 
 for the time being they are staying. Evoo as the external appearance of 
 these girls assumes all degrees of respectability, from the well-dressed lady 
 •of fashion down to the ragged, dirty shrew, so do their places of abode 
 vary, from the stinking cellar of some back place in Thompson or Sullivan 
 Streets to the comfortable apartment of £ome respectable looking hired 
 house in Houston or Amity Streets. If the character of the house per- 
 mits it, and if the girl makes no secret of her vocation, she brings home 
 any acquaintancce she has made during her walk to her own room. In 
 other cases she takes them to one or other of the many bed-houses in the 
 city, where for a payment of from 25 cents to $10 every visitor may be 
 Accommodated with a room without being troubled with any questions. 
 
 The number of these women who walk the streets of New York has 
 "been estimated at 2,000, and unfortunately this is, too, probably below the 
 truth. Street prostitution represents in fact one of the most dangerous 
 forms of degradation which threaten to cut farther yet into the body of 
 society with its physical and moral poison. The fact that 2,000 representa- 
 tives of vice in its least attractive form are engaged throughout the night 
 in earning their daily bread for the morrow, is alone sufficient to justify 
 this consideration ! 
 
 As before stated, most of the street walkers are not only themselves 
 thieves, ready to bring the dexterity of their fingers into operation on any 
 favorable opportunity, but they are also very often the accomplices of the 
 most dangerous thieves and criminals. 
 
 In the " panel-houses" this alliance between thieves and prostitutes has 
 been brought to a complete system, and it is them which we must next 
 •consider. The meaning of the term " panel-house'* will become apparent 
 from the following description. 
 
 The requisites tor a " panel-house" in the proper sense, are, — a crafty, 
 cunning street walker ; a not less cunning and at the same time sturdy 
 scoundrel — known in the slang of the business as a "Badger" — and a 
 room prepared specially for the purpose by having a small invisible open- 
 ing, generally a noiselessly opening panel in the partition or entrance door, 
 by which access to the place can be had from an adjoining room. These 
 three requisites obtained, it becomes the duty of the panel-thief to find the 
 fourth in any " greenhorn" that can be picked up on the streets and induced 
 to come into the apartment. 
 
 The street walker is, however, accomplished in this art. She belongs 
 generally to the more fashionably dressed class. Pretty and intelligent 
 lookiug, she knows how so to dress and to conduct herself, that notwith- 
 standing her fascinating coquetry no one would take her for a common 
 woman. She contrives so to veil her coquetry in a certain air of modesty 
 and manages it in such a way that even that appearance of modesty itselC 
 becomes a bait to those whom she wishes to allure. She hunts not for 
 
340 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 common game ! She does not receive the first who would come into her 
 net. She chooses her victims with the wisdom of experience, and old 
 married men having the appearance of respectability and means are they 
 whom she seeks to secure. 
 
 Old married men with the appearance of honor and wealth, too, have 
 often weak moments when they seem to forget the oaths sworn at the 
 altar ; — and consequently the women has no difficulty in getting such 
 " honorable men" into her clutches and going off with them to her roonu 
 
 The residence is plain, but neat and comfortable, and contains nothing 
 which could raise the smallest suspicion in the mind of the respectable old 
 sinner that he is visiting the apartment of a professional thief and prosti- 
 tute. Even here his companion continues to play the game of modesty 
 and correctness. She carefully fastens the door and will permit nothing 
 until the lamp is extinguished. The very respectable gentleman lays his 
 clothes carelessly upon a chair, together with his watch and well-filled 
 purse, and the hour of pleasure begins. But the woman's accomplice is 
 outside the partition and at a signal from her he knows that now the time 
 for him to take action has arrived. Silently he opens the secret door- 
 Light as a cat the " badger" passes through it, and with his usual dexterity 
 begins to examine carefully all the clothes of his victim as they lie on the 
 chair, far away from the bed. The darkness of the room facilitates his 
 work. Very soon he has got possession of all that is of any value and he- 
 creeps back through the opening. The door shuts as noiselessly as it wa& 
 opened. The object of the two is attained and now it only remains to set 
 free the plucked bird without any disturbance. As soon as the " respect- 
 able gentleman" begins to dress, somebody suddenly knocks at the door- 
 The "respectable gentleman" gets alarmed. His companion does the 
 same ; she urges him to dress as quickly as possible, and to go out by the 
 back door, for it is quite certain that her husband, or father, or brother, 
 as the case may be, has returned and wants to come in. In desperate 
 haste the " respectable gentleman" slips on his clothes. He is ready for a 
 journey in less time than ever he was in his life before, and as the pay- 
 ment was made ia advance, he escapes by the other door without being 
 reminded of his purse. 
 
 So was, and so is, the original system of panel-house robbery. More 
 recently, however, it has been much simplified, that, too, in a manner 
 which secures the same object to the thieves, while it is probably more 
 disagreeable for the victim. Under this system the secret door is not 
 needed. Tne robbery depends upon the dexterity of the woman, while the 
 " badger" acts only the role of a jealous husband. 
 
 Under this modified plan of proceeding this is about what happens to our 
 " respectable gentleman" when he has entered the " badger's" den. He 
 finds himself with his lady in a room which has but one doOr. Possibly 
 he may have not begun to undress, or if he have, only partially. Bnt the 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 341 
 
 woman lias good humoredly arranged her plans and decided upon the 
 proper moment when the theft should be done. That moment soon comes. 
 A sharp knock is heard at the door. The woman crying out with apparent 
 fear, threatens to faint, and exclaims in great excitement that her husband 
 or her lover has come back. 
 
 " What is to be done? lie is fearfully jealous and will kill us both." 
 The hair of the respectable gentleman stands on end. Helplessly he 
 rushes about the room. The woman urges him at least to set his clothes 
 in order, so that when the dreaded man comes into the room his rage will 
 not be more excited. 
 
 The knocks at the door now come more frequent and more furious. The 
 poor victim of the comedy seems paralyzed with fear and the woman with 
 apparently trembling hands assists him to arrange his toilette. It is hardly 
 necess try to say that while she does this she takes care to remove every- 
 thing of value from the pockets of the man who by this time is well nigh 
 frightened to death. At last, when the door is threatened to be burst in, 
 a lucky thought comes to her mind and she gets him under the bed. Her 
 pretended husband comes in in a fury. A scene follows in which the 
 woman crys and sobs while he threatens to murder her. At last he pre 
 tends to be convinced that she had nobody in the room and then they go 
 out together. 
 
 The u respectable gentleman" who in his narrow hiding-place is in a pro- 
 fuse perspiration, now creeps out and, findiug the door open, hurries away 
 with his best speed out of the house. When his excitement is a little sub- 
 sided, he feels for his watch, for this unpleasant affair has quite thrown 
 him out of time. But he is dumbfoundered, — the watch is gone ! the 
 -chain, too ! With spasmodic haste he now feels for his purse. That is 
 gone, too, and so are his gold shirt studs and sleeve links ; and oh ! heaven 
 even his ring, that is gone. A light now dawns upon him, and with anger 
 .and shame he seems ready to sink to the ground. 
 
 His first thought is to go to the police, and straightway he directs his 
 : Steps towards the nearest station house. But he has not gone far before a 
 new thought occurs to him : — "The cursed papers," he growls to himself, 
 " with all their details of these things ! Why I shall be ruined if all this 
 affair gets published !" He turns about and thinks no more of the police ; 
 but only as to what story he must make up to account for the grievous loss 
 and to compromise himself as little as possible among his family and 
 friends. 
 
 There are other variations in the panel game. We will, however, men- 
 tion here but one more, one which is especially followed when a man of 
 superior appearanee is inveigled into the net of the courtesan. In this 
 case she plays the part of an unfortunate wife, who through the roughness 
 and dissolute conduct of her husband is forced to keep off starvation at the 
 expense of her honor. She protests that this is her first step in that direc- 
 
 
342 TIIE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 tion and hopes that it may be the last, and so on. Scarcely, however, is 
 the loving Adonis in the apartment of the woman before a sound of heavy 
 steps is heard coming up the stairs and the figure of the desperate husband^ 
 foaming with rage, presents itself at the door. 
 
 " Ha ! you false wretch ! have I found you cut at last?" cries out the 
 man ; who of course is none other than a " badger" metamorphosed for the 
 occasion. u Well, this shall be the last time ; and yonr scamp of a friend, 
 too, he shan't leave the room alive ! — Wait a moment, you rascal !" he- 
 roars out with a multitude of oaths, " wait a moment, I will teach yon 
 what it is to interfere with my family. " Upon this he seizes a poker or 
 any other murderous weapon that stands in his way and makes pretence 
 of carrying his threat into effect. 
 
 But the " unhappy wife" falls crying into his arms, and a general 
 scrimmage ensues in the midst of which the astonished visitor in vain tries 
 to appease the angry man by some kind of explanation. Then "-quite by 
 chance" a good friend of the deceived husband makes his appearance in 
 the room and asks in wonderment what in Heaven's name this infernal 
 noise is all about? 
 
 The matter is explained to him by both sides so far as the state of con- 
 fusion will admit. The friend takes vehement part against the rascally 
 intruder, but he treats the affair more quietly than the other and thinks 
 that it is one that might be settled peacefully. None is more ready to 
 endorse this opinion than the stranger. The " friend" does not see then 
 why the matter for example might not be settled by the payment of some 
 money. The " deceived husband" at first repels the very idea of the thing, 
 in a rage ; but after a time, when the stranger has expressed his readiness 
 to pay down a considerable sum, he with apparent reluctance consents. 
 The " friend" receives what money the victim has about him, together 
 with any valuables he may possess as a payment on account. As for the 
 balance, which according to the means and position of the victim is some- 
 times as much as $1,000, a cheque is drawn ; and glad enough he gener- 
 ally is to get out of the matter this easily. If the cheque be not paid on 
 presentation, the matter may come before the courts and public, and that 
 is just what the victim would give anything to avoid. 
 
 But it is possible that some one may at times fall into the clutches of a 
 panel-thief without having any immoral intentions. 
 
 Many a simple fellow from the country for example, whom the panel- 
 thief can always at a glance detect, can testify to this. An example we 
 will relate by way of illustration, and we do so the more readily because 
 it serves to show at the same time how readily a well-dressed woman of 
 the town can improvise any kind of panel comedy. 
 
 Mr. John N. is the nineteen-year-old son of very respectable parents at 
 Fall River. He had already heard so much of the wonders of New York 
 that he could not longer restrain himself from seeing them with his own 
 
PftOSTITl IK'N AND ITS VICTIMS. 
 
 349 
 
 In vain did mania weep ; in vara did papa warn ! The boy must 
 make the journey and was quite sure lie was clever enough to snap his 
 fingers at the dangers and traps of the city. Had he heard and read so 
 much of the rascality of New York and did not know by a hundred differ- 
 ent ways how to distinguish at sight a rogue from an honest man? So he 
 took leave of his parents, but not till mama had loaded him with good 
 advice ; nor till papa had done the much more practical service of well 
 filling his purse for the journey. Aud so he reached New York at last. 
 The first afternoon he took a stroll round Union Square, which was near 
 to his hotel, looking out all the while for faces of those rascals whom he 
 knew from his experience were always waiting for strangers. But he 
 could not find anybody in Union Square who at all bore out his ideal of * 
 such a person. 
 
 The trees and flowers were in blossom, and scented the air with per 
 fume, and the birds twittered about as though there were an eternal spring. 
 Children tumbled about in their frolics on the grass ; tender babies were 
 asleep in their perambulators or in the arms of their nurses, while here 
 and there on a shadowy bench rested the pretty form of some sweet girl 
 deeply buried in the perusal of an entrancing love story. The soft splash- 
 ing of the fountain, the rustling of the trees in the spring breeze combined 
 with the shouts of the children to make up a music which did not go to 
 make up the gloomy picture that our Fall River Telemachus had made of 
 New York rascality. So in the same ideal frame of mind he stretched 
 himself upon a bench and received his first favorable impression of city 
 life. 
 
 Presently turning his eyes towards the fountain, he sprang up ! A round 
 faced youngster of some three years was, as our " greenhorn" thought, in 
 dangerous proximity to the water. He seized the mannikin by his clothes^ 
 dragged him away in spite of his screams and stuggles, and took him to his 
 nurse. In the conscious conviction that he had done a great and glorious 
 deed, he threw himself back into his seat with an expression that he felt 
 sure would protect him from any evil disposed person. But look, there 
 comes someone tripping towards him? It is no rogue either. No indeed ! 
 It's a charming little girl ; the very embody fication of modesty too ! and 
 she blushes as she approaches him ! She speaks to him ! tells him she is 
 the sister of the little boy whom by his lucky presence he had saved from 
 drowning. The nurse has gone home with " little brother/' but she — the 
 sister — could not leave the park without first thanking him for the coura- 
 geous act of rescue. 
 
 If the greatest villain had seized him by the throat and taken away his 
 purse, he would not have been so affrighted as when from a pair of such 
 charming lips he received this unexpected glorification. Without hardly 
 knowing what he said, he stuttered out some kind of an auswer ; the angel 
 before him meantime devising some new material out of which to spin a 
 
344 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW *ORK LIFE. 
 
 conversation. When presently the opportunity offered, Johnny was very 
 glad to begin to talk about himself. Here, too, he grew quite communica- 
 tive, — told all about Fall River, his father and mother, and all the story 
 of how he got here and why he had come all the way from Fall River to 
 Union Square. The young lady listened to him with intense interest. Her 
 interest reached its utmost intensity though when she heard of the two 
 hundred dollars which the careful papa had given him for his expenses. 
 
 " Oh !" she softly murmured, " how delighted papa and mama would be 
 to be able to see, and to thank, the rescuer of poor little Charlie." 
 
 At last she asked him with much timidity whether he would do her the 
 pleasure to accompany her home to her parents, and to receive their thanks 
 and congratulations. At this invitation the simple young fellow blushed 
 to his ears. He had prepared himself for some terrible adventure with 
 robbers, and now — an angel of a girl comes to his side, evidently belonging 
 to one of the best families in New York, with the offer of an introduction 
 to that family, whose youugest members life has been saved through his 
 courage. — Why the whole thing at once opens out to him a splendid per- 
 spective, at the end of which he already thinks he sees the shadow of a 
 marriage altar, coming within his reach ! He accepts the flattering invita- 
 tion. He enters the house of the parents of Florine — for that he discovers 
 is the name of his companion. Elegant as it was on the outside, it was 
 none the less brilliant in the interior. Splendid mirrors, richly decorated 
 candlelabra, rosewood furniture and heavy damasks, beautiful pictures, 
 &c, &c, in short everything spoke of wealth and taste. The happy sim- 
 pleton who never for a moment suspected that he was in a palace of pro- 
 stitution, hardly knew what was happening to him, when an elderly lady 
 who played the part of Florine's mother, as soon as the adventure in the 
 park had been told her, covered him with thanks. She was sorry, she said 
 at last, that papa was not at home, but he would be in soon and in the 
 meantime she and Florine would take care that the time should not be 
 tedious. And thus it happened ! Wine and cakes were served and 
 " Charlies rescuer" soon climbed into the seventh heaven of delight. He 
 threw peculiar tender glances at Florine, who seemed to return them! 
 Then mama left the room. — And what happened after that history does 
 not record. All we know is that " Charlies rescuer" was by and by 
 frightened out of his dreams by Florine's shrieks, and by the rough voice 
 of a man. A furious " papa" stood before him and threatened him with 
 murder and death, while " mama" wrang her hands and cursed him for 
 having so shamefully violated her confidence ! 
 
 Florine, dear child, with her dress rumpled and her whole toilette dis- 
 ordered was a living charge and proof against him who at once destroyed 
 any idea that he might have had to plead " not guilty." But what was to 
 be done now? That was the question to the speedy solution of which the 
 " greenhorn" had now to devote himself. With true Yankee instinct he 
 
PBOSTITUTIOH AND ITS VICTIMS. 349 
 
 bethought him at this terrible moment of his purse as the best means of 
 salvation ! In auy other house this idea would only have made matters 
 worse, but in this house it was quite possible to repair the injured honor 
 of a daughter with dollars ! 
 
 Papa at last made an excellent trade, by appraising the injury at $150. 
 
 The Fall River paid over this amount with all the resignation of a 
 country simpleton, and he slipped out of the house with a heavy heart, but 
 a much lighter purse. Later on he learned what the true character of the 
 house was, in which his romantic experience had been attained. 
 
 But when first he heard that the angel in Union Square, together with 
 " mama" and u papa," were none other than the swindlers belonging to a 
 common house of ill-fame, and that they had not the most remote connec- 
 tion with the " little brother he had saved," his former confidence in his 
 own knowledge of life disappeared like a broken bubble. 
 
 As we have said already, panel-thieves prefer to take their victims from 
 among the more respectable classes of men. This is not only because the 
 profits from such people are more considerable, but also because these 
 classes out of respect to their families and to their position in business 
 scarcely ever will take any measures against the thieves. The panel- 
 honses are very well known to the police ; but unless a charge is made in 
 due form, they can do nothing with energy against the thieves. The crimi- 
 nal business of the panel-thief is therefore one where there is very little 
 danger. Even when a case comes before the courts,Jit seldom ends in any 
 way satisfactory to the complainant. It is difficult to fix the theft upon 
 any particular thief and still more difficult to identify the stolen property 
 and to restore it. — The records of the police give only one case of the kind 
 of any importance, where the victim of a panel-house prosecuted the thief 
 without regard to publicity. It was successful in so far as the fellow 
 received his well merited punishment. But that was all ! The complainant 
 received back very little of his property. But the scandalous scenes and 
 circumstances which the process of law disclosed ruined the man. He 
 was expelled from his church and even his family turned their backs upon 
 him. He had at last to give up a profitable business in the town, and to 
 begin life anew in another part of the country. This truly was no encour- 
 aging precedent ! 
 
 Consequently the panel game flourishes here very luxuriantly. A 
 scoundrel who is well knowa to the police and who bears the nickname of 
 the "king badger," carries it on on a large scale. He keeps in his pay 
 quite a host of women who maintain his different panel-houses in the ways 
 we have described. If we consider the number of these thieves and the 
 luxurious lives they lead, the value of the property that falls into their 
 hands in the course of a year must be enormous. The lion's share of it 
 falls into the pocket of the "badger" ; while his accomplices, the street 
 walkers, receive little more than suffices to give them the fine clothes, and 
 
346 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 whatever else they require to carry on their reckless life from one day to- 
 another. 
 
 Redress a remedy, still less the extirpation of the panel game, cannot be 
 expected from the side of the authorities. It will go on to flourish until 
 the classes, whence its victims chiefly come, have moral strength or under- 
 standing enough to treat with contempt the baits that are being ever held 
 out for them by the league of prostitution and robbery. 
 
 We now come to speak of that form of prostitution which takes a little 
 more trouble to remove itself from the public eye, namely that which goes 
 on in the ordinary houses of prostitution. The difference between those 
 daughters of shame who walk the street and those who remain in the 
 houses is not very great. The first look for their friends in the streets, 
 the others await their arrival inside of four walls. That is all. Moreover 
 even this diflerence dwindles away to something still less when one thinks 
 how small the step is from the house of prostitution to the street. The 
 occupant, too, even of the most fashionable of the houses, is in the course 
 of a very few years brought down to the level of the common street walker, 
 so that at the best the difference between them is only one of time. But 
 let us look at prostitution, as it appears to the observer, and we shall find 
 different grades which present to us the vice in its most alluring as well as 
 its most terrible forms. 
 
 We will begin with the gold and tinsel bedecked aristocracy of shame 
 as it lies hidden behind the marble or brown stone front of a first-class 
 house of prostitution. There are not very many such and probably the 
 number does not exceed fifty in the whole city. They are only in the most 
 fashionable parts of the city, and as those versed in the matter affirm, 
 Fifth Avenue is not by any means free from them. So far as external 
 appearances go, they are conducted in a manner so that as a rule the near- 
 est neighbors do not know their true character. Everything is anxiously 
 avoided which can possibly bring this character to light. Only persons 
 known to the proprietress of the establishment, or men introduced by them, 
 are allowed access to the house. With the proprietress, a stately person- 
 age mostly, there usually lives an individual who passes for her husband 
 and who affects the title of some German baron, or French marquis, or 
 Russian count. The house of palatial appearance is generally only rented, 
 but the rent paid is often $10,000, or $12,000, or even more. It is in all 
 respects regulated with the greatest elegance and splendor, and not even 
 the strictest moralist could take exception on the ground of morality to any 
 picture or piece of sculpture that it contains. The " ladies" of the estab- 
 lishment present a circle of combined youth, beauty, and fashion. Their 
 conversation and demeanor in the parlors of the house differ in no respect 
 from what would be met with in the best society. And since, as we have 
 said, the true character of the house is kno^u only to comparatively a few 
 who are in the secret, the occupants do not suffer socially in the manner 
 

 PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIM-. 347 
 
 which weighs down girls who are loss fortunately situated. They go to 
 the most fashionable public soirees, make their appearance in the best 
 boxes at the opera and have even a pew in some fashionable church which 
 they regularly occupy. They are usually young girls or women who are 
 taking their first walk upon the flowery path of vice, and upon whom the 
 poison has not yet had time to leave the stamp of degradation. But the 
 brilliancy which surrounds them is very deceptive. The rich rewards of 
 vice which are cast into their laps go for the most part into the pocket of 
 the proprietress of the establishment, while for the girls themselves 
 remains little more than the finery with which their vocation requires them 
 to dress themselves. 
 
 The visitors to such houses are necessarily only men who can pay con- 
 siderable sums of money — whether their own or somebody elses is irrmia" 
 terial. Influential politicians, speculators, sporting men, as well as many 
 of the commercial and financial worlds form the chief support of these 
 establishments. 
 
 The greater number of them are middle aged and old men, and gener- 
 ally, too, those who would be the most unrelenting at the slightest false 
 step on the part of a wife or a daughter. There are also often to be found 
 in these palaces of sin men who attach the prefix of u Reverend" to their 
 name ; and w r ho certainly have not gone there on a mission of con- 
 version. 
 
 The contrivances for the arrival and departure of visitors are such that 
 no one, unless he wishes, need be seen by anybody else. No one who has 
 the golden key of admission to such a house wants to feel the fear of dis- 
 covery and exposure. And it is not necessary to say that in the interests 
 of the house the firmest maintenance of external respectability is as neces- 
 sary on the part of the visitors as on that of the inmates. 
 
 These houses are all well known to the police. But they are never 
 molested by them, because in t\\& first place there never occurs any circum- 
 stance which w r ould justify such a course ; and more especially because the 
 rich proprietors understand very well the art of inducing the police to wink 
 at anything they may see. 
 
 From these hiding places of shame, which are concealed under the most 
 alluring and attractive colors down to the low brothels of Green, Wooster r 
 or Water Streets, the descent is by imperceptible steps. 
 
 Houses of the second class endeavor like the others to keep up as far as 
 possible an appearance of external respectability. But the falling off in 
 comparison with the others is only too perceptible. The girls found in 
 these houses are in part snch as have already been removed from the better 
 houses, or perhaps those who have not been able to find a reception in 
 those houses. 
 
 There is upon them a superficial and theatrical kind of glitter. They 
 cannot allure the aristocratic portion of the sensualist members of society, 
 
348 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 They speculate, therefore, upon more numerous visitors and are not nearly 
 as particular in the selection of their customers. Their vocation conse- 
 quently is no secret to their neighbors. Not unfrequently noisy scenes 
 take place in them. In such cases the police enter and take the whole 
 company off to the station house. It is in these houses then that the 
 miserable devotees of Venus first make the discovery that the bright flowers 
 that lie along the paths of shame are not by any means without sharp 
 thorns. 
 
 Another class of prostitution-houses are those which make themselves 
 notorious by external appearance even to those who do not otherwise know 
 them. Lamps of a significent character hang at the entrances, and from 
 behind curtains and jalousies impudent glances are passed from the eyes of 
 the occupants at every man who passes. Other houses again seek to an- 
 nounce rather than to hide their shameful business by means of perhaps a 
 cigar store or some other ostensible trade. In many of these there is a 
 bar where wretched liquors are retailed at the most extortionate prices. 
 ' The lower the character of these places, the more frequent do riots and 
 disturbances take place in them, and the oftener do they come in contact 
 with the police. Many of them are the resorts of thieves, in which too 
 often visitors are made drunk, then robbed of their money and property of 
 any value and turned on to the streets again. The women in these places 
 are rough and impudent, and as such they are very fitting acquaintances 
 and companions for the men who frequent such places. 
 
 One step lower and we are at the bottom of the list. It brings us to he 
 •dens of Green and Water Streets. A representation of this lowest stratum 
 -of prostitution would present a more disgusting picture than we are willing 
 to touch. Yet a peep into it contains and foreshadows a severe moral. 
 Reader know you the history of those beings whom we find collected 
 together in this state of degradation ? Look at the wretched rooms, where 
 like hopeless galley-slaves they are enchained. Crime and vice and the 
 despair of too late repentance crowd upon them ! Look at the miserable 
 creatures as they stand on the very edge of the abyss without the power to 
 move one step backward ! Vapid impudence and physical and moral cor- 
 ruption speak out from faces in which not one atom of womanhood can be 
 detected ! You turn with loathing from them, though perhaps not without 
 pity ! But the poor creatures were not in this place always. Their appear- 
 ance has not always been so repulsive. Not more, perhaps, than six or 
 seven years ago you might have seen these shrews, whose appearance to- 
 day fills you with disgust, in the brilliant parlors of one of the prostitution 
 palaces which we sketched at first. They were arrayed in gold and silks, 
 they were the spoiled pets of rich sensualists, and never dreamt that the 
 gilded sin was a stone around their necks which would at last drag them 
 down to so terrible a depth. 
 
 The transformation seems incredible. Yet it is the fact that ninety out 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 349 
 
 of every hundred prostitutes, even when they begin their career in a palace 
 of shame with all the charms of youth and beauty, after a few short years 
 find a living grave in the dens of Green and Water Streets. If there are 
 any exceptions, they are as a rule only such where death ensues as a con- 
 sequence of a life of vice before the girl has sunk to the lowest depths of 
 infamy. So as it would seem by a necessity of nature the consequence of 
 crime very soon dissipates the deceptive appearances with which it was 
 adorned at the beginning. There is in truth no difference in the crime 
 which stretches itself through Fifth Avenue from that which disgusts us in 
 Water Street. Both are alike dangerous pitfalls of evil. 
 
 If any difference must be found between them, it can only be by repre- 
 senting the first as the beginning and the last as the ending of the same 
 great moral corruption. 
 
 Now, how do these dens of vice get their occupants? 
 
 This question opens up to us a very dismal insight into human depravity 
 and heartlessness. We have before enumerated the principal causes that 
 go to make up the victims of prostitution. The system is conducted as a 
 business on a large scale, and the procuration of that which the business 
 requires must not be left to chance. Aud it is not. No legitimate busi- 
 ness is carried on in a more thoroughly systematic manner than that which 
 deals as an article of trade with the honor and life long happiness of 
 woman. The main spring of the whole business is the " procuress,'' that 
 female monster who looks upon the ruin of innocent girls and honorable 
 women as, unfortunately, a mere matter of business. With her the whole 
 becomes apparent ; for among her coadjutors she always has women who 
 are already in the ranks of prostitution. 
 
 These procuresses are from every stratum of society, high as well as 
 low, and they lay their snares as well for the rich as for the poor. They 
 are to be met with at concerts and balls, and in churches, too, to see if 
 only they can find out a fitting victim. Girls schools, and watering places, 
 are favorite centres for their operations. There is no hotel in the city, no 
 emigrant ship on the ocean that has not been surveyed for their purposes, 
 and in which under some form or other they have not made their appear- 
 ance among the female passengers to spread their pernicious nets. Iu 
 this work these human hyenas are often aided by male agents known as 
 " runners." 
 
 Creatures of no moral sense, these fellows are for the most part nothing 
 better than cunning rascals of decent appearance and plausible manners — 
 qualifications that are essential to render them useful as abettors of the 
 procuress. Their duty is to effect the fall of any girl who from youth and 
 beauty seems suitable to the purposes of the procuress, and with whom 
 other means have failed ; that once accomplished, the procuress never has 
 much difficulty iu rendering the ruin of the girl complete. In the choice 
 of means by which these scoundrels carry out their purpose they are not 
 
350 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 over scrupulous, and it need hardly be said they are not particular about 
 making any kind of professions of love or the most sacred promises of 
 marriage if these are necessary. It is easy to understand that it is especi- 
 ally among the poorer classes and the ill-paid sewing and factory girls that 
 the well-laid snares of both male and female prostitution agents find the 
 readiest and the most victims. The possession of beauty and of the fresh- 
 ness of youth, is always a dangerous gift of nature to these girls, and one 
 which sets the whole crowd of seducers on her heels. " Poverty is no 
 disgrace/' says the proverb ; and yet through the fault of our social condi- 
 tion how many does it not unhappily reduce to shame. 
 
 We have already said that the family circles of the rich are not exempt 
 from the watchfulness of the procuress. The women who set their nets in 
 those quarters, are generally matronly persons of superior manners and 
 with the appearance of possessing ample means. They represent themselves 
 generally as rich widows or as the wives of sea captain's whose husbands 
 are away from home. 
 
 Under this mask it is not difficult for them to obtain the acquaintance 
 of respectable families, for instance in popular watering places. As they 
 know well how to comport themselves in strict accordance with the degree 
 of respectability they have assumed, nobody recognizes their real character ; 
 and the consequence is that they soon get welcomed even in what seem 
 to be very exclusive family circles, as the most welcome guests. How 
 they profit by such friendliness needs hardly to be defined. Very often 
 these dealers in souls are themselves the proprietors of prostitution houses, 
 who during the summer season frequent fashionable watering places to 
 make propaganda among the male and female visitors on account of their 
 New York establishment. We will present our readers here with an 
 illustration to the point : — 
 
 The "lady" in question gave out that she was the widow of a West 
 India sea captain ; and she played the role so effectually that no respect- 
 able observer could possibly have detected her true character. She pos- 
 sesses a charming villa in one of the New England States, whither she 
 journeys in the summer months. Although she goes about these amid all 
 the external appearance of respectability, she spends the greater part of 
 the year in New York, where she acts as the proprietor and secret man- 
 ager of one of the most fashionable assignation-houses. But amid the 
 apparent retirement of her country life, this wretch does not neglect to 
 busy herself about her shameful calling. Her wealth, together with her 
 pretentions to respectability have secured her access to almost all the fami- 
 lies in the neighborhood ; and she avails herself of this in the most fiendish 
 manner. Gifted with a pleasing and flattering manner, she finds no diffi- 
 culty in worming herself into the confidence of pretty girls and young, 
 single women and widows. This done, she next sets to work to utilize the 
 failings of her selected victims, to undermine, unobserved, their morsl 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. S51 
 
 constancy, and systematically to fit them for the purpose for which she has 
 chosen them. 
 
 With this her share of the work is done. The rest is left to the old or 
 young sensualists whose wishes she has been subserving and who, for the 
 information she can afford, pay her a rich reward. 
 
 Examples are not wanting where common procuresses have been furn- 
 ished with letters of introduction by men of wealth and influenca, and by 
 this means have obtained access as visitors to the midst of respectable 
 families. The object for which, in these instances, the letters of introduc- 
 tion were written, were none other than to bring within the reach of the 
 accursed arts of the procurer some female member of the family whom the 
 rich seducer had seen. The women then leaves nothing undone, and 
 never ceases her work till all the devices of the seducer have been used 
 upon her victim, or if these fail, then till the girl has been ruined by strat- 
 agem or even force. 
 
 In most cases the work of the procuress is not an easy one. Very often 
 she has to adopt the most complicated means to attain her end. Very 
 often, however, again the task is wonderfully easy, and the bird, so to 
 speak, flies into the net in a moment. An interesting case of this kind 
 came into public notice in this city during the past autumn. As it gives 
 at the same time a peculiar iusight into the relations that exist between the 
 police and prostitution, we willingly narrate it here. 
 
 One day an elderly lady from Boston made her appearance in company 
 with a married daughter at the office of the captain of the detective police. 
 She made a complaint to the effect that some days before her youngest 
 daughter Mary had disappeared in an inexplicable manner, and she said 
 that it was the opinion of the Boston police that she would most likely be 
 found in New York. 
 
 She gave to the captain a photographic likeness of the missing girl and 
 entreated him to aid in finding her. The captain gave the sorrowing 
 mother every hope, and at once detailed a etective to the work. This 
 man began, as in such cases is usual, to look around the various houses of 
 prostitution. Soon he learned that a young girl from Boston, who was 
 said to resemble her who had been missing, was to be found in a house of 
 ill-fame in Amity Street. And as the name of this girl was Mary, there 
 could be but little doubt that they were already on the right track. Only 
 they did not wish by any awkwardness to give any such hint to the pro- 
 prietress of the establishment as would induce her to smuggle away her 
 victim and to hide her in some other place of concealment. Mary's sister 
 called, however, every day at police headquarters making enquiries, and 
 she thought that the captain ought not to have withheld any satisfactory 
 information relative to the clue that had been discovered. To this lady, 
 indeed, the police seemed to work much too slowly. 
 
 Accordingly without saying anythiug about what she was going to do, 
 
352 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 she forthwith made an assault upon the house of shame. A coDvulsive- 
 pull at the bell brought the proprietor of the establishment to the door in 
 person. " What do you want?" she shouted as though she were an angel 
 of vengeance appointed against anybody who should attempt to enter the 
 place. " I want my dear sister Mary," was the short but decisive 
 answer. But the keeper of the house was not to be intimidated and she 
 met her unwelcome visitor with the words : — " You have no business here, 
 and if you don't get out in an instant I'll call the police, and have you put 
 out." As this threat did not succeed, she without another word pressed 
 her hand upon a small knob on the wall. The vehemence with which 
 the lady insisted upon seeing her sister had in a moment collected the 
 women who resided at the house into the hall, some of whom found the 
 scene very amusing, while the sympathy of others was shown for the 
 woman who was weeping with so much agitation. Very few minutes had 
 passed since the " Madame" of the house had touched the little knob on 
 the wall, which was in fact a private telegraph, before a boy appeared 
 from a neighboring telegraph office ; and with him a policeman. Mary's 
 sister who had no idea of the secret understanding between the police and 
 these dens of vice, explained to the blue-coated representative of the law in 
 a very few words the object of her presence there and begged him to 
 assist her. 
 
 What then was her astonishment when she found the policeman taking 
 the part of the brothel keeper ! — " You have no business in this house. 
 You must leave it. I protect you only while you go out of it ;" was the 
 answer of the police officer. And thereupon he r„ade a show of taking 
 the lady by the arm and putting her out. " Don't touch me," she cried,. 
 " I shall not go away without my sister." 
 
 But her courage and firmness had hardly helped her, if one of the women 
 had not taken pity on her and without being observed whispered to her : — 
 "In the hall room on the second floor." 
 
 Before the policeman or madame could stop her, she flew up the stairs 
 with renewed energy to the room indicated. Bursting open the door she 
 saw her unfortunate sister who in tears had heard all that was going on^ 
 The two threw themselves into each others arms and the unfortunate girl 
 declared her readiness without a moments delay to leave the place. 
 
 Neither the trader in souls nor her ally, the policeman, attempted to 
 oppose the determined will of the two sisters and they left the house forth- 
 with unhindered. 
 
 The possible supposition that the policeman in this case was only a 
 scoundrel in the service of the keeper of the house, is not true. Almost 
 all the principle houses of prostitution in the city are, by means of private 
 apparatus, in direct telegraphic communication with the telegraph offices, 
 so that when necessary they may readily procure the assistance of thfr 
 police for their own purposes. 
 
prosteti i [om am> ns vn ci 358 
 
 The police are required in these places, but they are not necessarily kept 
 ;irv ; nevertheless it is a well-known iact that every service of tfa i 
 kind rendered by them is always handsomely paid for, so that the not over- 
 scrupulous policeman is always ready to make himself useful either directly 
 ur indirectly to such houi 
 
 How very easy the task of the procuress was in the case just mentioned 
 is apparent from the statement which Mary after her happy liberation 
 made to her mother of the method of her abductiou : — She said that on the 
 afternoon before her disappearance she was on her way home from school, 
 when a well-dressed lady met her and in a friendly manner said to her : — 
 
 " You are very pretty, my child ! AVould you not like to go with me to 
 New York? You could live in a fine house there, go to the theatre and 
 to balls, and dress just as well as I do." Mary said at once that she 
 should like it very much. This was all that was said and both went on 
 their way. 
 
 On the next morning a fashionable carriage drew up before the house of 
 Mary's mother, and the coachman enquired for Miss Mary. The mother, 
 however, gave the coachman to understand that there must have been 
 some mistake made, either in the house or the name. She never for a 
 moment thought that such a terrible danger was threatening her childish 
 thoughtless daughter. But the miserable procuress — for nothing else than 
 that was the " well-dressed lady" — was not going to let her chosen victim 
 slip out of her hands as easily as this. She lurked about after the girl 
 until at last she met her by herself on the street. She had then very little, 
 trouble to get the girl to consent to go with her and on the next morning 
 they took the train to New York. In the cars the innocent victim met 
 about a dozen other young girls whom the procuress was taking away to 
 a life of shame and misery. 
 
 Fieldisg, in his well-known romance of " Paul Jones," compares female 
 purity to a young hare, which, wherever it shows itself, is sure to be 
 attacked and hunted. And surely to no city is that comparison more ap- 
 plicable than to New York. The fact, too, is well known, and for a long 
 time past the reputation of the city in this particular has been no flattering 
 one. And while other large cities are not much better, .they are loud in 
 their predictions of coming disaster and cry woe and alas over the ruin of 
 the modern Sodom. So to the shocking details of murder, homicide and 
 seduction which from day to day and every day are being served up by the 
 New York journals for the delectation of their readers, the corresponding 
 contributions of the journals of other cities must be added. In this con- 
 nection we have a recent incident reported in the " Chicago Journal" in 
 which at the same time is shown the dangers to which ladies who are 
 travelling and who are not acquainted with the conditions of our city may- 
 tali. The narrative relates to the mysterious disappearance of a youn«- 
 lady from Chicago : — 
 
 23 
 
354 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 This lady, Henrietta R., the daughter of wealthy parents, had set out 
 for New York to pay a visit to some relatives. When after several days, 
 since which Heurietta should have been in New York, no news from her 
 reached her parents, they wrote to the relatives. The answer was to the 
 effect that they had neither seen nor heard anything whatever of the girl. 
 The terrified parents went to the police, and a brother of the missing girl 
 went with a detective officer to New York. With the help of a New York 
 detective they managed to find the driver of tlie conveyance who had taken 
 her and her box from the railway station. At first the fellow would not 
 know anything. It was not till the prospect of a prison was held out 
 before him that he began to yield. lie then named the house where he 
 had taken the girl, and which, as already surmised, was the house, of a 
 notorious procuress. Thither the brother went, in company with a detec- 
 tive, and was fortunate enough to rescue his sister just in time from her 
 terrible situation. We will not here attempt to depict the affecting scene 
 which followed the meeting of the brother and sister under such peculiar 
 circumstances. We need have only to do with the short narrative which 
 Henrietta gave of her abduction as soon as the joy at her unexpected 
 release gave her new utterance. 
 
 She arrived by the train at New York at midnight. Without suspect- 
 ing any danger she took the first conveyance that there was for hire and 
 told the coachman the street and house to which she wished to be taken. 
 After what seemed to her a very long and zigzag drive, the coach stopped 
 at last before a house which the coachman told her w r as that to which she 
 wanted to go. It was her first visit and she did not know the house of her 
 relations. She entered the house, and was shown into one of the back 
 rooms. Nothing seemed strange to her, even when none of her relations 
 came to receive her. She explained this to herself by the lateness of the 
 hour. But in the morning the scales fell from her eyes only too soon- 
 She had been handed over to the mercies of a heartless procurer ! It is 
 true no harm was done to her ; but she was detained a prisoner in her 
 room, and no kind of inducement, persuasion or even threat was omitted 
 to make her submissive to the purposes of shame for which she was here 
 intended. The girl was, however, strong enough to resist and to set at 
 defiance all these temptations even up to the time when she received her 
 unexpected deliverance. 
 
 But if her release had been much longer delayed, it is hard to suppose 
 that the unhappy girl would not at last have been ruined. The demon of 
 prostitution in whose clutches she here was had most assuredly sooner or 
 later secured her as a victim. 
 
 And this case shows us the dangerous alliance that sometimes exists 
 between the drivers of public conveyances and procurers. 
 
 Such instances as this are by no means unfrequent, and similar means 
 have produced many victims. But there are other most dangerous allies 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 
 
 of M procurers" which especially deserve notice. These are a certain kind 
 of labor bureaus or intelligence offices, where young girls, perhapi from 
 the country or only recently landed from Europe, apply for work or situa- 
 tions. There are plenty of such offices in the city which are respectably 
 conducted and to which younjr girls looking for situations can go with con- 
 fidence. But there are also a considerable number of a very suspicious 
 character, where the name of "intelligence office" is only the cow 
 which is used to conceal a, totally different object. 
 
 Whoever will take the trouble to look carefully round one of the3e 
 offices, cannot fail to observe much that will arouse his suspicion. For 
 example there will probably sweep by a lady dressed out in the very 
 height of fashion who reviews with lowering eyes the faces of the girls who 
 are waiting for places. If she finds none among them sufficiently good 
 looking, she first says a few words to the proprietor of the office and then 
 soon disappears. But she acts very differently if any girl is present whoso 
 face seems to be suitable for her purpose. Then she is quite condescend- 
 ing and amiability itself and especially to the owner of the pretty face for 
 whom she presently evinces quite a motherly friendship. The girl is soon 
 enraptured with a lady so good and so superior. The prospect of good 
 pay and of comparatively very easy work docs the rest. The girl takes 
 with delight the engagement which is soon closed, and she follows her kind 
 mistress. But whither? Need we say? The "lady" was a procurer; 
 and once let her get her victim within the four walls of her house, and her 
 escape from it before she has been ruined in body and soul is as improb- 
 able as if she were in the den of a tiger. 
 
 It was by such a lady and in such an intelligence office, that a notorious 
 procurer in (Jreen Street, well known to the police under the name of 
 " Miss Annie," engaged a girl once to do needle-work. The young creature 
 had come to New York from Massachusetts, but hardly had she been a 
 day in the house before Miss Annie came to her with propositions of a very 
 different character from those in the original engagement. In a word, the 
 girl saw that she had got into a house of ill-fame of the very worst kind, 
 and that nothing more was expected of her than that she would lend her- 
 self to the work of vice. 
 
 This she refused downright to do, and she insisted upon instantly leav- 
 ing the house. But this was not so easy to do. She was retained by 
 force, and so closely watched that in two attempts to escape she was 
 trust rated. As promises and soft words did not answer, they adopted a 
 different course and sought to turn her by threats and even cruel treatment. 
 Still the brave girl remained firm. An elderly man who was a frequent 
 visitor at the house at last took an interest in the "refractory beauty" and 
 undertook, since she Mould not consent to her seduction, at any price to 
 her to escape. At first he tried stratagem, and under the pretext of 
 taking her for a walk thought to be able to get her out of the house. But 
 
356 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 this was at once put a stop to by " Madame" ; and he saw himself neces- 
 sitated to overcome by the active use of his arms the opposition which was 
 offered to his act of rescue by the tender " Miss Annie" and the other 
 nymphs of the house. The girl was happily rescued, but she was obliged 
 to have recourse to the assistance of the law to recover her box which 
 " Miss Annie" was unwilling to give up under the pretence that there was 
 money due to her. 
 
 The manner in which fortune tellers and marriage bureaus work iu the 
 interests of the procuresses will be shown in another chapter of this book. 
 When work girls lose their situations, they are often reduced to consider- 
 able necessity, and then it is that the procuress avails herself of her oppor- 
 tunity and plies her miserable trade. Under the hypocritical mask of 
 motherly friendship she draws the girls towards her out of whom she 
 thinks any money can be made, and they do not hesitate to spend money 
 in order to secure her confidence. As soon as a degree of intimacy has 
 been attained in this way the female demon begins to work upon the weak- 
 ness of the poor girl with deep laid plans. The contrast of a life of pleas- 
 ure apparently free from care, with the poverty stricken life of a badly paid 
 work girl is put before her in glaring colors, and she is assured that she 
 was born for something better than to work herself into a consumption in 
 a factory or work room. She is introduced to girls who have already 
 learned the secret how one can lead a " splendid" life without harassing 
 oneself from morning till evening about work. And much other persua- 
 sion of the same kind is urged upon her. What wonder then if the poor 
 girl's head gets bewildered, and forgetting the lessons taught by her mother, 
 at last selects to revel at the broad table of vice instead of starving at the 
 more frugal board of virtue. If allurements of this kind do not suffice, the 
 procuress threatens to withdraw her protection from the homeless girl, or 
 torments her with demands for the payment of debts which she insists that 
 she has incurred for her friendship. But we can elucidate this mode of 
 operation on the part of the procuress by a practical example, which at the 
 same time forcibly shows how a tragical denouement may sometimes be the 
 fearful punishment for these heartless wretches who live by the destruction 
 of innocent girls. 
 
 Clara L., a young, amiable girl who by the death of her father was 
 driven to make her own way in the world, came a few years ago to New 
 York from St. Louis, where she obtained employment in Division Street 
 as a dress-maker. She lodged at the house of a widow in Cherry Street, 
 whom we will call Mrs. N., and being engaged all day at her business she 
 had no suspicion of the doubtful character of her landlady. Times were 
 bad and in consequence, as in many other branches of business, so, too, in 
 the dress-making, many engaged in it had their services dispensed with. 
 This was the case with Clara. In spite of all her efforts she could not 
 obtain any other employment and very soon the little money she had saved 
 
'INSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 
 
 S5: 
 
 was gone. Mrs. N. was the embodification of kindness; and requested 
 her tenant not to trouble herself, as she might remain in the house till bet- 
 ter times came and she could procure work. Soon, however, Clara found 
 out that Mrs. N. was in the habit of receiving visits from men in a manner 
 which but little harmonized with her pretensious to respectability. She 
 felt sickened and enraged at this wheu she observed that Mrs. N. inten- 
 tionally managed to leave her alone with these several visitors. 
 
 When she explained that she did not want any visitors and still less 
 such as these, the diabolical woman changed her tone. 
 
 kl It would be better," she said, ll if people would pay their board-bills 
 before they began to give orders about a house !" But although Clara felt 
 wretched at beiug spoken to in this way, she was not in a position to 
 leave the house until she could pay the debt which from day to day was 
 growing more heavy. Her tormentor now became more vehement in her 
 demands and the visitors more impudent and more importunate. 
 
 Clara was nearly driven to despair. She had not clothes enough on her 
 body to be able to go out of the room, for Mrs. N. with fiendish calcula- 
 tion had taken possession of her entire wardrobe as security for the debt. 
 The terrified girl now worried herself and tried every means that she could 
 think of to avoid a life of shame. But neither the tormenting of the 
 woman nor the obtrusive persuasions of the debauchees, who had already 
 looked upon her as a victim, had yet come to an end. 
 
 One evening, when the old hag seemed more than usually friendly, she 
 
 I felt very weak and confused after drinking a cup of chocolate. She very 
 soon did not know where she was, but as though in a dream she saw her- 
 self helpless and in the power of the female fury and of a mas who then 
 slipped into her room. When she woke up she was a ruined girl. The 
 female Satan who planned her seduction was sitting by her bedside, pre- 
 tending much friendly anxiety. Now what was the unfortunate girl to 
 do ? She now felt herself more than ever in the power of the woman ; 
 and why now should she fight and trouble herself about something that 
 was already lost. Only once more did the female tempter use her elo- 
 quence to submit to the girl the alternative that now lay before her. Clara 
 sobbed and was silent. 
 
 It was the silence of resignation — resignation to a life of shame. The 
 crisis in her life had come ! 
 
 Clara looked no more after work. She had fine clothes, and she lived 
 at least to all appearance free from all care in the intoxication of pleasure 
 and amusement. She staid with Mrs. N., whom she had to thank for her 
 fortune (?) and who did not fail to find what a source of profit she had in 
 Clara. 
 
 But fate followed with rapid strides both on the seducer and the seduced. 
 One day Mrs. N. received a visit from a man who had known her husband 
 after he had been separated from her. Madame did not omit to introduce 
 
358 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 to her visitor Clara, her prettiest lodger. The man grew pale, and looked 
 with' a piercing glance first at the woman, then at the captivating beauty- 
 of the fallen girl before him. 
 
 " Are you the devil himself," he cried out at last, jumping from his 
 seat, " that you will sell your own daughter to perdition?" 
 
 Mrs. N. screamed, but then tried to convince herself and him that there 
 was some mistake, thereby hoping to silence her visitor. A full explana- 
 tion followed and the result at last was the disclosure of the terrible fact 
 that Clara was indeed the daughter of the procuress ! 
 
 The following is the key to the solution of this dismal history : — 
 Mrs. N. had been separated from her husband when Clara was a little 
 child. The father kept his daughter and went to a small city out West in 
 order to prevent his wife asserting any claim to the child ; and he lived 
 under another name. This name, which was unknown to her mother, 
 Clara still bore. She had never heard her father speak of her mother and 
 believed in fact that she was dead. It was under these circumstances that 
 at the death of her father she came to New York, where her evil star took 
 her direct to her mother, who under very little disguise did the business of 
 a procuress. 
 
 The scene which followed this disclosure can hardly be depicted, nor is 
 it expedient to attempt so to do. With the wretched woman who had 
 brought about the ruin of her own daughter and who in spite of her utter 
 heartlessness sincerely bemoaned the turn things had taken, we will not 
 trouble ourselves. Let us look only at the fate of the girl, who was indeed 
 to be pitied. With one cold look after her mother she left the house never 
 to return. Her future home was in the streets and amid the filthiest dens 
 of prostitution. It seemed as though she sought forgetfulness of the past 
 in the deepest mire of vice ; for, after all, such forgetfulness can be the only 
 blessing which a life like hers can have. She found it at last in little less 
 than a year under the turf in a remote corner of Potter's Field. 
 
 A volume might be filled with the disclosures of the tricks and pretexts 
 with which the ubiquitous procuress fastens herself on to the tracks of the 
 innocent and seeks to hunt her to the death like a bloodhound after the 
 fleeing roe. But what we have already noted will suffice to lay bare the 
 detestable habits and occupation of the procuress, and to give an idea of 
 the amount of misery that springs out of this trade. The chief task of these 
 hyenas in human form is gradually to undermine the constancy of virtue, 
 and when weakened and wavering, then by well directed means to bring 
 about a fall from which there is no recovery. The ruined happiness of 
 thousands of families and, too, the destruction of thousands of very often 
 the most excellent women is often to be traced to the hellish work of the 
 procuress ! It seems almost incredible that a woman should make it the 
 business of her life to ruin and to bring into a life of shame the members 
 of her own sex! And yet they do it ! But this kind of traffickers in. 
 
PROSTITUTION AMD ITS VICTIMS. 3i9 
 
 ! amao souls is recruited from those classes of prostitutes in whom no spark 
 ( f womanly honor ever gleamed ; from those classes who with cold calcula- 
 tion have devoed themselves to a life of shame not from any extremity of 
 i aman weakness, hut through the most ingrained depravity. They are at 
 the head of those classes of prostitutes who, as we have said before, deserve 
 none of the pity, but all the contempt and condemnation with which the 
 world is prone to look down upon the daughters of shame ! 
 
 It is to these women whom the proprietors of prostitution-houses of all 
 grades apply if they find it necessary to make a change in their " wares" 
 or to fill up any vacancies in their ranks. There are procuresses who con- 
 duct their business " wholesale." These, by means of male and female 
 agents and associates extending over the whole country, are in a position 
 to fill with promptness any orders that may be given them. They are at 
 any time ready to satisfy all demands in reference either to the quantitv 
 or the quality of the required " merchandize." Thev are ready at the 
 shortest notice to forward either any desired number of freshly caught, in- 
 nocent girls, into the fashionable prostitution palace, or a parcel of worn- 
 out prostitutes to a Green or Wooster Street den. But enough of this 
 painful subject ; the picture of human traffic in its worst form ! That such 
 a traffic can exist, is the burning disgrace of an age which imaginary pride 
 has been too often regarded as the age of humauity. 
 
 Another form of prostitution is that met with in Assignation-Ho>i ises . 
 By the term assignation-house is meant a house in which on the payment 
 of a certain sum man and woman can meet for improper purposes ; or a 
 house where, in order to render such meetings more easy, persons coming 
 to them are received without their character and purpose being taken into 
 consideration so long as they pay for the accommodation. As will become 
 apparent, such houses as these, which by right come within the circle of 
 prostitution, are among the most dangerous to the moralitv of societv. In 
 this reference it is a significant symptom that the number of comraop 
 brothels has of late years diminished, while the number of assignation- 
 houses has very much increased. 
 
 In respect to external appearance, assignation-houses are of all grades, 
 from the suspicious looking den of some remote street to the elegant look- 
 ing private house of a fashionable locality. They may be conducted either 
 on the basis of a public hotel or on that of a private establishment in its 
 widest signification. While to the one anyone seeking admission obtains 
 it, the doors of the other are opened only to those who can produce refer- 
 ences. Many of the smaller hotels of this city are, through the lax-way 
 in which they are conducted, hardly better than assignation-houses. Eves 
 the first-class hotels have some difficulty to keep up their respectability in 
 this particular. 
 
 The hotel proprietor for example sees Mr. X. arrive at the hotel with 
 Miss Y. and a travelling-bag; and when they register themselves as M- 
 
 
360 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 X. and wife he cannot possibly know that their only object is to find a 
 lovers rendezvous. Such cases in themselves do not inflict any injury upon 
 a hotel. 
 
 The persons connected with a hotel have generally very sharp eyes, and 
 as a rule they soon find out how matters are by the suspicious embarrass- 
 ment that follows upon any questions respecting their condition. If then 
 the case be more than usually offensive, the pretended husband receives 
 the hint that he cannot have his room any longer by receiving his account 
 unsolicited. 
 
 But then in contrast to such respectable hotels as these there are others 
 which willingly and knowingly on the part of their proprietors are nothing 
 more than assignation-houses or the boarding-houses of kept women. If 
 an unsuspecting stranger comes into one of these often very pretensious 
 looking hotels, he will be politely shown the door, with the remark that 
 there is no room. But if he go to the entrance of that hotel in the even- 
 ing, the deeply veiled women and the mysterious looking men who singly 
 or in pairs come to the hotel in carriages will soon open his eyes to the 
 reason why there were no rooms in the place for him. 
 
 A dangerous kind of public assignation-house is often to be found in the 
 favorite excursion places outside of the town, which enjoy a popularity 
 among the more lax-elements of the wealthier classes. In such places 
 there are often very elegint restaurants or refreshment places where at 
 any time for money private rooms may be obtained with the tacit under- 
 standing, that nobody troubles himself as to what goes on within the four 
 walls while it is so occupied. 
 
 Another class of public assignation-houses are the so-called " bed-houses" 
 of the city. The situation and external appearance of these differ accord- 
 ing to the kind of people for whom they are intended. This harmlessly 
 sounding name covers in almost all cases a very dirty business. They 
 are very well known in the neighborhood where they are and often far 
 beyond it. They bring in large profits and are often the property of men 
 who pass before the world as being highly respectable, and who often find 
 some widow fit for the business to take charge of the house. 
 
 But the public never know who the real proprietors are. They do not 
 wish to be known. They are too highly respectable, often they are emi- 
 nently pious people, and then they have only established a " sleeping- 
 house." Of what actually goes on in these sleeping-houses the very respect- 
 able men know nothing ; or rather they refuse to know anything ! What 
 they do know is that their capital is invested at a most profitable rate of 
 interest, and that suffices to silence any scruples that may chance to affect 
 their tender consciences. 
 
 As regards quiet and order, these places are very strictly conducted, as 
 auy disturbance would be immediately followed by the place being closed 
 by the police. The visitor cuters the front hall. If he has rung the bell, 
 
PROSTITUTION AM' ITS I n I IM8. 
 
 there presently appears an indistinct form through the darkness who either 
 briefly addresses him with the words " no room" or clcc enquires of him 
 what kind of room he wants. As soon as the visitor lias paid the rent for 
 the room, and this varies from fifty cents to ten dollars, lie is conducted to 
 the apartment where he may remain either alone or with his lady for half 
 .our or throughout the whole night, if he pleases. 
 
 As must readily be seen these Bleeping-houses are the worst form ot 
 »8signation-house, which in character come very near to the ordinary 
 brothel. At all hours of the night male or female visitors, alone or in 
 couples, may for a mere payment obtain access to these houses, free from 
 all enquiries. 
 
 They are also the places to which a certain class of street walkers take 
 the conquests they have made upon the streets. 
 
 Any observer who would station himself before one of these houses in 
 the eveuiug would have an opportunity to make some interesting studies. 
 There for example comes a girl scarcely passed her childhood, followed by 
 a man whose gray hair only too plainly endorses the truth of the proverb 
 that old age does not prevent folly, or as we have it more tersely put "the 
 greatest fools are the old fools." The girl and her companion obtain 
 .admittance without any hesitation. She is a regular customer of the house, 
 aind probably has a certain room set apart there for her own use at a 
 -weekly rental. A few moments after a carriage drives up. A female 
 form thickly veiled skips out and hurries with timorous steps into the dark 
 entrance. She pays nothing, but merely mentions a name, upon which 
 an attendant figure procures a caudle, and followed by the lady, goes up 
 stairs. The lady has made this a place of meeting for one of her admirers, 
 who has already secured a room for the purpose. Fashionably dressed 
 men, their hats drawn down over their faces, poorly but neatly clad women, 
 many of them seemingly uncertain what they are goiug to do a moment 
 before they enter the house, are frequently making their appearance to fill 
 up the house. 
 
 But how is it with that woman who has just goue in in a simple house- 
 hold apparel with milk jug, or it may be a market basket on her arm ? 
 The basket or the jug is in these cases nothing but the disguises of matri- 
 monial infidelity. The husbands of these women have perhaps gone to 
 sleep after supper, wearied out with their days work, — or perhaps they are 
 buried deep in the perusal of the news of the day. This is then the best 
 time for these women to make their purchases for the following morning. ( ?) 
 It is true there is nothing in the "bed-house" to purchase, but then they 
 find there awaiting their arrival the lovers who had previously arranged 
 for a happy hour together. The basket, the jug, or whatever other market- 
 ing paraphernalia they may carry, has no other use than to make the 
 departure aud stay of their better half's plausible to the jealously disposed 
 husl ;. ils. 
 
 
362 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 These houses are usually most lively about the time that immediately 
 follows the closing of the theatres or concerts. Handsome equipages, 
 generally closely shut up, now rattle up to the house and out of them very 
 often some comically disguised couples are seen to slip into the door-way. 
 Take away the disguises and there may be recognized a lady and gentle- 
 man who half an hour ago were sitting in all their radiance in a box at 
 the Academy of Music! Both are married ; but of course not intermar- 
 ried. 
 
 Their short sojourn in this very modest house, still less the purpos2 of 
 it, they would not have known to their respective married partners for any 
 price whatever. The coachman knows very well the character of the 
 place, but he is very safe and does not talk. The more lively the street in 
 which the house is, and the simpler its external appearance, the more it is 
 patronized by this class of people. For under those circumstances the 
 stopping of a carriage at the quiet entrance door or a person going in from 
 the crowd of foot passengers is much less noticeable. Secrecy is always 
 and everywhere the best accomplice of sin ! 
 
 It may seem strange how a house of apparently moderate size — the 
 largest of them contains about fifty rooms — can in the course of one night 
 receive so large a number of persons as the looker-on from his point of 
 observation sees go in. The matter, however, soon becomes explicable 
 when he learns that by far the greater number of the visitors, although 
 they pay for the room for a whole night, stay no more than an hour ; some 
 not more than half an hour. This, together with the high prices charged, 
 is also the chief cause of the rich incomes which these houses bring ! 
 
 With respect to the private assignation-houses, these are found mostly 
 in the best streets, and they have the aspect of respectable private resi- 
 dences. In many instances their appearance is so deceptive that even the 
 police have been a long time before discovering their true character. The 
 interests of these houses are promoted by avoiding everything that is cal- 
 culated to create suspicion. 
 
 The girl or the woman as well as the substantial old man, and the 
 young one, too, who would steal the forbidden fruits of vice without having 
 their character suffer before the world, would hardly venture into a house 
 that was in any degree suspected. For this reason, such houses, although 
 plain in outward appearance, are still respectable. The closed doors, and 
 the windows securely concealed by jalousies and blinds, awaken the con- 
 fidence of even the most nervous of their female visitors. The charge 
 made in such houses for the use of rooms varies according to the class for 
 which it is especially iDtended. But in all of them it is so high that the 
 revenues ot these places are always very remunerative. 
 
 But however varied be the outside form of the assignation-houses, the 
 business for which they are used is everywhere a dirty and pernicious one. 
 It is these houses which have been the means of substituting a clandestine 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 
 
 for a public form of prostitution, one, too, whose poison bearing roots have 
 foimd their way into the inmost recesses of many family circles. For it is 
 a saddening fact that assignation-houses are visited by women and girls in 
 all stations of society, there at the cost of their honor aud purity to find 
 the means of gratifying a list for finery and pleasure which their husbands 
 or parents are not able to afford them. The simple work girl, the wife of 
 the mechanic as well as of the rich merchant or tradesman, are alike 
 among the number of those who in the infamous rooms of these places 
 make a market of the invaluable jewel of womanhood. Others again think 
 to justify themselves in an occasional recourse to them by the alternative 
 that is forced upon them of either dying of starvation in the streets or 
 obtaining the means of subsistence by the sale of their honor. The assig- 
 nation-house is a place of rendezvous also where faithless wives and 
 thoughtless girls go to meet their lovers. When seen in this light they are 
 powerful aids to seduction ! Rich roues here take their mistresses, or 
 allure into them fresh victims to their licentiousness. 
 
 As scenes of the seduction of many innocent girls, assignation-houses are 
 on all sides notorious. Any heartless, ruffian who may have won over the 
 affections of a trusting young girl, here finds every facility for the attain- 
 ment of his infamous designs. During a walk with his victim, for exam- 
 ple, he easily manages to get her into an assignation-house. He says, for 
 instance, that his aunt lives here and he wants to visit her for a few miu- 
 utes. The street is quite respectable, the house looks decent and good, and 
 the girl willingly goes in without a though: beyond. The "Madame" of 
 the establishment is already prepared for the visit. She plays the part of 
 the aunt in the most amiable manner. She entertains the visitors with 
 cake and wine, and well understands the right moment when to leave the 
 couple by themselves. "The opportunity makes the thief." Wine and 
 cake, especially when they are specially prepared for the purpose, prepare 
 the opportunity here which has often before been the ruin of many a 
 woman's virtue who without them would have remained firm as a rock. 
 So it is in this case ; — and the girl leaves the house ruined ! Official data 
 have informed us that in these houses wine and refreshments, specially 
 prepared to facilitate the purpose of the seducer, are ever ready to be sup- 
 plied to those who will pay for them. Nay, many of the proprietors of 
 assignation houses go so far as to sanction in their rooms the forcible vio- 
 lation of girls allured into them ; and while no attention is paid to their 
 supplications and calls for help, every possible assistance is rendered to the 
 seuucer for the completion of his crime. Well, indeed, is it that all these 
 places are not as bad as this, but the fact remains, that any man who is 
 vicious enough to make use of all the means which these houses afford, 
 can at his discretion dispose of the virtue of any girl who will accompany 
 him into them ! 
 
 We could give many illustrations in proof of this, but we will limit our- 
 
364 THE DAKK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 selves to one especially glaring case which created a gloomy sensation 
 some time ago : — 
 
 A young man moving in the higher circles of society had a monomania 
 for seducing pretty young girls of nis acquaintance. Good looking, young, 
 and rich as he was, the circles of the best families were open to him, and 
 in these he conducted his operations with the most diabolical calculation. 
 With all the art of an adroit hypocrite he first sought to win the affections 
 of the girl whom he selected for his victim. This done, it was to him an 
 easy matter to put her on the road to ruin, for which he systematical! v 
 made his arrangements. A hotel, in other words an assignation-house, at 
 one of the excursion resorts in the neighborhood of the city, gave him the 
 most favorable opportunity. Thither, with the girl of his choice, he used 
 to take quiet drives, which of course ended with a little refreshment in the 
 private parlor of the establishment. There, too, when he had stupefied 
 his unsuspecting companion by means of wine prepared for the purpose so 
 that she was quite uncapable of offering any resistance, he robbed her of 
 her honor. As soon as the ruined girl recovered her senses, he met the 
 storm of tears and reproaches with the following satanic philosophy : 
 " What is done cannot be undone ! Be reasonable about it. No one knows 
 what has happened. If anything further should follow I will be answer- 
 able for it. At present it is as much your interest as mine that this thing 
 should be kept quiet ; and if you are a sensible girl you will not say a 
 word to anybody." 
 
 In the short space of one year no less than five bright and hopeful girls 
 of the best families in the neighborhood were ruined in that same assigna- 
 tion-house by this heartless fiend. They all remained silent, treating the 
 robber of their honor with contempt. His crimes would probably never 
 have been known to the world, if a severe illness, which brought the 
 wretch to the brink of the grave, had not driven him to a full confession. 
 It must be added here that one of the five girls, in whom other results of 
 "her seduction showed themselves, died at the end of a year of consump- 
 tion ; a disease which indicated how the seducer was responsible for the 
 consequences of his villainy ! 
 
 In the category of assignation-houses we must by right include many 
 small rented houses. It is difficult to recognize this kind of residence, and 
 to anyone looking for apartments for instance, even though he be well 
 acquainted with the moral condition of the city, it may easily happen that 
 he falls across one of these assignation-places. Under the heading of 
 u Furnished rooms and apartments to let," in the newspaper advertise- 
 ments, there are plenty of announcements which ought to be a warning to 
 him in his hunt for rooms. " A room to let in the house of a widow liv- 
 ing alone," — or : — A lady living by herself wants to let one or two rooms 
 io " respectable gentlemen" ; — or " Rooms to let in a house where the 
 hoarders are not annoyed with obtrusive questions," &c, &c. Notices, 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 3G5 
 
 such as these, show only too clearly the character of the respective resi- 
 dcu 
 
 Hut advertisements which appear under the most harmless forms cou- 
 ceivable have reference sometimes to, not only suspicious houses, but to 
 some of the very worst kind. Strangers, and especially ladies travelling 
 alone, can never be too cautious in the selection of a place to stay in, 
 whether it be a hotel, a boarding establishment or a private house ! 
 
 What now we have said with reference to the subjects of assignation- 
 places will suffice to characterise the very worst form of the so-called 
 social evil. 
 
 These houses are far more daugerous to the innocent and inexperienced 
 than are the public houses of prostitution, because their apparent respect- 
 ability facilitates seduction, and the allurement into them of unsuspecting 
 victims. They are far more pernicious than the worst dens of prostitu- 
 tion. For the professional prostitute is by virtue of her vocation outside 
 the hall of society. She does not come in contact with the purer elements 
 of it at least and consequently her harmful influence is more limited. But 
 it is quite otherwise with the female visitors of the assignation-house. 
 These, after they have been making themselves the instruments of prostitu- 
 tion, return to the hallowed ground of social life ; back into the family 
 circle, where they carry the germs of the physical and moral contamina- 
 tion of prostitution. 
 
 Be it now remembered that the number of assignation-houses, well 
 known to be such, is at the least a hundred ; — let it be remembered, too, 
 that the female depravity which is represented in them is proportionally 
 greater than even that on the part of the men ; and further that the princi- 
 pal patrons of such places are found among the married men and women 
 of the more prosperous classes of the community, and no one then will 
 think us in error when we declare the assignation business to be the very 
 worst form of the social evil. A remedy for this kind of prostitution is 
 unfortunately the more difficult since the mischief works in concealment, 
 and the sin hides itself on its secret path under the mantle of hypocrisy. 
 
 Here again looms up the question of the superiority of the white over the 
 colored race. But if now we give to the colored street-women a special 
 notice, the reader is not to conclude that we admit any difference in the 
 degree of degradation on the part of the women, merely because the one is 
 in a white skin and the other in a black one. "We hold that the vocation 
 of both of them is alike shameful. But it is, nevertheless, a fact that the 
 colored street walkers put their calling before the public eye in a manner 
 which sinks them to the lowest ranks of prostitution, and so makes them 
 appear in a conspicuous group by themselves. 
 
 To understand this, it is not necessary to judge from every colored pro- 
 stitute who may be seen any evening promenading Broadway or other well 
 requeuted streets. There they come under the strict eye of the police. 
 
 
306 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOKK LIFE. 
 
 and they know that any transgression beyond a certain limit of demeanor 
 win be followed by their arrest. It is not here then that we must look for 
 the difference between the white and the colored street walkers. To dis- 
 cover this, one must go to their own lodgings and to the headquarters of 
 colored prostitution and there observe their ways. 
 
 For this purpose we should select that part of the city lying between 
 Thompson, Sullivan, Broome and Grand Streets, which, having the form 
 of an arch from Thompson to Sullivan Streets, has been named the "Arch 
 Block." Since they began to clear away the dens of the " Five Points" in 
 -order to make new streets, the neighborhood of the Arch Block has been 
 chiefly resorted to by those centres of vice and crime which before resided 
 in the Five Points. There it is that the moral dregs of New York show 
 themselves in their most concentrated form ; — and there, too, it is that the 
 colored street walkers exhibit themselves as a conspicuous feature of New 
 York prostitution. 
 
 What strikes one at the very first step into this region is the great num- 
 ber of colored people who are living there. Almost half the inhabitants 
 are colored, and they belong to the most degraded and wretched class. At 
 present, however, we are concerned with only the female portion of them 
 and to these we turn for the present our chief attention. Hardly is the 
 twilight npon us, before there emerge from the several doors female forms 
 of various lines, from raven black to a waxen yellow ; and they stalk along 
 the streets in trailing groups. Every man they meet is stared at with 
 brazen impudence long before they come up to him ; and as they approach 
 nearer he is met with obscene looks and gestures or with yet more obscene 
 remarks. One need, indeed, be no paragon of virtue to be filled with the 
 deepest disgust for a vice which meets us here in such a beastly form. 
 The wise man will go his way as though he neither hears nor sees any- 
 thing ! 
 
 If, however, any one should speak to these creatures, and if at last he 
 should refuse to follow them, he would receive a perfect hurricane of curses 
 and invectives as a farewell greeting. And it is these black street women 
 whom oae must hear curse and swear in order to learn how much that is 
 disgusting and horrible the human fancy can devise in the form of words ! 
 But it is not only in the streets that colored prostitution presents itself in 
 this loathsome form ! Faces bloated with vice and drink stare at the 
 passer-by out of the dirty windows of filthy dens and with shameless impu- 
 dence invite him in. He must be a brave man who, with his senses clear, 
 would accept such an invitation. Filth and the most horrible stench keep 
 guard over the entrance and frighten away all but those who with the most 
 iron nerves are ready to suffer much in order to study this phase of the 
 nether life of New York. Even old experienced policemen, men who have 
 been accustomed to these scenes of vice and crime, declare that the trade 
 -of the colored prostitutes in the Arch Block is a most fearful one. 
 
PROSTITUTION AND ITS VICTIMS. 
 
 367 
 
 There arc white street walkers whose conduct is not one whit less 
 loathsome than that here depicted. But these are only exceptional, and 
 in no part of the city do the white street prostitutes appear as a body in 
 Midi a shameless form. Fortunately this form of colored prostitution is 
 confined entirely to a limited portion of the city, where it is comparatively 
 withdrawn from public view and where its pestiferous influence can only 
 be exercised over the same restricted district. Nevertheless it is much to 
 be wished that the police would, with the least possible delay, clear out 
 these colored prostitutes from the limits of the "Arch Block," since they 
 certainly ought not to be allowed to surpass with impunity even the worst 
 of their sisters in shame. 
 
 We have now considered the subject of prostitution in all the different 
 forms in which it presents itself to the observer. We have recognized it 
 as a dangerous canker which is ever gnawing deeper and deeper into the 
 body of society and threatening to instill its poison through the whole 
 organism. The next question now is, whether there is any remedy against 
 this evil, and if so, whether it is really necessary ; whether nothing cau be 
 done to regulate it and to limit its dangerous consequences? Unfortunately 
 we must confess, that prostitution, an out-growth of our unnatural and 
 preposterous social circumstances, will be a necessary evil just so long as 
 that unnatural perverseness of condition remains. And from this point of 
 view it must be evident that many generations will pass before any marked 
 change can be effected. 
 
 We look upon the total abolition of the evil of prostitution only as a 
 pleasant dream, purely chimerical, and we concern ourselves only with the 
 question whether and by what means the evil, as it is, can be regulated 
 and restricted. That such regulation and restriction are possible, is shown 
 to us in many of the States of Europe, and also, indeed, upon at least one 
 portion of American soil, where an experiment has beeu tried after the 
 European model with most encouraging results. These results are in fact 
 so striking that they cannot be gainsaid nor ignored. 
 
 They are glaringly opposed to the favorite assertion of certain American 
 moral-philosophers, that any regulation having for its object the allevia. 
 tion of prostitution and the making it less dangerous, is nothing else than 
 holding out an encouragement to vice, and that consequently its increase 
 must follow. " Every man who sins," say these good and pious people, 
 u must suffer the consequences which God has ordained as the punishment 
 and warning to that particular sin." 
 
 In opposition to this theory, experience has shown that rational, legal 
 regulations have had the effect of lessening prostitution and alleviating its 
 pernicious consequences in a comparatively short space of time. The care- 
 fully collected data of the medical faculties in many of the large European 
 towns, notably in Berlin, have demonstrated this unanswerably. 
 
 To furnish all the details here would lead us too far beyond our purpose. 
 
3G8 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 We cannot, however, omit to give the results of an experiment, based upoa 
 the European model, which has been tried in St. Louis. 
 
 Some two and a half years ago the City Council of St. Louis passed a 
 law for the regulation of the social evil, of which the following are the- 
 essential points : — 
 
 Every house devoted to purposes of prostitution, from the most fashion- 
 able down to the very lowest, must be registered by the police and also by 
 the clerk of Board of Health, and it is then subjected to continual inspec- 
 tion. Whenever a house is newly devoted to the purpose, information 
 must be given to the police. Every woman who takes such a house must 
 at once notify the police and give full information as to her family affairs 
 and other circumstances. Changes of residence can only be made with the 
 express sanction of the police made in writing. For sanitary inspection 
 the city is divided into four districts, and for each of these an inspecting 
 physician is appointed, whose duty it is to examine every prostitute in his 
 district once a week. If any are unwell, they are immediately removed 
 to the hospital, where they have to remain till completely recovered. The 
 healthy women receive a certificate from the physician which they are 
 required to show to the police at any time when it is wanted, and also 
 when they change their residence. Every breach of these regulations is 
 met by a severe punishment. Besides this the law provides for the erec- 
 tion of a " Magdalene Hospital", that is a hospital for the reception of pro- 
 stitutes who are sexually diseased, and a reform school for the improve- 
 ment and advantage of neglected girls who, left to themselves, are in danger 
 of becoming the irretrievable victims of prostitution. By this law the cost 
 of maintenance of the hospital and the reform school is defrayed out of a 
 small tax collected every week from all the prostitutes in the city. 
 
 Now let us see how this law has worked. The last registration of pro- 
 stitutes made at the beginning of the year in St. Louis gives us some in- 
 formation to the point : — Although the law had only been in operation about 
 two years and a half, yet it appears that in that short space of time the 
 number of public prostitutes had diminished by 150. This, however, may 
 be regarded a comparatively small matter. Of much more importance is 
 the result of the police and health inspection of prostitutes. To this inspec- 
 tion we are indebted for the fact that, according to the opinion of the most 
 noted physicians in St. Louis, the pestilence of what are called secret 
 diseases have been diminished by more than fifty per cent. Whoever 
 knows the pernicious effects, carried down for several generations of this 
 class of diseases, though they are too little appreciated alas ! will award 
 the fullest measure of approval to a law which has done so much for their 
 removal. And not only is no expense thereby by the city government, but 
 the taxes or fees that are raised furnish a surplus, which in the manner 
 provided by law is used for the further controlling and prevention of the 
 evil. 
 
PRO OTT I U T I OM AND IT- VICTIMS, 
 
 Notwithstanding this satisfactory result of tlie experiment at St. Louis, 
 no notice has been taken of it in New York ! Our legislators persist in 
 the convenient system of ignoring the fact! The only notice they have 
 L-iven to the evil thus far, consists in the passage of a law whereby any 
 woman is prohibited from " addressing men on the public streets for the 
 purpose of soliciting prostitution" ! The execution of this ridiculous and 
 almost impracticable law is then left to the police. How these officials 
 carry it out is well known. Accordiug to their own good pleasure they 
 either do nothing, or they allow their zeal for duty to break out by fits and 
 starts, just to remind the poor victims of shame of the necessity for closing 
 the eyes of the law to their actions by some tribute from their earnings. 
 In like manner is the law maintained with reference to houses of prostitu- 
 tion and similar places against which the police only apparently interfere 
 when any complaint is made against one of them as a public nuisance. 
 Such a complaint, and as a consequence the surprise of such a house by 
 the police, is not, however, delayed very long, if the proprietress of the 
 place should long omit to provide the police captain of the district with 
 evidence of the " responsible nature" of her establishment in the matter of 
 dollars and cents. Houses which are not tardy nor niggardly in this 
 respect are seldom called upon to resist the charge of being a " nuisance." 
 
 In a word, the law as it exists for the u regulation" of prostitution in 
 New York, makes the evil appear somewhat in the light of milch cow, kept 
 for the special behoof and to serve the interests of the police, rather than 
 a means for restraining and controlling an evil in the interests of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 What, for example, is the use of those raids on the part of the police, 
 through which from time to time whole ranks of street walkers and resi- 
 dents of brothels are brought up at the station houses? The unfortunate 
 girls, under the form of a fine, are only robbed of the money they have 
 hardly earned at the cost of honor and happiness, or they are sent to Black- 
 well's Island, soon to be thrown back again upon the world poorer, more 
 degraded, and more hopeless, than they were before. Better, far better 
 would it be to give the poor girls support or assistance to enable them to 
 return to an honorable life ; for with that the police would have nothing 
 left to do. By such raids the police only give to the devotees of Venus an 
 illustration of their authority, and to the public, in default of something 
 better, a proof of their zealous attention to duty. As for the evil itself 
 they have not remedied it one iota ! Prostitution fastens itself on to us 
 like a great social disease, and it is as easy to uproot it by means of the 
 policeman's club, as it would be to cure small-pox or cholera by the same 
 means. 
 
 So far as the authorities are concerned, it is evident then that up to the 
 present time less than nothing has been done to check the progress of tha 
 social evil. Private societies, powerful though they be, to aid a work so 
 
 24 
 
370 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 expedient and proper, have with all their energy and good will shown thus 
 far very small results. The evil is so deep and so wide spread that no 
 private measures can by themselves suffice to reach its roots. 
 
 In New York there are such private societies devoted to the very good 
 purpose of giving an asylum to repentant prostitutes, by means of which 
 the return to an honorable life may be made possible, or its difficulties 
 very much diminished. The most important of these is a society which 
 has been in existence about thirty-nine years and which has its establish- 
 ment at the corner Eighty-eighth Street and Fifth Avenue. It is known 
 as the u New York Magdalene Benevolent Society" ; and is managed by 
 two directors, a treasurer, two secretaries, and 27 members of committee, 
 all of which offices are held by ladies. To these there are added seven 
 male members of committee, whose advice in the management is always 
 available when required. 
 
 According to the annual statement of May 6th, 1871, there were at that 
 time 42 girls in the asylum, and according to the yearly report of May 
 6th, 1872, the number of those who had been admitted during the year 
 was 154. Of these 58 had been put into variou& situations, 25 went to 
 their relations, 50 left the institution of their own accord, and 8 were 
 expelled either as irreclaimable, or as injuring the other inmates by their 
 bad example. 
 
 It is clear that so far the result is encouraging and would be yet more 
 favorable, if the management were placed upon a basis exclusively of 
 humanity and not as it is upon one of bigoted sectarianism. The girls in 
 the establishment receive every day instructions in necessary branches of 
 knowledge ; while sermons, bible explanations, bible readings, and prayers, 
 form part of the days discipline under the guidance of a chaplain especially 
 appointed. The remainder of the time is occupied by the residents in a 
 manner which is intended to give them the means of earning an honest 
 living when they leave the asylum. 
 
 Working to the same end as this asylum, there are others, but all are of 
 a strictly sectarian character. Perhaps the most efficacious of these is the 
 " Midnight Mission," situated most judiciously in Green Street, in the 
 midst of the most notorious houses of prostitution in the city. This is still 
 a young institution, not having been established more than five years. 
 The building is calculated to receive about fifty " Magdalenes." Daring 
 the brief period of its existence it has received into its apartments more 
 than a hundred penitent sinners, and it has either placed a large number 
 of those into honorable situations or returned them to their families. The 
 means and methods by which these societies carry out their purpose of 
 propagandism among the fallen women are exceedingly interesting. Every 
 Friday evening the missionaries of the city go into the various dens of 
 prostitution, or search through the streets, and by printed invitations they 
 call upon all the prostitutes they meet to come to a tea-party between two 
 
CONCERT SALOON8. .">7l 
 
 and tour o'clock at night in the mission building, 2(>0 Green Street. Those 
 who accept the invitation (and many of them by this means first learn of 
 tiie existence of the mission) are received in a most friendly manner by 
 the friends of the society, ladies and gentlemen, and refreshment! are sup- 
 plied to them. There is no constraint. Any prostitute may leave the 
 house again at any moment she chooses. No one needs to stay long with- 
 out feeling herself induced to remain by kind persuasions and representa- 
 tions. The mission closes its nightly meetings with simple prayers. 
 Penitents who wish to be admitted receive protection and shelter in the 
 building and work suited to their abilities, one half of the proceeds of 
 which goes to the girls themselves and the other half is applied to the pur- 
 poses of the mission. 
 
 Still the work done by these private societies remains, as must be evi- 
 dent, only a limited and superficial one. It nips off, so to speak, here and 
 there a bud from the upas tree of prostitution, while the roots thrive unin- 
 jured, and bear new shoots. We can only look for more definite results 
 in the combating of this evil to the time when the powerful influence of the 
 law is directed emphatically to the task. In the face of the admirable 
 results of the example set us at St. Louis, it is incomprehensible that this 
 has not been already done in New York ! The call for reform in the field 
 of politics is loud and general. It is re-echoed in the daily press, aud 
 from the public rostrum. And in the social field reform is none the less 
 needed, although at the best we hear only here and there a single voice 
 raised in its favor. It is high time to begin an agitation for the reform of 
 our social condition ; and the first object of it must be the restriction and 
 alleviation of what is so characteristically termed the social evil. 
 
 CONCERT SALOONS. 
 
 The subject of the present chapter sounds, in comparison with that of 
 the one just concluded, quite harmless. 
 
 But appearances are, in this case, very deceptive, and the name " Con- 
 cert Saloon" is in fact but a glaring lie. " Dens of thieves and prostitutes" 
 or " Hot-beds of corruption and infamy" would be a much more applicable 
 term for these places, in which, under an apparently harmless name, the 
 most pernicious business is concealed. Why they should be called " Con- 
 cert Saloons," Heaven only knows ! Very few of them are anything better 
 than musty cellars; which, when necessiry, are decorated with tinseU 
 
872 TUE DAKK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 The trinkling and mournful scraping of an old worn-out piano and of a 
 fiddle out of time, make a mockery of a concert, and are much more fit to 
 drive anyone with an ear for music to the verge of desperation. 
 
 If exceptionally, now and again, one may hear music which merits the 
 name, it is because some musical genius has drifted into the place to use 
 the piano or the violin as a means to gratify a morbid proclivity to drink. 
 What is it then that gives to these places their attractiveness, which, for a 
 certain section of the public they undoubtedly have, and which has made 
 them one of the sensations among the lower strata of New York life. This 
 question will best be auswered by a more intimate examination of the 
 places themselves and of what goes on within them. 
 
 It may be about fifteen years ago that an enterprising Philadelphiau 
 opened a new place of amusement on Broadway under the name of the 
 " Melodeon," in the situation formerly occupied as the " Chinese Assembly 
 Rooms." The idea of this place was taken from the London Concert 
 Halls ; but it became the pioneer of the many dens which in the course of 
 a year sprang into existence under the name of " concert saloons." Like 
 many of the imitations which the new world makes from the old world, 
 this Melodeon comprised all that was bad with nothing that is good in the 
 models from which it was taken. New York had no reason to bless her- 
 self at this acquisition, and very soon the new " concert saloon" was the 
 rendezvous for all the most doubtful elements in the community. 
 
 The speculative proclivities of the American soon, however, led to the 
 discovery that the idea might be improved upon and it was not long before 
 such an " improvement" was brought into being. It was this which under 
 the name " Gaieties" soon became a notorious imitation of the Melodeon 
 on Broadway ; but its attractions were increased by the introduction of 
 girls dressed in theatrical style, whose duty it was to wait upon the guests, 
 and who became known as the u pretty waiter-girls." Thus the " pretty 
 waiter-girl" business became inaugurated. The offspring was worthy of 
 its parent. The custom did not decline. The " pretty waiter-girls" who 
 on the opening-evening had been presented to the public at the " Gaieties" 
 were taken from the ranks of the most notorious prostitutes, just as it is 
 from those self same ranks that they are recruited to this day. The thing 
 paid ; and the " Gaieties" soon took the shape of one of the sensations of 
 New York. 
 
 Other imitations were not long in making their appearance, and the 
 number of concert saloons with " pretty waiter-girls" went on increasing 
 from year to year, till now they number somewhere about eighty or a 
 hundred. 
 
 Broadway, Chatham Street, the lower Bowery, and other of the most 
 frequented streets are blessed with them. On Broadway, in the neighbor- 
 hood of Broome Street to Amity Street, and in an extent of less than a 
 mile, the observer may count some twenty of these saloons. In accord- 
 
I o\( r.ur 6 LLOOM8. olQ 
 
 With their character as moral pitfalls thoy usually occupy the base- 
 ment floors, to which you have to descend from the pavement by a flight 
 of* steps. During the day, when the eye is pre-occupied by the glitter and 
 activity of business, the foot passenger will hardly notice the quiet and 
 death-breathing entrances of these saloons. But in the evening, when 
 business places are closed and black iron shutters take the place of the 
 bright display just before made in the shop windows, the matter is quite 
 different. Now a sea of light streams out from these moral cesspools, and 
 flaming gaslights, Chinese lanterns, and colored transparencies attract the 
 attention of even the most hasty passer-by. Then out of the depths comes 
 the continual trinkle of the so-called music, and if we stop for a moment 
 we can see a number of female forms hovering about, clad in a form ot 
 costume which we might naturally expect to find in a ballet company, but 
 not in a Broadway cellar. One of these " concert saloons," the " Canter- 
 bury," which was both the most dazzling fitted and the largest of these 
 places, occupied the first floor of a respectable looking building, and was 
 especially remarkable for the multitude of gaslights and transparencies 
 flaming and glaring about the entrance. 
 
 As regards the allurements they offer, the Bowery saloons, and still less 
 those on Chatham Street cannot compare with their fellows on Broadway. 
 In respect to the depravity of their purposes, and the danger they present 
 to public morality, all are on the same grade. The filthiest den in Chatham 
 Street and the showy rooms of the " Canterbury" may go hand in hand as 
 sisters of equal privileges in this particular at least. 
 
 It is difficult to give any definite description of the kind of business that 
 goes on in these places. It varies very much according to circumstances. 
 It might happen, for example, that a description given by an observer yes- 
 terday, if he were to visit the same place again to-morrow, would be found 
 then severe and unjust. A quite impartial picture might be drawn repre- 
 senting the " saloon" as at least not very indecent ; while on the very next 
 evening a visitor would find it the scene of the wildest orgies. This, how- 
 ever, is easily explained. If the police have been sleeping a long sleep, 
 so that the occupants of the saloon, too, come to slumber in a feeling of 
 security, the ballet dresses — never too long — of the " pretty waiter-girls" 
 grow shorter and shorter, and the more they take off of their little petti- 
 coats, the more they add on to their own impudence and shamelessness, 
 which under the circumstances soon get beyond bounds on the part of both 
 the "girls" and the "guests." Immodesty throws off as it were the last 
 fig loaf and sensuality, stimulated by drink, celebrates a night revelry of 
 demons. As soon as the evil reaches this terrible height, the press begins 
 to dole out its moral wailings and at last, if nothing better, they arouse 
 the good police out of their slumbers. Those blue-coated gentlemen now 
 disturb a few of the places, and an unmistakable change takes place iu the 
 t st The hitherto microscopic dresses of the "pretty waiter-girls* 1 creep 
 
C74 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 rip modestly even till they begin to cover their bosoms ; while the petti- 
 coats go down according to the degree of the threatening danger either to- 
 the knees or perhaps even to the ankles. 
 
 At the same time the conduct of the girls becomes more guarded, and 
 they only approach those men who are habitual visitors to the saloon. 
 After such a paroxysm of virtue as this the police once more draw their 
 night caps down over their eyes, and the old scandal goes on again 
 throughout. 
 
 The general picture which we here put forward of the proceedings in 
 these " concert saloons" is self-evidently one which presents itself as a rule 
 after a long apathy on the part of the police. If we go into one of these 
 places, so thickly frequented every evening, we find there a well provided 
 bar, a number of tables spread about over the room with chairs for the 
 visitors, a kind of platform with a piano and perhaps a couple of desks for 
 stringed or wind instruments. Very often, too, in a back room is a stage 
 for dramatic (?) performances and dancing. A peculiar feature in the 
 large concert saloons consists of small closed apartments, the furniture of 
 which consists of a table, two chairs, and a sofa. A notice indicates that 
 these apartments are " wine roor„s." The name, however, merely serves 
 as a cover to the special purpose for which they are provided ; and nobody 
 will be left in ignorance of that purpose who will notice the various couples 
 who withdraw into them. Very often in these concert saloons there is 
 also a room set apart for gambling. The wails are covered with paintings 
 of all colors, representing scenes of a very uoubtful, sometimes of a very 
 disgusting character. 
 
 What passes in these saloons for music we have already briefly noticed. 
 We turn, therefore, now to the great attraction of the place, the "pretty 
 waiter-girls." These make their appearance for the most part in fancy 
 dresses, which may vary from a national costume with very short petti- 
 coats to an extremely reduced ballet dress. In most of them the dress is 
 in truth nothing to speak of. That these half-naked creatures are at least 
 in one sense waiter-girls, is evident from the fact that we see them dis- 
 tributing the foaming beer and the golden wine to the several visitors as 
 soon as they sit down before the tables. But it is not so clear where the 
 term " pretty" comes from. Beauty and the freshness of youth are very 
 rare articles among the " pretty waiter-girls." We can hardly find one 
 anywhere who in spite of paint and gaslight, and seen at a suitable dis. 
 tance, would justify the application of "pretty." 
 
 Generally they are impudent looking girls, their faces bloated with vice 
 and drink, their figures various ; and they very unpleasantly disappoint the 
 visitor who should go into such a place with excited expectations about 
 iemale beauty. It is only to the most animal organization that any attract 
 tiveness can be suggested in a low prostitute, dressed in the very minimum 
 
CONCERT SALOONS. >. t 
 
 of a ballet costume, and whose nakedness to any nature less rough than 
 ber own can only be disgusting and repulsive. 
 
 Such, however, are the " pretty waiter-girls" of our concert saloons ! 
 They wait upon the guests as they arrive, and bring them M drinks" from 
 t he bar ; behind which are the proprietor and bar-men. When the beauti- 
 ful creature has supplied the wants of her visitor, and if her services are 
 not just at present further needed, she keeps him company and without 
 further ceremony sits down by his side. Of course she is invited to drink, 
 aud of course she accepts the invitation. Her purpose is two-fold, to make 
 the visitor drink as much as possible, and to get as much mouey out of 
 him as possible. Her interest in her guest is gone as soon as she finds 
 that he has come to the limits of his purse. But if the guest, who as he 
 very likely is, be a fellow from the country or some simpleton from the 
 town, have a well filled purse, her affection knows no bounds. A wink is 
 enough to communicate to her sisters the good news, and then these help 
 her to divest the fortunate possessor of more money than brains, of the little 
 sense and understanding that he has ; all of which they readily effect by 
 means of drink and a display of atfectionate attention. If it happen that 
 he has got to a condition where he does not know what is going on, he is 
 got away to a private room, where some scoundrel who is in alliance with 
 the girls robs him of everything of any value that he possesses ; and he is 
 then forthwith kicked out into the street through a back door. 
 
 There the police find hini and they remove him to the station house, 
 where, waking up in the morning, he first discovers his loss. He knows 
 very well that he visited the saloon, but he cannot say whether he was 
 robbed there, or while he lay drunk on the foot-path. He is fined $10 for 
 being drunk, however, and there the matter ends. It will be well for him 
 if he takes the lesson presented by his dearly bought experience and for the 
 future runs less heedlessly into similar dangers. 
 
 Very many of the saloon girls are accomplices of panel-thieves, who 
 take suitable victims into the "badgers" den. Such victims are generally 
 old " respectable" men from the country, who are seeing something of New 
 York life, and depending on the circumstance that nobody knows tliem, 
 are stealing the forbidden fruits to their hearts content. Such fools are 
 not to be pitied. For they well deserve the worst that can befall them 
 under such circumstances. 
 
 A very brief observation of the conduct of these prostitutes will be quite 
 sufficient to fill anybody who has the smallest insight into character with 
 suspicion and abhorrence. There they sit around the tables drinking deep 
 droughts and outbidding the roughest of their half-drunken guests in ob- 
 scurity. Others thrown back in the chairs with their legs upon the tables 
 are smoking the segars that have been given to them, that, too, with all 
 the aspect of old viragos. Here and there may be seen one sittiug upon 
 the lap of one of the visitors, who from His manner seems to think that he 
 
376 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 has a houri from Paradise on his knees, and in his dizzy stupidity from 
 drink he hugs and kisses her as might the lover in the moonlit bower. 
 
 If the fool were not out of his senses he would notice the girl taking his 
 watch out of his pocket " in jest," — and handing it presently to an accom- 
 plice passing by, and who immediately goes off with the plunder. If the 
 man should notice the loss and create a disturbance, it would be of little 
 use, for the lost watch has been gone out of the place for some time and 
 cannot be recovered. The girl would of course play the innocent to the 
 drunken fellow and in another moment the latter would find himself in- 
 volved in a fight with her " protector." In these cases the rascals make 
 very short work of their victims, and before the poor fool has time to think 
 he feels himself enjoying the night-air out of doors, with a couple of black 
 eyes and a good many smarting ribs. Many of the pretty waiter-girls are 
 exceedingly accomplished in this kind of robbery. From one of them it 
 was once ascertained that in this way she had taken no less than six 
 watches in the course of an evening. 
 
 Another opportunity for greenhorns to lighten their pockets is in the 
 gambling room, a feature that is seldom wanting. If the senses of the 
 visitor are already a little bedimmed, the girl wha has already been attend- 
 ing to him asks him to go and try his luck, and to divide his winnings 
 with her ! Of course he jumps straight into the trap and away he goes by 
 the side of his lady to the green table. 
 
 If the worthless rascal at the head of the concern does not direct the 
 game himself, there is still nothing to be won, for the man is alread} r so 
 intoxicated that his head is dizzy as though a swarm of bees had taken up 
 their residence about it. So he loses every time and besides that he is 
 robbed repeatedly without in the end knowing how or where his money has 
 gone. Very frequently, too, one of the scoundrels belonging to the saloon, 
 when he finds that a man has not been completely fleeced, follows him into 
 the street to knock him down in some unfrequented locality and then rob 
 him of the balance which the " pretty waiter-girls" and their gambling 
 table had left in his pockets. Persons who are robbed in these places 
 seldom apply to the police, because they are ashamed to see their names 
 in the papers as having visited the saloon. 
 
 It must be evident, however, that all visitors to the concert saloons are 
 not treated thus unceremoniously. It would be against the interests of the 
 saloon ; it would be in fact like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. 
 The proprietors like to have a number of regular visitors, and these they 
 cultivate and cherish. These are generally old rou£s, and young fellows 
 hardly out of boyhood who in these places and in the wildest manner 
 squander the money that they earn or perhaps steal. Many a beardless 
 lad thinks himself a very great man, if on his entrance into a saloon the 
 prostitutes there address him by his Christian name and recognize him as 
 an old acquaintance. But this honor is costly. It costs a great deal more 
 
< 0N< i.KT 9 tLOONS. 577 
 
 than the person 30 honored can earn by honest moan-. lie is in all 
 probability only a young, poorly paid clerk, and the suspicion must go with 
 him that in order to cover the deficiency made in his income by dissolute 
 habits he must have recourse to robbery from the funds of his principal. 
 But the pitcher that goes too often to the well gets broken at last. And 
 oo does the pitcher of our jovial clerk break at last, (or the concert saloon 
 been to him nothing more than the preparation lor a — jail. 
 
 Many young people go to these places "just to see life'' as they say. 
 A venturesome experiment it is, too, for all whose character has not been 
 Mitfieieutly established to be able without risk to resist the dangerous in- 
 fluence of the place. The terrible hatefulness of vice soon comes to be 
 disregarded by the man who thinks too lightly ol its intoxicating influences. 
 The criminal records of our city exhibit many instances where young men 
 have been ruined for life through that desire to see the dark side of life as 
 it is presented iu the rooms of the concert saloons. 
 
 A never-failing class of habitues at these saloons is made up of counter- 
 feiters, swindlers, thieves and rogues of every kind, who, as we have 
 already shown, lay in wait for their victims through the aid of the "pretty 
 waiter-girls." By these the saloons are made dens of thieves in the literal 
 meaning of the word. Money or money's worth it is which the visitor 
 looks for, and he is not afraid, if need be, to obtain it either by direct rob- 
 bery or murder. There are plenty of examples even of this. 
 
 Many a stranger who has disappeared from the city has, according to 
 the experience of the police, been last seen in one of these concert saloons. 
 Many a dead body, too, that has been dragged half-decomposed aud un- 
 recognizable out of the East or North River would, if they could speak, 
 tell a tale which would begin with the visit to a concert saloon and end 
 with robbery and murder inflicted by the villains who frequent such 
 places. 
 
 This is a general picture of the character of our concert saloons. They 
 are on all sides the rendezvous of the rabble and scum of the city. We 
 say this without any fear of there being one white sheep in the flock to 
 whom we can do any injustice. There are gradations of quality among 
 them. But it refers only to a little more or a little less of that abject 
 depravity which gives the principal tone to every description of these 
 " places of pleasure." To speak of a respectable concert saloon would be 
 as great an inconsistency as to talk about a " respectable house of prosti- 
 tution. ' The whole difference between one place and another reduces 
 itself simply to the way in which the thing is conducted and to the greater 
 or less extent within which the business is limited. How great the differ- 
 ence in this respect may be, is shown in the case of the pretentious Broad- 
 way " Canterbury," which can accommodate 500 guests, and which main- 
 tains a body of forty-five " pretty waiter-girls," when compared with any 
 of the little Chatham Street "saloons.*' whose tobacco-stained rooms can 
 
378 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 hardly hold fifteen or twenty visitors, and where only three or four prosti- 
 tutes are to be found. 
 
 But if the Chatham Street and Bowery saloons are set down as the 
 dirtiest and most suspicious, Broadway, too, has its " saloons" whose 
 depravity cannot be concealed by any theatrical tinsel. On one of the cor- 
 ners of Amity Street there is such a saloon, which is a den, whose equal 
 for physical and moral infamy even Water Street can hardly produce. 
 
 After what we have already said of the vocation of the " pretty waiter" 
 girls," any further characterization of them is hardly necessary. Taken 
 as a body they belong to the lowest and very worst classes of prostitutes, 
 and as such their career has in every instance been a sad one. Many of 
 them, it is true, may have been dragged into bad associations, and without 
 clearly knowing what they were doing, they may have taken this situation. 
 But the poisonous influence of a surrounding such as they have in these 
 saloons exercises sooner or later its natural effects. Vice must at last in 
 such places draw within its power even the most strongly resistant 
 virtue. 
 
 During the autumn of last year there appeared in the New York Herald 
 a communication in which a female writer came forward as the champion 
 of the unjustly suspected honor of the pretty waiter-girls. She signed her- 
 self " a girl from Canterbury" and we give the main points of her letter as 
 having much interest here. She wrote as follows : — 
 
 M I can assure you that there are many girls engaged in these concert 
 saloons who are not only virtuous, but modest. I can fancy I see women, 
 who throughout their whole lives have never known what it was to want 
 a shelter or to suffer from want and hunger, smiling incredulously. I 
 fancy I see men, who among ladies of fashion and wealth, and also among 
 authoresses even, find plenty of women of easy virtue, laugh jeeringiy at 
 the very thought of such a thing being possible as the finding of virtuous 
 girls in a concert saloon. Yet there are many such. And not only are 
 they virtuous, but many of them are highly brought up ; women who have 
 spent their last cent, who have advertised for situation as copyists, teach- 
 ers, or housekeepers, and who have obtained nothing from it beyond empty 
 purses and insulting offers to take situations as kept women. When such 
 persons find themselves on the brink of despair and starvation they are 
 very glad to take places in a concert saloon. I for example was very glad 
 of such a place when my money was gone, and when notwithstanding my 
 knowledge of foreign languages and my ability as a teacher I was unable 
 to obtain a situation in a school. I know girls who are engaged in these 
 places who are still as pure as when they were under the protection of that 
 mother whose death they still mourn. In these saloons you can, if you 
 will, prove their purity ; for their pay is such that they are not compelled 
 to sell themselves in the way that many poor girls are who work in so- 
 called respectable places of business. For if those poor girls lose their 
 
CONCERT SALOONS. 37<> 
 
 situations, which aro badly paid enough under any circumstances, they 
 must either starve or become bad. Who amongst those, I ask, who are 
 ■yen so ready to condemn us, will provide us with some respectable busi- 
 ness which will enable us to live? Who of them, I ask, will supply to in 
 u surrounding of physical and moral purity, and so protect us from the 
 numerous temptations that now encompass us? Our dress is certaiuly 
 exceptional and most of us would not prefer such a one, if the choice lay 
 with them. But very virtuous people go to the " Black Crook" to see the 
 same kind of thing ; and the police make no raids on the " Black Crook." 
 And in society, too, very respectable and virtuous ladies wear dresses 
 which are quite as low in the bodies, if not quite as short in the skirts as 
 ours." 
 
 Among many hard truths, the letter contained a noteworthy criticism of 
 our social condition. But we do not think that the £irl from the " Canter- 
 
 o 
 
 bury" attained her object or that she will have converted those who are 
 sceptical about the female virtue that lies concealed in the concert saloons. 
 It is, however, a sad fact that poverty and necessity, as well as depravity 
 on the part of the stronger sex have taken many a good girl to these 
 saloons. Every feeling person must deplore this, but at the same time he 
 commisserates the girl as one to whom virtue and honor must be for ever 
 lost. 
 
 Here are two short biographies of girls who may be takeu as a type of 
 the " pretty waiter-girls" whom we find in the concert saloons. Both aro 
 x^ry well known in their own circles in the Broadway saloons. 
 
 Helen N. was born in Tarry town, where she lived with her parents till 
 she was eighteen years old. Then her father died. Her mother now had 
 enough to do to sustain herself and Helen's younger brother. The girl, 
 therefore, resolved to come to New York to try and find something to do. 
 She succeeded at a dressmaker's and there she had very good wages. But 
 it did not last long. Bad times came and her work ceased. Soou the 
 little money she had saved was gone, and she was presently without money 
 or friends and not knowing what to do. She could not find work, and a 
 false shame kept her away from Tarrytown and her mother. At last she 
 saw among the advertisements in a paper which she took every day iu the 
 hope of meeting with a situation, the announcement of a proprietor of a 
 concert saloon on Broadway who was wanting some " pretty waiter-girls." 
 At first she shuddered at the thought of employing herself in such a work. 
 But every day her embarrassment grew greater. She could find no work, 
 but every day this concert saloon advertisement stared her iu the face. 
 At last— for hunger is hard — she went to the saloon and she must have 
 been rejoiced when she was accepted. Young and pretty, she was soon 
 the acknowledged queen of the saloon. One of the frequenters of the 
 place made her a promise of marriage. She trusted his declarations and 
 let herself be betrayed. He left her ; and the injured girl lost the last 
 
^380 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 moral support which hitherto had maintained her above the surface of this 
 swamp of depravity. 
 
 Soon she was no better than the others of her class, and now she never 
 thinks of ever being more than a pretty waiter-girl, although it was a role 
 which she took at first against her will and only as a temporary expedient. 
 
 But it is not often that such a biography as that could be written of 
 ihese girls. Much more frequently it would be found that it was foolish 
 levity or depravity ingrained into them in their early educations which led 
 these girls knowingly and willingly to the saloons. 
 
 The next sketch of the life of another well-known " ornament" of a 
 Broadway saloon will illustrate this : — 
 
 Fanny W., twenty years of age, was born in Maine. At fifteen years 
 old she went to Massachusetts, where she worked in one of the factories a 
 Lowell. But work seemed to have no attractions for Fanny. For, 
 although still a child, she already led such a fast life that she was con- 
 sidered to be injuriously affecting the morals of the other girls in the place, 
 and accordingly she was dismissed. She went to Boston where she took 
 \ip her quarters at a notorious house in Portland Street. There her bad 
 conduct bore such pernicious fruits that she had the option given her of 
 either leaving Boston or going to prison. Fanny, who already knew that 
 there was a world outside of Boston, chose the former and she determined 
 to give New York the joy of her presence. No sooner had she arrived 
 here than she made the acquaintance of "Billy Banks." Birds of a feather 
 come together, and the beautiful couple played the part of man and wife, 
 till after a little while " Billy" fell into the clutches of the police and went 
 for four years to Sing Sing. Fanny did not bewail him long. Her 
 •*' Billy" had scarcely got himself comfortably settled in prison quarters 
 before she had fixed her heart upon another professional scoundrel who 
 bore the name of Jemmy Smith. As the accomplice of this man she now 
 lives in a Broadway concert saloon, where as a " pretty waiter-girl" she 
 does her best to support and extend her husband's " business." 
 
 Upon this last model is undoubtedly the whole body of these girls made. 
 Public opinion as well as the police place them unhesitatingly in the list of 
 prostitutes and accomplices of thieves. 
 
 They generally receive no fixed salary, or if any it is very small. Their 
 only payment is derived from a small percentage on the money spent by 
 visitors. The percentage, however, is with management a tolerably good 
 amount, the liquors supplied in the place being of the most miserable char- 
 acter. Thus it is in the interest of the girls to induce the guests to drink 
 as much as they can. But as, — having made the visitor drunk or put him 
 into an unusually amiable humor by their devices — they charge him much 
 more than they pay over at the bar, their receipts are often very consider- 
 able even when prostitution and thieving are not introduced into the con- 
 sideration. But ever hanging on to them like a blood-sucking vampire is 
 
CONCERT SALOONS. &81 
 
 the man ihey live with, the so called " Louis,'' a rascal of the most cou- 
 temptible sort who uses these girls as accomplices in their villainy, and 
 too often as their ow :: supporters in the most shameless manner share the 
 spoils. This and the well-known recklessness of all these women is the 
 i that their money seldom last them longer than from one day to 
 another. That thev have to suffer the most brutal treatment, sometimes 
 . their rough half-drunken guests, and sometimes from the man they 
 live with, may easily be understood. Cases where the " pretty waiter-girls'* 
 are knocked down in the saloon and then kicked and trampled on are not 
 by any means rare. 
 
 A peculiarly characteristic picture both of the girls and the guests of the 
 concert saloons is presented when the police make one of their irruptions 
 upon the place. Generally such an irruption is made about miduight 
 
 , when the business of the saloon is at the height of its glory. Then all of 
 l sudden a person stands up in the middle of the place, and fastening a 
 
 i police shield on the breast of his coat, he calls out in a loud voice : — 
 " Everyone present will consider themselves under arrest." The sceue 
 changes in an instant. The hammering and rattling of the music cease. 
 The "pretty waiter-girls" fly about screaming to where the teirible words 
 come from and the visitors as if at the word of command spring from their 
 -eats, although many of them find some difficulty in standing upon their 
 
 , legs. Then follows a stampede to the doors, but it soon checks itself, for 
 the fact is presently knowu that the police are blockading the only place of 
 escape. Curses and oaths are now loud and general. The clash of break- 
 ing glasses and tumbling chairs mingles with the confused shouts of the 
 reckless crowd that is moving about the place. 
 
 It is wonderful now to find how very many innocent people there are 
 among the guests in the saloon. All these virtuous men gather arouud 
 the police captain or sergeant to convince him that their presence there 
 was the purest accident. 
 
 Mr. A. only just went in to light his segar. He had not the least idea in 
 the world of the character of the place ! — B. is only here in the way of 
 .business. He is a tailor. He saw a young man go into the saloon who 
 owes him an account. He followed him just to remind him ot the debt. 
 — C. was on his way home. He felt thirsty and wanted a glass of beer. 
 So he came into the place thinking it was only an ordinary drinking saloon. 
 — 1)., a very " respectable" old gentleman, swears most solemnly that he 
 only came there because he heard that lie might be able to find his mis- 
 creant of a son in the place. And so on with the rest. The young lada 
 who are present try to make bad jokes out of the situation. But as their 
 »ale faces show, these jokes do not come from their hearts. Fear of the 
 'old man" at home, who will now learn how his son spends his evenings ; 
 ■r of what the principal will say in the morning when he sees the name of 
 us clerk figuring at the Police Court, leaves them not altogether at their 
 
382 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 case ; while upon the brows of the elderly and old men stand great beads 
 of cold sweat, induced by the double thought of their wives and the morn- 
 ing papers! Thence come, too, visits of exoner ition, with which the police 
 captain is deluged on all sides to give the poor innocent people a free pass 
 to get outside. 
 
 At last to effect a peace the captain declares that lie will only detain 
 those who belong to the place ; all others may go free as soon as they can 
 arrange to do so. These words remove an immense weight from the 
 breasts of most of the guests, and many whose knees had been badly knock- 
 ing together a moment before, now look as though the whole affair had 
 been from the beginning nothing more than a good joke for them. The 
 scene now assumes a kind of interest in their eyes, and they begin to revel 
 in the anxiety and rage of the " pretty waiter-girls" in their affliction. 
 Those among the girls who are not quite hardened cry and sob and give 
 themselves away to grief in a way that one would hardly expect to meet 
 with in girls of this class. For these, perhaps, this is the first experience 
 with the police, and they receive now the first, though unfortunately too 
 late, insight into the consequences to which their mode of life is leading 
 them. Others, for whom there is nothing novel in the action of the police, 
 pretend to swoon away or at least to have an attack of hysterics, but with- 
 out any other result than to bring down upon themselves the rude jest of 
 rough visitors. Others who have long been stripped of every sense of 
 shame and honor, laugh and joke either among themselves or with the 
 police or visitors. Their quiet impudence shows that to them at least the 
 evening's adventure is no unaccustomed thing. 
 
 In the meantime the captain has got together and seen whether there is 
 any vagabond there who is especially " wanted." 
 
 The guests hitherto detained now receive permission to leave the place, 
 a permission which they are not slow to avail themselves of. The girls 
 are required to make themselves ready as speedily as possible to go away. 
 They do this by throwing over their fancy dresses, perhaps, nothing more 
 than a water-proof cloak or other covering, and then standing in a row, 
 the proprietor and other assistants at the /head, they are escorted to the 
 station house by the police. It is not necessary to say that even at mid- 
 night an irruption like this upon such a place gathers together a consider- 
 able crowd before the place, — and it does not go away without demonstra- 
 tion of mischievous pleasure and jeers, made in honor of the poor half-clad 
 girls, and which are repeated by the running crowd that accompanies them. 
 Arrived at the station house, the proprietor of this nest of impurity in 
 required to give security for his appearance in court, where he is required 
 to answer the charge of keeping a disorderly house. The remaining assist- 
 ants in the saloon, the " pretty waiter-girls" included, are then dismissed, 
 after having passed a night in the station house, on giving their names, 
 callings, &c. , 
 
CONCERT SALOONS. 
 
 From what we have now said, the peculiar character of these concert 
 saloons may be readily understood. Neither can anybody be in ignorance 
 of the magnet, which in these places is the principal source of attraction. 
 That such attraction exists, and that at least for a certain class of the public 
 it is considerable, nobody can deny who sees the crowds of people who 
 every evening preqeut them. 
 
 As will now be readily conceded, these concert saloons are not in the 
 least what their name implies. If we would define them more closely, they 
 must be described as a combination of prostitution dens and thieves resorts, 
 so that according to the kind of saloon the one or the other becomes at 
 times the more conspicuous. It is then hardly worth while to waste more 
 words in describing their dangerous character and the pernicious influence 
 they exert. This danger and corrupt operation, already in themselves 
 great enough, are still further increased by the publicity with which the 
 concert saloons carry on their disgraceful trade. As already remarked, 
 they are lawfully licensed, and situated in the most frequented thorough- 
 fares, they there announce their purport with the most glaring ostentation. 
 Thereby they assume the mask of public places of amusement, and many 
 persons no doubt go into them who would consider very long before going 
 into any notorious house of prostitution or into a den of thieves. 
 
 It is specially for thoughtless, frivolous youths, that these saloons have 
 their peculiar attraction. They contain everything which can work upon 
 the awakening passions and lowest instincts of humanity, in the most 
 unholy ways. Wine, women, and the gaming table are never brought 
 together in a manner so perilous to young people, as they are in these 
 concert saloons. 
 
 The police in their hunt for criminals, give them scrupulous attention. 
 Many of the w r orst criminals have been taken in these saloons, which thus 
 become the last scene of many a guilty career. But the saloons are also 
 in the case of many young people, the first entrance upon a road which 
 leads to the gloomy cell of a prison, or perhaps to the gallows itself. Nor 
 is it to be wondered at, when we see that lads who are scarcely more than 
 hoys, are the most conspicuous type of concert saloon visitors. Profes- 
 sional swindlers, shameless prostitutes, abject debauchees and drunkards, 
 form there a company where the poisonous influence upon the young, whose 
 character is just unfolding and becoming settled, needs no further ex- 
 planation. 
 
 How far the impudence goes, with which these places make there 
 claims upon the public, can be seen at any time upou Broadway. One of 
 them there exhibits an ornamental painting on the streets, which, in an 
 elegant frame, exhibits the photographic likenesses of two or three dozen of 
 the prettiest girls. Of course, everybody stops to look at this array of 
 "beauty and female attraction, and to wonder what it means. This last is 
 
384 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 explained by a notice with the following words at the top of the picture, i:.i 
 a form which the most short-sighted person might read. 
 
 " Portraits of the vounpr ladies en^a^ed in this saloon. The attention is 
 now naturally directed to the place which contains such a harem of beauty. 
 It is no other than a notorious " concert saloon ;" the entrance to which 
 only displays that drowsy dullness, so characteristic of such places in the 
 day time. A bad delusion awaits all those who allow themselves to be 
 allured by such a bait into the place in the evening, in order to admire in 
 nature the beauty that they see represented on the picture. Gaslight and 
 the costume of the ballet, which, under ordinary circumstances, change 
 ordinary figures into the most angelic forms, here seems to have quite an 
 opposite effect. Of all the graces and charms that were so apparent on the 
 picture, not one can be recognized. Nothing but the impudent faces and 
 the angular or coarse forms which, lesser things excepted, form a living 
 satire upon the epithet "pretty waiter girls," in every concert saloou. 
 The secret of this deception is readily explained. The picture, which is 
 put out as a bait, contains the photographs of girls faces, which have been 
 collected together from different photographic establishments, only on 
 account of their good looks, and then assembled into one picture. They 
 are not likenesses of the girls engaged in the saloon. 
 
 Awkward as the bait is, still it attracts. Many a thoughtless, young 
 fellow, lets himself be allured by it into the saloon, and finds in spite of all 
 orignal enlightenment, that he has fallen into the mysteries, where, for 
 the first time it may be, he has allowed himself to be inaugurated. The 
 public scandal, which this shameful and lying exhibition presented in 
 the most favorite thoroughfare in the city, at last caused the police to 
 interfere, and the picture then disappeared. 
 
 How does it happen though that places fraught with so much peril, 
 should continue to exist without any ac'ion on the part of the police, while 
 they ought to be rooted out as pestilential, or taken back from the eye 
 of publicity into the remotest lurking holes of crime. This is a question 
 to which no one with sound sense or a feeling of justice will readily find 
 an answer. A perfect and total abolition of these places is certainly an 
 impossibility ; and any experiment with that end in view would indeed be 
 a hopeless undertaking. But this is what can be done ; the number of 
 these saloons might be reduced, and they might be made to disappear 
 from the most frequented streets, where, by their shameful exhibitions, 
 they are an offence to every decent person. 
 
 Their fitting locality is in the " Five Points," or the neighborhood of the 
 u Arch Block ;" and whoever should seek them out in those mazes of filth, 
 would only be following the instinct of a depravity, already ingrained in 
 his nature, about the further injury of which nothing need be said. But 
 the police act towards these concert saloons in the same manner which we 
 have taken occasion to find fault with in speaking of prostitution. For 
 
CONCERT SALOONS. 
 
 a long time they ignore their existence, then they enter upon a scries of 
 raids upon them, which seem much more intended for black mailing the 
 proprietors, than for correcting the evil. To which must be added the 
 most disquieting fact, that the number of these concert saloons has of late 
 years much increased, and the proceedings connected with them have 
 assumed more disgraceful forms. In this relation there are reports about 
 which are not very honorable or flattering to the police. According to 
 these rumors there is a number of the most " fashionable" saloons which 
 every week send to " somebody" a net sum, not less than $G00, with the 
 tacit understanding that the saloons in question shall not be molested by 
 the police ! 
 
 The report at the same time tells us that those saloons which do con- 
 tribute to the tribute are very exceptionally, indeed, interfered with ; and 
 when the circumstance is mentioned in the newspapers it meets with no 
 remonstrance from anywhere. But, however it be, the fact remains that 
 the business of the concert saloons flourishes in a way that shows that all 
 that has been done amounts to nothing more than pertains to the main- 
 tenance of external appearances. More than this ; the concert saloons 
 know not only how to blind the eyes of the police, but also how to pro- 
 mote and sustain their interests in the halls of the Legislature at Albany. 
 
 The existence of a " Concert Saloon Ring" at Albany is no empty 
 myth, and it is to this ring that we are indebted for the fact that our 
 " honorable" legislators have shown no desire to regulate or to abolish 
 these saloons by fitting legislation. Some years ago an attempt in this 
 direction was made, and a law with very decisive provisions was intro- 
 duced with the best wishes for its success of all friends of public morality. 
 It was referred to the Committee on Towns and Districts for report. At the 
 same time, wonderful to relate, a young man made his appearance in the 
 presence of the proprietor of the "Canterbury" saloon, who undertook for 
 
 I the consideration of a certain sum of money to prevent the passage of this 
 bill and also all other legislation that might be attempted on the same sub- 
 ject. Upon this a meeting of concert saloon proprietors was held to con- 
 sider the matter in their mutual interests. A committee was appointed, 
 which proceeded at once to Albany, so as to bring to bear at the place of 
 danger the necessary influence to subvert the bill. 
 
 The danger seemed great. For on the arrival of the Saloon Committee 
 in Albany they found that a Committee of the House had gone to New 
 York to obtain an interview with the saloon proprietors on the subject. 
 
 This suspicious looking circumstance was at once telegraphed to New 
 York witli the additional intimation that the law would certainly pass, 
 unless the matter was dealt with very earnestly and without delay. Upon 
 this one of the richest of the proprietors sent $2,500 to Albany, so as to 
 give the members of the Saloon Committee the means to make immediate 
 preliminaries for the necessary operations. What happened then has not 
 
 25 
 
386 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 been made public. All we do know is that the Committee from the Legis- 
 lature which came to New York, never offered a report and that the bill 
 was never again heard of in the house ! It probably lies at this moment 
 in some hidden corner of the Legislative building and the concert saloon 
 proprietors have good reason to laugh, when from time to time they see the 
 daily press calling upon the Legislature to interpose some sufficient law 
 against the ever growing evil of the concert saloons. 
 
 Such is the state of the matter at this moment. Nothing has been done, 
 and it does not seem that anything will be done ; unless it be, as would 
 seem from the constantly increasing number of these saloons, the licensing 
 of more such " hells" by the authorities. 
 
 There is no law even to limit these places, still less to suppress them ! 
 But, nevertheless, the fate of the saloons rests entirely in the hands of the 
 police. If these would apply the law against disorderly houses, the excise 
 laws, &c, with the power that is vested in them to further the interests of 
 public morality, no other legislation would be needed to put down the 
 saloons. Every night there are scenes in them which not only justify 
 police interference, but even call for it. 
 
 Nothing more is necessary than a strict supervision. It would then be 
 possible for the police to bring the proprietors repeatedly before the courts 
 and so to disturb the whole business, that it could no longer be conducted 
 with profit. Why the very estimable police authorities omit to do this — 
 why they show such a tender consideration for the rascally proprietors of 
 the concert saloons and not the least for the promotion of morality and 
 justice, is a puzzle, whose solution can only be attained through the 
 medium of that six hundred dollar weekly tribute of which we have 
 spoken. 
 
 Concert saloons are a disgrace and a crying evil in our city. But the 
 disgrace and the evil would long ago have been swept away if the police 
 had worked as diligently to effect their removal, as the honest portion of 
 the people hive been loud and urgent in their demands to have it removed. 
 
 DANCE HOUSES. 
 
 In intimate relation with concert saloons, although if possible more 
 degraded than they, are the dance houses. 
 
 This depravity of these shows itself, however, only in some external 
 symptoms. The places are generally poorly furnished ; and the classes 
 
DANCE HOUSES. -3*7 
 
 who visit them are dressed in rough clothes. At the same time it must 
 Km well understood with reference to the business that goes on in the two 
 kinds of places, that in the most elaborately got-up concert saloon is not 
 one whit better than that in the dirtiest den among the dance houses. 
 While concert saloons come within the cognizance of the public generally, 
 dance houses are chiefly patronized by the more unpretentious, but equally 
 thoughtless class of sea-faring men, who are taking a little recreation on 
 shore. 
 
 Dance houses are especially designed with reference to this class. They 
 are principally to be found in the neighborhood of the water-fronts of the 
 citv, on the banks of the East River as well as of the Hudson. It is espe- 
 cially in Water Street that they exist in the most developed, that is in 
 their worst form ; and where, too, they are most numerous. 
 
 Jack tars are admittedly a very unceremonious people. They love the 
 feeling of being under no restraint. An elegant saloon with mirrors and 
 sofas would have very little attraction for them, though they feel them' 
 selves perfectly at home in a rough drinking place with wooden benches. 
 In the matter of the ladies, too, the son of Neptune has his own peculiar 
 taste. He loves something rough and substantial, which he can deal with 
 as he would with the yard-arm of a ship. He looks for the greatest 
 amount of pleasure within the shortest possible time, and as long as he 
 gets this, he enquires very little about the quality of it. 
 
 Dancing is the height of his enjoyment. His legs yearn instinctively 
 after it, as soon as they feel the solid ground underneath them. There is 
 a, saying that suits him well " who wants to dance will soon find a piper," 
 and a scraping fidler, a squeaking piper, or a clattering tambouriue, will 
 work him up to the necessary excitement as well as the best orchestra. 
 The proprietors of the dance houses know all this and they provide their 
 establishments accordingly. 
 
 It is because dancing is a standard amusement in these houses that they 
 are called dance houses. Their name then is in strict accordance with 
 their purpose and not as in the case of concert saloons, a lie. Unfor- 
 tunately, however, dancing is not the chief pleasure, but generally only 
 one of the means by which. the proprietor allures the simple sons of the 
 sea to lighten their pockets by some means or other. 
 
 We have described the concert saloon as a combination of a prostitution- 
 house and a den of thieves. Apply it to a dance place and it is exactly 
 suitable. But as these dance houses are intended to ply their infamous 
 operations chiefly among sailors, they might briefly be termed " sailors' 
 ruins." They affect a coquetry with sea-faring names, and style them- 
 selves "Neptunes Home," the "Sailors Rest," the "Snug Harbor," &c. 
 But it can readily be seen that these fine names are only the alluring baits 
 with which the dangerous hook is made attractive to tlie unsuspecting fish. 
 Their affinity with the concert saloons is striking, and like them they are 
 
COO THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 generally to be found in basement floors. But a chief characteristic about 
 them is, that almost invariably they are situated in the most ruinous and 
 suspicious houses in the most ruinous and suspicious streets. Their inter- 
 nal adornments corresponding with their external appearance, have very 
 few attractions for ordinary people. Over the entrance to the descent is a 
 dust-begrimed lamp. If one descends the dirty steps into the place itself r 
 the first thing that meets the eye is the customary American bar with its 
 tiers of glasses, bottles and jugs, and presiding over it the generally bull- 
 headed apparition of the proprietor or barkeeper. In one corner stands a 
 worn-out piano, or a small platform for some other kind of music, which 
 at the most is a fiddle and tambourin or some wind instrument. Round 
 about the room are narrow wooden benches thatl &vi bt»M well cut about. 
 The rest of the room is left open for dancing it . ,.\ih door, rough and 
 worn out-, is covered with sand. From the ceiling hang, fantastically cut,, 
 many colored paper decorations, which sway about as the wind blows 
 through. These, with perhaps a few obscene pictures, or models of ships, 
 constitute the only decorations. And the place itself is rarely more than 
 seven feet high and well stained with smoke and dirt. During the day 
 time these rooms are very quiet. Life in them begins with the lighting 
 of the gas upon the streets. Then, indeed, everything inside of them 
 shows life and light. Prostitutes come in all their finery, — from four or 
 five to a dozen together, out of the neighboring dens, where they sleep and 
 hide during the day, so as to be able to go refreshed to their work at night. 
 The music begins to rattle out vigorously to draw in customers from the 
 street. If this does not succeed, the women are told to go to the windows 
 or to collect round the open door, where, by their personal attraction or 
 the sweet invitations offered, they endeavor to gather together business 
 for the evening. If it happen that one or more sea-faring men passing 
 along are enticed into the den, a dance is at once got up ; iu which pro- 
 prietor and barkeeper, or, if they are not sufficient to make it up, then 
 any vagabonds hanging about the place, join. Country dances are the 
 favorites in these houses. But the fullest freedom is allowed the dancers ; 
 and waltzes, polkas, and national dances of every kind with can-can 
 embellishments are introduced into the figures of these country dances, 
 according to the fancy of the dancers themselves. As soon as the dauce 
 is over, the whole company adjourns to the bar to wet their dry throats 
 with execrable liquor. Many of the dancers will treat the whole company ; 
 but after every dance each one must drink himself and treat his partner. 
 And these partners have naturally as well as by virtue of their office a 
 most potent thirst. Every glass costs ten cents, and the more the girl 
 drinks, the greater of course are the receipts of the proprietor of the dance 
 house. Consequently a woman with temperance proclivities would not be 
 very acceptable. The process of treating and being treated lasts a con- 
 siderable time, ere the company get away from the bar. But as every 
 
DANCE HOUSES. 
 
 389 
 
 dance costs every dancer twenty cents, and as dancing creates anew the 
 appetite for drink, it does not accord at all with the interests of the house 
 to let the noble art of dancing be neglected. The music, therefore, tunes 
 up again with its squeekings and scrapings, and the entire company flies 
 off, or staggers off to the dance. Then there is more treating — then there 
 is more dancing — then more treating, again, and so on ad infinitum, which 
 means, as long as there remains a dancer capable of standing on his legs. 
 Everyone present is required to take part in both dancing and treating. 
 
 If anybody should try to avoid doing either the one or the other, he is 
 very soon involved in a brawl, and brought into unpleasant acquaintance- 
 ship with the finger nails of the ladies and the fists and boots of their part- 
 ners. For these every-evening soirees the women are dressed up in the 
 most gaudy apparel. A coating of lily white and rose red paint, covers 
 the dirty faded skin of their bloated faces, over which tower perfect forests 
 of flowers, interwoven with tawdry ornaments, in immense chignons. A 
 dress of multitudinous colors, glittering with mock jewelry and such like 
 tinsel, exposes the bosoms and as much as possible of the legs. Their feet 
 are decked out in red or yellow shoes. Many of the women have little 
 bells on their shoes, as well as on the corners of their dress, or even in the 
 trimming ; which tingle and rattle as they dance and make a peculiar 
 noise. As for the music that is quite a secondary consideration in These 
 dance parties. The " gentlemen" dancers wear very heavy solid boots 
 with large nails and they put down their feet with such violence, that any- 
 one listening from the outside of the place would be more likely to take it 
 for a stamping mill than a dancing saloon. The jingling of the little bells 
 and the clanging of the tambourin are the only musical sounds that are 
 audible amid the endless stamping and clatter of voices. 
 
 The wild ardour which characterizes such a dance scene is, however, 
 confined to the male dancers. Their partners have little to do with it. 
 The men can rest when they feel tired, but not so with the poor girls. If 
 a visitor cannot dance for want of a partner, even if this happens but for 
 one single dance, the proprietor loses at least twenty cents. It is of no use, 
 therefore, for any woman belonging to the place to talk about being tired. 
 She must dance even though she die through it ; and such things as that 
 have happened. Woe to the woman who should excuse herself from 
 dancing on the ground of being tired. The rough landlord would instantly 
 fall upon her with a volley of oaths and curses, and either with kicks or 
 blows of his fist he would compel the poor worn-out creature to stand up 
 again. These dancing women are slaves in the fullest meaning of the 
 word. For their dancing is genuine hard work which they go through 
 like machines, when an access of the poisonous liquor with which they are 
 heated at the bar does not reduce them to a condition of wild intoxication. 
 "We may define the character of these poor creatures, when we say that 
 they belong almost invariably to the most deeply depraved classes of 
 
390 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 prostitutes — those who are too depraved not only for houses of prostitution,, 
 but for the streets. Sometimes, possibly, we may find in such a place a 
 girl who has been brought there either by artifice or force, but if death do 
 not speedily come to her aid, she, too, is in very few months hardly to be 
 recognized from the most degraded servants of vice. It is very seldom 
 that the police come to the rescue of such victims. They are mostly 
 lonely girls, probably immigrants, who have been allured from ships or 
 emigrant houses to these dance rooms, under the pretence of being taken 
 into service. 
 
 There they remain so long secluded from the rest of the world that their 
 moral ruin is insured, and they have neither the inclination nor the power 
 to tear themselves away from the life of shame that has been forced upon 
 them. 
 
 Many German girls have fallen into this terrible destiny, deceived by 
 heartless procuresses in Germany under attractive representations of going 
 to San Francisco ; only to see themselves sold beyond the power of deliver- 
 ance into these dance dens. Many of them, it is true, knew when they 
 entered upon the contract that they would be employed in that city as 
 dancing-girls in the " saloons" ; but what was really meant by the harm- 
 less sounding word, " dancing-girl," they had no more suspicion, what- 
 ever, than they had of the character of the dens which here bear, what is 
 in Germany respectable, the name of " saloon." It is in truth to the most 
 infamous dens of prostitution that they have sold themselves — a prostitu- 
 tion of the most fearful kind, where the only ray of light that can be found 
 rests on the certainty that in less than a year death will release the victim 
 from her miseries ! 
 
 Not being able to prolong their existence by any means outside of the 
 dance house, these dancing-girls become the reckless but willing slaves of 
 the proprietors of those houses. He feeds them and gives them the cheap 
 tawdryness with which they cover their bodies. That is all that he does 
 for them. As for drink, which with these poor creatures is scarcely less 
 a necessity of existence than food, they are indebted for it to their partners, 
 in the evening. Broken down by the exertions of the night, and by the 
 effects of the quantities of poisonous liquors, they have drunk, they sleep 
 through the greater part of the day, and till returning night once more- 
 compels them to get themselves up for a new share of the labors of the 
 dance. 
 
 At last the time comes when through constant vicissitudes of this kind,, 
 between relaxation and excitement, their powers are consumed, and they 
 are no longer fit for the exertions of the dance. The heartless landlord of 
 the place then strips her of the tawdry finery that belongs to him and turns 
 her into the street, with scarcely rags enough to cover her. Very often 
 now a leap into the water becomes the brief ending to a miserable life. 
 Sometimes the unfortune creature waits till the police take hold of her and 
 
DANCE HOUSES. 391 
 
 remove her to the hospital at Ward's Island, where she very speedily finds 
 her last resting place in the Potter's Field. 
 
 The following case will serve to show how curiously fortune sometimes 
 plays with a lost life which has been allowed to waste away in one of these 
 dance hells : — 
 
 Some years ago there appeared in both English and American news- 
 papers an announcement in reference to a property worth something more 
 than a hundred thousand dollars, that was lying for disposal by the next 
 heirs in some western city. 
 
 After some careful enquiries it fell to the lot of a pettifogging lawyer in 
 New York to spy out the nearest relative of the deceased person, and the 
 only heir to the property, in the person of a woman in one of the Water 
 Street dance houses ! 
 
 Upon the question of identity there could be no doubt. The Water 
 Street prostitute was none other than the daughter of the deceased. She 
 belonged to a family that had been once well off, but which had subse- 
 quently suffered reduced circumstances in Ireland. With the portion of 
 their property which they had been able to save they migrated to America, 
 where they settled in the West. 
 
 The girl herself as pretty as she was clever remained in England, where 
 she held a very good position as governess in a nobleman's family. But 
 soon after the departure of her parents differences occurred in that family, 
 and in consequence her position became uncomfortable and she had to 
 follow her parents to America. Upon the ship one of the officers took a 
 fancy to her, and he succeeded in winning the affections of the girl. The 
 old, yet ever new, story repeated itself. The scouudrel feigned love only 
 so long as the opportunity should come for the fulfilment of his purpose — 
 the seduction of the girl. This he accomplished in New York, after hav- 
 ing apparently made every preparation for an honorable union. He then 
 deserted the poor girl without troubling himself any more about her. She, 
 betrayed, was ashamed to go to her parents, and she sought to obtain a 
 living in New York. But she did not succeed. Want came upou her, 
 and every day her difficulties increased. 
 
 Seduction, with sweet words, now tempted her ; and she saw placed 
 before her a choice between the well filled table of vice and the scanty and 
 limiteu board of virtue. Broken down by a painful illness, and with a 
 certain antipathy to mankind in her heart, she at last chose the former. 
 
 She fell, and the higher she had stood before her fall, did her degrada- 
 tion become more rapid and more deep. Six short years had passed away 
 and the blooming and talented girl had gone through every gradation of 
 prostitution ; till at last, morally and physically ruined, the outcast of her 
 sex, she reached to the depravities of a Water Street saloon. 
 
 Fortune meanwhile had smiled upon her parents and the losses they had 
 sustained in Ireland were more than made up for. They learned nothing 
 
392 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 of their daughter, except that she had gone from England to America, for 
 notwithstanding all their enquiries they could not find out anything more 
 about her ; she, to conceal her shame, having assumed another name. 
 The mother died of sorrow and grief at the fate of her child, whom she 
 had ceased to think of except as dead. 
 
 After a few years the father followed his wife to the grave, and as there 
 was no will forthcoming, official advertisements were published both in 
 America and in England for the next heir to the property. But when that 
 heir was discovered in the person of the daughter, it was too late ! Already 
 suffering from delirium tremens, it was barely possible to convey to her an 
 idea of the meaning of the news that was brought to her. The only 
 advantage that she lived to experience was a removal from the terrible 
 den in which she was found, and the bestowal of every care which her 
 suddenly acquired wealth placed within reach. But her life had run out. 
 In a few days the poor creature died ; and to-day a splendid monument in 
 one of the most fashionable church-yards covers the body of her, who 
 otherwise must have mouldered uncared for and unknown in a pauper's 
 grave. 
 
 That is one piece of romance from the dance hells of Water Street. 
 
 But there is much that is terribly prosaic in what goes on in them. It 
 is not always the cry of rough enjoyment that breaks forth from them ! 
 Often they are the scenes of the bloodiest frays, where knives and revol- 
 vers are in free use. And no wild beasts can rend each other more fero- 
 ciously than do those forms of humanity in the dance houses, when hatred 
 or jealousy arouse their enmity. In these occasional couflicts the girls 
 take part con amore. On such occasions they are like the infuriated 
 priestesses of Bacchus, and they fight with teeth, hands and feet in such a 
 furious manner, that only the strongest of their antagonists is able to with- 
 stand them as is due to the " weaker" sex. It is not necessary to say that 
 in such disorderly scenes as these the fighting ladies and their gentlemen 
 do not use gloves. As soon as the noise and crowd in such a conflict have 
 abated, many an araazon is to be found lying on the ground covered with 
 blood and bleeding, or limping away to her room with her teeth knocked 
 out and all form of humanity gone from her physiognomy. 
 
 Besides the general business of prostitution on the part of these dance 
 house women, the robbery and plundering of visitors are carried on by 
 them just in the same way as we have already described in our picture of 
 the concert saloons. Indeed, many of the dance house women are nothing 
 but the " pretty waiter-girls" of those saloons, only some degrees more 
 depraved ! It would, therefore, rather be a source of wonder if the dex- 
 terity they used in the former occupation, were not to be introduced by 
 them in the present. 
 
 The large majority of the visitors of these dance houses are sailors and 
 various classes of laborers on ships and docks. Besides this class of 
 
DANCE HOUSES, 
 
 visitors, B large number of loafers of all classes, professional rowdies, river 
 thieves and others of the same class assemble here. .For them the sailor 
 is the bird to be plucked. The landlord, the women and the black!.--, 
 all excel in fleecing the pockets of the unsuspecting sailor who, after being 
 paid off, enters one of these places to pass a pleasant evening alter a long 
 voyage. In a short time the woman has discovered how much the new 
 arrival u is worth." She reports at the bar, and if it is considered worth 
 the while, the further plans are laid there to ease the victim of his super- 
 fluous cash. In most cases a powder is smuggled into his glass, which in 
 I very short time puts him to sleep. He is then robbed, and when he 
 awakens finds himself in some distant locality, or, still worse, on some 
 outward-bound ship, to which he has been sold as a sailor. In the latter 
 case he can only resign himself to his fate, and wait for his pleasant even- 
 ing until he again touches land. In the former case he generally looks at 
 the matter with a philosophical eye, goes to the next saloon and takes a 
 drink, if the thieves have left him a few cents, and if not, he returns to 
 his ship. 
 
 After what has been said, it is not necessary to characterize the pro- 
 prietors of these saloons. The life in their saloons describes their charac- 
 ter sufficiently. 
 
 Generally they have been sailors themselves, sometimes only prize- 
 fighters or rowdies who took to a dance house as the profession which is 
 at the same time the best paying and the most congenial to their tastes. 
 That it is a paying business is shown by the fact that the large majority 
 of those who follow it may be justly styled rich. Almost all would be 
 able after a few years, to retire into private life ; but they have become 
 so accustomed to the atmosphere of vice and crime in which they move, 
 that it very seldom happens, that one of them voluntarily retires from the 
 business. In most cases the children spend the money earned by the 
 father as easily and as quickly as it was made. But families of the 
 " Upper Ten" may occasionally be met with who gained entrance into 
 those circles by the money which their ancestor made in a dance house. 
 The almighty dollar shows a power also in this respect, which does not 
 diminish a particle, even if it is obtained from the greatest filth. 
 
 Vie must regard as a special class of dance houses those which distin- 
 guish themselves favorably from t'le other dance houses by the neatness 
 and the elegance of their accommodations. The bar would be an orna- 
 ment for the most respectable saloon, and mirrors, vases, statin ttoes and 
 paintings present a picture which differs essentially from that presented 
 above. The dancing-girls have not yet descended to the level of their 
 Water Street sisters, while the music on the piano, violin, harp or other 
 instrument would give satisfaction even to the more fastidious. Entirely 
 in keeping with the character of the saloon, the class of visitors differs 
 entirely from those described above. Officers, mates and gencrallv the 
 
394 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 better educated of a ships company make these salooos their meeting place. 
 The disgusting orgies and the criminal actions of the frequenters of the 
 low dance houses are not practiced here. But they are not a whit less 
 dangerous to the morality and the purse of the visitor. 
 
 The temptations presented there only too easily succeed in killing good 
 germs, and to convert in a short time well meaning but weak characters 
 into fit visitors of a Water Street dance house. 
 
 We now come to the third and last class of dance houses. Those treated 
 of above, are intended for and almost exclusively visited by seamen. But 
 there are also dance houses intended for those not following the sea, and 
 which, although small in number, are found in all parts of the interior of 
 the city. They are generally connected with some ill-renowned or suspi- 
 cious looking saloon, frequented by prize-fighters, rowdies and others of 
 this class, and no one, not initiated in the mystery, would suspect the 
 dance hall in one of the back rooms. Prostitution, gaming and drink join 
 hands here also ; and to a well-dressed person a visit to these dens of 
 iniquity, as the meeting place of the most dangerous classes of the city, is 
 attended by great danger. They differ from the dance houses for sailors 
 in this, that no girls are kept for the visitors to dance with. The visitor 
 is either accompanied by a girl, or chooses one from those who frequent 
 or occasionally visit these saloons. No doubt can exist as to the character 
 of these women. They are common street walkers, who call in here every 
 evening, either seeking for customers, or for victims for the swindlers in 
 league with them. 
 
 Taken as a class these dance houses are probably even more dangerous 
 than the concert saloons. Only one of these dance houses may claim to 
 be an exception to this rule ; and as it possesses a notoriety reaching far 
 beyond the limits of the city of New York, it may be well to give it closer 
 attention. We refer to the notorious dance house of Harry Hill, situated 
 in Houston Street, near Broadway. An idea of its custom may be gained 
 from the fact that the net gain amounts on an average to $1,000 per week. 
 Harry Hill, the proprietor, belongs to that class of politicians, who by cer- 
 tain means, known only to the initiated, can influence the elections either 
 one way or the other. This gained hitn some protection, which acted 
 favorably on the business of hi3 saloon. Belonging to the lower class of 
 sporting men, and at the same time strong and active like a prize-fighter, 
 he soon gained an undisputed authority among the visitors of his saloon. 
 This authority he employs so decidedly for the preservation of order, that 
 disturbances very seldom occur in his place. This is of all ths more 
 importance, as Harry Hill's saloon is the meeting place of the lowest class 
 of pickpockets, gamblers, bnrglars, prize-fighters and rowdies, while the 
 female portion of the visitors consists entirely of prostitutes. 
 
 In this company we may daily meet with prominent politicians, lawyers, 
 physicians, members of the Legislature, aldermen, and even members ot* 
 
I ) A N ( K HOUSES. 
 
 395 
 
 Congress, while the financial aud commercial part of the community is 
 represented here from the banker down to the lowest clerk in the estab- 
 lishment, as regular or occasional visitors. 
 
 So great is Harry Hill's authority over his guests, that the proceedings 
 in this mixed company are apparently as respectable as in any other place 
 of amusement of a more respectable character, and robbery or theft have 
 hardly ever occurred here. Of this fact the proprietor prides himself con- 
 siderably, and therefor wishes his dance house to be recognized as a. 
 respectable saloon. This may all be true, aud yet we do not fear to do 
 injustice to the character of the saloon, in declaring it to be the most dan- 
 gerous place in the city for the morality of its inhabitants and the safety 
 of life and property. Here youthful levity takes the first steps on the 
 slippery road of sin, and first inhales its poisonous atmosphere. Here, 
 indeed, the thieves and murderers do not steal or murder, but here they 
 Bingle out their victims to entice them into their snares at the proper time 
 and place. Harry Hill only wishes that nobody shall be robbed or mur- 
 dered in his house. What the rowdies do with his guests in the street? 
 does not concern him. The rowdies respect his will with regard to the 
 first case, and in return enjoy the privilege of makiug profitable studies for 
 their criminal purposes, among the guests of the saloon. How many who 
 have visited this dance house only for pleasure, may here have received 
 the first impulse on their way to vice and crime. By no means do we 
 absolve the visitors of their share of the fault ; but we do not see, how he 
 who presented the temptation, can be found entirely innocent. The fol- 
 lowing sad case in connection with this dance house, created at the time of 
 its occurrence a great excitement : — 
 
 Mr. N., the descendant of a wealthy New England family, was a young 
 man endowed with brilliant talents, aud had received an excellent educa- 
 tion. He was the representative of a large New England firm in New 
 York, and enjoyed the entire confidence of hi«s employers. This confidence 
 seemed to be justified both by family ties and the former conduct and busi- 
 ness tact of the young man. Unfortunately the firm neglected to keep the 
 necessary control over their New York representative, which the interest 
 of their depositors required under any circumstance. For a time, how- 
 ever, everything went well. Mr. N. was punctual and conscientious ia 
 the highest degree. He was the first one in the morning, and was the last 
 one to leave the office in the evening. But soou he thought he felt the 
 necessity of amusement, and of such amusement as the strict rules of ' 
 fafhionable society did not allow. 
 
 He longed for freedom from the conventional forms of society. Seeking 
 this class of amusements, he soon entered the " respectable" dance house 
 of Harry Hill. Here he found what he had been looking and longing for. 
 At first it amused him to watch the free ways of the male and female 
 guests of this saloon. Then he talked with one of the sirens, and in the 
 
396 THE DARK SIDE OF KEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 course of one of his regular visits he tried a short dance. From dancing 
 he took to drinking, and from drinking to dancing again and so on. Before 
 he was aware of it he was caught in the net of the women, who soon found 
 cut that he was very rich, and therefor exerted all their powers to fascinate 
 him. They were only too successful. He soon had a horde of mistresses, 
 whom he clothed in silk and satin, and whom he perfectly covered with 
 jewelry. Elegant residences, trips to watering places, lodges in the thea- 
 tres and other expensive luxuries, often devoured the salary of a whole 
 year in a single month. He then used the money of the firm, hoping to 
 make good his deficiency by successful speculations. But this pla 1 did not 
 work, and the women on the one hand, and unlucky speculatioas on the 
 other, soon drew him down lower and lower. His health began to fail, 
 and his employers who in their unpardonable confidence did not pay any 
 attention" to the actions of their N. Y. correspondent, saw in his sickly 
 paleness only the result of overwork, and even advised him not to exert 
 himself too much. 
 
 Whether he followed this advice or not, is not known. But it was, 
 indeed, an unnecessary one, since the business had become only a secondary 
 consideration with him. With regard to his pleasures, however, he did 
 not restrain himself at all and the money of the firm went a6 fast as it 
 came. How long this would have continued cannot be imagined, if the 
 sudden death of one of the most prominent members of the firm had not 
 caused a thorough revision of the financial affairs of the house. Then it 
 was found that Mr. N. had defrauded the house of not less than $1,400,000, 
 and that it was completely bankrupt. — The fall of so large a house caused 
 the ruin of many smaller ones. Hundreds who had been considered rich, 
 suddenly found themselves over head and ears in debt, and thousands of 
 widows and orphans lost their whole property, and were beggars. 
 
 But where were these widows and orphans robbed of their small 
 property? Harry Hill will answer " Not in my dance house!" and the 
 law is on his side. But the moral sense will answer him : " They were 
 robbed there, where the young man became a defrauder, and on that place 
 rests the responsibility for all the consequences arising from that crime !" 
 
 So much for the only dance house i» New York City, whose proprietor 
 dares to call it respectable. 
 
 We must here repeat the same complaints with regard to the inactivity 
 of the police, which have been brought forward under the concert saloons. 
 The police only interferes with these saloons when a disturbance makes it 
 necessary. Otherwise it ignores them and they may continue their evil 
 doings without fear of interruption. It has been remarked lately that since 
 the increase of these concert saloons, the business of the Water Street 
 dance houses has considerably declined, and that it is not half as lively 
 there at present as it was before the rise of concert saloons. Whether 
 something has been gained by this, whether it is a move for the better, or 
 
PIC-NICS. 397 
 
 a relapse to worse, we will not decide here. To us the dance houses as 
 well as the concert saloons of our city, are nothing more than so many 
 . through which thousands annually go to ruin. In both the same 
 evil is represented, and every true philanthropist must deeply regret, that 
 up to the present hardly a beginning has been made in its extinction. 
 
 PIC-NICS. 
 
 11 But how can you class pic-nics under the ' Dark Side of New York 
 Life?'" many of our readers will exclaim. "Pic-nics, these lcfcg looked 
 for visitors of summer, with their pleasant scenes in woods and meadows I 
 Pic-nics, these pleasant recreations for the working man, and man of busi- 
 ness ! Do not they enable him to leave the dusty city with his family, 
 and spend a pleasant day in the green w r oods, to return to his every day 
 drudgery refreshed and with new vigor? A description of them - belong 
 with much more propriety in a book describing the bright sides of our 
 great city." 
 
 In one respect the reader is right. He is right, if he judges only by 
 those pleasant pic-nics referred to above. But we also consider ourselves 
 right, and are convinced, that after reading this short chapter, the reader 
 will agree with us in giving the pic-nics a place among the dark sides of 
 New York. Everything has its two sides, nor are things that pass under 
 one name always the same thing. This truth is also applicable to pic-nics. 
 
 No special explanation is needed for what is understood by a pic-nic. 
 The object of all pic-nics is the amusement of a circle of friends in the 
 country or in a public garden. If they differ essentially in their character, 
 it is because the opinions, as to the meaning of the word " amusement," 
 differ so widely. What is amusement for one, causes the other tedious- 
 Bess and repugnance, and what the one avoids in this respect, the other 
 eagerly seeks for. 
 
 Let us look, for example, at two pic-nics. 
 
 AVe are on the picturesque heights which, from the west bank of the 
 Hudson, overlook Xew York. A broad grass plot is spread out before 
 us. A shady forest encloses it, and trees scattered here and there, shrub- 
 bery and rocks give it a picturesque variety. Here pleasure and happiness 
 reign supreme, and seated in happy circles, we see old and young, men 
 and women, from the grandfather to the baby in its mother's arms. Hats 
 and coats, shawls and sashes hang on the trees, while the whole picture is 
 
398 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 that of a happy family. A prominent feature among the several groups 
 arc large and heavy baskets, and if we did not guess their contents, a look 
 into them would show us that they represent the portable pantries of the 
 excursionists. The tender hands of the ladies and girls have charge of 
 these baskets and divide their tempting contents with pleasant jests. But 
 fun and good feeling are not the only spices of this pastoral feast. Bottles 
 of Rhine wine protrude their heads temptingly from out the baskets, while 
 under a shady tree we see a keg. Here a ministering angel in woman 
 form kindly dispenses the foaming beer to all who come. Further on a 
 bright fire sheds its light preparing the water for the coffee. 
 
 Between these groups happy children run about, plucking flowers or 
 chasing the gay butterfly. Loving couples wander in happy forgetfulness 
 of the rest of the world, arm in arm through the bushes. Here some are 
 enjoying one of the numerous games that are brought to light on such 
 occasions, while farther on the sound of a musical instrument attracts our 
 ear. Here the lovers of dancing will find a rich treat, and round and 
 square dances are here enjoyed with as great a relish as in the finest ball 
 room. The blue sky looks down on this beautiful scene, while beneath us 
 the Hudson rolls its blue waves along the great Metropolis until it reaches 
 the ocean. 
 
 It is a pic-nic that we see here, and if our eyes did not tell us, the par- 
 ticipants in these pleasures soon would, that they are, indeed, enjoying 
 themselves. 
 
 Let us visit the same spot on another day ! Again we see a large com- 
 pany, of every age and sex, assembled here. The well-known baskets 
 Again greet our eye. But judging by the large number of bottles and 
 demijohns, the company seems to be unusually thirsty. The contents of 
 the bottles smells decidedly stronger than wine or beer. Judging by its 
 smell it is nothing but whiskey, of which a large keg is seen on a wagon 
 forming the center of the prevailing animation. If the loud noise and the 
 shouting could be taken as a standard of enjoyment, this party must enjoy 
 itself considerably more than that described above. But the female por- 
 tion of the company also shows an inspiration by its behaviour which can 
 be traced very easily to the bottles mentioned before, as its chief source. 
 
 The dancing here is only wild jumping or staggering. There two 
 drunken men begin to fight, and their wives and friends, also under the 
 influence of liquor, try to separate them. Old and young assemble around 
 them and after a good deal of unnecessary noise it is decided to fight it out 
 *' squarely." The crowd forms a ring, and looks on with delight, as the 
 two beasts pummel each other, until they are so covered with blood and 
 bruises as to be hardly recognizable. They now declare their wounded 
 honor to be satisfied, and celebrate their reconciliation with fresh libations 
 of whiskey. But the whiskey is not of the kind which cheers but not in- 
 toxicates. On the contrary it stirs up a disposition for quarrels and fights, 
 
pic-nics. 399 
 
 and the end of this reconciliation is a general fight, from which only those 
 keep aloof who lie under the bushes so intoxicated as to be unable to move. 
 Songs are also occasionally heard. But their text as well as their delivery 
 are of* such a nature, as would exclude them from any society laying claim 
 to the least degree of respectability. 
 
 But we have seen and heard enough to drive us full of disgust from out 
 of this pandemonium. If we should ask the company for the meaning of 
 their proceedings, they would tell us, that it was their pic-nic, and that 
 they had enjoyed themselves exceedingly well. 
 
 The reader may be astonished at this class of amusement. But he must 
 not forget that a certaia class of people measure their enjoyment, by the 
 principle : No fun without fighting ; the more fighting, the more fun. 
 Tastes differ, and it is of no earthly use to quarrel about them. But we 
 are confident that no guest of the second pic-nic would have enjoyed him- 
 self at the first, while a guest of pic-nic No. 1 would have left pic-nic No. 
 2 filled with disgust in a very short time. 
 
 If private parties wish to amuse themselves in a manner contrary to 
 common decency aud morals, there is no great danger that anyone, whose 
 mental affinities do not draw him there, should stray into this slippery 
 crowd. It is not therefor then, why we assign to the pic-uics a place 
 among the dark sides. But there are pic-nics, and their number is on the 
 increase every year, which are only intended to deceive by their name and 
 to draw the unsuspecting to them. To these suspicious pic-nics everybody 
 is admitted who pays the price of admission. The object of such pic-nics 
 is either to increase the business at the bar of the place where it is held, 
 or to make money for those who conduct it, and who are generally known 
 to only a small circle of friends. 
 
 It is not necessary to mention that by such indiscriminate admittance of 
 guests, the worst elements can enter such pic-nics. And for this reason 
 these pic-nics are not the place where you can find that undisturbed pleasure, 
 which may be always found at a respectable pic-nic. 
 
 But in many cases the object of these pic-nics is much worse and dan- 
 gerous. It is a well-known fact to the authorities, that pic-nics are often 
 arranged for the sole benefit of pickpockets, prostitutes and rowdies. 
 
 Woe to those who are led into these pic-nic3 by their unsuspiciousness ! 
 Empty pockets would be their least complaint, while stupefying with nar- 
 cotic drugs, rape, robbery and even murder are crimes, well known to the 
 authoriiies in connection with these pic-nics. 
 
 The first impression of these suspicious pic-nics is not always forbidding. 
 A show of respectability is successfully kept up for a while. Upon enter- 
 ing, a person will therefor notice nothing that would deter him, or even 
 arouse his suspicions. In general it is not until the break of night that he 
 sees the company in its true light. But by that time he is in such a condi- 
 tion, that every thing appears to him in a rosy light, and the male and 
 
400 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 female sharpers have him entirely in their power. He is either intoxicated^ 
 and awakens in the morning to find himself robbed, or he is enticed by one- 
 of the " ladies" into the darkness surrounding the platform, where she or 
 her male accomplices rob him. Should he create a disturbance, he would 
 only make matters worse. He would be half killed, before his cries for 
 help would attract one of the policemen, who are there only for the sake 
 of form. Panel-girls, swindlers and other wolves in sheepskin practice 
 their quiet, but not the less dangerous vocation extensively. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to mention that the dangers for respectable women 
 and girls, who are enticed to these pic-nics by cunning or unsuspiciousness, 
 are of a much more serious character. Even in the most respectable pic-nics 
 many opportunities are presented, caused by the excitement of wine and 
 of pleasure, which end in heartless seduction. The history of many 
 prostitutes has begun with seduction at a pic-nic. — We only mentioned 
 this here, to show the necessity of first ascertaining the character of a pic- 
 nic, before taking part in it, especially if accompanied by a lady. 
 
 It is either necessary to know the parties personally by whom the pic- 
 nic is given, or to have some other security as to its respectability. The 
 place alone is in no case sufficient security. The place in which, for 
 example, the most respectable pic-nic was held yesterday, may be to-mor- 
 row the scene of wild orgies, which would do honor to the lowest class of 
 concert saloons or dance houses. The proprietors will let their gardens 
 to any persons or corporations for pic-nics, without being further interested 
 in the matter than furnishing refreshments. It is always the company on 
 which the character of a pic-nic depends, and the care which is generally 
 employed in the selection of one's company in every day life, is much more 
 applicable with regard to pic-nics. 
 
 Similar to the pic-nics are the popular summer excursions, for which 
 the picturesque surroundings of New York afford ample opportunity. The 
 names of Hoboken, Guttenberg, Fort Lee, Cooney Island, Fort Hamilton, 
 etc., call up memories of landscapes, which are fully able to cope in point 
 of beauty with those of any other great city of the world. But these 
 excursions, also, are not without some of the dark sides mentioned under 
 the pic-nics. In many respects these dark sides stand out even more 
 prominently than in the case of pic-nics. — The pic-nics have at least that 
 advantage, that if it is so desired, they can be closed to the general public. 
 The guests of a respectable picnic always know with which class of society 
 they will come in contact. With the excursions, however, it is entirely 
 different. They take place mostly on a Sunday, when two-thirds of the 
 inhabitants of the city leave their homes to go to one of the popular excur- 
 sion places. In this manner they are like immense pic-nics in which 
 scarcely anyone knows the person sitting next to him. Such popular 
 excursion places are just on account of these large crowds profitable points 
 of operation for rowdies and swindlers of all classes, who mingle with the 
 
PIC-NICS. 401 
 
 crowd, and there ply their vocation with great zeal. The evils caused by 
 these classes of rowdies and swindlers are especially felt on the Sunday 
 excursion boats, which are mostly filled to overflowing. Rowdies amuse 
 themselves by insulting and quarreling with the passengers. This causes 
 noise, disorder and crowding, during which the light-fingered craft of the 
 pickpockets, empty the pockets of the passengers of their contents. It 
 even happened once that a band' of rowdies got the vessel under their con- 
 trol, and then proceeded to rob the passengers, to knock down the men, 
 insult the ladies, and even committed a dastardly outrage on one lady. To 
 avoid arrest, the band forced the pilot to steer towards a deserted landing- 
 place and to set them on shore there. — The steamers of the Staten Island 
 ferry have also been the scene of many dastardly outrages committed by 
 ruwdies. In the last few years it has become much better in consequence 
 of stricter measures of the police, but the rowdy element is to the present 
 day an evil which does much to destroy the pleasure of the public on these 
 Sunday excursions. Probably every one who has often taken part in such 
 excursions can speak of such disagreeable scenes from his own experience. 
 
 It is chiefly the popular sea-bath Coney Island, situated on Long Island, 
 which is regularly flooded by rowdies and swindlers. All classes of the 
 demi-monde, down to the common street walker, are found here as well as 
 rakes and others of the same class, who behave themselves so shamelessly 
 in and out of the water, that the use of this fine sea-bath is almost an im- 
 possibility for respectable women. 
 
 A glance at the crowd and their actions in such a Sunday bath, will 
 suffice to arouse the suspicions of even those not endowed with the most 
 tender conscience. The average number of visitors on a Sunday is about 
 three thousand. Of these, from fifty to three hundred are in the water at 
 all times — young and old, men and women, rakes and seducers, modest 
 maidens and gay prostitutes, all mixed together. Once in the water, and 
 even the few limits of decency observed on shore, are no longer observed. 
 Stranger will not hesitate to perpetrate jokes on bathing women, which 
 even the greatest intimacy should not allow. Occasionally a lady declares 
 
 I herself insulted, and draws the attention of all the visitors to herself. The 
 ODly result she obtains, is to draw the obscene jokes and the laughter of 
 the large majority of the rowdies upon herself. Outside groups of rowdies 
 are standing or laying on the sand, who amuse themselves by making in- 
 decent remarks about ladies passing into or out of the water, and to insult 
 them by their looks and actions. Even in the closed rooms of the bathing 
 houses the feminine sense of propriety cannot divert itself of the well 
 founded uneasiness. It is well known that walls sometimes have ears ; 
 but the walls of these bathing houses only too often have eyes. And these 
 eyes are not accidental cracks or knot-holes, but holes bored there on pur- 
 pose. These cabins are eagerly sought for by a certain class of male 
 visitors, who pay the proprietors large sums if they engage to put in the 
 
 2G 
 t 
 
402 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOKK LIFE. 
 
 neighboring cabin a pretty lady. We could here talk of many other 
 public secrets, but we hope that what has been said will suffice for the 
 female portion of the Sunday excursionists to Coney Island. 
 
 That the dangers and conveniences arc much greater on the return 
 trip, whether it is made by steamer or by cars, is easily explained, if the 
 darkness and the effects of the liquor consumed are taken into account. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to mention, that on all excursions, especially on 
 Sundays, individuals with more money than brains, have an excellent 
 opportunity to rid themselves of it a three-card-monte and other games, 
 described in preceding chapters. 
 
 What we have here said about pic-nics and excursions, is not intended 
 to discourage our readers from participating these popular pleasures of 
 summer, or to bring them into discredit. And we are sorry to say, that, 
 to a certain degree, they have already been brought into discredit. If we 
 have spoken of the evils connected with them, it was only done with the 
 intention of having them corrected. We wished to call the attention of 
 the unsuspicious to the dangers hidden from them, and to give hints in 
 this repect, which would be of use to every one. In such cases, many 
 persons are only to apt to spill the child with the water. Because many 
 things happen on pic-nics and Sunday excursions which are contrary to 
 the laws of morality, many persons are apt to cry out against them and 
 to demand their abolition. But' they forget that, for the larger part of the 
 inhabitants of New York, the pic-nics and Sunday excursions are the only 
 chances of enjoying the pleasures of country life, even for a day. By no 
 means would we say : " Abolish the pic-nics, and remain at home on the 
 Sabbath" ; but we do say : " Avoid the disreputable pic-nics ! visit the 
 pic-nics and make your Sunday excursions with that knowledge of possible 
 danger, which is the best safe-guard. He who knows that the rose has 
 thorns, can pluck it without pain. He enjoys its beauty and its sweet 
 scent, while a child would pay for such an attempt with a bloody finger, 
 and then holds the rose, instead of his experience, responsible for its pain. 
 We call attention to the thorns, to warn our readers from them, not from 
 the rose. In this sense we undertook to treat of the pic-nics and excur- 
 sions under the dark sides of New York life. Our object was to save 
 them from further degeneration, by calling attention to certain evils, and 
 to preserve them as that, what they ought to be for the large majority of 
 our inhabitants, viz. : Happy sunbeams in the dull monotony of every daj 
 life. 
 
 
rOBGERfl AND COUXTERFEITKU5. 403 
 
 FORGERS AND COUNTERFEITERS. 
 
 Forgers and counterfeiters must undoubtedly be classed among the most 
 •dangerous criminals. Their disgraceful activity is felt in far greater 
 circles than that of any of the other enemies of public safety. 
 
 The thief or the burglar only injures a certain individual by each one of 
 his criminal acts. The forger and counterfeiter, however, by the engrav- 
 ing of a die or of a plate creates a sort of omnipresence for himself; he 
 becomes a thief so many times as he issues counterfeit coins or notes with 
 .his die or plate. lie menaces without difference, rich and poor ; the 
 millionaire as well as the merchant, the farmer, the laborer, the poor 
 widow and the lone orphan. And especially the poor are the greatest 
 sufferers, for generally they do not understand how to distinguish the 
 counterfeit from good money, and the loss of a "bad dollar" will affect a 
 poor man more, than the loss of a counterfeit hundred dollar bill which a 
 rich banker passed among many good ones into his money drawer. 
 
 The craft of this class of counterfeiters is very old. It is as old as 
 money itself, and will probably flourish as long as this evil, made indis- 
 pensable by civilization. 
 
 No State or commonwealth exists whose money has not been imitated 
 in worthless counterfeits for the purpose of fraud, and this the oftener, the 
 more easily such imitations could be made. No money ever has been 
 made, or ever will be made, that could not be imitated. Such money 
 must be placed among the same class of enterprises as the squaring of the 
 circle. 
 
 The best that can be done in this respect is to make the money in such 
 a form, as to increase the difficulties in imitating it, and by imposing heavy 
 penalties for doing so, make it a most dangerous and at the same time 
 poorly payiug business. In this respect much has already been done, and 
 the present age is one that offers very little encouragement to the counter- 
 feiter. 
 
 "We live at present in the age of paper money, which still forms the 
 exclusive currency in all business transactions. The time that gold and 
 silver was used is so long past already, that a generation has already 
 grown up, of whom not all can boast of having haudled a gold or silver 
 coin. Since gold and silver coins circulate at present only iu the financial 
 world, we need not wonder that the counterfeiting of coins has in our city, 
 at least, ceased almost entirely. The few counterfeit five cent nickel 
 piices, which are easily recognized by their greater weight or a suspicious 
 color and are generalv manufactured of zinc or type-metal, are hardly 
 worth mentioning. The whole energv and cunning of the counterfeiters 
 has been directed to the manufacture of the various iorms of paper money, 
 
404 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 government bonds, railroad bonds and shares, and it is this subject, which- 
 specially interests us. 
 
 It is not to be thought, however, that counterfeiters in the days of gold 
 and silver, neglected paper money. On the contrary ! For even at that 
 day the largest business was done in bank notes. For the manufacture of 
 paper money, which was issued at that time in hundred different forms, 
 and the knowledge of which required a special study, was even in that 
 day such a profitable business, that the counterfeiters gave it a decided 
 preference. The time in which the bank note reporter was a necessary 
 book of reference in every place of business, will still be remembered by 
 many of our readers. The bank note reporters uid much to warn the 
 public of the many counterfeit notes, or those of broken banks, but still the 
 business of counterfeiting bank notes prospered. This business received a 
 new and strong impulse, when at the beginning of the late war the sudden 
 disappearance of gold and silver coin necessitated a large increase of all 
 denominations of paper currency. In consequence of this, as well as the 
 greater facility with which the first notes issued during the war were 
 imitated, and especially the favorable field which the large armies offered 
 to dispose of counterfeits, the counterfeiting of bank notes reached its high- 
 est point of glory. Especialy the bills of a smaller denomination, and the 
 fractional currency notes were brought into circulation in immense quantities.. 
 The evils caused thereby were felt too much not to have some remedy 
 devised for them. The various denominations of this paper money were 
 called in and replaced by new and more complicated emissions. Thus the 
 counterfeit money remained with those who held it last, and who bore the 
 loss, while the counterfeiter had only to see to the- manufacture of new 
 plates, if they intended to continue their infamous business. But the busi- 
 ness had paid so well, that the counterfeiters could easily afford the neces- 
 sary expenses for new plates. Soon numerous imitations of the new 
 emissions were in circulation ; while to the present day even the artistic 
 execution of the bank notes has only succeeded in increasing the difficulties 
 of t'.ieir imitation, but not to put a stop to the business. 
 
 An idea of the extent in which the counterfeiting of bank notes was still 
 carried on in the last few years, may be gained from the following : — 
 From 1868 to 1871 not less than four hundred and ninety-seven counter- 
 feiters were arrested by the United States detective force. Among the 
 working material of these prisoners also captured by the authorities were 
 over seventy plates for United States notes ; among these were three $2, 
 eight $5, five $10, four $20, one $100, two $50 notes, one $1000 legal 
 tender note not quite finished, and one $1000 plate of U. S. Bonds. Be- 
 sides these, thirty-four valuable banknote presses as well as other material 
 for the fabrication of counterfeits were taken by the authorities. In these 
 three years over $700,000 worth of counterfeit notes were also taken by 
 the U. S. authorities. 
 
FORGERS AND COUNTERFEITERS. 405 
 
 But nevertheless the evil has not been entirely exterminated, although 
 reduced to comparatively small dimensions. This is partly due to the unceas- 
 ing vigilence of the U. S. detective force. On the other hand the Treasury 
 department has by means of great art and mechanical skill employed in 
 the manufacture of the bonds and notes made their imitation an exceed- 
 ingly difficult and expensive undertaking, while the uniformity of the Na- 
 tional bank notes which have taken the place of the variously formed notes 
 of the former bank corporations, enable the public to readily recognize 
 counterfeits, if not executed with the greatest degree of nicety. 
 
 The counterfeiters of bank notes, taken as a class, delight to class them- 
 selves among the aristocracy of criminals. They generally look down with 
 contempt upon those who earn their daily bread by means of the crowbar 
 or false keys. Their business requires higher and more refined intellect. 
 Their operations are of a class, which place them side by side with certain 
 bankers, the only difference being this, that in one case the public is swin- 
 dled under observance of legal formalities, and in the other case openly and 
 without such formalities. Undoubtedly the counterfeiting of paper money 
 requires a certain class of genius, which if brought into operation in pur- 
 suit of an honorable vocation, would in all cases secure its possessor an 
 honorable position in society. But the fatal desire to become suddenly 
 rich, leads their fine talents in another direction, which in almost every 
 case ends with the sad but deserved fate of a criminal. 
 
 The counterfeiting of bank notes, as carried on wholesale, is a compli- 
 cated business, and like every business is divided into its several branches. 
 
 It may be first divided into the manufacture aud the disposal of the 
 goods. The manufacture of good counterfeits requires besides skillful 
 hands, expensive presses, and other equally expensive working material, 
 and is a business that cannot be commenced without considerable capital. 
 A man of considerable means therefor is generally at the head of it, who 
 furnishes the necessary capital, and therefor takes the larger part of the 
 profits. The next person in importance is the engraver of the plate. To 
 make the business pay at all, he must be a first class artist. Poorly exe- 
 cuted counterfeits will deceive very few at the present day ; that many poor 
 counterfeits are in circulation proves nothing, for we may be certain that 
 they have hardly paid the manufacturer the paper they are printed on. No 
 manufacturer of poor counterfeits has ever become rich, while many have 
 badly burned their fingers with them. To manufacture poor goods, does 
 not pay worse in any business, than in that of a counterfeiter, where the, 
 manufacturer not only finds no buyers, but also has a good chance to go to 
 prison. An assistant not less important but generally more easily found 
 by the counterfeiter, is a good printer, who can take clean and clear im- 
 pressions of the plate. 
 
 Atter having been engraved and printed, the next thing in order is to 
 bring the notes into circulation. The capitalist keeps as much in the dark, 
 
406 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 as possible, in this matter. He has a few trusted agents (dealers), who 
 leave their orders, sometimes amounting to tens of thousands of dollars, 
 with him alone, and who alone have any connection with him. These 
 again have persons on hand who, without knowing the original manufac- 
 turers, obtain their supply from the dealers. They again supply those per- 
 sons whose business it is to rapidly circulate the counterfeits in the city 
 and country. These are the so-called "Coney-pedlars" and "Boodle- 
 carriers". The latter take their name from the word "boodle" which in 
 the jargon of the counterfeiters denotes a quantity of counterfeits. The 
 "Boodle-carrier" and "Pedlar" give the bills to those whose real business 
 ft is to bring the counterfeits into circulation, and who effect this in various 
 disguises. As in their language "to shove" denotes to spend money, and 
 "queer" denotes counterfeit-money, these circulators of counterfeits are 
 styled "shovers of the queer". From counterfeit, which is abbreviated to* 
 "Coney", all persons connected with the fabrication and disposal of counter- 
 feits are styled "Coney-men" or "Koniackers", also "queersmen". 
 
 Let us now return to the counterfeiter in chief, whom we have denoted 
 as "capitalist". He was not born as a capitalist, but brought unusual 
 talents to this world, which employed in an honest vocation, would have 
 easily gained for him a place among the capitalists of society. That we 
 find him to be such a capitalist, is the fault of a large dose of inborn un- 
 scrupelousness, which, upon being further developed, has not failed to bear 
 its fruit. Every beginning is small, and our capitalist probably com- 
 menced life as a "shover of the queer", at which he tried his luck with 
 a counterfeit dollar bill, and found that it is much easier to make money 
 in this way, than by honest labor. His mother-wit aids him in this, and 
 he does a good business. But his ambition drives him upward. He ad- 
 vances from the "shover" to the "boodle-carrier", and from this position 
 to that of "dealer". But, why should he recoil from the last step, and not 
 take the manufacture of the "queer" into his own hands? His disgraceful 
 business has already made him a rich man, and his connections among the- 
 "Koniackers" are so extensive, that at last he boldly goes to work. The- 
 higher he advances in the ladder of crime, the less he is in danger to fall 
 into the hands of the authorities. He becomes rich and does not fail to 
 surround himself with all outward signs of respectability. In general, his 
 associates only know his true character. In many cases even the wife 
 of such criminal only discovers his disgraceful vocation, at the moment of 
 his arrest. 
 
 The police well know the coney-men and their dangerous trade, and 
 carefully observe and watch them. But, in general, it is extremely difficult 
 to produce much direct evidence of their guilt as aie necessary to convict 
 them. As this is much easier with those employed in the lower grades of 
 the business, they are often sentenced to prison, while the chief criminal* 
 at the head of the business can continue their business unmolested. With. 
 

 rORGBBS AND COUNTERFEITERS. 407 
 
 very few exceptions, they receive their reward earlier or later. In spite of 
 all cunning, they step -without knowing it into one of the many trap.*, 
 which the ever vigilant detectives have set for them at every step they 
 take. 
 
 We will not fail to cite interesting examples of this class of criminals. 
 We begin with the sketch of one of the most dangerous counterfeiters, who 
 is recognized as the head and centre of all "Coney-men" in America ; a 
 man who is equally remarkable for the boldness and large extent of his 
 criminal operations, as for the good fortune which has clung to him up to 
 the present day. This name is Joshua D. Miner, well known in New 
 York, and his life will afford at the same time an interesting view into the 
 life and doings of counterfeiters generally. 
 
 Joshua D. Miner comes from a family, in which the manufacture of 
 counterfeit notes seem3 to be an hereditary trait. His father was well 
 known for years as a manufacturer of counterfeit notes, while his brother 
 served several years in prison for the same crime. He was bom in 
 Steuben Co., N. Y. When he commenced to deal in the "queer", is un- 
 known, but judging by his family connections, it must have been pretty 
 early. He combined in his criminal vocation boldness with extreme cun- 
 ning, and as at the same time he was highly favored by fortune, he soon 
 accumulated considerable property, which he used with great sagacity and 
 business tact to enlarge his operations. Thus he has become during the 
 past twelve years wholesale dealer of counterfeit notes, and only deals 
 with the largest "coney-dealers". Thus he diminished the danger of his 
 discovery, and his business flourished in such a manner, that his present 
 wealth is considered very large. He had the counterfeits manufactured on 
 a large scale on his own account, and spared no expense to obtain the most 
 accomplished engravers and the best material. 
 
 The counterfeits manufactured by him are among the best, that ever 
 deceived the American public. He manufactured National Bank notes 
 for $2, $10, $20 and $50, in such quantities, that he could furnish his 
 agents at any time with amounts ranging from $5000 to $20,000. His 
 factory was situated for a long time on the corner of 49th street and 6th 
 avenue, and in spite of its uninterrupted activity, he never aroused the 
 suspiciou of the police. His business in "Coney" amounted to hundreds 
 of thousands of dollars per year, and his profit may be estimated if it is 
 remembered that the manufacture of the bank notes only cost him from 10 
 to 15 per cent, of their nominal value. Being thus able to manufacture 
 the best counterfeits at the lowest prices and in any quantity, he controlled 
 the counterfeit market for years. 
 
 The police knew for a long time the dangerous activity of Miner. But, 
 owing to the extreme caution with which he operated, they never succeeded 
 in obtaining such evidence against him as would warrant his arrest. Being 
 also a contractor of public works, he could represent his wealth as having 
 
408 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 been acquired in this vocation, while by the public at large he was regarded 
 as a respectable and distinguished citizen. 
 
 But even his hour had come, not that which brought him his well mer- 
 ited punishment, but which should forever tear from his face the mask of 
 respectability. One of his most intimate associates, the equally well known 
 counterfeiter Bill Gurney, was arrested under circumstances, which made 
 the denial of his guilt an impossibility. To lessen his punishment, he 
 offered to assist the U. S. detectives in obtaining the plate of a counterfeit 
 twenty dollar note, which it was supposed, was held by Miner. Gurney 
 therefor went with some detectives to Miner's residence, where a compro- 
 mise was effected, in accordance with which Miner delivered the dange- 
 rous plate to the chief of the U. S. detective force. From this time on, 
 Miner was closely watched. Soon some other persons were arrested, and 
 confessions were at last obtained, which showed Miner to be the chief 
 source of the counterfeits. One of the persons arrested, Harry Cole, an 
 intimate friend of Miner, stated that in the course of the last eight years 
 he had received counterfeits from Miner amounting to more than $100,000, 
 while the total amount brought into circulation by Miner during the same 
 period was at least $1,000,000, and that Miner manufactured them all 
 himself. 
 
 As Miner did not know of Cole's arrest, the latter was gained by the 
 promise of freedom, to turn State's evidence against Miner. Cole promised 
 to obtain not only counterfeits, but also plates from Miner, under such cir- 
 cumstances, as to cause his immediate arrest : In consequence of this ar- 
 rangement, Cole was relexsed, although kept under strict surveillance. At 
 the end of three weeks he had arranged the matter in the following man- 
 ner. Miner was to meet Cole on the corner of 61st street and the Boule- 
 vard, on October 25th, 1871, and deliver to him in some remote locality, 
 upon payment of $1500 in good money, one two dollar and one ten dollar 
 plate. In the night of October 25th, Cole went with the $1500 given to 
 him by the U. S. detectives to the above mentioned house. He soon left 
 it again in company with Miner, and the two then walked down the Bou- 
 levard. Only few persons were to be seen in the street, and even these 
 few seemed to have no other idea than to reach their respective homes as 
 soon as possible. But these belated travelers were detectives, getting ready 
 for a large haul. Miner left Cole for a minute and crossed the Boulevard, 
 where he received a package from a man waiting there, and returning to 
 Cole handed it to him. But before it had left his hand, he was seized by 
 two strong detectives, and was overpowered after a desperate resistance. 
 At the same time the other man who had handed Miner the package had 
 been secured. This man was no other than Thos. Ballard, Miner's en- 
 graver. 
 
 Miner seemed to be lost. Such strong evidence of his guilt must, ac- 
 cording to all calculations, crush him. But it came otherwise. He was 
 
FORGERS AND COUNTERFEITER*. 409 
 
 placed under $30,000 bail, aud used his freedom to do everything iu his 
 power for his own interest. Miner, as we have said, is very rich, and 
 money as is well known, will go very far in our courts. One day Ballard, 
 the most important witness against Miner, had disappeared from Ludlow 
 street jail. Nobody knew how it had happened. But it is very probable 
 that Miner had furnished the ever fitting Golden Key for Ballard. A re- 
 ward of $5000, which was offered ior his recapture, did Dot produce any 
 results, and Ballard could not be produced as a witness on the trial which 
 was begun in December, 1871. Yet he was the most important of all 
 witnesses, for in his house, No. 25G Rivingtou street, valuable presses, as 
 well as large quantities of bank-note-paper, and finished bank notes had 
 been found. These he had told the chief of the secret service, belonged to 
 .Miner, for whom he had also engraved the plates. 
 
 Another circumstance in favor of the defence was that Miner had thrown 
 away the plates as well as the $1500 given to him by Cole on the place of 
 his capture. These were therefor not found upon his person, but by detec- 
 tives the next morning scattered around on the place of the affray. Wit- 
 nesses were produced, who took oath upon oath, that they had seen Cole 
 enter Miner's house with a package. On the strength of all these facts, 
 the defense attempted to demonstrate to the "intelligent jury," that the 
 whole affair was nothing but a "conspiracy" between Cole and the detec- 
 tives, to ruin the reputation of Miner, the "man of honor". The "intelli- 
 gent jury" took this view of the matter, and pronounced the prisoner "not 
 guilty", who left the court in triumph. A number of other charges owing 
 to the disappearance of important witnesses and other tricks of the same 
 kind, also resulted in acquittal, while others again were dropped as hope- 
 less by the prosecution. 
 
 And thus it is, that Joshua D. Miner, the recognized " Grand-master" 
 of the American "Koniackcrs,'' lives to the present day as a distinguished 
 citizen in his beautiful residence iu G7th street, enjoying the fruits of his 
 crimes, continued successfully for more than thirty years. And although 
 he has not yet finished his career, one might be tempted, in regarding the 
 life of Miner, to look upon the allegory of the ancients, in representing jus- 
 tice as blind, in a peculiar manner. 
 
 As difficult as it is, to bring this class of criminals to justice, yet very- 
 few can boast of a success like that of Miner. If this class of criminals 
 pursue their pith slyly and cunningly, with still greater stealth and cunning 
 the ever watchful secret service follows thein like a shadow. One un- 
 guarded word or action, and they are caught in the traps set for them. 
 Another prominent "Coneyman" of New York, Bill Gurney, affords a good 
 example of this. 
 
 If the reader has not heard the name of this man before, he will un- 
 doubtedly have become conscious of his existence by some other means. 
 For Bill Gurney has manufactured among others that counterfeit $20 note 
 
410 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOKK LIFE. 
 
 of the National Shoe and Leather Bank of New York, which first appeared 
 in New York in August, 1870, and is one of the best counterfeits manu- 
 factured, gave much trouble to our business men and even to some of our 
 banks. The police exerted all their powers, to find the source of this dan- 
 gerous counterfeit. The greatest difficulty was to secure some less impor- 
 tant criminal of the same class as a willing or unwilling accomplice to se- 
 cure the greater villain. A chance was soon found. 
 
 An old and well known "Koniacker" had been recently dismissed from 
 prison, after having served his term. A detective disguised as a sporting 
 man succeeded in making his acquaintance, and drank and loafed about 
 with him, and played his part so well, that the ex-convict was soon quite 
 delighted with his new acquaintance. Thus the relation between the two 
 had soon ripened into a kind of friendship. This became all the stronger, 
 when "Jake Buck" the disguised detective told his new friend that he had 
 also served his time already for forging signatures. The intimate acquaint- 
 ance of the persons and circumstances in and around the prison displayed 
 by Buck in his conversation, seemed to confirm his story in every way. 
 Quite accidentally one evening the conversation drifts to the above men- 
 tioned counterfeit. Jake Buck remarks that owing to its good workman- 
 ship and execution, a large business might be done with it. His friend is 
 of the same opinion, and lets Buck know that he kaows more of the mat- 
 ter than he is willing to tell. Buck stirred up by this, says that he would 
 be willing to risk several hundred dollars on these notes and asks the 
 "Koniacker" whether he could let him have some. The answer was en- 
 couraging : I will see what can be done, but can say nothing definite before 
 to-morrow night. 
 
 This was enough for Buck, and the two separate with the intention of 
 meeting again the next evening. At the appointed time both are at the 
 same place again. The "Koniacker" has kept his promise, for he pro- 
 duces an entirely new twenty dollar note of the Shoe and Leather Bank, 
 which Buck quickly buys for $10 in good money. Buck is in ecstasy over 
 the good execution of the bank note, and treats in his joy very liberally. A 
 new arrangement is made according to which Buck is to receive five of 
 these notes at 40 cents on the dollar, the day after to-m%rrow. These aUo 
 are procured by the ex-convict, and Buck orders twenty five more, only on 
 the condition however of paying only 30 cents on the dollar. After con- 
 siderable bargaining, the price is fixed upon and at the next interview the 
 desired notes are also forthcoming. 
 
 The convict and the detective in the meanwhile had become so intimate, 
 that the latter thought he could dare to take another step. He Fuspected 
 already that he must be near to the principal source of these counterfeits, 
 and was desirous of becoming acquainted with it. He therefor tells his 
 friend that he could bring a large number of these counterfeits into circu- 
 lation. But by the risk which he incurred and the low prices at which he 
 
FORGERS AND COUNTERFEITERS. -1 1 I 
 
 bad to supply his men, he could only make very little at 30 cents on the 
 dollar. His friend the convict, however, declares that 30 cents was the 
 lowest price at which he could do any business in this kind of Coney. 
 Buck is not inclined to risk any more at that price, says that he can easily 
 get the stuff much cheaper if he applied directly to the manufacturer. In 
 consequence of this the convict makes an appointment with Buck in a sa- 
 loon in Bleecker street, without promising anything definite however. Buck 
 goes there, and to his great surprise he is introduced to Bill Gurney, the 
 manufacturer of this masterpiece in counterfeiting. But Gurney is very 
 suspicious, and only after a long and searching conversation, in which 
 Buck shows himself well posted in the field of counterfeiting, and in u shov- 
 ing the queer," does he lead the conversation to the real object of the meet- 
 ing : After long explanations an agreement is arrived at. Buck buys at 
 once twenty five of the bank notes at 20 cents on the dollar, and Gurney 
 engages to furnish Buck with twenty dollar notes to the amount of $3000 
 at $18 per hundred. The delivery was to take place on board of a Tenth 
 street ferry boat on the East River at a late hour of a certain day. The- 
 bird then was ready to be caught, and every precaution was taken that he 
 should not escape. The appointed time had arrived : Jake Buck was- 
 promptly on board the boat, which seemed to be almost empty. The "Coney- 
 man" is also on time, and comes on board, scrutinizing the few passengers 
 who are scattered about the boat. He recognizes Buck, besides whom he 
 only sees a slightly intoxicated workman, and a man, who is easily recog- 
 nized as a Methodist minister lost in holy reflections. As he does not no- 
 tice anything to arouse his suspicions, he steps up to Buck, who lets his 
 stick drop accidentally (?). This signal suddenly arouses the tipsy work- 
 man, and seems to give a strange direction to the holy thoughts of the 
 Methodist minister. As trained hounds attack the game, these two jump 
 on the "Coneyman". He resists furiously, and thinks at first, that he will 
 be assisted by Buck. But wh<*n he sees that it is Buck who puts on the 
 handcuffs, he sees that he has fallen into a trap. — Thus Bill Gurney, one 
 of the most dangerous counterfeiters of the U. S., w r as with the statements 
 of the detective (Buck) and those of the ex-convict, who had been arrested 
 the same evening, a chain of proofs, which procured for him ten years in 
 State's prison. The manner in which the detectives secured the arrest of 
 Gurney, must undoubtedly be called a genial one. But viewed from the 
 standpoint of right and humanity, it can hardly be excused. 
 
 In cases like this, we can not be very particular, nor should we grumble 
 if the just cause is to sanctify the wrong means used in producing this 
 causes. But if the detectives attempt to lead discharged criminals by all 
 kinds of temptations back to the path of crime, this is a method, which no 
 end, even if infinitely higher than the capture of a dangerous counterfeiter, 
 could sanctify before the bar of humanity. A large part of th^ fault in. 
 this respect rests with our laws, and the manner in which they are. 
 
412 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 administered. In this respect the old legal doctrine, that a it is better that 
 ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent person should suffer," is 
 carried to extremes. The laws with regard to counterfeiting arc so vague 
 and so liable to be stretched, that as we have seen in the case of Miner, 
 the conviction of a criminal caught in the very act, is often very uncertain. 
 Thus dozens of the most dangerous criminals succeed to escape, and the 
 tender care paid to the counterfeiters, becomes a criminal negligence to the 
 honest citizen who becomes the victim of the criminals encouraged in that 
 manner. 
 
 The next person in importance in the manufacture of counterfeits, the 
 eDgraver of the plate, must be no bungler if the business is to pay. The 
 manufacturer must try to obtain a skilled hand for this branch of his busi- 
 ness. This is generally a very difficult thing to do. Skilled engravers 
 are almost always in demand, and their work is paid so well, that they 
 are not easily led into temptation, to enter the dangerous business of 
 counterfeiting. But still they are found. They are mostly foreigners, 
 Germans, Italians, Englishmen and others, who have perhaps already tried 
 their hand at counterfeiting at home, and have escaped from the hands of 
 the less ceremonious authorities of their native country by going to 
 America. As an example of this class we would mention the Irishman 
 Peter McCartney, who has in the last few years manufactured counterfeits 
 of almost wonderful perfection. A look at these counterfeits show alone, 
 that the manufacturers of "Coney" have artists of no less skill at their dis- 
 posal, than the Treasury department in Washington. It is an unsolved 
 riddle to the present day, how it was possible to manufacture some counter- 
 feits which have been brought into circulation, in such a manner as to defy 
 detection by the keenest eyes in the Treasury department. An interesting 
 case which created much excitement at the time, may be recalled by some of 
 our readers. In 1866 it was found in the U. S. Treasury in assorting 
 7 — 30 bonds (@$1000), that two of these papers bore the same number. 
 The conclusion was therefore easily arrived at, that one must be a counter- 
 ieit. But which was the counterfeit? This was a question which even 
 after a long deliberation the oldest officials of the Treasury department 
 were unable to solve. 
 
 It was found on the other hand, however, that bonds of this class 
 amounting to $90,000, which undoubtedly were counterfeits, had been re- 
 deemed and were deposited in the vaults of the Treasury department. The 
 two bonds had been sent to the Treasury by Jay Cooke & Co. of New 
 York. As the Treasury department refused to redeem the bonds, the ' 
 question was brought before the courts. There it was decided in favor of 
 the Treasury, but to the present day no sign or mark has been found to 
 distinguish the original from the counterfeit. The plaintiffs tried to assume 
 the position that the bonds were not true counterfeits, but were only illegal 
 impressions of the genuine plates of the Treasury department. But they 
 
FORGERS AND COUNTERFEITERS. 413 
 
 could not bring forward any proofs in support of this assertion, and in 
 consequeuce of the decision of the court, they were compelled to bear the 
 loss. 
 
 Another strange example of the art of the counterfeiters is furnished by 
 the engraver Jerry Cousden. lie manufactured, about 10 years ago, so 
 perfect an imitation of the fifty cent notes, that no one could distinguish 
 them from the genuine. When Jerry was arrested and the plate was con- 
 fiscated, over §5000 worth of these fifty ecu t notes were already in circula- 
 tion, and have been probably redeemed by the Treasury. 
 
 Very seldom do these skillful engravers engage in business on their own 
 account. A prominent example of this class is the above mentioned Peter 
 McCartney, who at the same time carried on a large wholesale business 
 with his manufactures. An idea can be gained of the extent of his busi- 
 ness from the fact, that when hard pressed at one time by the police, he 
 surrendered counterfeits of various denominations to the amount of SG5, 000, 
 and yet it can easily be imagined that he had by no means exhausted his 
 treasury. 
 
 The manufacturer, who is not engraver at the same time, must look out 
 for a skillful artist. If any artist has ever allowed himself to be tempted 
 to employ his talent for the manufacturer, he is bound to him for life. By 
 the least act he becomes an accomplice of the counterfeiters, and if he does 
 Dot possess the stuff for a criminal already, he will soon find out how dan- 
 gerous it is, to give the devil even the little finger. He is soon entirely in 
 the power of the criminal cligue, who are only bound to him for their own 
 advantage. They can avenge themselves at any time, if he should refuse 
 to prostitute his talents any longer in their service. It pays much better, 
 at least for the present, to prostitute his talent, than honest labor does. 
 But very seldom does the dazzled artist escape the terrible fate, which ter- 
 minates almost every career of crime. 
 
 As an accompaniment to the above sketches of celebrated counterfeiters, 
 we will here give a short notice of a tragic fate of a talented artist, who 
 fell into the meshes of the law a few years ago, on a charge of counterfeit- 
 ing. His name is Chas. Weldon. Endowed with extraordinary talent, he 
 soon obtained a lucrative employment in one of the New York Banknote 
 Companies. Besides his skill, he enjoyed a good reputation for honesty 
 and conscientiousness. He gaiued the affections of an amiable and well 
 educated young lady, Louisa M., the daughter of a wealthy farmer of Kings 
 Co., and within a few months they were united in the bouds of wedlock. 
 Happiness seemed to have established itself in his household. Charley al- 
 ways had plenty of work at high prices, and did not fail to supply his house 
 with every comfort and all requirements of good taste, while within Louise 
 reigned supreme as happy wife and mother, in such mauner, which showed 
 that her happiness consisted only in seeing her husband and children happy. 
 Thus twelve years passed in unmarred happiness. At least unmarred for 
 
414 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Louise, who had Dot the least idea of the serpent which had for years al- 
 ready settled in her paradise. One evening when Charley had returned 
 from his work as usual, his wife called his attention to a notice in an even- 
 ing paper, which announced the arrest of some counterfeiters and the cap- 
 ture of counterfeits in their possession. At the same time she mentioned, 
 that she had been shoping at Steward's the day before, and that a twenty 
 dollar note which she had given in payment had been refused as counter- 
 feit. She showed him the note, and asked him to return it immediately to 
 the person from whom he had received it. Charley seemed to be more 
 alarmed than the accidental possession of a counterfeit note would war- 
 rant. The unsuspicious wife however did not surmise the true cause of 
 his alarm ; aor did she know how deep the harsh words she said 
 about the "rascally forgers" entered her husband's heart. Looking 
 around embarrassed he at last put the note into his pocket, saying; 
 "Pshaw 1 the bill is good ! I ought to know it, for I worked on the 
 plate ! And what he said was true. The note was good, but only as an 
 imitation. And he had indeed worked on the plate ; but not in the employ 
 of the Bank Note Company, as Louisa understood him, but in the employ 
 of a celebrated counterfeiter, who had already employed him for the last 
 seven years at a much higher salary. During the evening he w r as very 
 silent and excited. A fever seemed to rage through his veins and after a 
 sleepless night, in spite of his wife's entreaties, he left the house much 
 earlier than usual. Nor did he return in the evening at the usual hour. 
 Mother and children were in the greatest anxiety about him. He came 
 at last. But now! Chas . Weldon had passed the day in the greatest 
 anxiety. The arrests which he had first heard of from his wife, wero 
 those of men, w T ho were very closely connected with the band of counter- 
 feiters, for whom he had worked for years. He knew that his fate de- 
 pended on the conduct of these men. If they spoke against him, he was 
 lost, and was hopelessly ruined together with his family. Possibly he was 
 betrayed already. Every step that resounded behind him, caused him to 
 shudder. For could they not belong to detectives, and he be caught by 
 them in the next minute. 
 
 But the day passed, without anything happening. A feeling of safety 
 came over him and he began at last to walk more quietly toward home. 
 Then — he suddenly feels himself caught up by strong arms, and before he 
 knows how it is done, he is pushed into a carriage standing near the pave- 
 ment. Handcuffs rattle on his wrists and the carriage is driven to the 
 headquarters of the U. S. Secret Service in Bleecker street. If Weldon 
 was able to think of anything during his ride, it was of his poor family — 
 his wife and his children, who awaited his return with anxious love, while 
 he, probably turned from them forever, saw himself inevitably doomeq 1 to 
 prison. In the examination, which was at once held, Weldon promised to 
 confess everything he knew, on the sole condition, that he be allowed once 
 
FORGERS AND COIN HKT TITERS. 415 
 
 more"lo see his wife and children. The request was granted, when the 
 chief of the detective force had convinced himself, that his confession was 
 made in full and without reserve. And thus we see Charles Weldon enter 
 his once happy home. A wagon stops in front of his house, from which 
 three men alight and walk up the front stoop. The bell is rung, and a 
 servant girl answers the summons. The three men, in one of whom the 
 girl recognizes her master in spite of his pale face and troubled look, si- 
 lently enter the sitting room o£ the family. The happy children recoil from 
 their manacled father in the midst of two strange men. Pale and terror- 
 stricken the wife looks upon the group, already announced by the rattling 
 of the Handcuffs. Folding his manacled hands, "Weldon stands in the door, 
 and the despair which fills his bosom is only expressed by a silent look. 
 
 "What is it, Charley? What is the meaning of these handcuffs?" the 
 poor wife cries out, while she flies to her husband and embraces him, sobb- 
 ing as if her heart would break. 
 
 "Misery, Louise ! Ruin and disgrace !" These are the only words Wel- 
 
 , don is able to utter as answer to the question of his despairing wife. 
 
 "0 say, what it is? Tell me all ! It can only be a terrible mistake ! 
 You are no criminal! O Charley, you cannot be a criminal !" and the un- 
 fortunate woman sinks down beside him, looking up in nameless terror, as 
 if expecting a favorable answer. The children also come up to him weep- 
 ing, and the scene is so touching that even the detectives find it impossible 
 to preserve their habitual reserve. A gloomy pause follows before the 
 prisoner has again recovered himself. Then looking at his wife he says : 
 "I have sinned, Louise, sinned heavily, and this hour is my greatest punish- 
 ment. Do not desire to know more now ! Forgive me and hope for the 
 
 i best ! Farewell !" Kissing his wife and children, he quickly left the room, 
 to be brought back to prison. The unfortunate woman remained motion- 
 less on the spot where she had sunk down beside him, and silently looked 
 after the men. Then rising in eager haste, she passed her hand over her 
 forehead, and laughed. But it was the terrible laugh of insanity, and from 
 that time on she has not had a clear moment. Neither the past nor the 
 future seemed to exist for her. Even her children she does not reco£uize 
 any longer. Only now and then a shadow passes over her ever smiling 
 features, and then she cries out with a deep moan : "Poor Charly ! He 
 
 1 has not come home yet." At present she is in a lunatic asylum, which, 
 the doctors say, she will never leave again. 
 
 And "Poor Charly", the cause ot this ruined life, is imprisoned in a cell 
 of the State's prison at Sing Sing, whose doors will only open to him after 
 a number of years. The day of release, to wliich every other prisoner 
 looks forward with so much anxiety, has no charm for him. He knows 
 he can serve out his time in prison, as penalty for his crime ; but for the 
 terrible consequences of his crime — the ruined happiness of his family, and 
 the incurable insanity of his wife, he feels there is no atonement for him 
 
 i 
 
416 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 in this world. For him, his whole life will be a terrible penalty, which 
 will only end with his last breath. 
 
 Very often, however, only indifferent talents produce imitations of frac- 
 tional currency, which serve their purpose very well. Inspired by a large 
 compensation, some young engraver sets to work, and furnishes with great 
 expense of time and labor a plate, the impressions of which will pass the 
 easier, as fractional currency notes are not scrutinized very closely upon 
 their acceptance. It requires an experienced printer, if even the best plate 
 is not to give to the note an indistinct, spotted and suspicious look. But 
 a good engraver and a skillful printer is not all that is required. The 
 proper paper for the notes must also be obtained. This is also a not very 
 easy matter. Bank note paper, as our readers will probably know, is only 
 manufactured in certain factories, and in quantities so closely controlled, 
 that it seems almost impossible that it should find its way into wron<r 
 hands. But it only seems impossible ; for that it does find its way into 
 wrong hands is proven by the fact, that many counterfeits are really 
 printed on this paper. "Where the counterfeiters obtain this paper, and 
 how they obtain it, can be easily imagined. The power of the dollar even 
 makes itself felt within the walls of the U. S. Treasury. If no real bank- 
 note paper is to be obtained, some other paper which comes pretty near it, 
 will be used. But the paper of the note is always of great importance, 
 and poor paper may even spoil the best impression of the best plate. It is 
 well understood, however, that no means are refused in the manufacture 
 of counterfeits, which may be offered by the arts and sciences. One of 
 these means is galvanoplastic — the art to reproduce impressions on wax, 
 gypsum or lead in copper, by means of galvanism. Examples are not 
 wanting, where rascals succeeded to take impressions of plates of bank- 
 notes on wax or lead, and to form on this the copper plate, which then 
 served just as well to print counterfeits as the original plate would have 
 done. 
 
 The most prominent case of this kind occurred in New Haven, Conn. r 
 in 1850. The well known bank of that place had all its notes printed in 
 a small printing office in the city. Two directors brought the plates and 
 necessary paper, and remained to control the press until all the notes were- 
 finished. The boy who fed the press understood galvanoplastic. He ex- 
 plained to his master how an impression of the plate might be taken, with- 
 out being noticed by the directors. The master fairly jumped at the idea, 
 and the matter was arranged immediately. When the directors came 
 again with the plate, the printer involved them in a conversation, and he 
 succeded in withdrawing their attention for a few moments entirely from 
 the plate. These few moments sufficed for the boy to put a leaden plate 
 quickly into the press. In an instant the original plate was impressed on 
 the lead, which is quickly hid under the boys apron. The directors, how- 
 ever, had no idea what that inattentive moment cost them, while they paid 
 
 i 
 
P0BOSB8 and counter: kitkrs. 41« 
 
 even less Attention to the paper, enabling the printer to lay aside * large 
 quantity of it. 
 
 The lead impression had succeeded wonderfully well, aud the cunning 
 apprentice soon had his galvauoplastic copper-plate ready. The next thing 
 in order was the printing of the notes, at which both master aud apprentice 
 went to work wiih such a will that in a short time they had tweaty thou- 
 tood of these banknotes ready. That the work paid well, can bo easily 
 imagined from the fact that they were for $5 each. The apprentice who 
 was also well versed in calligraphy, made the necessary signatures, and 
 then they were rapidly put into circulation. As they were not to be dis- 
 tinguished from the genuine notes, they were every-where taken without 
 the least suspicion. And not until almost all the notes were in circulation, _ 
 did the bank begin to notice that in a large number of their notes tha sig- 
 natures seemed to be forged. At last it was decided that the notes were 
 counterfeits, although they could not be distinguished from the genuine 
 with the soie exception of the signatures. This was a riddle which even 
 the directors could not solve. The result was that it was assumed, that 
 the printer had obtained a copy of the plate. How and when it had been 
 done, was a question, the solution of which had not been attempted. In 
 order that its credit might not be damaged, the bank resolved to redeem 
 the counterfeits as well as the genuine notes. But their notes were no- 
 longer printed outside, but in the bank building itself and under a mucl* 
 stricter control. The apprentice who had proven himself in this case a 
 master of villainy, was the famous counterfeiter "Bill Brockway", alias 
 "Bill Speucer", "Long Bill", &c., &c, who carried on his nefarious trade 
 in Jersey City, Newark, New York, and other places, with the greatest 
 boldness, as late as two years ago. He was also afterwards suspected of 
 having produced the above mentioned 7 — 30 bonds by means of galvano- 
 plastic. Besides the graver and galvauoplastic, the manufacturers of J 
 
 counterfeits also often call photography and lithography to their aid. 
 
 The places of manufacturers of counterfeits are never in the residence 
 of the manufacturer. Generally, the engraver has his small office some- 
 where beyond the city limits, or in the garret of some inobtrusive boarding- 
 house. At the same time he hides his true vocation behind some harmless 
 occupation, as for instance that of an artist. When the plate is finished, 
 the manufacturer takes charge of it, and has the necessary number printed 
 of which he just happens to be in need. But the "printing offices" also 
 are not in the neighborhood of the manufacturer. Even the engraver has 
 hardly ever anything to do with the printing of the plates. The object of 
 sepcrating the several branches of the business is clear. The manufacturer, 
 as a shrewd business man, must never lose sight of the possibility of his 
 discovery. He, therefor, effects by means of such a separation that the 
 police can at most only seize one branch of his business at a time, and 
 thus gives him timely warning to bring his other working material to a 
 
 27 
 
418 
 
 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LfFE. 
 
 place of safety. The printing offices, however, are generally located in 
 the city itself or in the suburb, where under the form of a small job-print- 
 ing office, they present an unsuspicious exterior. 
 
 That this class of printing offices are kept pretty busy, is seen from the 
 fact that only one person is generally at work in them, and that the thou- 
 sands of notes to be printed, require great care. 
 
 As we have remarked before, the manufacturer only deals with a fevr 
 trusty agents (the "dealers"), who apply to him in person for orders. 
 They are mostly rascals of a speculative turn of mind who, beginning as 
 "pedlars" and "shovers", have reached in the position of "uealer", the 
 highest step in their career. 
 
 Very often they have grown rich, and they only want the proper energy 
 to asoend the highest step in their business, and become a "manufacturer". 
 Almost all the "manufacturers" have obtained as "coney-dealers" the ne- 
 cessary means for establishing a well paying manufacturing business. 
 
 The quantities in which the dealers order their "coney", depend entirely 
 
 on the quality of the goods. If a new plate has been well executed, the 
 
 dealer is overwhelmed by orders from his agents, and the manufacturer 
 
 has to provide for hundreds of thousands of impressions. But if the op- 
 
 j>c6ite is the case, the orders come in very slowly. 
 
 As already mentioned, the different grades of the business are strictly 
 separated from each other. Thus, for instance, the small dealers do not 
 <i deai directly with the manufacturer, but through other mediums, and this 
 - reparation of the different operators, makes it a difficult matter for the 
 authorities to break up the business in aDy but its lowest branches. The 
 danger is always greatest for the lowest class of workers, while the real 
 managers of the business are only to be reached by indirect means and 
 with great difficulty by the police. The profits of these "dealers" and 
 "shovers" is entirely dependent on the facility with which the counterfeit 
 notes are brought into circulation. The reader can make an estimate of 
 them, from what has been said above, and the notices of several "coney- 
 men" which will be found below. • As an illustration of the career of a 
 subordinate member of the business, we refer the reader to page 46, where 
 a sketch of the rascal well known in Jersey City and other places under 
 the name of "Old lame Sam", in whom the dangerous characters of a ped- 
 lar and shover are found united. But, though the higher placed criminals 
 are the worst, as the root of the evil, yet those Mho bring the counterfeits 
 into circulation, are the most dangerous for the public. As we have already 
 seen in the case of Old Sam, it would be wrong to assume that every 
 "koniacker" must have some outward sign of his trade. It is true that 
 rowdies and loafers of the lowest class do not refuse to deal in "coney" 
 occasionally. But the large majority of "shovers", and generally the most 
 dangerous, are those whose appearance is very respectable, and seems to 
 exclude any suspicion as to their character. 
 
rORGERfl \M> COUNTEBFEXTEBS. 
 
 It is impossible to mention here the various forms in which the "shover 
 of the queer" pursues his nefarious vocation. Well arranged swindling 
 tricks often make their appearance, whose disclosures, as laughable as 
 they are when likened to, are still very painful for the victim, on whom 
 they arc perpetrated. Generally such a victim has not even the consola- 
 tion of being pitied, but to the loss is added the painful feeling of bein# 
 the butt of the ridicule and laughter of others. And generally they deserve 
 if. A little more care in trusting perfect strangers, would have saved them 
 from both loss and ridicule. In almost all case3 it is the desire for gain. 
 for which the swindlers throw out their bait. Only those whose suspicions 
 are not aroused by the liberality and generosity of a perfect stranger, 
 offered without any reasonable cause, will be tempted to bite at one of the 
 many baits presented by swindlers. Such persons have no right to com- 
 plain then, if instead of the tempting bait, they only have the sharp look, 
 and the public instead of pitying them, laughs at the grimaces with which 
 they show their pain and disappointment. 
 
 Every swindler needs at least a dozen contiding fools to make his busi- 
 ness pay. That they always find these dozen so easily, is iudeed no 
 pleasant thought. To denounce that class of fraud which recurs most 
 often, and to make it known to the public in general, are the only effective 
 means for putting a stop to these transactions, and keep the unsuspecting 
 from loss. The following may be regarded as a contribution to these 
 means. 
 
 Dressed as a well-to-do farmer, for example, the counterfeit swindler 
 (•"Magsman") is found at the country depots, steamboat landings, agricul- 
 tural exhibitions, and like places, looking about in the interest of his busi- 
 ness. 
 
 He plays the part of a stranger, and now turns to one then to another 
 with questions appropriate to the occasion. If at last he has found a per- 
 son whom he thinks he can use for his plans, he immediately imposes nis 
 company upon him. Such persons are generally farmers of a not very in- 
 telligent appearance, on their way to the city to make purchases. The 
 "Magsman" whom we will call Mr. Wolf has such a smooth tongue and 
 at the same time looks so innocent, that the farmer, ^vhom we will call Mr. 
 Lamb, soon takes an interest in his acquaintance. He gives his new friend, 
 who seems to be a total stranger, every possible information in the clearest 
 possible manner. Wolf listens to him with the greatest interest. He 
 seems to be very happy, to have found so practical and experienced an ad- 
 viser, and invites him at last to take a drink. The invitation is accepted, 
 and soon the two are sitting in a saloon drinking their beer. But together 
 with them two other persons have entered the saloon, and as if they were 
 total strangers, have seated themselves in opposite corners. They are 
 both however well acquainted with each other and with Mr. Wolf with 
 whom they are about going to produce a well practiced piece of swindling 
 
420 TOE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Wolf and Lamb soon become intimate over their beer. Wolf especially 
 seems to be a little tight, and gives Lamb an account of his life. Lamb 
 learns from this that Wolf has been very fortunate. Formerly a hard 
 working farmer, he has become several months back, through the death 
 of a reach relative, the possessor of half a million. This change of fortune, 
 however, has its disagreeable side to Wolf. He is a man who is used to 
 a steady occupation, and must now think of something new to keep him 
 busy. His intention is not to make money, for he has more of that now 
 than he can use, even if he should throw it in the street. He has already 
 donated a large sum for a new church in his native town, and interni s \ • 
 provide liberally for charitable institutions. He has atao undt >*taK n e 
 large business enterprise, not on account of the profit-:- but ;o give *esj*ct/- 
 able workingmen a chance to wo/ ' for good pay. The capital for tni& 
 •nterprise is ready, and the matter c n be taken hold c any day. But he 
 imself could not undertake the suj ^rvision of the business. For the- 
 
 echanical par! he has already engaged a man, and what he now waDts 
 i a man for the general supervision, for which a practical farmer of 
 natural common sense and a large experience in all the branches of agri- 
 culture would be the most fitting man. It would not be necessary for 
 him to have any money ; and the position is so profitable, with almost no 
 work at all, that the person who would occupy it, must necessarily become 
 rich in a very short time. 
 
 Lamb listens with his eyes and ears wide open. That would be some- 
 thing for himself, he thinks, and hints in the course of conversation, that 
 he would not be unwilling to accept such a position. Wolf, apparently 
 highly pleased, explains the matter further. At the same time he occa- 
 sionally looks for notices in his diary, giving Lamb a chance to see large 
 packages of banknotes of high denominations. 
 
 There is no doubt about it, the stranger is indeed as rich as he repre- 
 sents himself to be. Lamb who has plainly noticed the good opinion the 
 high-minded Mr. Wolf has of him, applies directly for the position, and is 
 so fortunate as to be accepted immediately. For Mr. Wolf says that he 
 recognized Mr. Lamb on the spot as a thoroughly educated and experienced 
 farmer, and that their short acquaintance had satisfied him that he was the 
 right man for the position. 
 
 One of the other guests mentioned above, seems to have taken an 
 interest in the conversation, in the course of which the words "working- 
 men", "work", "profitable employment", &c, are heard. He evidently 
 listens with great attention. At last, when there is a short pause in the 
 conversation, he steps up to Wolf, and respectfully asks, whether Mr. Wolf 
 could assist him in obtaining a situation. He had only arrived from 
 England a short time ago, and was now looking for a position, aided by 
 good recommendations. Upon further inquiring, it becomes known that 
 the applicant had been bookkeeper in a large business for over 10 years, and 
 
rORGKBS \M> COUNTERFEIT] 421 
 
 is the son of an old friend of Mr. Wolf. Mr. Fox, as we will call the ap- 
 plicant, is at once invited to take a scat, Mr. Wolf is overjoyed, that he is 
 now in a position by means of his riches, to repay to Fox jr., the many 
 Krrioefl and kindnesses rendered him by Fox sr. He speaks with his new 
 ■superintendent, and as he naturally has no objections to offer, Mr. Fox U 
 instantly engaged as first bookkeeper of the concern, at $1400 a year. 
 
 "What is the state of your treasury, my dear Fox?" Wolf asks. 
 
 "Not very good. Mr. Wolf, but I will economize, until I receive my first 
 salary." 
 
 "It is not at all necessary that you should economize, my dear Fox ! 
 You will be in need of many things after your long voyage. Just see Mr. 
 Lamb, what a quarter's salary would amount to at $11 00 per annum ?" 
 And Wolf again produces his pocket book. 
 
 "Three hundred and fifty dollars," superintendent Lamb replies, aston- 
 ished at this new sign of generosity. 
 
 "Three hundred and fifty dollars ! All right ! We'll pay the young man 
 a quarter's salary in advance. I know what it is to stand on a foreign 
 shore without any friends or any money. (Opening his diary, as if look- 
 ing for something.) Five hundred ! — Five hundred ! — Five hundred ! — 
 Pshaw ! — nothing smaller than a five hundred dollar bill ! Would you have 
 the kindness my dear Mr. Lamb, to take charge of this five hundred dollar 
 bill, and to help Mr. Fox with one hundred and fifty for the present. You 
 can change the bill as soon a3 you have an opportunity, or better yet you 
 can bring the balance into account at some future time.'' 
 
 Lamb without the least suspicion of anything wrong, pulls out his 
 pocket book, and takes out three fifty dollar bills, which he hands to Fox. 
 
 He takes the five hundred dollar bill, remarking that he would change 
 it the next day, and deliver the rest to Mr. Wolf at their next meeting. 
 This meeting is to take place at noon of the next day at a certain hotel in 
 the city, where the contract should be made at the same time. 
 
 The happy Fox now takes his leave after a profuse declaration of grati- 
 tude, while Wolf and Lamb remain to settle some points of business. 
 
 Suddenly Mr. Wolf remembers, that he is to receive a committee from 
 his native town in the matter of the above mentioned donations, which he 
 had nearly forgotten. He bids superintendent Lamb a hasty farewell, 
 jumps into a passing stage, and calls out to Lamb : "Don't forget, Lamb ! 
 twelve o'clock to-morrow in N's hotel." 
 
 Thus swindlers No. 1 and 2 have left the scene, and No. 3 only re- 
 mains. If Lamb in any possible manner should discover the fraud, it is 
 his duty to talk to Lamb and to delay the pursuit of the swindlers, until 
 they are at a safe distance. This however is not necessary with the un- 
 suspicious Lamb. He is happy to have had such an unexpected good for- 
 tune, and does not dream, what terrible disappointments await him. 
 
 lie also gladdens the hearts of his family with fond hopes of a bright 
 
422 
 
 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 future of which the five hundred dollar bill is the best security. The next 
 morning saw Lamb bright and early in the city. He went directly to the 
 bank and presented the note. It was examined by the bank officers, and 
 he was told to wait a few minutes for the cashier. In a very short time a 
 detective is at his side, who arrested him for passing counterfeit money. 
 
 The superintendent-to-be becomes frightened ; but in the hope that 
 Messrs. Wolf and Fox are at the hotel, he accompanies the detective with 
 the calmness inspired by a clear conscience. 
 
 At the examination Lamb relates the whole affair, and only asks to send 
 some one to the hotel and the two gentlemen would certainly settle the 
 matter. The authorities saw from his tale, that he was the swindled one 
 and not the swindler. He was told so, but to satisfy him a messenger was 
 sent to the hotel, where no "Wolf or Fox had been seen, although it was 
 past one.. Lamb found himself swindled out of $150, as well as the super- 
 intendency and all his fine dreams. He found himself beaten and robbed 
 by swindlers, and his only wish was to clear himself of the suspicion rest- 
 ing upon himself, and to get out of the hands of the authorities. In this 
 he easily succeeded. His whole story had cleared him of all suspicion, 
 and he was immediately discharged as several citizens testified to his re- 
 spectability. 
 
 But Lamb has neither entered upon his position as superintendent, nor 
 has he seen anything of Wolf or Fox, much less of his §150 up to the 
 present day. 
 
 The trick exposed here, has not only been practiced once, but it has 
 been practiced over and over again throughout the United States, with 
 more or less variations, but always with the same success. In all probab- 
 ility it will be practiced again and again, and clumsy as it seems to be, 
 many so-called smart persons will be taken in by it. 
 
 Another trick commonly practiced in cities, is essentially as follows : 
 Mr. N. has made a very interesting acquaintance at a hotel, saloon, or 
 olfaer public place. Mr. N. is delighted with him. The new friend is 
 exceedingly witty and interesting in his conversation. What is still better, 
 he shows by his whole behavior that he considers Mr. N. to be intellec- 
 tually far above him. He must also be very rich, for he treats Mr. N. 
 very liberally to liquor and cigars. He does not wish to bo treated, at 
 least not in this saloon. If Mr. N. desired it, they could stop in some 
 other saloon, where he could treat. The friend proposes a walk, and Mr. 
 N. has no objections. On the way they have an iateresting conversation. 
 Suddenly a third person steps up to them, presenting an unpaid tailor's 
 bill to the new friend. It only amounts to $10, and it is really impudent 
 to trouble a gentleman in the open street with so small a matter. N. is 
 no less enraged at it, than his friend. He advises him to take no further 
 notice of the impudent fellow and to continue their walk. His friend, 
 however, thinks it is best to get rid of this "class of rascals" at once, and 
 
FORGERS AND COL NTKUKKITKRS. 42$ 
 
 to let him have the few dollars. He pulls out his pocketbook, hut finds 
 only several twenty-dollar bills. Oue of these he bauds to the tailor in 
 payment. But he has uo change, and the friend turus to N. with an iu- 
 quirv, it he cannot change it. It N. can do it, all right ; ii be can not, lie 
 il asked to pay the tailor the $10, or aa much as he has, aud to keep the 
 £20 bill lor the present. This N. Hgreea to do, especially as he will 
 cbai ge it at the next saloon. The impudent tailor is satisfied and the two 
 friends turn to the next saloon. But hardly have they gone a lew steps, 
 before the friend hears himself called by name. A friend steps up to him, 
 takes him a little aside and whispers a few words to him. Thereupon the 
 friend turns to N., and says that he is sorry, but pressing business calls 
 him away for an hour. He should keep the twenty dollars, however, for 
 they would meet again during the day. Time and place arc decided upon. 
 and the interesting friend goes upon his pressing business. This pressing 
 business, however, is nothing else than to get away from N. as quick as 
 possible, before he discovers that he has received a counterfeit for his good 
 money, and that he is the victim of a well executed swindling trick. For 
 the impudent tailor and the whispering friend were only swindlers who 
 had assisted the interesting friend according to a pre-arranged plan, 
 i But the "shovers of the queer'' know how to introduce themselves also 
 n parties, balls and other public places, and generally do a good business. 
 In this case they are also very jovial fellows, whose conversational talents 
 open the social circles to them all the more easily, the tipsier their mem- 
 bers are already. Of conrse treating i- then in order. 
 
 Soon the swindler knows who has a well tilled pocketbook in the com- 
 pany. Thcsi then are the privileged ones, on whom they apply their 
 cordiality and friendship. But not without an object ; for as soon as it is 
 (heir turn to treat, the swindlers find out that they have only twenty-dollar 
 bills. The happy possessor of a well filled pocketbook, already slightly 
 intoxicated, is then applied to, and is generally only too willing to change 
 the worthless piece of paper for good money. 
 
 All these aud many other similar tricks do not even have the merit of 
 originality. They are stated aud have been described over and over again 
 in the daily papers. It is indeed strange that the attemps to swindle people, 
 are still crowned with success. Swindling in all its branches begins to die 
 out only, when the people will not longer allow themselves to be swindled 
 so easily. 
 
 A trick that was formerly practiced very extensively, is the so-called 
 "Boodle game." This "Boodle game" i3 of special interest as it may be 
 regarded as the father of the still existing "Saw dust game." As in the 
 latter, no real counterfeit money is used i:: the "Boodle game," and the 
 victim is much more stupid, but not a whit less wrong than the swindler 
 himself. The difference betweeu the two classes of frauds is, that in the 
 "Boodle game,'" instead of receiving saw dust only, the victim receives 
 
424 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 partly counterfeits. For that reason we have preferred to mention it here, 
 instead of mentioning it among the "Sawdust swindle". 
 
 With regard to the name of this swindle, it was called "Boodle game", 
 because "Boodle"', as we have mentioned before, denotes in the jargon of 
 the criminals any quantity of counterfeit money. The "Boodle game" is 
 more complicated than the "Sawdust game", and at the same time much 
 more expensive and dangerous for the swindlers themselves, who soon 
 found out that the stupidity of their victims would bite at much simpler 
 baits, and therefor substituted the much less expensive and dangerous 
 "Sawdust game" in its place. Thus the "Boodle game" gradually fell 
 into disuse, and is to-day hardly practiced at all. 
 
 Its nature will be best explained by example, which will also show the 
 character of the victim in its proper light. 
 
 The principal actor in this game must be a person gifted with the power 
 of conversation and of gaining another person's confidence. At the same 
 time he must possess a knowledge of human nature, to find his man after 
 a short survey. This man must not only have money, and desire to make 
 some more, but he must also not care about the means employed in making 
 money. He must then be gradually and carefully prepared for the real 
 business. This is done by telling him about a large enterprise which he 
 (the swindler) has in hand, and by which he can easily make a mil ion or 
 more. The swindler keeps the matter so secret, however, that the victim 
 becomes desirous of knowing more. 
 
 His curiosity, however, is only excited to a higher degree. For all 
 communications only tend to make the victim's mouth water more and 
 more for the mysterious source of gold, without disclosing its real nature. 
 If the questioner at last becomes pressing, he is informed that the matter 
 in a certain way is risky, and of a nature which would not allow it to be 
 much spoken of. The victim then assures the swindler of his complete 
 silence in the matter, and remarks that he knows full well that no under- 
 taking can be without risk. At last, under the promise of the greatest 
 secrecy, he is initiated into the mystery. Somebody, who does not wish 
 to be named of course, has succeeded in coming into possession of some 
 plates of banknotes out of the U. S. Treasury, and now prints any desired 
 quantity for 50 cents on the dollar. It is therefor by no means a business 
 of counterfeit money, for they are genuine notes which cau be passed any- 
 where without questioning. Secrecy is necessary only that the police may 
 not get wind of the matter, confiscate the notes and thus put a stop for ever 
 to this source of wealth. The victim now begins to think that this would 
 be all very nice. But he iutends to be carelul, and plays the unbeliever. 
 He asks the tempter : "Have you seen these notes yet?" "Of course, I 
 have 1 Although I do not understand much about banknotes, still I can 
 see no difference between these and the genuine. There look for yourself!" 
 And with these words the swindler draws out a bundle of new genuins 
 
FORGERS AND COUNTERFEITERS. 425 
 
 live-dollar notes and hands them t<> his victim v\ith the words: "Do you 
 
 understand much about banknotes?" ,l I should think so, at least I have 
 had much to do with them already. ' (lie looks closely at the notes. | 
 kk K\actly like the genuine ; I would accept them unhesitatingly as such. 
 And they are to be bought for fifty cents on the dollar?'' 
 
 "Fifty cents on the dollar! And for this price they have been offered 
 e, and I can have of them as many thousands as I may want." 
 
 "But why do you not take them? I for my part — ' 
 
 "Hold on my dear fellow ! Not quite so hasty ! I generally consider a 
 matter well, before embarking in such an enterprise. I also think that 
 these notes are indeed very similar to the genuine, and even you may be 
 a good authority on the subject of banknotes, but I should like to know- 
 beforehand, what a bank would say to them. Do you think that they 
 could be presented in a bank ?" 
 
 The victim looks over the bundle again, takes a five-dollar bill out of 
 his own pocketbook, and confesses after an exhausting comparison, that it 
 would be imposiblc to detect a difference between the two. He offers to 
 go to the bank and change them there into notes of a higher denomination. 
 The offer is accepted,* and the result is easily guessed, as the notes are 
 really good. lie returns with a joyous face, and reports the completely 
 satisfactory result. The swindler also shows himself delighted, and de- 
 clares that he will let his friend also have a chance at the source of gold. 
 The victim dreams already of millions, and resolves to make a good use 
 of the opportunity. He asks, whether he could have $8000 worth of these 
 notes immediately for $1,000. He would make a beginning with this 
 amount, and then take as much every week as he could receive. But the 
 swindler can promise nothing definite. For now that every doubt is re- 
 moved, he also intends to buy a large amount of them. lie knows, too, 
 that large orders have been made by other parties. But he will see what 
 can be done. 
 
 The next morning the victim receives the happy news, that he can get 
 the required six hundred five-dollar notes, and the manner in which the 
 delivery and payment of the notes are to be accomplished, are explained to 
 him, as well as the measures of precaution which are to be observed. 
 (The delivery invariably takes place by a third party as the representative 
 of the owner of the plate, either in the open air in some remote street, or 
 in some old house provided with many entrances.) Our speculator is found 
 punctually at the appointed place, w r ilh his fifteen hundred dollars in good 
 money. The person described comes with a small package in his hand. 
 Quickly the covering is torn off. Our happy victim sees the fives well 
 packed and tied together. But this is not an appropriate place for further 
 inspection. He sees the upper and lower note, and sees the margin of 
 those lying between, delivers his fifteen hundred dollars, and hurries home 
 with his treasure. Here he hides himself in his private office and opens 
 
4*K> THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 the package with trembling hands. But, oil terror! only the upper and 
 lower notes are fives, all the rast are only business cards with a small 
 margin right and left, which is only a good imitatiou of the margin of a 
 live-dollar note. He has therefor paid for $10 and a number of worthless 
 business cards the amount of $1500. That was indeed a bad speculation. 
 He can find no trace of either the gentlemen who called his attention to 
 this interesting business, or of the one who brought him the bundle. To 
 call upon the authorities for help, would be to accuse himself of an attempt 
 to swindle. It is a bad affair in which nothing can be done. Our specu- 
 lator has learned the "Boodle game," and is $1500 out of pocket, but richer 
 by a dearly bought experience. 
 
 A victim of this class of frauds had attained considerable notoriety in 
 18G9. He was George Montjoy of Philadelphia, who in his child-like 
 simplicity went into the business at once with a capital of $10,000, I say, 
 ten thousand dollars. The chagrin of this greenest of the green upon 
 examining his bundles of notes, may be imagined. He looked for help in 
 the courts. But there a new disappointment awaited him. The law could 
 afford him no redress, because the object of the plaintiff was a criminal 
 one, and he was nothing more or less than an accomplice of those, against 
 whom he had brought an action. 
 
 Not one cent of the money was restored to him. His nearly 2000 
 business cards with the five-dollar margins, he was allowed to keep. What 
 he did with this treasure, the public who had a good laugh at the ad- 
 venture, never knew. It is needless to say that the professional shovers 
 of the queer pursue their business systematically. They know the places 
 and persons very well, where they can put their tricks into operation. 
 Generally, the evening is the time, when towards the close of the business 
 they make small purchases and present their counterfeits in payment, If 
 the bills are not too poorly executed, and if the clerk who waits upon them, 
 is not very careful (of which they make sure beforehand), they will soon 
 have changed a considerable number. With them quickness is all im- 
 portant. The shover must try to get rid of as many counterfeits in one 
 evening in a certain neigborhood as possible. The rumor of counterfeits 
 would otherwise impede his work the next day. His next attempt is made 
 in a part of the city situated at a great distance from the part visited the 
 night before. 
 
 It is also known that gamblers manipulate with counterfeit money. 
 Gambling saloons are therefor in more than one respect, dangerous places 
 for an occasional visitor to change bank notes. The excitement of play 
 often blinds the player, and many happy persons who had won the night 
 before, have found to their horror the next morning, that their winnings 
 consisted of counterfeits only. 
 
 Houses of prostitution, concert saloons and other p^ces, where dissipa- 
 tion and drunkenness play a prominent part, as well as pic-nics and camp 
 
FORGtillS AND COUNTKIIFKITEIIS. 42T 
 
 meetings, arc also favorable places of operation for shovcrs of the queer. 
 Out* of the most celebrated shovcrs, &c, was a certain Dr. Blake who a 
 few years ago, travelled about New Jersey as the proprietor of a travelling 
 photographic establishment. This old ra.scal never failed to be present at 
 the prayer meetings, and ever prayed and preached himself, gaining for 
 himself thereby such a reputation for piety, that no one would have sus- 
 pected in him the person who had flooded the neighborhood with counter- 
 feits during these prayer meetings. Another individual, a certain John 
 Disbrow, was also unmasked a few years ago by the police, after having 
 for many years, as one of the most promiuent members of the Methodist 
 church, used his reputation for piety as a covering for his real business, 
 that of bringing counterfeits into circulation. In truth, the coney-men 
 belong to the most dangerous of the criminal classes, and they understand 
 it very well to hide their true occupation under some other that is more 
 harmless. One of the most dangerous counterfeiters, probably the best 
 banknote engraver of America, Peter McCartuey, travelled for a long time 
 in many cities of the Union, and delivered lectures which were largely 
 attended, on the art of distinguishing counterfeits from genuine notes. 
 This in itself would have been all right, for Mr. Cartney was undoubtedly 
 one of the best, if not the very best, authority on the subject. But, as it 
 was afterwards ascertained, these lecture trips were only intended to dis- 
 pose of his own counterfeits in an unsuspicious manner. 
 
 With the public itself, the shovers can only dispose of notes of a smaller 
 denomination. This class of counterfeits is therefor the most dangerous 
 for the public at large. And with some smartness, the shovers caQ easily 
 dispose of poor counterfeits. Bank notes of higher denominations, which, 
 only come into the hands of bankers and financiers, must however be 
 executed with the more skill, the higher the denomination of the note. 
 It does not seem possible in this respect, that men should be deceived, who 
 handle thousands of bankuotes and valuable papers every day. But it has 
 happened, and still happens. As the most prominent example, we would 
 remind the reader of the 7 — 30 bonds which even passed upon the officers 
 in the U. S. Treasury a few years ago. The well known "Walt ham Watch 
 Company" received six legal tender notes at fifty dollars each in payment 
 of a watch valued at §300, without suspestiug that all six were counter- 
 feits. They passed them again without having a suspicion as to their 
 character, and the notes accepted everywhere without a question, soon 
 disappeared so completely in their circulation, that the authorities were 
 not able to track them. Of this dangerous counterfeit not less than half 
 a million dollars were brought into circulation. 
 
 A counterfeit of the hundred-dollar bill of the Central National Bank 
 of New York, engraved by a certain Charles Ulrich, alias Henderson, was- 
 in consequence of its wonderful execution, accepted both by bauks and 
 government official?. 
 
428 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 As a business, the coney business is arranged wonderfully well. No 
 bank has its business connections and agents spread more systematically 
 •over all parts of the country than the manufacturers of, and dealers in 
 -coney. New York, the centre of the legitimate financial transactions of 
 the country, may also be regarded as the centre of the coney business. 
 When any one of these rascals has obtained a good p-ate, large numbers 
 of impressions are immediately sent to the agents in the country. This is 
 done either by mail, by express, or by special travelling agents. The agents 
 again distribute their supply to the shovers, who see to it that the counter- 
 feits are rapidly brought into circulation. When the notes after a short 
 time are recognized as counterfeits, the shovers have almost entirely dis- 
 posed of their queer, and according to the degree of risk involved, go to 
 work very carefully, or do not circulate them at all any more. There are 
 also some business men who do not hesitate to soil their hands with the 
 -circulation of counterfeits. Of these there are two classes. The one con- 
 sists of those persons who, either from a want of knowledge, or from care- 
 lessness, occasionally come into possession of counterfeit notes, which how- 
 ever when they find out their true character, they try to pass off on other 
 persons. It was very disagreeable for them to be cheated, but that they 
 may not lose a few cents or dollars, they do not hesitate to cheat others in 
 just the same way. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto 
 you," should be remembered by every body, when he discovers a counter- 
 feit note in his pocketbook. He will not think then of cheating some un- 
 suspecting person as he was cheated himself, but will tear the note, or lay 
 it aside as a warning in the future. The only thing that can be said to 
 excuse them is, that they do not think at the time what they are doing. 
 They do not think that by such actions they assist the counterfeiters and, 
 for the time being at last, are only their accomplices. Perhaps they do not 
 *«ven know that the laws declare such a deliberate circulation of counter- 
 feits a crime, and that the consequences of such an attempt are often diffi- 
 culties with the police and even costs, against which the loss of the counter- 
 feit note would have been nothing. 
 
 The second class is a not very large number of bakers, butchers, grocers, 
 barkeepers, conductors on street cars, pedlars, &c., who buy especially 
 ootes of small denominations and fractional currency notes with the inten- 
 tion of letting them slip in occasionally in the change for large bills. This 
 class of business men place themselves directly among the counterfeiters. 
 They deserve the contempt of their fellow citizens in the highest degree, 
 as well as the sever~ punishment which awaits them in ca^e they are de- 
 tected. Among the coney-men the rule prevails that whoever has passed 
 the bounds of the law in ouly one point, will not pay any attention to them 
 in any other respect, if he should think it in his interest. 
 
 They have either become counterfeiters, because they have tried the road 
 ■of crime, or they became criminals in other respects, because they had 
 
rOBGS88 AND COl/NTKKFKITERS. 42^ 
 
 (heir career of crime as counterfeiters. Many example! ol 
 tliiri can be cited. Bill Dow, the renowned bank robber who robbed the 
 Concord Bank of $300,000, commenced his career as a sbover of the queer. 
 Tom Hale, alias "Cranky Tom", was a desperate thief, and during the 
 rebellion was a bounty jumper not less than titty times. Examples are 
 not wanting among th< - men, that accomplices who were no longer 
 
 trusted by tbeir accomplices, were put out i ' the way by cold-blooded 
 murder. One -f the be Mown cases in rccen times was that of "Young 
 Ned", a youi - man v had stolen the plat for the back of a hundred 
 dollar trcasur note frc the U. S. Trcasur. in Washington, for Dill 
 Ourney's gang He di< -oou afterwards in terrible pains from poison 
 which had bee mixed v r> his food by an unknown ( ! ) person. 
 
 Jt is scarcely necessary '•<.> mention that the female portion of the com- 
 munity, which has its most prominent representatives among the best and 
 the worst, is not entirely unrepresented among the coney-men. One of the 
 best known is Marie Brown, a German woman who married an American 
 and whose criminal activity has caused considerable loss to our Germau 
 fellow-citizens who did not think that it was a country-woman of theirs, 
 who so cleverly changed their good money into counterfeits. This interest- 
 ing lady has at present chosen the West as her field of operations. An- 
 other woman of the same class is Mrs. Roberts, a forty years old widow, 
 highly respected as "Mother Roberts" among the coney-men. This lady 
 made use of her "Grecian Bend" as a safe for her "coney," and thus saved 
 this monstrous affair from the imputation of being utterly useless. She 
 wa6 so clever that she was only caught by the tender germs of love which 
 had entered her bereaved heart. A respectable farmer, after a long court- 
 ship, had succeeded in gaining her affections, but not until "Mother 
 Roberts' had assured herself that he looked upon the circulation of counter- 
 feits only as a profitable business. Then she felt that he was the man who 
 was destined to fill the place of her deceased husband at her side. She 
 now initiated him in the intricacies of the business, and one day even 
 allowed him an insight in the secrets of her "Grecian Bend." 
 
 That was all the farmer, who was nothing but a disguised detective, 
 desired to know. He pounced at once on the amiable widow and em- 
 braced her with more force than tenderness. While he holds her, two 
 assistants waiting outside jump through the window, and bring "Mother 
 Roberts," with her bustle, directly from the arms of her faithless intended 
 to the gloomy halls of justice. 
 
 Another daring and successful attempt to break up a band of counter- 
 feiters, was that made b}- some detectives in the spring of 1871. In 
 No. 217 Centre street the so-called Centre st. gang had established iu 
 headquarters and had successfully carried on its nefarious trade for a num- 
 ber of years. In the beginning of the year 1871 a «*^ain Louis Myers 
 offered his services to the U. S. secret service, to aid in the detection and 
 
430 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 capture of counterfeiters. As a recommendation he mentioned that he had 
 just served three years in the state's prison at Trenton for passing counter- 
 feit notes. His motive was revenge on his former pals, and the man could 
 therefor be of use. His offer was immediately accepted. The police had 
 for some time been on the track of the Centre street gang, and Myers 
 should now assist in breaking it up. Myers knew all the members of tho 
 gang personally, while they knew that he had been in prison, and thus had 
 been a martyr to the cause. It was also well known to them that Myers 
 had not squealed, nor involved any of his comrades in his trouble. Such 
 a man undoubtedly deserved complete confidence in these circles. 
 
 This confidence, however, would also be enjoyed by any one who was 
 introduced into the band by a member like Myers. Myers was therefor 
 instructed to introduce a detective into 217 Centre st. as a comrade from 
 jail, and to give him as such the best recommendations. 
 
 This was done, and "Schultz," the name assumed by the detective for 
 this occasion, took hold of his dangerous and difficult work. Myers' 
 recommendation alone did not suffice to remove all suspicion of the new 
 member. Schultz must first show what he was made of, before he could 
 be admitted to a complete intimacy. But the detective waited patiently 
 and took good care not to arouse suspicions against himself by intrusion. 
 
 The most important of these coney-men were James Quinby, alias Geo. 
 Edwards ; George Rhode, alias Keyser ; John Jackson, alias Messenger; 
 Ernest Koff; Wm. Rhode, who was the proprietor of the saloon ; George 
 Wendlaken, alias Dutch George, and McCabe, also well known as a 
 check forger, all of these dangerous characters who were now to be handed 
 over to justice by Schultz and Myers. 
 
 Schultz played his part so well, that he soon gained the entire confidence 
 of the band. He soon had an opportunity also of showing his skill. This 
 was done in the company of Koff in Jersey City and Hoboken. Taking 
 a walk one day Koff gave Schultz a counterfeit ten dollar bill, and asked 
 him to have it changed. Schultz without the least hesitation went into 
 the next store, bought a few trifles, and returned with $9.50 in change. 
 The assurance and calmness with which Schultz entered the store with the 
 counterfeit note, surprised Koff beyond measure* He gave him at once a 
 second, ten dollar bill with the desire to have it changed. Schultz goes at 
 once into a cigar store, and returns after a few minutes with a dollars 
 worth of cigars and nine dollars in change. The business had therefor 
 been an excellent one, and Schultz had proven his ability to the complete 
 satisfaction of Koff. Koff however did not know, that the disguised detec- 
 tive had made his purchases with good notes, and had marked and laid 
 aside the bad ones for further use. In this way Schultz had accumulated 
 a large amount of evidence against tho "Koniackers", aud had made valu- 
 able studies for the future action of the secret service. On March 1, 1871, 
 it was thought expedient to proceed to action. 
 
FORGERS AND COrNTF.RFEITERS. ill 
 
 In (he meanwhile a little incident had almost ruined the whole affair. 
 Myers, a'though he had been a faithful assistant of Sehultz against the 
 C-oncymen, had still done a little business on his own account, in "shoving 
 : e queer". Thus it was, that he was taken by the New York Metropo- 
 lian poiice, and brought to trial for circulating counterfeit money. This 
 s'Cmed to anger him considerably, and while in prison he decided to reveal 
 (o the gang the secret of the true character of Sehultz. After a conversa- 
 tion however with U. S. detectives, he changed his mind, and was again 
 valoed down by a promise of a very light sentence- 
 
 On the above mentioned first of March, Jackson told Sehultz that some 
 members of the gang had committed a large burglary in Long Island, and 
 that a part of the plunder, a case with fine porcelain w^re had already ar- 
 rived at the depot of the Long Island R. R. lie asked Sehultz to accom- 
 pany him to the depot in the evening, and take charge of the case. Sehultz 
 of course said yes, and immediately reported to the headquarters of the U. 
 S. secret service. As soon as Jackson had taken charge of the case, he 
 and Sehultz were seized by detectives. Upon arriving at headquarters, 
 Sehultz was of course released, and immediately returned to the Centre 
 street saloon. Nobody there knew anything about Jackson's arrest. 
 •Sehultz now called Koff out on some pretence. Walking along unsuspici- 
 ously, Koff suddenly found himself caught on one arm by Sehultz, on the 
 other by another detective, and having been handcuffed he was quickly led 
 off to headquarters. No time was to be lost now, and Sehultz immediately 
 returned to the saloon, and in quick succession McCabe, Quimby, Geo. 
 Rhode and Wm. Rhode were captured without any one of them having the 
 least suspicion of the fate of their comrades, until they met them face to 
 face and in irons, in the office of the chief of the U. S. secret service. 
 There also the pleasant intelligence awaited them that their friend 
 "Sehultz" was only a detective in disguise. The evidence accumulated 
 by this *• Sehultz" was so conclusive, that the rascals were all found guilty 
 of passing counterfeit notes. Quimby was sentenced to five years impri- 
 sonment, George Rhode to ten, Jackson and McCabe each to three, Koff 
 to two years and four months and Wm. Rhode to seven years, Dutch 
 George was the only one who gave bail, and then left for unknown parts. 
 Thus the last band of counterfeiters of any importance was broken up, and 
 its members who had for years overrun New York and vicinity with coun* 
 terfeits, have been put out of harm's way. The former saloon which 
 formed the headquarters of the band, has been changed into a restaurant, 
 and busy hands are now engaged in satisfying the demands of hunger, 
 where formerly plans were laid to empty the pockets of honest citizens. 
 
 We have already presented to the reader a number of sketches, which 
 will give him a comprehensive view of the life of all classes of counter- 
 feiters. But we would add to these sketches another, showing us a dan- 
 
4o2 TEE DAUK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 gerous criminal who, enjoying the fruits of his crimes in a palace, was 
 orily saved from his deserved punishment by death. 
 
 Theodore D. was one of the wealthiest citizens of — th street, near 
 Union Square. His fine brown stone mansion stood out prominently even 
 among the palatial residences of this aristocratic quarter. A happy hus- 
 band and father, he moved in the best society, and was a prominent mem- 
 ber of his church. He was everywhere regarded as a promineni example 
 of an honest and upright man, and the only thing that might have been 
 criticised by some, was that he judged the errors of his fellowmen too 
 severely. 
 
 Thus he lived for many years, honored, respected and envied by the out- 
 side world, who did not know, that the riches and respectability of Mr. D. 
 only formed a glittering cover, with which he successfully hid his great 
 depravity from the eyes of the world. 
 
 Nothing deceives the world more easily than great riches, very seldom 
 it asks how the riches were obtained. Thus in the case of Mr. D. it was 
 assumed that he owed his immense riches to successful speculations. This 
 phrase "successful speculations", has been much misused in our age, but 
 is certainly very convenient. The word "speculation"' covers a wide field, 
 from which as many ways lead to prison as to a palace. Mr. D. had 
 made his way to a palace, and there he was at present. But D. did not 
 suspect that this way had already taken a turn which led directly to 
 prison. 
 
 For several facts had come to the ears of the U. S. detectives, which 
 shed a very suspicious light on his character. The authorities would not 
 have dared without the most weighty reasons, to take a prominent citizen 
 like Mr. D. under its especial care. But the suspicions were so injust, 
 that it was thought neccessary to have him closely watched. The result 
 of this made the first suspicion a certainty, and within a few months the 
 authorities were in possession of evidence, which would warrant Lis arrest 
 at any time. But in the meanwhile, a great change had also taken place 
 with D. 
 
 He "had been ailing for several years, and lately his disease had taken a 
 serious consumptive turn. In a short time he could only drive out on very 
 fine days, and at last he was completely confined to his bed. But even if 
 he deceived himself as to his condition, his friends well knew, that he could 
 not recover, and that it was only a question of time how soon he should be 
 taken off. His wife, who knew nothiug of his "fortunate speculations", 
 nursed him with the most tender care, while everything that could be done 
 by his physicians to draw out the thread of life a little longer, was done 
 regardless of expense. But human skill was of no awail in his case, and 
 the question that now presented itself to the authorities was, whether the 
 ends of justice required his arrest and thus forestall death. In considera- 
 tion however of his unhappy wife, and his highly respectable family, the 
 
FORGERS and COUNTERFEITERS. 
 
 ehiefof the U. S. secret service reprieved hifl arrest under the circum- 
 
 Btao< 
 
 Bui ill spite of all care and nursing, D. had passed restless days lately. 
 In the papers, which he read daily, he read one day of the arrest of pro- 
 minent counterfeiters. Clark, Pierce, Carpenter and Riffim, these were 
 all names of men with whom he was closely connected, and who were the 
 
 pet associates of his crimes. 
 
 This report almost took away his last strength. Sleepless and feverish 
 he passed his nights. What should he do? He saw the approaching dan- 
 ger, and felt at the same time, that he was too sick to evade it by a quick 
 flight. Then he became calm again. He still had a powerful friend. 
 Gold 1 gold ! of which he had more than enough, he knew was all powerful 
 with the police and the judges. 
 
 In consequence of his increased sickuess, the servants were ordered to 
 admit no visitors, and not even to bring cards or messages to the sickroom. 
 One morning the door bell is rung. A servant opens the door, and sees a 
 gentleman who wishes to see Mr. D. in pressing business. 
 
 "That is impossible,'' the servant answers, "Mr. D. is very sick, and' 
 no one besides his wife and his physicians are allowed to speak to him." 
 
 "But my business is of the greatest importance, and I must see Mr. D. 
 personally, under any circumstance. Go and announce me." 
 
 "Your card, then, if you please, sir." 
 
 "That is not neccessary, just say that a gentleman wishes to see him." 
 
 The servant went up stairs, not to announce the gentleman, but only to 
 oblige him, and give more weight to his refusal. But suddenly before ho 
 could stop him, the stranger flitted past him, and entered the sickroom. 
 Closing the door upon the servant, he found himself alone with the sick 
 man, who raised himself on his bed and looked at the stranger wijh a?- 
 
 Itonishment. 
 "I did not think, that you were so far gone already, Mr. D.," said the 
 stranger, "it would be well thorefor for me, to come quickly to the point." 
 "I do not understand how you can dare to — " 
 
 "You will soon understand it, Mr. D. (Looking sharply at the sick 
 man.) I knew that you were too sick to run away. If this had been pos- 
 Bible, you as well as your friends and accomplices would have been ar- 
 rested." 
 
 I), trembles at these quietly spoken words. But he quickly collects him- 
 self, and playing the indignant, lie says : 
 
 "Who are you, that you dare to speak to me in such a manner." 
 "Who I am, is of no account at present. But what I want, is the de- 
 livery of that ten dollar plate, which is as I know in your possession." 
 "What— what— do you want? ' 
 
 "I want what I said just now, nothing more, and nothing less. Will 
 you deliver the plate or shall I have the house searched?" 
 
 28 
 
434 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 ".°ir, I do not know, arc you crazy, or — " 
 
 "Mr. D., that will do now, I am not green, and do not let myself be 
 thrown off the track, by such tricks as those. Your game is up, for the 
 ' Koniackers", whom we have taken thus far, have said enough, to show 
 that you are at the head of the whole concern. You are discovered. And 
 if you are lying in bed here yet and have not already joined your compa- 
 nions in prison, it is only in consideration of your innocent family." 
 
 In spite of his weakness, the rascal still attempted to clear himself. 
 Raising his head defiantly, he said : "I suppose you do not know, whom 
 you are talking to? ' 
 
 "Do I not know it? Well, we will see, whether I do or not. Are you 
 not Theodore D., the proprietor of one of the finest mansions in the city? 
 Theodore D., who is regarded by the public as a pious and respectable 
 man, because — well, because the public does not know that this same 
 Theodore D. is one of the largest dealers in counterfeit banknotes, and one 
 of the greatest rascals in America. Or do you still deny that it was chiefly 
 you, who has perfectly flooded the Union from Maine down to Texas with 
 counterfeit banknotes, coin and revenue stamps. Is it not you who is 
 responsible for so many fallen young men, who were n'rst led by you into 
 the way of crime. You have been able for many years to ward off the 
 suspicions of your crimes by means of your riches and your hypocrisy. 
 But now your hour has come. You are known, and justice has a claim 
 on you. Do you understand me now? Do you think that I know you, 
 Mr. Theodore D. ? 
 
 "I am sick and broken down. If I were not half dead, I would speak 
 to you in a different manner, bat I — ' 
 
 " Enough of this foolery. Where is the $10 plate?" 
 
 " How do you know that which you have said of me?" D. now asked in 
 a tone which showed that he saw the hopelessness of continuing his 
 denials. 
 
 " How I know it, is immaterial at present. It is enough that I do 
 know it, and have the proofs for it handy. Theodore D., you cannot 
 escape me by continued obstinacy, but you can force me to let all consider- 
 ations for your family out of the question." 
 
 "And the proofs that you have, are they in your hands alone?" 
 
 "Yes ! For the present at least." 
 
 "You know that I am rich ?"' 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " How is it, could I get out of V. c scrape by money? If I am not mis- 
 taken, you are the chief of the U. S. secret service?" 
 
 " I am." 
 
 " How much would you ask to settle the matter? I have learnt enough 
 in my life to know, that every man can be bought. Lawyers, judges, de- 
 tectives, every one has his price. Ask what you will, I am very rich. ' 
 
FORGERS AND COUNTERFEITERS. 
 
 M T ic p'al ie my price, that is what I want." 
 
 44 O my poor wife ami my poor daughter 1 This disgrace will kill them. 
 Take them into consideration, yon can see, that I am dying." 
 
 »• I have i. .ken all the considerations I could. But the plate I must 
 haw, or else all the considerations fall t? the ground. Give me the plate 
 ■nnd the counterfeit notes which you have in your possession, and I will 
 let you die in peace, and will not expose you. This is my last word." 
 
 "Well then, yes, I will, but I can't do this before two days." 
 
 u Iu twj days then. Don't forget that you are watched day and night 
 until then, and that, even if you would, you could not play me false." 
 
 At this moment the wife of the tick man entered the room, and was 
 astonished to notice the cxciicmcnt of her husband, and the presence of 
 a stsanger. 
 
 Hi- bowed politely to her and left the room. 
 
 Two days afterwards he called again. He was immediately conducted 
 into the sick room, and received from the trembling hands of the patient 
 a package with the plate and nearly 8100,000 in counterfeit notes, 
 chief took his departure with them, sure that death in a few days would 
 more effectually close the career of this dangerous criminal, than human 
 justice ever could. And not qui'.c four weeks after the delivery of the 
 plate, Theodore D. had breathed his last, and deep mourning prevailed in 
 the circlos of his friends and relations. His costly cofnu had been covered 
 with flowers by loving hands. Only good things were related of the dead 
 man. Mournful dirges sounded through the large church, and the mi. 
 .*poke touching words on the verse : " Blessed are those who die in the 
 Lord !" What he then said about the departed, when he represented him 
 as an example of true piety, and praised his virtues as a husband, father 
 and citizen, all this was only regarded by the assembled funeral guests as 
 a just tribute to the departed. He closed his sermon with the following 
 words : " He has now gone to receive the reward, which awaits all those 
 in Heaven, who have performed acts of kindness and charity during their 
 sojourn in this world, and have earned the blessings of their fellowmen, 
 He will live in the memory of his fellowmen as a worthy example for all." 
 
 The good minister, as well as his hearers, did not know what irony there 
 was in his words, and what the state of affairs in this world would be, if 
 Theodore D. would be taken as an example by all. He described the 
 scene in the sick room as a warning, and as proof that crime is at home 
 just as much in the brown stone palace of our aristocratic quarters, as in 
 the low dens of Centre or Houston streets. 
 
 It is hardly necesoary to say anything further about the counterfeit note3 
 themselves. They are total counterfeits or they are genuine notes, whos3 
 face value has been altered to a higher figure. The latter counterfeits are 
 ouly dangerous for those, who are entirely unacquainted with our paper 
 •currency, or who take it carelessly without a second look. The only means 
 
436 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW JfORK LIFE. 
 
 of recognizing counterfeit notes, are those taught us by common sense.. 
 To know the genuine notes is the best way to recognize and avoid the 
 counterfeits. Whoever has gained this knowledge, and it is accessible to 
 all, and whoever is not too indolent and too hasty to carefully look at the 
 paper coming into his hands, he will only very seldom be taken in with a 
 counterfeit note by a swindler or by some victim. 
 
 This knowledge of the genuine paper money and the care observed in 
 receiving notes, are the most officient means to break up counterfeiting. 
 For noboby will deny that the business of the counterfeiters will prosper 
 the more, the less the knowledge of the genuine notes is spread amon^ t! ; e 
 public, and the more careless it is in accepting paper money. The treasury 
 department in Washington has done its utmost in the way of artistic 
 execution of even the fractional currency, to make the imitation of paper 
 money as difficult and expensive as possible. The U. S. detective force,, 
 in breaking up bands of counterfeiters and arresting their leaders, has also 
 iloue its best to diminish the evil. If the public now performs its part in 
 not carelessly accepting any counterfeit that i3 offered to it, the craft ot 
 counterfeiters will soon find their business to be poorly paying. 
 
 Before closing this chapter we would once more refer to the saw-dust 
 game. Although counterfeit money is not employed at all in this swindle 
 as we have explained before, it is nevertheless one of the chief agencies 
 which bring new recruits into the ranks of the "coney-men". This swindle 
 calls the attention of many for the first time to the fact that counterfeit 
 notes can be bought and that their sale could be made a profitable employ- 
 ment. The honesty of such persons is of course not very great, but many 
 of them have been led by the saw-dust swindlers for the first time into a 
 speculation which is regarded as criminal by the law. The speculation is 
 of course only profitable for the swindler. The victim however does not 
 profit by the lesson learned. He knows that counterfeit notes are to be 
 had somewhere, and he looks for their source the more eagerly, the more 
 he desires to make good what he has lost at the saw-dust game. At last 
 our saw-dust speculator, after a very diligent search, falls upon some 
 "shover" who furnishes him with the queer at 50 cts. on the dollar. Thus 
 he enters the ranks of the "coney-men", and by circulating counterfeit 
 money, becomes a crimiaal and an enemy to society. It will be seen from 
 the character of the saw-dust game, that a large amount of stupidity be- 
 sides the necessary badness is requisite to lead a man into it. It is very 
 seldom indeed that a fool succeeds in the honest paths of life, but nobody 
 does a poorer business than a stupid rascal. This sad experience is soon 
 made by the victims of the saw-dust game, who have taken to the profes- 
 sion of a shover. They generally do not advance beyond their apprentice- 
 ship, and in most cases come in conflict with the authorities after their . 
 second or third attempt. They are ruined forever, together with their 
 innocent families, and in the dark cells of their prison curse the hour which. 
 
IERS AND COUNTERFEITERS. 437 
 
 brought them in contact with the swindlers who first led Ihem on the path 
 of crime. In this connection we would relate an incident which seems to 
 point to an energetic course to be adopted by the courts against the saw- 
 dust swindlers. 
 
 In March, 1873, three persons were brought before recorder Ilackett, 
 on the charge of having served as clerks to a well known saw-dust swindler 
 on Broadway by the name of Menager. Menager had avoided arrest by 
 flight, while the clerks were arrested at the moment when they were oc- 
 cupied with addressing circulars for the mail. The court, in spite of all 
 arguments advanced by the defence, was of the opinion that those who 
 knowingly took part in a swindle, even as clerks, were as much responsible 
 for it as the heads of the business. 
 
 The accused were declared guilty, and recorder Ilackett sentenced them 
 each to one year in the state's prison and a fln2 of $1000. At the same 
 time he declared his intention, to serve out in like cases the highest penalty 
 allowed by law, and thus contribute to breaking up the saw-dust gamo 
 which had been practiced long enough with impunity. The sentence is 
 severe, but just. It shows what the chief swindlers will have to expect 
 when either one or the other is brought before the bar of the law. It will 
 not fail to inspire these dangerous rascals with a wholesome fear, and by 
 limiting their business it will also contribute to limit the business in real 
 counterfeits. 
 
 CHECK AND NOTE FORGERS. 
 
 Closely related to the counterfeiters of bank notes, are the check and 
 note forgers. With thjm the art of swindling is not only greatly simpli- 
 fied, but as immense results are generally obtained with small means, it is 
 probable also more developed, than with the counterfeiters. 
 
 The counterfeiter requires, as we have seen, not only costly machines 
 for his business, but also the co-operation of a large number of persons, 
 who all share his profits. The Check and note forger, whom for simpli- 
 city's sake we will hereafter simply designate a3 forger, needs no other 
 capital than his motherwit, and no other assistant than his pen, or at most 
 one accomplice. He depends in his operations almost exclusively upon 
 himself, and therefor keeps the entire profit to himself. The professional 
 forger for this reason, classes himself as a genius among his companions. 
 He plays the part of an aristocrat among the criminal classes, who makes 
 the caehboxes and pocketbooks of others subservient to himself not by real 
 
TIIE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 labor, but by means of few strokes of the pen. The number of these pro- 
 fessional forgers, even in the city of New York, is not very large. The- 
 talent necessary for this business is just as seldom met with as the talent 
 for legitimate business. 
 
 The authorities do not know more than twenty or twenty-five of these 
 professional forgers in the city of New York. Bur the number is much 
 larger who occasionally sign a strange name, or who try to change the 
 amount of a check or draft lo a much higher figure. The number of these 
 amateurs in crime is estimated at about one hundred or one hundred and 
 fifty. 
 
 The requisites for a successful execution of forgeries arc: 
 
 1. A skilful hand, which is able to imitate any strange handwritings 
 especially signatures, as closely as possible. 
 
 2. Dexterity in removing by means of some mechanical or chemical 
 agenl, written characters from paper in such a manner, that nothing can: 
 be seen of these manipulations upon first look. 
 
 These two requisites arc necessary, either to produce an entirely forged 
 check or draft, or to change the face value to some higher figure. To do> 
 this in a satisfactory manner, is very difficult, and requires a hand trained 
 by long practice. 
 
 But the forged check or draft, even if executed with the greatest 6ki!l r 
 is not worth the paper it is written on, until it has been presented for pay- 
 ment and accepted. The presentation of the check is the most ticklish 
 part of the whole operation. To have any expectation of success, the for- 
 ger must be bold in his bearing, and must be able to present the forgery 
 with a selfposscssion, which he must not lose, even under the most dis- 
 agreeable turn which the affair might take. If his nerves caunot stand 
 such a test, he must look about for a person to do this part of the work,, 
 and who consequently claims a large part of the booty. 
 
 There is a separate class of these fellows, who arc wanting in the mecha- 
 nical skill of the forger, but who arc endowed with a large amount of im- 
 pudence and audacity, and who arc known to the police as "Bank-Sneaks".. 
 The old saying that there is "honesty among thieves", has no application 
 to them. The forger who makes use of the sneak knows this, and must 
 therefor be extremely careful, and keep his eyes wide open. He follows 
 the sneak on his way to the bank, and waits in the neighborhood until he: 
 returns. Not always does the sneak leave the bank alone. Sometimes it 
 happens that a uniformed figure accompanies him, holding him by the col- 
 lar. The forger well knows the meaning of this, and hastens away t0 6ome 
 other part of ihe country. If however success attend the affair, he follows 
 the sneak, who lias already noticed him, to the place agreed upon, where 
 the spoils are divided. 
 
 Su-h a division of business is sometimes also necessary with those for- 
 gers, who possess both mechanical Skill and audacity. This is tho case. 
 
CHECK AND NOTE l uUGERS. 439 
 
 with th^se forgers who kavc already become so notorious, that any valu- 
 paper would seem Buspicious in their hands. The professional forger 
 ever, is generally an excellent actor, lie knows how to change his 
 
 93 and his features so well, that even his own brother would scarcely 
 Luow him. At last his resources are exhausted, and it becomes dangerous 
 
 lor him to show his lace to a cashier or a detective. 
 
 Checks and drafts arc generally entire forgeries, so that the contents as 
 well as the signatures are made by the (orger, or he uses some check or 
 i rait which has already been drawn, and changes the name to his own, or 
 Lie value to some higher figure. The first method is the more difficult, 
 and at the same time the more dangerous. For this reason it has lately 
 came into disuse, while the last two met.ious arc extensively practiced. 
 
 Every intended forgery requires extensive studies and preparations on 
 the part of the maker. Not only the handwriting of the prcteuded drawer of 
 ihc note must be imitated, but the manner in which he generally makes out 
 his checks, as well as the ink lie makes use of, and many other trivial 
 things must be taken into account by the forger. Generally some sneak 
 thief assists him, in stealing blank checks, as well as paid checks, ink etc., 
 lrora the place of business. If checks on bauks are to be forged, it is also 
 absolutely necessary for the forger to ascertain how larg2 an amount of 
 money his victim has at the bank, so as to make no mistake, which might 
 raise a suspicion. For only by the greatest smartness can the forger make 
 his business a paying one. 
 
 • The most celebrated case of forgery is that, with which a certain Henry 
 Liviugstou astonisiied the whole commercial world about 3 years ag<>. 
 Livingston one day presented a check for payment at the New York City 
 Batik, drawn for §75,000, signed by Cornelius Vanderbilt and endorsed by 
 Henry Keef. Although Livingston had manufactured the whole check 
 himself, still it was so well executed, that the cashier immediately paid the 
 money, in spite of the largeuess of the amount. Not until some time had 
 elapsed, did the cashier discover, that he had been cheated by a very well 
 executed forgery. But the forger was not to enjoy the fruits of his crime. 
 He had very marked features, which the cashier clearly remembered. 
 Being a good draughtsman, he sketched the face of the adventurer so 
 plainly, that the detectives soon after arrested him in a small town in Illi- 
 nois. The money was almost all found in his possession, and to-day 
 Heury Livingston is serving his time in a cell in Sing Sing, where he can 
 comfort himself with the consciousness, of having at least in one respect, 
 successfully tried the greatest forgery of his age. 
 
 Such forgeries (although on a smaller scale than that described above) 
 occur more ofteu thau the public ever knows. If a bank would call atten- 
 tion to the fact every time it is defrauded out of a few hundred or thousand 
 dollars, this would be a poor recommendation (or the smartness of its offi- 
 cials. It would lose the confidence of the public, and therefor prefers in 
 
440 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 most cases to bear the loss and keep quiet. Th% same is the case with 
 business houses. They would rather bear their loss quietly than to be 
 laughed at for their loss. It many cases they have well deserved it. For 
 it would scarcely be thought possible that there are business houses who 
 would not hesitate to. accept checks in payment from perfect strangers. 
 Not very long ago two large houses on Broadway were swindled not only 
 out of goods, but also out of money, in the following manner : 
 
 A well dressed gentleman, to all appearances a stranger in the city, 
 enters a gentleman's furnishing store on Broadway, and buys handkerchiefs, 
 cravats, &c, to the amount of $65. He takes out his pocketbook and be- 
 gins to count out the money from a big roll of bills. Then he suddenly 
 remembers that he has some more purchases to make, and as he would 
 like to keep some more money for the evening, it would be handier to him 
 10 give a check in payment. The external appearance of the gentleman 
 as well as his general bearing speaks so well for him that his check for 
 6100 is taken without a question. He thereupon takes his bundle and 
 quietly walks out of the store, with the $35 which he received as change 
 in his pocket. He immediately proceeds to a large grocery, where just at 
 ihe close of business hours he buys liquors and segars to the amount of 
 $75, and again presents a check for $100. He remarks that he has speDt 
 all his cash in the furnishing store of Mr. N., and as it is not far to Mr. 
 N.'s store, he refers them to Mr. N. This and the paper with the address 
 of Mr. N. around the package, together with the fact that he wished to 
 have the goods sent to his house, quiets every suspicions which may have 
 arisen to the grocers, and they take the check, giving the swindler $25 in 
 change. He gives one of the errand boys some money to hurry up with 
 ihe goods, and walks off. As the boy arrives at the house, the stranger 
 just steps out of the door. He seems angered that the boy had kept him 
 waiting so long, and that he is forced to return to his room again. He 
 tells the boy to give him the bundle and to leave as quickly as possible. 
 The next day the grocery presents the check at the bank upon which it is 
 drawn. The check of course is refused as it is a fraud in every respect. 
 They now send to the residence of the "gentleman". There nobody knows 
 anything about him. But the people living in the house remember to have 
 seen a gentleman answering the description given, the night before between 
 six and seven, who had passed the time as if waiting for somebody, inside 
 and in front of the house. This seems suspicious. But upon inquiring 
 in the furnishing store, they also know nothing further about the stranger. 
 But the suspicions of Mr. N. are raised in consequence of this inquiring. 
 He Fends the check to the bank, where it is refused as a forgery. Neither 
 house have ever seen anything again of their customer. But the conse- 
 quence of the transaction lias been that they wi 1 receive checks only from 
 persons who are well known to them. Similar frauds, although not 
 practiced on "smart" Broadway houses, cou'd be mentioned by the hundred. 
 
CHECK USD KOT1 FOEOKR8. 141 
 
 M >re careful swindlers^go to work more safely. They buy the goo li 
 at ones? with the condition thai they are to be sent to their residence. The 
 •s then generally take the check the more quickly. The residence in 
 this case is always a pretended one, and the swindler contents himself with 
 the change which he has received on his check, while the sellers are en- 
 lightened as to the nature of the check the same evening, when the buyer 
 le goods is not to be found at the residence given. 
 
 In most cases the selfpossessed appearance of the swindler imposes upon 
 ■Hers, and lets suspicion of such a customer almost appear as an in- 
 sult to him. But it is always the best policy to leave appearances out of 
 :he question in business matters, and always be on the safe side in such 
 
 - -. especially as no reasonable man will lay claim to such an extraor- 
 dinary confidence from a perfect stranger. 
 
 T..e following iucident will show that it is even not without danger, to 
 a die k to a perfect stranger. 
 
 In Deeembcr, 1,^72. a stranger came into a grocery in Delaney 6trect, 
 bought a few irifie-, aud requested the grocer to give him for §20 in small 
 bills a check on his bank. It was more convenient, he said : to carry a 
 k, than so many small bills. As the bills were all good, the grocer 
 accepted them, and gave the stranger a check on the Bowery National 
 B.iuk. Immediately after the stranger had left, the request seemed very 
 strange to the grocer, and he thought it would be best, to notify the b .uk 
 of the lact. The very next day a man came to the bank and presented 
 the check, whose value, however, had been change! from 820 to $1120. 
 The man was immediately arrested. It was now found that the fears of 
 the grocer were well founded, and that the rascal had only procured the 
 check, to change its value to a much higher figure. 
 
 The forger belongs to that dangerous class of swindlers, who are the 
 best examples of the old adage, that 4, no one resembles an honest man 
 more, than the worst scoundrel". Endowed with high conversational 
 talents and insinuating manners, and giving himself an air of wealth by an 
 
 _ int exterior, it is even difficult for many endowed with an extended 
 knowledge of human nature, to penetrate the mask of such a swiudler. 
 Before assuming a certain part, he studies it thoroughly in all its di.'ierent 
 phases, and prepares answers for any questions that might pos-dbly be put 
 to him. The knowledge that in presenting a fo:-ged check, he is at the 
 gates of prison, does not in the least destroy his equanimity. The least 
 symptom of embarassment or timidity would raise suspicion, and cau-e a 
 car, tul examination of the check. This the forger must try and avoid bv 
 all means. In this he is aide 1 by his bold front, with which he stan Is at 
 the cashiers desk with a bu-iness-like manner, equally ready to take tho 
 monev, or if necessary, to reach the street with a few rapid strides. ]) : 
 generally he arranges it in such a manner that he need uot make use of 
 hi? legs. The discovery of the swindle in most ca>es docs not occur, until 
 
442 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOUK LIFE. 
 
 the swindler has put a considerable distance between himself and the last 
 scene of his operations. IIu then continues his swindling operations at 
 pome other place under a dilierent name. For the authorities the arrest 
 and discovery of a professional forger is always a very difficult matter. In 
 the mean lime, the forger mi! i i he hills into the hands of the ever pursuing 
 justice, has increased i he number of his villainies considerably We will 
 here give as an illustration of such a forger s career, the sketch of one of 
 the most dang/rous rascals, who carried on las occupation in New York 
 and other (ilies, as late as 1871. 
 
 In th.c month of June of that year, a very intelligent looking young man 
 appeared in the banking house of E. D. Morgan & Co., in Exchange Place, 
 and introduce 1 himself with a letter oi introduction from a prominent per- 
 son, as B. 8. Downer. He cam: 1 , as he said, from Detroit, and pretended 
 to be a very near relation of senator Chan 1 er. The object of his visit 
 was to buy bonds of the New Orleans, Mobile and Texas 11. R., to the 
 amount of $5000. His was told that the bonds could be had to any amount 
 for cash or a certified chec'<. The next morning Mr. Downer again made 
 his appearance, and bought fiw of these bon Is, in payment of which he 
 gave a certified check for §">000, dniA'u to his order. The check was 
 taken without a question, and D own r received iu addition to the bonds, 
 $333 as the difference between their nominal vane and marked value. 
 The next day however, it was found that the cheek was a forgery. The 
 bank, thereupon, took immediate steps to sop the further sale of the bonds 
 as well as oi the check for $33 j by i lie forger. But this individual well 
 knew that for him iu this case time was money. lie had immediately 
 coiivcited the bonds and the check into money, and hud left for parts un- 
 known. 
 
 The authorities now took up the trail of the forger, without having any- 
 thing to be guided by, except the, description given by the bunk officers. 
 The next time the swind'er was heard from, he had made his appearanco 
 in Toledo, Ohio, as a dealer in wool. He ha I there deposited in a bank 
 a certified check for §3000 drawn by Bibcock Bros., of William street, 
 New York, and after having drawn 32500 on this deposit, he disappeared. 
 This he did just in time, before the bunk discovered that the check was a 
 forgery and that they had been swindled out of §2500. From Toledo this* 
 genius took his way to Canada, where he selected the Royal Canadian 
 Bank in Montreal as a victim. There he deposited a check for 8 1 0,000, 
 also drawn by Babcock Bros., of New York. But when he went to draw 
 on the bank, lie found to his sorrow that the Canadians were more up to 
 their business than the American banks. He was told that the bank would 
 first communicate with Babcock Bros., before he could draw on the bank. 
 Nothing could b3 sail against this. But the swindler did not consider it 
 in his inierest to await the result of this communieation to Babcock Bros. 
 He left his $10,000 check, which was also a forgery, as a remembrance 
 
CHSCX AND NOTE FORGERS. 4 I 'J 
 
 to tlio bauk and again crossed the boundary of the United Slates. Pough- 
 keep9ic wa9 the next point, from which news of this untiring rascal were 
 received. These news consisted in three forced checks, whose values had 
 been changed from $30 to §000, Si 000 and $1500 respectively. They 
 were all payable to the order of Samuel E. Collins. Inquiries made with 
 regard to this individual, left no doubt that this name was only one of the 
 many aliases assumed by the swindler originally known hy the name of 
 Downer. But by the time that the detectives had found his la 3 t trail, he 
 was again far away from the scenes of his last frauds. 
 
 While the detectives were thus actively looking about the West, the 
 New York papers published on Sept. 19 a telegram from St. Louis, an- 
 nouncing the arrest of a certain. J. C. Whittemore in that city. This arrest- 
 had been made on the suspicion that Whittemore was a forger who had 
 defrauded a number of banks in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. In his 
 possession was found a letter of recommenda'iou with the signature of 
 E. D. Morgan, and other documents which made it probable that Mr. J. 
 C. Whittemore was no other person than the much sought lor B. S. 
 Downer. A detective was immediately dispatched to St. Louis to take 
 charge of the prisoner and bring him to New York. But upon his arrival 
 in St. Louis, the New York detective found that the St. Louis authorities 
 had discharged the prisoner, because the insufficiency of proof had not 
 warranted his further detention, and at the same time that the New York 
 detective entered the city, the forger left it by another train. That was 
 good for the rascal, but bad for the ends of justice. All hope had been 
 relinquished of ever bringing this arch-swindler to account, when an un- 
 expected event changed the whole state of affairs. While the trail of the 
 fugitive is sought for in and around St. Louis, a detective in New York 
 sees a man in the street, on a cold November afternoon, who seems to 
 answer the description of Downer in every respect. lie follows the mau 
 and arrests him at the moment when he intends to enter a stage. He is 
 ■ confrouted with the cashier of Morgan & Co., and is immediately identified 
 as the five thousand dollar swindler. Brought into court, he declares posi- 
 tively, that his name is Arthur Breed and that he never had anything to 
 do with Morgan & Co. On the desk of the clerk, however, among other 
 documents, the $5000 check could be seen. The accused seeing it, steps. 
 up to the desk, takes the ckeck and putting it into his mouth, begins to 
 chew it with as much composure as if it were a piece of candy. This 
 daring act seemed to stupify the surrounding persons, and the rascal had 
 almost succeeded in swallowing the only evidence of his guilt. But two 
 deputy sheriffs suddenly caught him by the throat and choked him in suck 
 a manner that the check could be taken out of his mouth. Although badly 
 used, the check could still be used as a proof, and ensured his conviction 
 beyond doubt, as the rascal by his unsuccessful attempt to swallow it, put 
 his guilt out of doubt. Downer is a fair sample of the large majority of. 
 
44 i TIIE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 check and note forgers. And if at the same time we take into considera- 
 tion the criminal carelessness of some bank houses in their monitary trans- 
 actions, we can only wonder that the successes of some of these swindlers 
 are not greater than they are already. For this reason it is also perfectly 
 excusable, that the principle has been formed in opposition to such swind- 
 ling, to look upon every one with suspicion, whom we do not know to be 
 absolutely above suspicion. That this principle,' in consequence of the 
 smooth tongue and pleasant appearance of the swindlers, is often left out 
 of sight in cases where its strict application would be of the greatest use, 
 is what makes the work of these swindlers so easy, and in most cases 
 makes their success possible. "We often do not know what to be more 
 astonished at, the boldness of the swindlers, or the blindness of the victims. 
 It would be absurd to mention means, by which the business man, the banker, 
 &c, could recognize forgeries and keep himself from damages. "Omit 
 none of the customary rules of safety and look out for your own interest 
 with your five senses wide awake." This rule does everything that can 
 be done at all in this direction. For it is an undeniable fact that out of 
 ten successful forgeries, nine would not have succeeded, if the proper care 
 had been employed by the victims. The proper care employed by the 
 business men would much more quickly and effectively destroy the business 
 of the forger, than the police or the laws could ever do. 
 
 THE ADULTERATION OF FOOD. 
 
 The sphere of commerce and production have ever been a fruitful field 
 for imitation. In the present age this imitation has been developed iuto a 
 science and is carried on with very little attempt at concealment, which 
 shows that by custom and long suffrage it has, so to say, made itself at 
 home with us. The producer as well as the dealer considers the adultera- 
 tion of his goods in most cases as smartness in business ; he would not get 
 along in the rivalry of business, if he were not initiated in the secrets of 
 adulteration. It is of course understood that we do not mean to say that 
 all the adulterations, which are brought into the market in New York, are 
 to be placed to the account of the New York dealers. Far from it ! These 
 goods are generally adulterated at their far distant places of manufacture. 
 But this does not operate to prevent further manipulations to be undertaken 
 with them which, although technically called by another name, are nothing 
 ■else but adulterations. 
 
IHI ADULTERATION OF FOOD. 445 
 
 Some years ago the New York Tribune bought up in different stores 
 Ughout the city samples of the most common articles of food, and 
 >hed a careful chemical analysis of each of them. The most astound- 
 ing disclosures were then brought to liurli t. Although it was well known 
 unadulterated food was not to be met with very often, still no one had 
 had an idea that the buMuess of adulteration had reached such a height and 
 boldness. The affair created considerable excitement at the time, and 
 . verybody hoped that t! e bold disclosures would push the adulteration 
 back into narrower limi . For a short time that was actually the case. 
 But we fear that similar tests made to-day would show the same results 
 ben. 
 
 "Blessed are the ignorant !" might be properly said in New York with 
 regard to the articles of iood. For who would have appetite to cat and 
 drink, if the chemist should analyse each morsel of food or every glass 
 of wine or beer, and name the different poisons which are swallowed with 
 them, nud in no very small doses either. The bread even contains, accord- 
 ing to chemical analysis, many different things than it is supposed to con- 
 tain. Even if we can become accustomed to old bread and potatoes mixed 
 with it, it is much more difficult with milldewed flouer, or even alumn, 
 gypsum or sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) with which many bakers try 
 to improve the looks and the weight of the bread. 
 
 Much could be said about the different things that are sold under the 
 nam? of milk. Fortunately the ingredients used in the manufacture of 
 adulterated milk are more of a disgusting than of an injurious nature. It 
 is also well known, that the Orange and "Westchester county milk dealers 
 do wonders in their way. Unfortunately these milk manufacturers do not 
 think of the many thousand children for whom their mixture is the only 
 lood. How many children waste away in consequence of this fraud, and 
 instead of health and strength have the seeds of some fatal disease im- 
 planted in their tender organisms. 
 
 Not everybody knows what it is that he drinks as tea or coffee. The 
 adulterations of tea are. generally committed by the sous of the flower v 
 kingdom. The coffee however, when adulterated, is generally adulterated 
 by the man who sells it. Against chicory we could only object that it is 
 not coffee, but roasted carrots, burnt acorns, coffee grounds roasted oyer 
 igain, mahogany saw dust, etc., are ingredients of coffee which are dcei- 
 ledly out of place. They are however not one half as bad as the adult - 
 -ations of tea, of which especially the green tea owes its color to a mixture 
 )f three parts of Berlin Blue and one part of gypsum. For this is the mix- 
 use with which the speculative chinaman while roasting the tea, changes 
 t from the cheap black to the much dearer green tea. Still worse than 
 his do the Chinese treat that article which they sell to the western barba- 
 ians for a high price, under the name of "Gunpowder". In this so-called 
 ea, there are sometimes not less than 40 per cent of iron fillings, aud 15 
 
44G THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 per cent of sand, without taking into consideration that the small amount 
 of real tea that it contains is colored in a similar manner as the preen tea. 
 
 Vinegar is often adulterated with sulphuric acid, and the pickles, etc., 
 preserved in it, owe their green color to a poisonous copper salt. Many 
 housewifes will declare this to be wrong, criminal, eto., without knowing 
 that they themselves have already acted the part of poisoners, by throwing 
 a copper penny into the jars in which they preserve their pickles. Many 
 <jf the fruits preserved in sugar, also contain sharp poisons, which are 
 added to preserve the fruits longer and to give them a fine color. 
 
 What our children eat as candy is often nothing but sweetened poison, 
 and it is indeed a wonder, that the consequences of eating this candy are 
 not seen more plainly and attended with more terrible results. Terra alba 
 which is bought by barrels by our confectioners, is nothing but pure gyp- 
 sum. The more tempting the colors, the more suspicious are the candies. 
 This is especially the case with red, yellow and green colors, for which 
 not overscrupulous confectioners use respectively lead, chromium and 
 •copper colors, and for no other reason than that they are much brighter 
 than the corresponding vegetable colors. 
 
 If, is still worse with those beverages sold under the names of wine, beer 
 •or whiskey. With them the adulteration knows no bounds. Who does 
 not know that the speculator, well versed in the secrets of manufacturing 
 liquor, is able to adulterate some cheap wine and make it pass as some 
 dear brand of Hungarian, French or Rhine wine? We may even meet 
 with wines, which do not contain a drop of the juice of grapes. Such 
 wines however, contain 40 per centum alcohol and a large number of che- 
 micals, to produce aroma and taste. One of the most common as well as 
 the most daugerous chemicals in use is sugar of lead. Imported wines 
 are not much better. The english especially know how to transform a 
 small quantity of cheap wine into gallons of the best "port" or "sherry". 
 
 It is hardly necessary to mention that the art of adulteration has also 
 been tried on beer. As the least adulterated we may regard lager beer, 
 although the brewers replace hops as much as possible by cheaper sub- 
 stances. But on the other hand, the beverage sold in this country under 
 the name of ale, is among the more disgusting mixtures which ever passed 
 the lips of man. Salt, tobacco, salts of iron, sugar, molasses, etc., are 
 among fie ingredients generally used in the manufacture of ale. And as 
 for whiskey, it is enough to hear the names of the various substances, 
 which are used in its manufacture, to give a person with not over strong 
 nerves the "delirium tremens". 
 
 The old proverb that "ignorance is bliss", is fully confirmed with regard 
 to our meat. It is true, we have official meat and cattle inspectors, whose 
 business it is to keep sick cattle from the slaughter houses, and bad meat 
 from the markets. But these inspectors are only human, and if properly 
 treated, very easily shut their eyes. Thus it is that meat often passes the 
 
TIIE ADULTERATION OF FOOD. 417 
 
 j:or which had much better been burned to ashes, than be used as 
 
 KM). 
 
 Only a few months ago a case of this kind was mentioned by the N. Y. 
 World, where a whole herd of diseased sheep was smuggled by the in- 
 or». Only a short time ago a number of persons were suddenly taken 
 lick from eating rotton meat, with such violence, that a poisouing by arse- 
 nic wa3 at first suspected. The investigation instituted by an iuspector of 
 Washington market of many years standing, revealed how often the meat 
 of Bick animals is offered for sale. The inspector severely condemned the 
 practice that condemned meat was simply refused, and not at once seized 
 and destroyed by the authorities. It is a common practice to bring the 
 meat of such animals for inspection, who have died of some disease. Such 
 meat is known in the trade by the name of "case beef," "case mutton", 
 etc. If it is condemned, the owners never think of destroying it. They 
 let it disappear through pedlers, corner grocers, butchers, etc., or ia ob- 
 scure sausage manufactures, boarding houses and like establishments. 
 • ho knows the dangerous consequences of eating spoiled meat, can 
 estimate the unscrupulousncss of those who for a few paltry dollars, would 
 vi^.i the health aud lives of hundreds. And as it is with meat, so it is 
 with all other articles of food. The adulterator of food is cither simply a 
 swindler, who does not give the buyer that for which he pays, or he be- 
 comes, unintentionally it is true, a poisoner or murderer, by selling a more 
 or less active poison as food, 
 
 How many unfortunates annually lose their life through the want of 
 principle, with which the most dangerous lamp oi's are sold uuder the title 
 on-explosive". And what other name than murderer do they deserve, 
 who carry on this traffic with the full knowledge of what the consequences 
 may be. Even in the drug stores, the refuge of the sick, adulteration may 
 be detected, and mauy of the bottles will often be found to contain alto- 
 er different sulstaaces than their labels indicate. 
 
 But we have said enough to show the general extent of the adulteration 
 of food. It is one of the dark sides of New York life, which is more par- 
 ticularly felt by the poorer classes. A more severe sanitary inspection 
 would achieve much good in this respect. But a purification of the j ublic 
 opinion is also very necessary. 
 
 The business man, who adulterates his goods, should know that by so 
 doing he does not practice a simple business trick, but a real fraud, and 
 for that reason be despised by the public. This would do more good than 
 all official inspection. We will then no longer be astonished by the fact 
 that an otherwise strictly honorable man, will commit without the least 
 •conscientious scruples a dangerous imposition, because according to cus- 
 tom, he only looks upon it as appertaining to the business. 
 
MS 'HIE DARK SIDE OK NEW YOKE LIFE. 
 
 THE ABORTIONISTS. 
 
 Any- one passing up Fifth avenue towards the Central Park, will have 
 noticed a five story brown stone mansion on the corner of 52d street. Its 
 style of architecture as well as its dimensions, attract the attention even 
 of those eyes which have become accustomed to fine buildings. Its front 
 shows an architectural beauty which contrasts favorably with the style of 
 architecture predominating in the street. The high windows are each 
 formed by two large panes of the finest glass, behind which French lace 
 curtains may be seen. The chief entrance leads into a wide hall, where 
 the images of the beautiful walls inlaid with marble are reflected by large 
 mirrors. Right and left, doors lead to dining rooms and parlors, elegantly 
 fitted up with furniture imported from Paris, while the walls are adorned 
 by beautiful paintings. In „ the hall of the kitchenmaster, long rows of 
 silver ware reflect the last rays of the departing sun. The spare room for 
 strangers is elegantly fitted up with bedsteads of ebony, while numerous 
 boudoirs, reading rooms, a library, a billiard room, a splendid art gallery T 
 and everything connected with the house tends to show the unlimited 
 wealth of the proprietor. And this palace, with all its wealth and treasures,, 
 is a disgrace and a loud accusation against the city of New York. Like 
 a beautiful but poisonous mushroom, it is the product of a disgusting moral 
 rottenness. Every stone represents a crime against the most holy instincts 
 of nature. New York possesses many a palace devoted to sin, but not one 
 can reach the height attained by this one, the property of Madame Restell, 
 the most disreputable abortionist of New York, and of this continent. 
 What more is needed than a look at this palace, and the remark that it 
 w r as built by Madame Restell entirely from what she earned at the busi- 
 ness, what more is needed, we ask, to show to what extent this terrible 
 crime is practiced in our city. And in view of the large extent of the evil, 
 is the crying out of those people justified a hypocritical, who fear to offend 
 decency by open discussion of the matter? We answer decidedly: No! 
 No disease was ever cured by keeping it secret, nor was any evil ever im- 
 proved by ignoring it. And this is much less the case with our social 
 evib and diseases. But no one of our social evils is of so serious and 
 dangerous a nature as that of abortion. In its consequences it reaches 
 further than even prostitution, with which in many respects it is so closely 
 allied. As in the case of prostitution, we will again incur the risk of 
 offending hypocritical prudery, and expose the evil robbed of all its cover- 
 ing, in all iis revolting nakedness. 
 
 A calm look at it exposes a terrible view into the prevailing demoraliza- 
 tion of our days. Terrible as this view is, it is necessary, if the public 
 mind is to recognixe the danger threatening it from this side, and shall 
 bring the right means for its suppression into execution. 
 
TIIE ADORI [ONIS1 ; . 
 
 449 
 
 The name heading this chapter is derived from the Latin "abortus", 
 denoting a premature birth. Abortionists, therefor, arc persons who for 
 criminal purposes undertake to bring about such premature births on 
 women by various means. There are indeed certain cases, where in con- 
 sequence of abnormal structures in the body, or on account of other causes, 
 woman are not able without serious danger to themselves, to undergo a 
 natural childbirth. In such cases it is sometimes necessary, from con- 
 sideration for the life of the mother, to bring about an artificial premature 
 birth. But the art of midwifery has been so highly developed in our age, 
 that this necessity occurs in very few cases indeed. The possible con- 
 sequences of irregularities in the female organism, by means of which an 
 abortion is brought about, are mostly of such a serious nature that even 
 the most skillful physicians do not make use of it, except in the most 
 extreme cases. But nobody would think of calling a physician an abor- 
 tionist, who would undertake an abortion in such exceptional cases. That 
 class of so-called "doctors" who come within the limits of this chapter, 
 make intentional abortion their exclusive business. 
 
 They do not uudertake such abortions in cases of necessity onV, but 
 without distinction on any woman who wishes rid herself of the con- 
 sequences of a misstep, or of her duties as a mother. While the best 
 physicians only proceed with the greatest care even in the most necessary 
 abortions, the regular abortionists are nothing but heartless criminals who 
 are not only in medical but in every other respect entirely uneducated 
 persons. Furthermore, they do not make use of means employed by the 
 profession, for these would not act strongly enough in their hands, nor 
 bring about the quickly desired result. On the other hand, no physician 
 laying claim to the least bit of respectability, would make use of those 
 daDgerous means and manipulations which are brought into operation by 
 the abortionist upon every occasion and in the most clumsy manner. The 
 consequences may be easily imagined. The abortionist, in almost every 
 case, kills the child, and in only too many cases, the mother also. If she 
 survives the operation, she has the seeds of dangerous diseases implautcd 
 in her organism, which sooner or later bear their sad fruits. For no law 
 of nature can be disturbed with impunity, and this principle holds good all 
 the more, the more important such a law is. And no law is more im- 
 portant and deep-seated than that on which nature has based the perpetua- 
 tion of the human race. So much for the general understanding of our 
 subject whose details will be developed in every direction in the course of 
 the chapter. . 
 
 In prostitution, we have met with a social evil whose origin is lost in 
 the darkness of the ancient world. It is different with the crime of abor- 
 tion, also assuming already the proportions of a social evil. Only traces 
 are found of it in the past centuries. It is true, it was practiced now and 
 then, but never and under no circumstances did it form a marked feature 
 
 29 
 
450 THE DAKIi SIDE OF NEW fORK LIFE. 
 
 in the demoralization of the character of a people. Abortion, therefor, is 
 a very young outgrowth of the false civilization of our days, and has been 
 justly called the "sin of the age". 
 
 In ancient times and with barbarian nations, the parents had full con- 
 trol over the life of their children until they were of age. Where the 
 parental instinct did not protect the infant, there was no law nor a moral 
 sense of the masses to do it. In overpopulated China, for instance, there 
 is no law to the present day to prevent thousands of new born and even 
 older children being thrown into the streams, or exposed to starvation in 
 fields and woods. Our civilization is enraged at this barbarity in the 
 celestial empire, and thousands of missionaries are sent there to renew the 
 almost extinguished spark of maternal instinct in its daughters. The 
 activity of these missionaries has been crowned with snccess. Through 
 their exertions, and our civilization which looks much better at a distance 
 than at home, the barbarity of child-murder is considerably on the decrease 
 in China. But while a great hue and cry was raised about these doings 
 in the far East, and so-called christians found fault with the mote in the 
 eye of their Chinese brethren, they would not see the beam in their own 
 eye. While the barbarism was condemned which kills the new born child 
 in China, it was overlooked that the same barbarous custom, only under 
 a different form, had obtained a hold among us. True humanity knows 
 no difference between the heathen Chinee who throws her new born child 
 into the river, and the Anglo-American christian of the present day, who 
 does not wait so long, but has her child killed even before its birth. If 
 a distinction is to be made, it is in this, that the child-murder by abortioD, 
 iu vogue with us, is neither sanctioned by law nor religious belief, and 
 therefor is wanting in these qualities, which might possibly be brought 
 forward in excuse for the deed of the Chinese mother. 
 
 Thus the matter presents itself to an impartial observer. He who has 
 drawn for himself a milder picture of this evil, either deceives himself or 
 belongs to those problematic natures who instead of lending a helping hand 
 in reforming existing evils, try to deny their existence, and if not success- 
 ful in this attempt, do all in their power to let them appear in as mild a 
 light as possible. But excusing evils has always been a hindrance to their 
 reform, for as it is with single persons, so with the community at large, an 
 open acknowledgement of a fault is the best sign of a resolution of reform. 
 
 Looking at the matter from the standpoint that we have takeD, it is 
 hardly necessary to consider it from a moral point of view. We translate 
 the word "abortion" unhesitatingly as child-murder, and at the same time 
 designate the abortionists as child-murderers, and the women who make 
 use of their services as their accomplices. Not until this view gains ground 
 among the public and is expressed in our laws, can we expect that the 
 civilization of the present age will rid itself of the brand which has been 
 impressed upon it by the "sin of the age", abortion. 
 
TIIK ABOKTIOKI rS. 151 
 
 a evil is feh iii much more extended fields than might seem probable 
 at first fight. The abortionist kills the child only in the most ioriuuate 
 eases. That however is not all. If he does not kill the mother on the 
 spot, he ruins her constitution in such a mauner that she is hardly qualified 
 to become a mother again. The effects of his crime are felt through three 
 generations, and characterize him as one of the most dangerous enemies 
 of mankind. 
 
 In former years much has been written about the causes which have 
 effected a demoralization of the Anglo-American race to such a degree 
 that many even prophesied its final extinction. As the chief causes were 
 principally named the female education as contrary to all laws of nature, 
 the clothing and mode of life, as detrimental to the development of the 
 female body, the food, &e. These causes probably contribute their full 
 share to the evil named. But the chief cause has been overlooked, either 
 with or without intent. It is none other than the terrible crime of abor- 
 tion, every day assuming larger proportions. The number and the flourish- 
 ing business of the abortionists, give the best measure of its alarming 
 extent. 
 
 If we look at these persons who represent the perpetrators of this ter- 
 rible crime on the human race, they may be divided into several categories. 
 There are first the "doctors", or those individuals who in their advertise- 
 ments place a "Dr." before, or an "M. D." after their names. But 
 generally they are no doctors at all. If one or the other actually has a 
 diploma, he is a person completely wanting in all scientific interest, one 
 who would never succeed in an honorable practice, and who has taken to 
 abortion only for the sake of gain. But generally they are persons who 
 have not been able to pass an examination for Doctor, or even such who 
 have never studied medicine at all, and who possess the impudence to 
 make a business of playing with the life aud health of misguided women. 
 
 Official investigations have brought to light many interesting facts about 
 this class of "doctors". The names given in the advertisements are 
 generally only assumed, and sometimes, like their companions in the other 
 fields of crime, they have several names. The "Dr. Franklin" of the 
 newspapers has, in consequence of official investigations, become simple 
 "Mr. Jacoby". "Dr. Asher" is only another name of the Polish barber 
 "Rosenzweig", who caused so much excitement two years ago. "Dr. 
 Evans", "Old Dr. Ward", "Dr. Eliot", "Dr. Thompson" and "Dr. 
 Powers", are all names under which the ex-convict, Thomas Lookup, 
 carried on his murderous business. 
 
 Those who possess the least medical knowledge, are, strange to say, 
 generally the boldest. Cases are known to us, where a former shoemaker, 
 a saloon keeper, and a doctor's attendant, assumed the title of "Dr." and 
 then undertook operations on women, which spoke as loudly for their im- 
 pudence as ior their ignorance and their want of principle. 
 
452 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 JSesides these "doctors" there are female abortionists who anuounca- 
 themselves simply as "Madame", but occasionally place a "doctoress" or 
 "professor" before their names. Their business, if anything, is even more 
 extensive than that of their male compel itors. The reason for this is not 
 that they are better educated, for in this respect as well as in moral de- 
 pravity they about equal each other, but many women, when they are in 
 circumstances to make use of an abortionist, for very conspicuous reasons, 
 would rather apply to a female than to a male "doctor". The number of 
 female abortionists is much larger than would be supposed, as only a com- 
 paratively few have the means or the impudence to advertise extensively. 
 A considerable number of female abortionists consists of women who were 
 educated in Europe in schools of midwifery. Not all mid wives possess 
 sufficient strength of mind to withstand the temptations which present 
 themselves occasionally. To prevent a birth in an unnatural manner is 
 sometimes paid better than to assist in a birth, and thus it is that a mid- 
 wife occasionally does the contrary of her regular profession, and her good 
 pay destroy the life which it is her true mission to protect and preserve. 
 
 It would be difficult to estimate the actual number of abortionists in our 
 city. One estimate gives their total number, male and female, at over 
 two hundred. But other parties represent this number as by far too great, 
 and attempt to show that there are not over twenty actual abortionists in 
 the city. By the latter parties attention is also called to the fact that the 
 majority of these rascals are very rich, and must therefor count their 
 patieuts by the hundred. These twenty, it is furthermore shown, can 
 accommodate as many women as would in all probability call for their 
 assistance. This seems to be very true, and only twenty abortionists would 
 require thousands of women and girls who make themselves their accom- 
 plices. The number may possibly exceed twenty ; but the consequences 
 which might be inferred from the existence of two hundred, arc so terrible 
 that this number must be dismissed as exaggerated beyond all measure. 
 And even of the small number assumed by us, there are only a few who 
 dare to uudertake operations on women calling upon them. The majority 
 doctor their patients for a time with pills, electricity, herbs, &c, and after 
 having charged them exorbitant ftcs, they send their patients to their 
 bolder colleagues for the purpose of undertaking an operation, and for this 
 service receive from them a commission. 
 
 The pills and other mixtures which they sell their patrons, are generally 
 very active substances. They know very well that these mixtures will 
 not bring about the desired abortion. They take the victim under their 
 charge for a while, in order to pluck it before sending it into the claws of 
 their colleagues who without regard to life and health, boldly operate with 
 their instruments. 
 
 It is true, no woman has ever died in the hands of these pill and tincturo 
 doctors, but hundreds and thousands have had the seed of death implanted. 
 
THE ABOBTIOMIST8. 453 
 
 vitliin them by this treatment, and slowly sink down to an early grave. 
 The practitioners are poisoners of the worst kind who carry on their 
 Dcfarious trade all the more boldly, as the earlier or later ensuing death 
 of iheir victims can in no way be shown to have been caused by their 
 treatment. 
 
 Another class of these rascals who would be considered abortionists 
 from their advertisements, are not abortionists in the true sense of tho 
 i. They have the depravity but not the boldness appertaining to the 
 real abortionist. They arc nothing but swindlers and thieves of the lowest 
 -. If a woman calls upon such a doctor for help, he is perfectly will- 
 ing to give it. Payment must of course be made in advance ; when this 
 is done, the "doctor" undertakes with great importance an examination, 
 and gives the woman a medicine with directions how to take it. This 
 medicine is generally composed of harmless substances. The unfortunate 
 woman punctually follows the directions, but the desired result is not 
 obtained. She again calls upon the doctor. He declares that the case is 
 nn cxira-ordinary oue which demands a special treatment ; that it is still 
 time enough to settle it, and that for a certain number of dollars he is 
 wiping to restore her to her normal condition. In her terror she pays tho 
 Eum named, and receives a new strongly acting medicine which however 
 
 i is only an innocent variation of the other. No result however is obtained. 
 Generally the women do not come again. They have either lost con- 
 fidence in the treatment of the "doctor", or their condition is so far ad- 
 
 i vanced that they fear the danger for themselves which might arise from 
 further attempts. 
 
 Scenes, however, are often enacted in the office of the doctor, upon a 
 third visit, in which tears and accusations play a prominent part. Then 
 the doctor takes off his mask, and with insulting remarks turns his victim 
 out of doors. lie is a respectable physician, he says, and not a murderer, 
 and if she does not leave the house instantly, he will call the police. He 
 pave her the harmless mixtures intentionally, and had not intended to 
 bring about an abortion. If she does not like it, she can prosecute him. 
 This generally settles the case. The poor woman is glad to get out of his 
 office, after the threat of the police. Nor does she entertain the least idea 
 of ever again obtaining a cent of the money paid him ; for there is nobody 
 to whom she can apply without compromising herself. She must be sileut 
 aud 6ce how she passes the crisis no longer to be averted. The heartless 
 swindler laughs at her, and asks who could call him an abortionist, 
 although he has the price for an abortion in his pocket. 
 
 This kiud of swindle is exten?ively carried on in our city, and is a large 
 source of income for these swindlers. Not less than ten or twelve of the 
 aboitionists advertised in the papers, belong to this class. The danger of 
 •coming into collision ^ith justice, may be scarcely said to assist for them. 
 Morally they stand just as low as the real abortionists, uuder whose name 
 
454 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 they carry on their disgraceful business. The real abortionists, who do* 
 what their name indicates, without regard to danger, prefer instruments 
 as the surest and quickest means of effecting an abortion. This method 
 however is among the most dangerous surgical operations, and even the 
 most experienced physicians undertake it only with the greatest care. 
 How dangerous the instrument must be in the hands of a person who per- 
 forms the operation without having the least idea of the construction of 
 the human body or anything connected with it, may be easily imagined. 
 A woman might just as well have an apple shot from her head by a poor 
 marksman, and the man who would attempt such a shot, would be no 
 less unscrupulous than the abortionist with his operation. It would be a 
 miracle indeed, if she could escape without any serious consequences. 
 But generally these consequences come afterwards, and a ruined constitu- 
 tion and an early grave avenge a criminal interference in one of the most 
 important processes of nature. How often death is the consequence ot 
 operations intended to produce abortions, has been clearly shown by 
 numerous cases which have come to light lately. The best known among 
 these is that of Miss Alice Bowlsby, which at its time was the sensation 
 of the day, and which contributed much to excite the indignation of the 
 public against the abortionists and their doings, to its highest pitch. For- 
 tius reason it is of such importance that a recapitulation of the details will 
 be of interest to the reader. 
 
 Alice Bowlsby was the daughter of a respectable and wealthy family of 
 Paterson, N. J. She was young, pretty, and well educated, and was 
 regarded as a model of innocence and purity. For some time she had 
 kept company with a young man who also enjoyed the best reputation. 
 But Alice Bowlsby had had her weak moment and had been seduced by 
 her lover. She was still weaker when she followed the advice of her 
 seducer to secure the help of the abortionist Rosenzweig, alias Dr. Asher r 
 of New York, in ridding herself of the consequence of her misstep. Under 
 the pretence of visiting friends in New York, the poor girl left her family 
 on Aug. 22., 1871, and went to the den in No. 3 Amity place. What 
 happened there, can only be supposed, as she was never again seen alive. 
 So much is certain, that Roseuzweig performed an operation on her, and 
 brought her to his residence at G87 Second avenue, where she died. No- 
 body would have known anything further about her, and she would have 
 been simply added to the long list of "missed persons", if chance had not 
 accidentally brought about the discovery of the murder. The abortionist 
 had crammed the corpse of his victim into an old trunk, and with a most 
 wonderful impudence had sent the trunk by a truck to the Hudson River 
 R. R. depot. The driver of the truck did as he was ordered, and left the 
 trunk in the baggage room at the depot. A poorly dressed woman soon 
 after preseuted herself as the owner of the trunk, and upon showing a- 
 through-ticket to Chicago, asked for a check for the trunk to that city- 
 
fllE ABORTIONISTS. 
 
 455 
 
 This was given to her, and she completely disappeared, so that to this day 
 Dot a trace of her has been found. As the trunk was about to be pli 
 in the baggage wagon, a powerful stench coming from it, attracted the 
 attention of the railroad officials. This caused suspicion, and upon the 
 order of the superintendent, the trunk was taken aside and opened, when 
 a terrible sight greeted the eyes of the surrounding persons. Covered 
 only by a few rags, the naked body of a beautiful young girl was seen, 
 pressed into the most unnatural shape. The authorities were immediately 
 notified, while the body was brought to the morgue for an inquest by the 
 coroner. All that he could ascertain was, that the girl had died in con- 
 sequence of an operation performed on her for the purpose of abortion. 
 But nothing could be found that would give a clue to the identity of the 
 murdered girl, or the person who had performed the operation. But soon 
 light began to dawn in this darkuess. The truck driver who had brought 
 the trunk to the depot, saw in the morning papci*3 the details of the ter- 
 rible discovery, and he immediately suspected the part that he, without 
 his knowledge, had been playing in this mysterious tragedy. He im- 
 mediately called at the police station and stated that he had received the 
 trunk at the house of Rosenzweig in Second Aveuue. Rosenzweig, how- 
 ever, in view of the danger threatening him, had become invisible ; he 
 was soon found, however, and arrested. The rascal denied everything. 
 As yet no one knew who the murdered girl was, until at last a woman 
 from Paterson recognized the body as that of Alice Bowlsby, who bad not 
 yet been missed by her frien Is. As soon as this discovery had been made, 
 a detective found at the bottom of a washtub in Rosenzweig's house, a 
 handkerchief which had been left in the water, and which was plainly 
 marked in one corner with the name "Alice Bowlsby". Thus there was 
 no doubt left that Miss Bowlsby had been at the house of Rosenzweig, 
 and the chain of evidence became so strong agaiust the miserable criminal, 
 that he was convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment, the 
 most severe punishment inflicted by law. But the counsel for the defense 
 appealed to a higher court and brought forward the argument that the law 
 under which Rosenzweig had been sentenced, had not been in operation 
 at that time, while the new one which was to replace the other, had not 
 yet taken effect. The court was of the same opinion, and Rosenzweig 
 was released. 
 
 The number of cases that become known, are by no means all that 
 occur. Who knows the number of those unfortunates who have died 
 under the hands of abortionists, whose name and fate however have never 
 become known? Who would have known that Alice Bowlsby had been 
 murdered by an abortionist, if the trunk with her corpse had not acci- 
 dentally been discovered at the depot? Roseuzweig's method is, probably 
 with a little more care, a very common one among the who'e murderous 
 lot. A well known abortionist let the cat out of the bag respecting this 
 
456 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOKE LIKE. 
 
 nutter. He was discussing with some others of the profession Rosen- 
 zweig's case, and attacked Rosenzwcig bitterly for his stupidity. "Why", 
 he cried out, "did not the confounded fool pack the body in charcoal, and 
 thus stop the smell of putrefaction. That's the way I always do" — but 
 suddenly recollecting that others than colleagues were listening to him, he 
 added, "that is when I send parts of bodies away for dissection." But 
 there can be no doubt that this man said a terrible truth at that time, and 
 that many a female victim of false sham 2 has been packed away in a box 
 and sent to some accomplice of the abortionist at some distant place. The 
 murdered woman then becomes enrolled on the rapidly increasing list of 
 "missed persons", and besides her murderer and a few accomplices no 
 one knows anything about the tragic secret of her end. The number of 
 female persons missing is not small, and with very few exceptions they 
 can be placed on the account of the abortionists. If the instruments of 
 the abortionists are deadly weapons, their pills and mixtures &c. are not 
 less dangerous. It is a fixed medical fact that medicines and other agents, 
 that are strong enough to bring about an abortion in a healthy woman, 
 will always be exceedingly dangerous in their consequences for the whole 
 female organism. Incurable organic diseases, nervous debility and an 
 early decay are the more common consequences. Many warning examples 
 could be brought forward here, although proportionately very few come to 
 the notice of the public. Many women gradually sink down under the 
 consequences of the crime known only to themselves and their murderers, 
 and prefer to let the terrible secret of the cause of their sickness be buried 
 with them, rather than accuse themselves by an open confession. 
 
 The silence of their victims is one of the chief reasons why the abor- 
 tionists can proceed with such terrible recklessness. They have their 
 money, and an accusation against them would be a self-accusation of their 
 victim. The fact alone that a woman crosses the threshold of an abor- 
 tionist, makes her his accomplice, and she thus places herself in the power 
 of the most heartless wretches. For they know that the women calling 
 upon them are generally alone and without protection, and this knowledge 
 causes them to set aside every consideration of humanity. Several cases 
 that have become known in the past few years, and which will be found 
 below, may serve as a warning. 
 
 A young girl by the name of Mary Ryan went in the fall of 1871 to 
 an abortionist well known under the name of "Madame Anna", to consult 
 her as to her condition. The girl had only come for advice, and did not 
 desire any treatment or operation. Nevertheless the Madame, together 
 with a man, drew her into another room, where in spite of her resistance 
 she was stupefied with chloroform. "When she awoke from her stupefac- 
 tion, she saw to her horror that the two had performed an operation on 
 her to bring about an abortion. She was told that she was to pay $25 
 ior the operation. When the girl refused to pay for the crime committed 
 
tiil ABOnnoNiSTS. 457 
 
 on her, t ho Madame and lier companion searched her and took from her 
 $10 which they found in her pockets. They also (old the girl that she 
 could not leave the house before procuring the other $15 in some manner. 
 This threat was made in earnest, the poor girl was treated like a prisoner, 
 ami she only succeeded in leaving the house, after having in an attack of 
 nervous excitement made her way to the door by force. She was found 
 in an insensible condition in the ladies 1 cabin of the Desbrosses Street 
 ferry and was brought to the Park hospital, where her statements led to 
 the arrest of Madame Anna. The girl herself was very ill for a long time 
 in consequence of the operation, and was saved from the grave only by 
 the merest chance. 
 
 Another case occurred in the fall of 1872, which throws a strange light 
 on the doings of the abortionists. In May of that year a woman had ap- 
 plied to a certain "doctor" to have an abortion performed on herself. The 
 doctor had asked $25, which sum would have to be paid cash before he 
 would touch an instrument. The woman however had only $19 with her, 
 and as the doctor insisted upon the full payment of the whole sum, she 
 left with the promise to return with the desired amount the next day. 
 When she came at the appointed hour, the doctor was not present. His 
 housekeeper said however, that he had told her to perform the operation. 
 After some resistance the woman gave her consent. The operation was 
 performed and after a few days the desired result took place. But the 
 other consequences also came in time. The woman began to ail and 
 gradually wasted away. But not until she saw that there was no more 
 hope for her, did she confess the crime that had been committed on her 
 and which now bore so terrible fruits. She would probably not have fared 
 any better, if the doctor had performed the operation himself. But the 
 case clearly shows the terrible recklessness with which the abortionists treat 
 those unfortunates who fall into their hands. Money is the only thing 
 they care about in the poor creatures, and to obtain this, they are ready 
 to do anything from the meanest swindle to murder under any medical 
 form. 
 
 Many of our readers will still remember the sad case of Miss Emily 
 Post in the year 1871. She was brought into the house of the celebrated 
 abortionist, Madame Van Bnskirk, to await her delivery there. Thirty 
 dollars were puid cash and the rest ($20) as well as the current expenses 
 for board were to be paid afterwards. But as no one had come during 
 the past week to look after her, and the Mademe was anxiously looking 
 out for her money, she determined to rid herself of her patient. In spite 
 of her protestations that her frieuds would not leave her, and although her 
 delivery might take place at any moment in consequence of an operation 
 performed on her, she was taken from her bed at night by the heartless 
 
 (woman, placed into a carriage and taken to Brook'.yu, where the frieuds 
 of the girl were said to reside. The Madame and her accomplice, a certain 
 
458 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Dp. Perry, accompanied her. After riding about for several hours in the 
 chilly night air, and after the almost exhausted girl had left the carriage 
 several times, her condition became so low that the wretches thought best 
 to leave her in the first precinct station house in Brooklyn. Some physi- 
 cians who were quickly summoned, immediately recognized the dangerous 
 state of her sickness, and she was taken to the city hospital, where she 
 died the next day. Before she died, she related the inhuman treatment 
 she had been objected to and which had been the immediate cause of her 
 death. Why the girl had been taken out of the house in the night time 
 in her critical condition, or why the wretches had not ascertained the 
 whereabouts of her friends, before deciding upon her fate in so heartless 
 a manner, can be ouly explained by the fact, that in choosing between the 
 possible loss of a few dollars and that of a human life, they preferred to 
 risk the latter. Possibly, also the Madame looked forward anxiously to 
 the consequences of the operation, and that she must hurry or the un- 
 fortunate girl would die in her house. The Rosenzweig trunk mystery 
 had just been cleared up with all its terrible details, and a corpse in the 
 house of a well known abortionist might have given rise to troublesome 
 investigations. 
 
 But these dangers for life and health are not the only ones that threaten 
 those women who have even the least intercourse with abortionists. These 
 rascals often do not hesitate to make such an intercourse the means of 
 the most shameless and disgraceful extortions. This is especially done 
 by that class of abortionists who ouly use the name as a covering for 
 swindling women in the most disgraceful manner. If such a rascal, for 
 instance, discovers that his victim is very wealthy, he continues to extort 
 money from her for many years, threatening to denounce her, if she does 
 not comply with his demands, and even forces her to sacrifice her honor. 
 Those who do not hesitate to make use of the criminal services of these 
 persons, must expect the worst at any time. 
 
 Those persons, male and female, who advertise their houses for ladies 
 "who are compelled to retire from the world for a short time'', and who 
 at the same time offer their services to nurse such women and to look out for 
 the children, are also nothing bnt abortionists. The lives of the women 
 who are attracted by these advertisements, are no safer in these house* 
 than they would be in the hands of any other abortionist. The poor babies 
 who are still alive when born, are indeed well cared for. Very lew live 
 over a few days at most. We only recall the sad fate of Emily Post who 
 had intended to await her delivery in the house of Madame Van Buskirk. 
 Almost at the same time a case occurred in the same house, which clearly 
 indicates the fate of the children who are brought to life here. A girl, 
 Mary F., from Warren co., N. Y., who had been seduced, was brought 
 to Madame Van Buskirk's house by her seducer, where the rascal intended 
 to have an abortion performed on her. Her condition however was so far 
 
 
THE ABORTIONISTS. 45!> 
 
 advanced that the "Madame" hesitated to undertake an abortion. As her 
 Beducer had only paid her way to the house, and had then left her, she 
 only had the choice to be cast helpless into the streets of the great city, or 
 to accept the offer of the "Madame" to remain as servant in her house, 
 of course without any wages. She chose the latter. Alter three months 
 she was delivered of a strong healthy child. One day the mother went to 
 bleep with the child on her lap, and when she awoke, the child was dead. 
 Her cries brought the police to the house and an investigation was im- 
 mediately instituted. It was only ascertained that the child had been 
 suffocated, but how this suffocation had been brought about, could not be 
 satisfactorily explained. This remained a secret which sheds a peculiar 
 light on the method in which these houses are conducted, and indicates 
 one way of caring for the children. 
 
 Among the 1G0 to 170 new-born children who are annually found in the 
 6trcets of New York by the police, there may be a considerable number 
 who made their first appearance in this w 7 orld in houses like that of Ma- 
 dame Van Buskirk. A certain "Madame" Grindle also advertises pleasant 
 rooms "for nursing ladies". This "Madame" seems to possess the aspira- 
 tions of a Restell, as can be seen from a conversation between her and a- 
 newspaper reporter wdio, without making himself known, visited her for 
 a lady "in distress". To him she said in the course of conversation : 
 "Hundreds of ladies come to consult me, so that we have plenty to do- 
 during the whole year. The poor women ! How little the world cares 
 for their troubles ! We have made it our business to save them and aid 
 them ! It is indeed a noble aim ! If we were not the true friends of such 
 women, how many unhappy families, how much scandal in the churches 
 and society would appear ! You have no idea, my dear sir, what class of 
 persons apply to us. Prominent politicians bring women from the first 
 families in the country. Many aristocratic married women occasionally 
 take up their abode with us, or we attend upon them in their residences. 
 If the case does not take longer than a week, we only charge $300. If 
 more than a week, we make, besides the charges for board, extra charges 
 for medical attendance. For babies which remain behind, we look out 
 that they are well cared for, and we never charge for the expenses and 
 trouble arising therefrom more than Si 00." Very human, indeed ! Only 
 §100 for the trouble of laying some helpless babe on a street corner or iu 
 the basket of the foundling asylum. 
 
 Every one of this class of abortionists is either rich already or on tho 
 pure road to it. Of course, not all are able to charge a la Restell or 
 Grindle from $300 to $1000 per case, and some of the beginners even do 
 their murderous work for $5.00. The majority of the operators havo 
 two different rooms. While they undertake the operation in their real 
 office, they have another place where the patient awaits the result, if she 
 does not prefer to await it at home. Often the same house serves as 
 
460 THE DARK SIDE OF KEW YORK LIKE. 
 
 hospital for several abortionists. Roseuzweig simplified the matter still 
 more, by sending his patients to his own residence. There it was where 
 Alice Bowlsby died, and from where he sent her packed up in a trunk to 
 the rail road depot. This fact, and the remark of an old abortionist 
 which was quoted above, with regard to sending corpses in charcoal, 
 clearly indicate the method, by which these murderers get rid of their 
 adult victims. They take much less trouble with the bodies of those 
 children, whom they murdered before their birth. These are either burnt, 
 or they are buried in cellars, or they are thrown into the water or on some 
 deserted spot, clad only in a few rags. It is a terrible fact that hardly a 
 -day passes, in which at least one body of a dead child is not found in our 
 streets. This happens almost always under such circumstances, that the 
 discovery of the mother or of the abortionist is an impossibility. It is 
 hardly necessary to mention that the bodies of children found does not by 
 far represent the whole numbers of child murders, and that a large number 
 of bodies rot away, without having been seen by any human eye. 
 
 After having given in the above sufficient facts to characterize the 
 abortionists, we now turn to those women who are sufficiently depraved 
 or blinded, to make themselves accomplices of these criminals. Here wo 
 find girls, who have sought the aid of an abortionist, to avoid the con- 
 sequences of a misstep, and the disgrace attendant thereon. The adver- 
 tisements of these rascals in the daily papers have made their business 
 well known, and the fear of the threatening disgrace leads the poor 
 creature to take this fatal step. If she should have not courage enough 
 herself, her seducer is often enough only too ready to arrange the preli- 
 minary steps with the abortionist and then bring his victim to his den. 
 We have already cited an example of this. Another case was that of 
 Mary Russel, who died in consequence of an abortion performed on her 
 by Madame Burns. Her seducer gave her some money and told her to 
 go to Madame Burns, who would help her out of her trouble ; and only 
 one week after she had first entered the house, Mary Russel was a corpse. 
 
 It is hardly to be wondered at that heartless seducers do not hesitate to 
 deliver their victims into the hands of the abortionists. But who would 
 think it possible that even a parent would do the same with a daughter? 
 This however was the case with Emily Past, noticed above. The inhumaa 
 parents sent their daughter to the house of Madame Van Buskirk, and 
 lelt her in this den, not only without having paid the full fee, but without 
 even looking after her again. This was the reason why she was torn out 
 of bed and brought to Brooklyn in the night, and finally left in a police 
 station in a dying condition. The conduct of these parents was well cen- 
 sured in the following clause of the verdict, given by the coroner's jury: 
 
 "We are furthermore of the opinion, that the parents of the deceased,' 
 Peter K. Past and Minerva Past, in placing their daughter under the care 
 of a well known abortionist, have committed an unnatural crime, which 
 
TIIK AIJ0KTI0NI3TS. 4G1 
 
 at tJio same time ^ive evidence of a brutal dispositiou, as well as of au 
 QDScrupuloua ommittance of every natural duty. 
 
 la many cases of this kind, this fatal step is probably nothing else, than 
 the consequeuce of a terrible fear of disgrace in the eyes of the world. 
 The reduced girl takes this step in about the frame of mind, in which she 
 wonld have taken poison or jumped into U12 water. But there arc also 
 plenty of women, who look upon abortion as an easy way to get out of 
 "difficulties," and for this reason do not avoid the possibility of getting into 
 such "difficulties." 
 
 Prostitutes also form a large part of the regular customers of the abor- 
 tionists. Many of them have had abortions practiced on them so often, 
 that they have learnt the secret of this trade, and now not only practice it 
 on themselves, but also on others who are in need of it. And if we could 
 reconcile ourselves at all to this crime, it would be in view of this latter 
 class. There is no object more pitiful than the child of a prostitute. Born 
 with the seed of disease implanted within them, such unfortunate creatures 
 are only brought up for the lowest walks of life, and doomed from their 
 birth to breathe the atmosphere of vice and crime. In view of this, we 
 almost hesitate to curse the hand that contributes to make the number 
 of children comparatively so small among prostitutes. 
 
 A third class of customers of the abortionists are married women of all 
 classes, the richest as well as the poorest. Many do this without the 
 knowledge or the consent of their husbands, while often enough the hus- 
 band is the accomplice of the crime. In many families the idea has 
 gained ground, that it is a kind of duty, to " regulate" the number of 
 children. No more children arc wanted, than can be "decen'ly" brought 
 up. When this number is full, no new arrival is accepted, that is the 
 mother destroys with the aid of an abortionist all further signs of infantile 
 life, as soon as it begins to appear It is a strange fact, that just among 
 the rich and wealthy classes this kind of child murder, called " family 
 regulation", has the most supporters. That just these classes should so 
 anxiously try to avoid an increase in their families appears strange. There 
 arc several causes for this. The wrong idea that a good education must 
 always be an expensive one, is one of these causes. They do not educate 
 the child to enable it to make its own way in all circumstances of life. 
 On the contrary, they think to benefit the child, by educating it for a 
 higher station of life than that which it could occupy by reason of its 
 wealth. In such a case the most important knowledge is generally ne- 
 glected, while the child is made to learn a great amount of superfluous 
 stuff, at a very high expense. The higher this expense then is, the better 
 the education bought with it, is tough t to be. No wonder then, that 
 starling with such ideas, many despair of having the children falling to 
 their share "well" educated. 
 
 But this reason a'one docs not explain the strange fact, that the richest 
 
402 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 families generally have the least children. The female education in 
 wealthy families is generally of that kind, that the girls are brought up to 
 be pretty dolls for the parlor rather than for anything else. As they have 
 been educated, they only look for happiness of life in the empty forms of 
 social life and regard the duties of a mother only as obstacles in the chase 
 for pleasure. No wonder then that such women are always ready to pre- 
 vent the too often recurring event of becoming a mother, with the aid of 
 the abortionist. The "fashionable idea", also mentioned above, that it is 
 not aristocratic to have too many children, is not without its fatal influence 
 among the higher classes. The fear that by dividing the wealth of a cer- 
 tain family among many children t the future standing of this family might 
 be impurilled, also causes many to call the abortionist to their aid. 
 
 How much the moral sense of that class of people, who are generally 
 called the educated, has degenerated, is seen from the fact that such a 
 family regulation is not at all looked upon as criminal by these classes. 
 Respectable physicians say with disgust that the demands made upon them 
 in wealthy families, and which amount to nothing less than to degrade 
 themselves to the position of abortionists, are every year becoming more 
 numerous. In many cases the refusal of the physician has been followed 
 by his dismissal as family physician. How extended the practice of abor- 
 tion must be among the wealthy families of our city, can be seen from the 
 palace of Madame Restell in Fifth avenue. They cannot be poor people 
 who can pay from $500 to $1000, not to have a child come to this world 
 -alive. And it is a well known fact that our millionaires have generally 
 small families. 
 
 It would be unjust to represent abortion as a crime of the aristocratic 
 classes only. It is a sad fact that the "middle classes'* try to keep up 
 with the aristocracy in this respect. Whoever will look about in families 
 with whom he is acquainted, will not fail to make far reaching observa- 
 tions. How can it be explained by any natural reason that young and 
 healthy couples only have two or at most three children in the course of 
 10 years married life? And such cases are so common that out of ten 
 young couples there will be at last six who after five years do not have 
 more than one child. The evil is becoming plainer every day, so that 
 about two years ago the bishop of the episcopal church of Western 
 New York felt compelled to warn his people of it in a special pastoral 
 letter. 
 
 Even the statistical facts contain mauy riddles which can only be solved 
 when the doings of the abortionists are taken into account. The number 
 of families, for example, in the state of New York was in 1865, 780,931. 
 Of these 196,802 were without children, 148,208 had only one child, 
 140,572 had two, and 107,342 had three children. This gives for 592,921, 
 that is far more than J of all the families in the state, a little over one 
 child per family. These figures contain lessons which need no commeu- 
 
THE A.BORTIONISTS, 4G5 
 
 :.i v. They show more clearly than words could do the great daDgcr of 
 the evil for our existence as a nation. 
 
 Where shall this lead to, if the evil contiuues to grow in like dimen- 
 sions? Are there no means to limit it? These are questions more easily 
 asked than auswered. With regard to limiting it, everybody will look 
 upon the law as the most effective means. The law is expected to work 
 wonders in almost every case, and why not here. We forget too often 
 that it is rather the execution of a law, than the law itself upon which the 
 desired effect depends. And this execution of a law depends again en- 
 tirely upon the moral sense prevailing among the people. When this 
 sense is weak, the best law will lose its power. This fact must also not 
 be left out of view with regard to the abortionists. We have laws, which 
 although too mild for such rascals, yet if aided by a strict sense of right 
 among the people, aud if strictly executed, would diminish the evil con- 
 siderably. Let us look at the law having reference to abortion. It is 
 worded as follows : 
 
 u The wilful killing of an unborn child, by any injury to the mother of 
 the child, which would be murder, if it resulted in the death of such mother 
 shall be deemed manslaughter in the first degree." The punishment for 
 this crime is imprisonment for not less than seven years. Furthermore 
 we find in this law, "Any person who shall administer to any woman 
 pregnant with a quick child, or prescribe for any such woman, or advice 
 <and procure for any such woman any medicine, drugs or substance what- 
 ever, or shall use or employ any instrument or other means, with intent 
 thereby to destroy such child, unless the same shall have been necessary 
 to preserve the life of such mother, shall in case the death of such child or 
 such mother be produced, be deemed guilty of manslaughter in the second 
 degree. 7 ' The punishment for this crime is an imprisonment of not more 
 than seven years." 
 
 It will be seen from this, that the law is an extremely mild one. 
 What murderer who has received the merited punishment of his misdeeds 
 on the gallows, is from the standpoint of morality worse than such a pro- 
 fessional murderer of unborn children, who only too often murders the 
 mother at the same time ? As could be seen from various expressions of 
 the public opinion upon the occasion of Rosenzweig's trial, a law declaring 
 the crime of the abortionist as murder, if he kills the mother, and punish- 
 ing it as such, would find general approbation. But mild as the law is, it 
 is yet difficult to bring the abortionist within the reach of it. Experience 
 has shown, that an abortionist brought before the court can then be con- 
 victed, only if his victim herself testifies against him. This only happens 
 in very few cases, and even then they are only incoherent statements made 
 on the deathbed before the coroner, the effect of which an able defence 
 can very easily weaken. 
 
 But the punishment itself in which the judge is restricted to 6even years 
 
4Gi TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 imprisonment, is for such double murders very light. This weak point in 
 the law, the New York legislature has improved by accepting an amend* 
 ment which gives the judge full discretion in punishing these criminals, 
 so that in very aggravated cases he can even sentence the prisoners to im- 
 prisonment for life. 
 
 This is already a great improvement. Unfortunately however it is only 
 an improvement in punishing the criminals. To prevent and limit the 
 crime, nothing whatever has been done as yet. 
 
 What sense is there, in imprisoning these rascals, while we permit them 
 to advertise their nefarious business in all the papers ; they are willing to 
 murder unborn children for good pay, and to stop their criminal actions 
 must we wait until they have also murdered one of the mothers? And it 
 is also asked with perfect justice, what difference there is in murdering a 
 child before or after its birth. So the mother less unnatural who has her 
 unborn child murdered ? The moral sense will answer decidedly no 1 But 
 why does the law not threaten such mothers with a penalty ; and further- 
 more, would the contempt which our hypocritical society casts upon un- 
 married mothers, not be better applied with those who, to cover the par- 
 donable weakness of a moment, commit a crime against themselves aud 
 against nature? Let us go a step further. Why is the girl who was se- 
 duced, branded as dishonored by society, while her seducer who even 
 leaves his victim helplessly to herself, does not lose a bit in the estimation 
 of the public ; is it not he who drives the girl to that desperate step? In 
 most cases the seducers themselves bring their viciims to the dens of the 
 abortionist and thus are not much better than the abortionists themselves. 
 We see that the guilt which only has its culminating point in the abortion- 
 ist, is by no means centred in him alone, and that the law to fulfill its 
 purpose, should punish all concerned in the crime in proportion to their 
 guilt. 
 
 But laws alone do not suffice. They must be supported effectually from 
 other sides. Illegitimate births can not be prevented, but the moral sense 
 which feels itself outraged by them, should keep the unhappy matters from 
 the temptation of becoming murderesses. Aud the means for this have 
 been employed and their usefulness has been fully tested by long use. 
 
 Most of the large cities of Europe provide asylums for pregnant women, 
 where secure from the idle curiosity of their acquaintances they can await 
 their delivery. Upon leaving the establishment they cau take their chil- 
 dren with them, or t'ley can leave them just as they please, in which lat- 
 ter case they are taken care of by the foundling asylum. This course has 
 there opened asylums to women in such circumstances, as here lead them 
 from fear of the threatening disgrace to commit a crime. That a city like 
 New York, which is so rich in charitable institutions, does not yet possess 
 a lying-iu asylum, is hardly to be comprehended. Undoubtedly the chief 
 reason for this is also that morbid religious feeling, which, as in tho case 
 
TIIE ABORTIONISTS. 405 
 
 of prostitution, sees in the alleviation of the consequences of sin, an en- 
 couragement of it. But it is time that a change should lake place iu this 
 respect, and that in such important questions of public welfare common 
 B6096 should rather give the final decision than such ideas. 
 
 But the evil is even more deepseated ! We have seen that not only the 
 victims of seduction apply to the abortionists, but that married women of 
 all classes look upon these murderers only as regulators of their fami.i £, 
 In the "good old times" children were regarded as a "blessing sent from 
 heaven". To-day they seem to be regarded as a burden, which must be 
 tolerated in married life. A family without children enjoys many privi- 
 leges, as every father of six or seven healthy children will have found out, 
 while looking about for lodgings few children are a sign of aristocracy ! at 
 most two or three, more would not be fashionable ! Many children would 
 be a sign of strength and health, while nervousness and continual ailing 
 are among the chief attributes of a modern "lady". 
 
 We have now arrived at the misdirected education of our age, and the 
 confusion of ideas arising therefrom. Madame de Stael once asked Na- 
 poleon I., what woman he thought most of. She expected as an answer 
 of course a compliment to herself. But she was doomed to disappointment, 
 for the emperor simply answered : "She who bears the most children." 
 The answer was rude in one respect, but it contained a large amount of 
 truth. As the roman mother presented to her childless friend, who boasted 
 of her jewels, her children as still more valuable jewels, so it should be in 
 every family circle. There is no picture more charming, than that of a 
 mother surrounded by her children. If children become a burden, or turn 
 trom their parents in their old age, it is always the fault of the education. 
 An expensive education is not necessarily a good one, while a good one 
 need not be very expensive. When this truth is once recognized by rich 
 and poor, many cares will disappear, which are now felt in many 
 homes. 
 
 Not all the customers of the abortionists are women and girls from the 
 city. Many come from the country and even from other states, to be 
 treated by these murderers. The advertisements of these rascals circulate 
 in all the daily papers of the country, and the decline of morality is not 
 only goiug on in the large cities. In these advertisements they offer to 
 send their pills, medicines, instruments, &c, to any part of the country 
 upon receipt of the price. This out-of-town business pays well, while in 
 the city very many who have not the courage, or have too much shame 
 left to enter such a den, also order these medicines by mail. If the medi- 
 cines do not have the desired effect, the abortionist who sent them is 
 fortunately only a swindler who has sold for a heavy price a very harmless 
 and cheap substance. But if the medicine does have the desired effect, 
 it is composed of active poisons which in many cases destroy the life of 
 the mother as well as that of the child. It is said that these murderers 
 
 30 
 
4G6 THE DARK. SIDE OF NEW YOUK LIFE. 
 
 are cot forbidden to publicly advertise their trade, since public opinion is 
 not able to force these papers to refuse such advertisements. 
 
 We have already remarked that the abortionists as a class are generally 
 •wealthy. Dr. Evans, for example, possessed besides a respectable fortune 
 a "small farm" whose value was estimated at $100,000, while he paid on 
 an average $1000 per week for advertisements. "Madame" Burns was 
 arrested soon after "Dr." Rosenzweig on her elegant country seat sur- 
 rounded by all the luxuries of life. "Dr." Rosenzweig has become known 
 by his trial as a rich man, and the same is the case with "Dr." Perry, 
 "Madame" Van Buskirk and other abortionists whose names have gained 
 a special notoriety from having come in couflict with the law. The fact 
 alone that these rascals pay over $150,000 annually for advertisements, 
 while the number of advertisers is not over 20, shows plainly that their 
 business is a paying one. At the head of this interesting crowd is un- 
 doubtedly "Madame" Restell. As we commenced this chapter with her, 
 a short biographical sketch of her would be a fitting end. 
 
 "Madame" Restell is about 57 years old and of a short thick set figure. 
 She is said to have been pretty in her youth, but nobody would believe it 
 in looking upon her to-day. Her whole manner and behavior is that of 
 an upstart. If she does not make a very pleasant impression, she is never- 
 theless not repulsive. She commenced her disgraceful trade about twenty- 
 two years ago. When she had practiced about four years, an event 
 occurred which placed her among the notorious persons of New York, and 
 as such she became fashionable for certain circles. A young girl who had 
 been under her treatment, died, and "Madame" Restell was arrested in 
 consequence. The trial brought forth disclosures which made it the sen- 
 sation of the day. Long biographies were published of her, and much 
 was written in the papers about abortion and abortionists. All this was 
 of course eagerly read every morning by thousands of readers. 
 
 Her guilt seemed to be firmly established ; yet she was acquitted. One 
 hundred thousand dollars are said to have effected this acquittal, which 
 money is said to have been furnished by rich friends of the accused. Who 
 these rich friends were, and why they took such unusual interest in Ma- 
 dame Restell, we will not inquire into here. She was the sensation of the 
 day, and the name Restell as well as her business was spoken of by every- 
 body. The trial had been for her an immense advertisement. The result 
 of this was that her business assumed large proportions. That it paid 
 well was seen a few years after, when she bought some real estate on 
 Fifth avenue, near the park, and there built a palace which may be re- 
 garded as one of the finest buildings in the street. 
 
 In spite of her great wealth, Madame Restell has not yet abandoned 
 her criminal practice. She is still to be seen by customers in her little 
 office in the basement of her palace, where her services are employed 
 almost incessantly. The price for her services is the small sum of $500 
 
THE ABOK1 ' 467 
 
 J00 per case. This price clearly indicates tne grade of society which 
 
 patronize "Madame". The families of the brownstone and marble 
 
 fronts of Filth avenue are, as is well known, not blest very liberally with 
 
 children. This, in connection with the "$500 to $1000 per case", clearly 
 
 indicates the chief source of the wealth of this woman. 
 
 Madame Restell is, to use a popular expression, a "self-made woman'". 
 Although her early life is enveloped in darkness, there remains neverthe- 
 less no doubt that she began life poor. She is said to have been a servant 
 in a boardinghouse and there to have received the first impulse to her 
 present occupation. One day, it is said, while dusting a room, she found 
 a certain prescription which she showed to a friend who was "in trouble'". 
 Her friend used the description, and the desired result took place. She 
 now determined to make use of it generally, and opened an office under 
 the name of "Madame" Restell. 
 
 According to another version, she began life as a waiter girl in a tavern 
 in the suburbs of London, and emigrated, when twenty years old, to 
 America. In New York she was for a time the mistress of a young phy- 
 sician, through whom she gained some medical knowledge. She after- 
 wards took to fortune telling, and then to her present occupation. She 
 is married to a Frenchman who carries on the same disgraceful business 
 in another part of the city and under a different name. 
 
 It is a strange fact, that the New York aristocracy which does not hesi- 
 tate to make use of the services of Madame Restell, excludes her most 
 inexorably from their circles in social intercourse. This is all the more 
 strange as tin Fifth avenue in view of great wealth very seldom inquires 
 Ms to the means employed in obtaining it. Probably it is intended by 
 ins of this ostentatious contempt to exclude the idea that they had any- 
 thing at all to do with her. This apparent contempt goes so far that she 
 k mid never have succeeded in buying real estate in her own name. But 
 was determined, even if only by residence, to force herself among the 
 aristocracy of New York. She applied to a real estate agefit, and he suc- 
 ceeded, without naming his employer, to buy the lot for her where she lives 
 at present. In spite of the palace which she built there, the surrounding 
 property decreased rapidly in value, and the lots adjoining her house have 
 not been sold to the present day. The attempt was made to buy her out, 
 and a much higher price was offered her than what the property is actuallv 
 worth. She declared most emphatically, however, that she would not sell 
 out at any price, but would remain in her house as long as she lived. 
 
 In the circles of Fifth avenue she is not admitted. The "professional 
 services of Madame" are made use of secretly in certain cases, but she is 
 not recognized by anybody when she drives through the park in her ele- 
 gant carriage. This is the morality of Fifth avenue. This morality is 
 nothing else than the old sayiug that "we like treachery, but dislike 
 the traitor", applied to abortionists. Thus the criminal, although too smart 
 
468 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 and too rich to be caught in the meshes of the law, in spite of her riches 
 stands alone and excluded from those circles, in which it is the most ardent 
 desiri of her life to be admitted. This, too, is punishment. But when 
 will New York cease to cover such persons with riches, and to see in their 
 palaces the monuments of its own moral depravity? Is is generally ad- 
 mitted that in spite of the large extent of abortion, it is almost wholly con- 
 fined to the native Ameiican population, and that the foreign-born element 
 and particularly the German, is decidedly free from it. The evil may 
 therefore be still regarded as more or less localized, and the hopes for its 
 effective eradication are justified all the more, as the terrible disclosures 
 made since the Rosenzweig trial, have not been without a wholesome re- 
 action. 
 
 THE QUACK DOCTORS. 
 
 Probably in no field does humbug prosper more than in that of medicine.. 
 It occurs more often and much more glaringly, than could be supposed 
 possible in the present state of civilization. It is also all the more dan- 
 gerous, because it is life and health which it has selected for its prey and 
 for which it lays its snares in all possible forms. This humbug is em- 
 bodied in the medical charlatans or quack doctors, with whom we are 
 supplied very liberally at present. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to explain what a quack is. Everybody knows 
 this, and knows the meaning of the word full well. But how is it then 
 that the business of the quacks flourishes so well? This is a riddle which 
 seems to be as insoluble to-day as it was in the ancient times, when the 
 ancients helped themselves with the saying that "the world will be 
 cheated". And it almost seems as if it were true. If the world will be 
 cheated, why, let us cheat it, the chorus of swindlers cries out, and none 
 perform their part with greater zeal and shamelessness than the quacks. 
 In the following we will make the acquaintance of this class of people, and 
 by laying bare their villainy, also contribute our share in this direction 
 towards stopping villainy in general. 
 
 Modesty is not among the virtues of the quack. He boasts that he pos- 
 sesses a sure and infallible cure for every disease, or else one medicine 
 that will cure every disease, from a corn to the last stage of consumption. 
 No impossibility exists for the quack in the field of medicine. He has 
 learnt from nature her most hidden secrets, and has distilled her wonder- 
 ful extracts in his pills and medicines. There is in this however a con- 
 
-4 1 
 
 THE QUACK DOCTORS. 4G9 
 
 Ifadiction which the quacks themselves cannot explain. IIow is it, if 
 quacks possess a sure remedy for every disease, that these diseases 
 continue to rage and that men still die more of sickness than of old age. 
 Common sense has no other answer to this question than that these bom- 
 ic announcements of the quacks, are nothing but lies and swindles and 
 that ihe quacks themselves are liars and swindlers. In very exceptional 
 cases only they are fanatics who believe all the nonsense they practice to 
 be true. The field of quackery is very large, and it is difficult to determine 
 the boundary where the respectable medical practice ends and quackery 
 begins. There is a medium class, whom we do not know whether to de- 
 signate as belonging to the one or to the other. There have been great 
 physicians who were not entirely free from the accusation of open quackery. 
 Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus, the great grandfather of all quacks, 
 and who died only 40 years old as the happy possessor of the elixir of life, 
 played an important part in the history of medicine. But we will only 
 deal with those who are unmistakeably quacks. He who knows the tricks 
 of open quackery, possesses sufficient points to discover the weaker shades 
 of medical charlatanism. 
 
 As a general rule, it may be assumed that the quacks are so-called 
 self-promoted" doctors. Very few have studied medicine at all, and 
 regularly promoted physicians are rare exceptions. The are in the latter 
 case persons who cou'd not succeed in respectable practice, and for that 
 reason have taken to quackery. Not unfrequently have they bought a 
 diploma from some second-hand country college. Sometimes they change 
 the name on an old diploma to their own, or assume the name on such 
 diploma. If they are wanting in medical knowledge, th3y make use of 
 some old prescription book, or some household remedy which they gene- 
 rally prepare themselves and sell to their patients for a high price. The 
 office of the quack if he possesses one at all is often very elegantly furnished 
 According to the latest style. Very often however the visitor thinks that 
 he has fallen into some medical labaratory, when he enters the residence 
 of the doctor, filled with retorts, curiosities, etc., the style of the offiice 
 varying according to the class of visitors. There are also pleuty of female 
 quacks, and with them quackery is very often combined with fortune tel- 
 ling. In that case they do not make any claim to the tittle of doctor, as 
 they ascribe their powers of curing to a "higher source of supernatural 
 inspiration." 
 
 The quacks confine themselves almost exclusively to office practice, for 
 they are too deficient in knowledge as well as in character to establish a 
 good family practice. They treat every disease they meet with, and which 
 will bring them money. But there are always certain diseases which they 
 treat as a specialty, and in which they boast of having grained great suc- 
 cess. Among the favorite specialties, are the socalled "secret diseases", 
 and the numerous diseases of the "lung, heart, etc.," against which true 
 
470 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 science has openly acknowledged its inability to contend. The only sensible 
 advice to all those suffering of chronic diseases, to avoid all quacks, and 
 by a natural mode of living to arrest their disease, is only too seldom heed- 
 ed. For they see in newspapers and pamphlets, that persons, whose con- 
 dition was much worse than theirs, were relieved by a certain number of 
 bottles of medicine after a few weeks. For there it is in black and white 
 that the "celebrated" Dr. Blower hat cured Mr. Nobody in Nocity suffer- 
 ing for thirty years of consumption, by means of his pills. That must be 
 true, for the name as well as the address of the cured man is given. 
 Hundreds of such sick persons, and thousands who believe they are sick, 
 reason in this manner. They quickly write to the "celebrated" Dr. Blower 
 or call at his office. 
 
 And thus it is with all diseases, cancers, sores, rheumatism, scrophula, 
 etc., for which the quacks as»ert that they have "never failing" remedies. 
 "A cure warranted !" "Payment only upon the complete restoration of 
 the patient!" or even "$1000 for every case that cannot be cured" are 
 phrases in common use with the quacks, which are sure to impose upon 
 many persons. But each one of these phrases has some hidden meaning. 
 "A cure warranted V But in what time? In ten days, ten months or ten 
 years? This the quack has wisely omitted to mention. "Payment only 
 upon the complete restoration of the patient" also seems to be very fair. 
 But before the sick man loses his patience, the quack will have drawn 
 from him so much money for medicine, that he need not care for any fur- 
 ther payment. "$1000 for every case I can not cure !" The quack even 
 sticks to this. For as in the first case, he has specified no time in which 
 he guarantees the cure. But if a patient should nevertheless take the 
 "doctor" by his word, he would fare worst by the operation. For the 
 "doctor" would begin such an expensive and sharp treatment, that the sick 
 man would soon lose all patience to continue it till its uncertain ead. 
 
 "No mercury ! No change of diet or mode of living !" is a frequent bait 
 for those unfortunates who are subject to the so-called secret diseases. 
 The "no mercury" is only a bold lie, for it is just the quacks who use this 
 dangerous medicine with the greatest carelessness. All they wish to ac- 
 complish is to quickly suppress certain signs of these diseases. This is 
 done most easily by large quantities of this poison, and they care very little 
 for those diseases which result from this treatment. "No change of diet 
 or mode of living !" This phrase alone is the surest sign of the unscrupu- 
 lousness of quacks. The regulation of the diet and the mode of living is 
 the necessary basis for the medical treatment of almost every disease, and 
 nowhere is it more neccessary than with those diseases called secret. 
 Every respectable physician will tell his patients this, and will only incase 
 of strict observance of this rule, promise his patient a through and not 
 merely a momentary cure. The desire of keeping these diseases secret, 
 caused by a false shame, drives many into the hands of the quacks, be- 
 
QUACK DOCTORS. 471 
 
 cause they not only warrant a quick cure, but what is of more importance 
 require no change of diet or mode of living, which change might easily 
 arouse the suspicion of one's friends. With respect to these diseases the 
 quacks boast of their rapid cures. But these cures are only seemingly so. 
 Certain exterior ^ymptons of the disease have been suppressed, while the 
 disease continues to exist in the body, and in connection with the poisons 
 taken as medicine, lays the foundation of dangerous chronic diseases. 
 
 Wiih most of the chronic diseases, especially cancer, scrophula, heart 
 disease, etc., the quacks take it even more easily. They know that the 
 patient does not expect to be cured within a few days, and that he is in 
 such a frame of mind, that he is easily persuaded, that he does or does 
 not possess a certain symptom. In such cases the rascals do not intend 
 to perform a cure. They try to keep such patients as standing customers 
 as long as they are able and willing to pay for the medicines the quacks 
 give them. Sometimes such patients get better for a time, and then they 
 ascribe it to the "doctor" and his medicines. If they have a relapse, they 
 Hgain apply with renewed confidence, where they were relieved once be- 
 fore. 
 
 In most cases the treatment of such patients is nothing but a harmless 
 swindle, but very often much damage is done by it. Their attempts of 
 curing cancers and old ulcers, as well as to drive away sleeplessness, 
 coughs etc., only too often terminate fatally for the patient. They also do 
 their victims considerable damage by preventing them from placing them- 
 selves under proper medical treatmeut, and when at last they do apply to 
 respectable physicians, the latter generally have a hopeless task before 
 them. This is in general the seeret of the practice of quacks. It is some- 
 thing altogether different from what they promise in their highsounding 
 advertisements. In fact, they promise more in their advertisements than 
 medical skill is able to accomplish, and is least of all to be expected from 
 unscrupulous ignorances. All those advertisements in which certain doc- 
 tors announce themselves as the ''celebrated Dr. N. — ', "guarantee a 
 complete cure", "without mercury or change in the mode of living", in 
 "cases which have been given up as hopeless by other physicians", who 
 especially warn the public to beware ot "quacks ', and apply to the "only 
 reliable and the most successful physician", i. e., the respective advertiser, 
 all these advertisements should be regarded as so many warnings to be- 
 ware of quacks. All self-praise of physicians in newspapers, every an- 
 nouncement of a new medicine, in not strictly scientific journals, is sus- 
 picious, and that all the more, the more such announcement is couched in 
 extravagant language. 
 
 With all physicians laying claim to respectability, it has for a long time 
 been the custom, to advertise their business only by a mention of their 
 names, their residences and their office hours. That is sufficient ; the pub- 
 lic knows where to find them, and they leave it to the success they have 
 
472 THE DARK .SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 in ,their practice to spread their reputation. From no mouth does self- 
 praise stiuk worse, than from that of a physician. No true physician will 
 profess to be in possession of a secret remedy for a certain disease. Every 
 new discovery in the field of medicine becomes at once the commou pro- 
 perty of all. A "secret remedy, the nature of which can not be discovered 
 by anybody" is an impossibility at the present day, when chemistry offers 
 so many means for detecting the presence of any body in any substance. 
 What is praised as a secret remedy, may be regarded as a humbug. The 
 composition is well known, and if science does not give it a place among 
 other remedies, it is only from the fact that it has been replaced by much 
 better remedies. Therefor we will not do injustice to a physician by class- 
 ing him amoog the quacks, if he boasts of possessing a secret remedy for 
 a certain disease. 
 
 This is all the more the case with those doctors, who do a business with 
 these remedies, and praise them up in advertisements and circulars. Gene- 
 rally these advertisements contain long strings of references of wonderful 
 cures. The references themselves are very fine and enticing, only we 
 must not enquire further as to the personality of those issuing them. In 
 many cases they do not exist at all, or they have been bought up. Only 
 very few are issued by people who have been cured although they may 
 have swallowed the preparations given them by the quack, and have then 
 been easily persuaded to act as unconscious accomplices in his impos- 
 ture. 
 
 The impudence of such quacks often goes so far as to use the names of 
 generally respected men. Horace Greeley often enjoyed this "honor", and 
 the name of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was used in a recommendation of 
 one of the vilest sheets ever printed ; a book which taught the art of exor- 
 cising the devil and other spirits, to manufacture love powders, &c. The 
 rascally author, a quack of the most disgraceful kind, lets Mr. Beecher 
 say that "This book should be found in every family". Another trick 
 with such recommendations is to spell some well known name with a little 
 change, for example H. Greely, instead of H. Greeley. Everything said 
 over such a signature, would be regarded by the majority of the readers 
 as having been said by H. Greeley, while the quack could not be called 
 to account for misuse of the name. We may also class amoug the quacks 
 those doctors who offer to cure patients by letter. No physician possess- 
 ing education and character would ever make such an offer. The sick 
 man always deceives himself as to his condition, and for very plausible 
 reasons lays to much weight on symptoms that annoy him, while he over- 
 looks the more important ones that do not stand forth so prominently. 
 Even at the sick bed the statements of the patient are of minor account, 
 while the result of his own investigation is the chief thing which the phy- 
 sician takes into account. 
 
 The self-decetpion of the patient is fully recognized by the physicians, 
 
THE Q1 .'v K Dot TORS. 
 
 173 
 
 so th.it in cases of sickness no physician thinks of curing himself, but al- 
 ways calls a brother physician to his aid. A sickness in which nothing is 
 risked by such treatment by correspondence, is always either one that 
 only exists iu the imagination of the patient, or one that only requires a 
 regulation of the diet and the mode of living. But this supposes again 
 that the physician has gained, by means of a personal inspection, a thorough 
 knowledge of the condition of the patient. But the corresponding doctors 
 lake any case, without being guided by anything but the statements of 
 their patients. The letters of these doctors should call forth suspicion by 
 their very character. Only a charlatan who has no other object than to 
 fleece other people of their money, could write a letter like the following 
 which we present as a sample to our readers. 
 
 "Your letter, containing a full description of your disease, has been 
 received. I have read it through carefully, and from the combination of 
 -certain symptoms, have arrived at the conclusion, that you can be easily 
 and speedily cured, provided you trust yourself to my treatment before the 
 disease assumes a more dangerous character. The great experience as 
 well as the wonderful success that I have had in similar cases, justify me 
 in arriving at this conclusion, especially as my new medicines act quickly 
 and surelv. Your disease is no hopeless one and will be cured by using 
 my medicines. Your liver and your organs of digestion are out of order. 
 Through this many poisonous secretions are retained in the system, the 
 vital and chemical action of which is weakened, and if nothing is done, 
 the disease will turn into organic congestion of the liver or even consump- 
 tion. If it is possible to restore the normal functions of the liver and of 
 the stomach, the blood will be purified and will again obtain its usual vi- 
 tality. If you send me $12.50, I will send you by return of mail the ne- 
 cessary medicines together with distinct directions for use. If I take any 
 person under my treatment, I give him my whole attention and do not 
 spare any means to effect a cure as quickly as possible. The medicine 
 that I send, chiefly tends to prepare the way for the real cure ( !). The 
 present season of the year is fortunately the best for curing a case like 
 yours, which is all the more to be rejoiced at, as in your condition, it would 
 be dangerous to hesitate any longer." 
 
 Respectfully Yours, etc. 
 
 "The present season is fortunately the best for curing a case like yours'*, 
 is a consolation, that is given to the applicant whether he applies in sum- 
 mer or winter, spring or fall. The treatment only consists in plucking the 
 patient, and for that any season will do. But in most cases no time is to 
 be lost ! this is a fact which all the quacks are sure to impress upon the 
 minds of his customers. A genius of this class who dated his circulars 
 and letters from Filth avenue, tries to get $100 out of his victims imme- 
 diately as we see from a letter that we have before us at the moment of 
 writin2. 
 
474 • THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 '"To save time, it would be best to send $100 at once, which amount, I 
 think, will cover all expenses that will arise." But this sum does not 
 cover the expenses at all, and if the "doctor" does not disappear upon re- 
 ceipt of the money, he will continue to make demands upon his patient, as 
 long as the latter is foolish enough to accede to their demands. In most 
 cases these corresponding doctors are authors of so-called popular medical 
 treatises, which they circulate free of charge, or at very low prices at most,, 
 among the public, and in which they make their numerous wonderful cures 
 known to the world by means of testimonies of those cured. By these 
 means they create a great sensation among those, who believe that every- 
 thing that is printed must be true. This class of doctors has its eye es- 
 pecially on those unfortunates, afflicted with chronic diseases, who are the 
 more apt to apply to quacks, the louder the latter proclaim that they are 
 able to cure any case. In many cases, patients in the country think that 
 they are forced to undergo a medical treatment by letter. They have been 
 under the treatment of the physicians in the vicinity for a considerable 
 time. But as they have not become any better, they have lost confidence 
 in these physicians, and as they cannot go to the city themselves, they 
 apply in writing to such a doctor, who as they see from the papers has 
 cured much worse cases than theirs. 
 
 But such sick persons should remember, that what they read in papers 
 and pamphlets about such doctors, is nothing but lies, which have either 
 been written by the doctor himself or were dearly paid for. No physician, 
 who can lay claim to education, undertakes to treat patients by writing. 
 Whoever does that, shows that he either possesses no medical knowledge, 
 or that he plays an unscrupulous game with the life and health of his pa- 
 tients, and therefor does not deserve confidence in either case. 
 
 Those quacks are no less disgusting, who try to make their wisdom and 
 their wonderful cures known by means of pamphlets. The titles of these 
 books are generally of such nature as to let the reader suspect obscene 
 contents, as : "Book on marriage", "Marriage guide", "Experiences of a 
 sick man", etc. These are either sent free of charge, or can be had for a 
 postage stamp to prepay them. They are also sold for 10 cents to $1.00, 
 in which case they have a piquant title, and the buyer is led to expect ob- 
 scene illustiations. The contents generally consist of the most miserable 
 stuff, while the illustrations are worn out wood-cuts from some old medical 
 work. Sometimes however, the contents of these works are quite accept- 
 able. In such cases they are not written by the quack, who pretends to 
 be their author. They are often essays copied word for word from some 
 standard medical work, and altered occasionally as it may suit the quack. 
 Thus it is that we often fiud in two or more pamphlets the same cure de- 
 scribed, with the sole exceptiou that in oue case Dr. "Quack", and in the 
 other Dr. "Humbug" represent themselves as the authors of the pamphlet, 
 and the first one proves with it to the world the wonderful power of his 
 
THE QUACK DOCTORS. A,.j 
 
 pill*, and the other of his plaster. But both have had nothing whatever 
 lo do with the case, except that they have both copied or rather stolen 
 from the same medical authority. In many cases the quacks themselves 
 do not possess the necessary skill to copv, and are therefor forced to let this 
 work be done by some bauds more skillful than their own. The readers 
 of such works, who believe that the long list of references and testimonies 
 of persons cured is anything but a most impudent pack of lies, well — ihey 
 are capable of believing anything. 
 
 A number of this class of quacks, has conceived the idea of publishing 
 separate almanacs which are spread over the whole couutry ia hundreds 
 of thousands of copies. This form secures to the book more attentiou, 
 than it would have received in any other case. And that is the object of 
 the almanac quack, who praises on every page his patent medicine, and 
 counts numberless wonderful cures performed by it. To this is added a 
 description of the symptoms of almost every disease, which is done in such 
 a manner, that a reader can easily imagine himself afflicted with some one 
 or all of them. 
 
 Another variation of these medical pamphlets is adorned with an im- 
 posing name of some medical body, as for example, the "Howard Asso- 
 ciation of Philadelphia", the "New York Medical Uuiversity", or the 
 "Athol Medical Bureau of Mass." But in spite of all these highsounding 
 names, these institutions ar3 owned by men who are among the most con- 
 temptible quacks. The "Howard Association of Philadelphia", and the 
 "Athol Medical Bureau of Mass.," are fully on the same level with the 
 "New York Medical University", which name was only chosen, that it 
 might be mistaken for the Medical school of the University of New York. 
 A public institution bearing the title of u Medical Uuiversity of New 
 York ' does not exist, and a quack can therefor undisturbedly ply his vo- 
 cation under this title. 
 
 The desire of the most of the quacks to appear disinterested, seems 
 rather strange. But they do this because they know, that they gain the 
 confidence of the masses most quickly by this method, aud have all the 
 more chance to empty strange pockets. '-Consultation free !" is very often 
 found at the end of an advertisement of a quack. For many patients this 
 is a strong bait. They go to the "doctor" with the idea that, as it does 
 not cost anything, they can hear what he has to say about their couditiou. 
 And the consultation does indeed cost nothing. But the patient is iuformed' 
 that he has within him the seed of a very dangerous disease, and that it 
 is the highest time to proceed energetically against it. If the fears of the 
 poor fellow are well excited, he is informed that his case is indeed very 
 poor, but not hopeless by any means. Only he must lose no time. If he 
 would follow this advice, he the doctor, would trust himself to cure him 
 very quickly. At the same time the doctor gives a complete description 
 of the disease and its course, which is couched in so learned terms, that 
 
476 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 the patient does not understand a word of, it but gets a very high idea of 
 the wisdom of this "doctor". 
 
 There is nothiug easier than to convince a man that he is suffering from 
 -some imaginary disease, and nobody understands this better than our 
 quack. After a conversation of half an hour, the visitor thinks himself 
 just as sick as the doctor wishes him to, and is willing to submit to any 
 treatment that may be suggested. The doctor now brings forward his 
 wonderful remedies, his pills, powders, etc. As nothing is charged for 
 the consultation, the patient only finds it natural that he shall pay for the 
 medicines. The price is indeed very high, but the bottle or box contain- 
 ing the medicines or pills is very large, and he pays the price, thinking 
 that this dose will cure him. But as the quantity the patient must take 
 every day is very large, the medicine is soon exhausted. The medicine, 
 if indeed it is medicine, has no effect or perhaps a disastrous effect on 
 the real or imaginary disease of the patient. He then again applies to 
 his "doctor". If his condition is worse, the latter tells him that this is 
 only apparently so and that the disease is coming to a point. Now one 
 more dose, and everything will be all right. This dose of medicine, 
 probably larger than the first, costs in proportion. In the hope that that 
 will settle the matter, the patient pays once more. The result is the same 
 as before, and this game continues as long as the patient is willing or 
 able to pay enormous prices for harmless mixtures which he could get 
 in any drug store for a few cents. If he is no longer able or willing to 
 pay, he is either told that he is fully cured, or that the sickness exists only 
 in his imagination ; or, if this will not do, he is told that everything has 
 been done that medicines could do, and the cure must now be finished by 
 change of air, change of diet, etc. The interest of the doctor in his patient 
 is at an end the moment he sees that he can make no more money out of 
 him. 
 
 But cases are also known where quacks intentionally gave medicines 
 ^o rich patients who were willing to pay, which only made their condition 
 worse, or at least postponed their entire restoration indefinitely. This is 
 nothing but a species of poisoning, and many an unfortunate may have 
 fallen a victim to these quack medicines. But in the end the patient will 
 find out that his consultation fees have been charged him over and over 
 again with his medicines, and that his money disappears more rapidly in 
 the hands of the quack than his sickness. 
 
 Many of these fellows carry on an extensive business with their medi- 
 cines, and then profess to charge only the cost price, or sometimes nothing 
 at all. They then put on the mask of philanthropy, and profess to be per- 
 sons who have been cure 1, after years of sufferiug, by a certain remedy, 
 and now from sympathy with suffering mankind consider it a pleasure 
 and a duty to communicate their remedy to all those afflicted with the 
 *ame disease. They mostly operate through advertisements and litho- 
 
Tin: 101 A.I K io( i 477 
 
 graphed circulars. A number of those quacks have gained an unenviable 
 notoriety. Among the most notorious is J. H. T uttle, whose philanthropy 
 leads him to offer through circulars all kinds of instruments and medicines 
 
 for almost any disease. We give an extract of one of these circular- as 
 host characterizing this man. "The above instrument," it says, "of solid 
 silver, will be sent to those who desire it, with the best wishes of the 
 undersigned. The undersigned has learned to sympathize with all those 
 who have to suffer from "nervous debility", "premature decay", "im- 
 potency", etc. The true christian keeps no efficient remedy secret. His 
 whole aim in life is to promote science and thus help suffering humanity. 
 "Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you." This is his 
 motto, and he has no right either as christian or as physician, to keep any 
 medical secret to himself and thus keep it out of the reach of everybody. 
 Whoever does this, and creates a monopoly for himself to the detriment 
 of suffering humanity, has no claim to the name and the dignity of a 
 christian physician." 
 
 "And now my christian friend and fellow-sufferer, I would ask you to- 
 make an impartial trial with my instrument. If you do this, and closely 
 follow my direction, I will give you my word as a christian and a man, 
 that you will be satisfied with the result. I am fully convinced that my 
 prescription will, with the gracious assistance of God, completely cure you. 
 How many other remedies you may have already tried, mine will relieve 
 you surely." 
 
 Of course the good christian citizen cannot sent the solid silver instru- 
 ment for nothing. The greenhorn who bites at the hook baited with so 
 mach piety, will receive a plated tin instrument which is probably not 
 worth as many cents as he paid dollars for it, and he can count himself 
 lucky, if the instrument does not make his suffering worse. If he again 
 applies to his "Christian friend and fellow sufferer", he finds him as ready 
 to serve him as before. lie sends him without asking anything for it, a 
 prescription for pills, which "with God's gracious assistance will certainly 
 help him". The sick man quickly takes it to the drug store. The drug- 
 gist reads it through and shakes his head. He has never heard of such 
 drugs as are mentioned in the prescription, and he confesses that he can- 
 not prepare the pills. He has similar luck with the other druggists of his 
 native town, and he finds that no one can prepare the pills. He writes to 
 his "Christian friend", telling him of his troubles. He answers, that he 
 had thought as much in the beginning. The ingredients are very scarce 
 and dear, but he will help him and send the pills for 85.00. If the impo- 
 tency and weakness has already reached the brain of the sick man, he 
 sends the desired amount, and receives the wonderful pills, which every 
 druggist could have prepared for 25 cents. They have no better effect of 
 course, than the aforementioned instrument of solid silver. In many cases 
 however, the patients finds the price of the pills too high, and then the 
 
178 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 swindler waits in vaiD for the desired $5. Then Mr. Tuttle sends another 
 letter of which the following will give the reader an idea: 
 
 "Dear fcir, some time ago I wrote to you, concerning your sickness. 
 But as I have not had the pleasure to hear from you since, I fear that the 
 price of the pil's was too high for you. I have the deepest compassion for 
 you. I am fully convinced that I can cure you, and therefor make the 
 following proposition : If you will send me $2, I will send you the pills. 
 The rest ($3) you can send me when you are cured. But if you do not 
 get belter within six weeks, I will refund the money to you. I do not 
 think that 1 could make a fairer proposition. You can lose nothing by it, 
 and have everything to gain. Try it, and you will surely be cured ; fail 
 to do it, and every thing may be lost. 
 
 With true sympathy for you, I remain Yours etc. 
 
 J. H. Tuttle. 
 
 The "philanthropist" as we see is practical, and will be satisfied with 
 $2, if he cannot get $5. After six weeks of course, no improvement takes 
 place, nor is the money refunded. The swindler could indeed make no 
 better proposition (i. e., for himself). 
 
 Another equally shameless form of swindle is that when an old minister 
 or physician who is about to retire, offers to send gratis to all those who 
 wish it, a prescription for some disease for which no remedy is known, as 
 cancer or consumption. This, we should think, is a fair offer, and they 
 also must be honorable and benevolent men, as they send their secret re- 
 medy to all those who are interested in it, free of charge. Thus it seems 
 indeed at first sight. But they are nevertheless nothing but the most 
 heartless swindlers who prey upon the misfortune and suffering of their 
 fellow men. The best known of this class is the "Rev. Edward A. "Wil- 
 son", of Williamsburgh, Long Island, who for the past 12 years has sent 
 to all who applied, a prescription to cure even the most advanced stages 
 of consumption. His offer is found in hundreds of papers throughout the 
 U. S. This costs the "noble philanthropist" thousands of dollars annually, 
 and his time is so completely occupied by it, that he has to answer from 
 fifty to three hundred letters daily. Why, some of our readers will ask, 
 does this reverend gentleman go to so much pains and expense, when he 
 could simplify the matter considerably, by describing his secret remedy in 
 the papers. If the patients had all asked themselves this question, before 
 applying to the "reverend", they would certainly have saved their money, 
 and the advertisements of this swindler would have long ago disappeared 
 from the papers. But thus it is that the "Rev." Wilson, in spite of his 
 large expenses, does an excellent business. The remedy of which he sends 
 the prescription, has for its chief ingredient 3 ounces of "Extractum 
 Blodjetti". Unfortunately however, no druggist in the world has ever 
 heard of this extract, and the patients find that no one is able to make the 
 medicine. 
 
 I 
 
the QV LC k DOCTORS. 470 
 
 That is the secret of the whole affair. The patients apply in their 
 troubles again to the "reverend." lie answers that he will send the me- 
 dicine for the cost price of $3.50. 
 
 As the drowniug man catches at a straw, so persons afflicted with 
 chronic diseases are apt to catch at anything that promises them relief. 
 In this c.'ise the appearance of disinterestedness with which the medicine 
 is offered, gives confidence. Is it a wonder then that the 6ick persons or 
 their families send the money for entirely useless mixtures, which they 
 perhaps greatly need in some other direction. Thus it is, that the "gratis" 
 communication of his prescription, often brings the quack doctors from 40 
 to 50 "registered" letters a day. As each one of them in all probability 
 contains S3. 50, the profitableness of this business is easily seen. It is 
 strange indeed that this "Rev." "Wilson is never to be personally seen by 
 sick persons. He is never found at home by those who call at his resi- 
 dence in Williamsburgh, and confines himself in his quack business en- 
 tirely to transactions by letter and by advertisements. 
 
 If the quacks do not always carry on their business as openly as in the 
 case mentioned, the fleesing of the patients is nevertheless their chief aim. 
 The patients are for them only the means to obtaiu money. They try to 
 get in every case as much as possible, but are also satisfied with small 
 amounts. But their original price is always a very high one. They try 
 to impose upon their patients by high prices, and to give them an idea of 
 their celebrity. The assurance with which they guarantee the success of 
 their cure, leads many to pay the high price, even if they have trouble in 
 getting together the money. If this is not the case, the quack, under some 
 pretent, puts the price down. 
 
 An interesting instance of the manner in which the prices of doctors are 
 made according to the circumstances, came to light last year. The quack 
 was one of those travelling eye and ear doctors, who advertise their won- 
 derful cures in all the papers. One day a Mr. C. a disguised reporter 
 called upon him to consult him about the weakness of his father's eyes. 
 The result was that the quack offered to cure C's. father and warrant a cure 
 lor $300. 
 
 "$300 ! that is more than I expected to pay", Mr. C. answered with 
 well feigned astonishment ; "I would rather prefer — " 
 
 "But my dear sir, you should remember that this is the lowest price I 
 generally take for my cures. But I will not fight about $50. Say $250 
 and I'll do it." 
 
 "Fifty dollars less does not make much difference to me, Doctor. The 
 sum is still 60 high that I cannot pay it for my father." 
 
 "Ah ! you intend to p ,y for the cure of your father. You are indeed a 
 loving son. This alone induces me to reduce the price to $200. 
 
 "Well, I will not detain you any longer, as I had not expected so high 
 a price in the beginniug." 
 
480 
 
 HIE DAHK SIDE OF NEW TOIIK LIFE* 
 
 "I pity your poor old father. Yesterday I received 8500 for a similar 
 case, but to-day I will take $150, one half of my usual price." 
 
 "I think I shall wait, he will probably not get any worse, and I'll save 
 the money." 
 
 "I declare, your father's case has a peculiar scientific interest for me, 
 and as I am in the city, I will undertake the cure for $100. 
 
 But Mr. C. could not be induced even by this low figure, to have his 
 father's eyesight restored, and he turned to the door, with the words : 
 
 "Perhaps another time, Doctor, the matter is not so pressing." 
 
 "But it may become worse, my dear sir," the quack said trying to keep 
 Mr. C. back. If you promise me to tell nobody about it, I'll say $50. 
 But that is my last word." 
 
 In spite of this last word, Mr. C. takes his leave, and hurries down 
 stairs. He only reaches the middle of the stairs when he hears the doc- 
 tor calling after him : 
 
 "Will you do it for $25. 
 
 Of course Mr. C. would not even say $25, and he left the house ; thus 
 robbing Brother Quack of the opportunity to reduce his price any further. 
 
 There are also well known cases where quacks plundered their patients 
 most unmercyfully, and robbed under various pretences of their last dollar. 
 We know of a case, where a woman suffering from amaurosis fell into the 
 meshes of a travelling quack. She came from a great distance, and paid 
 the "doctor" $200 in advance, after he had promised to restore her eye- 
 sight. After some time he asked her for $100 more, then again for $50, 
 and again for $50, and when she at last declared herself at the end of her 
 resources, the quack declared that her case was incurable, and that all 
 further treatment would be in vain. The rascal had not restored her eye- 
 sight as he had promised, but had robbed her of her last dollar. 
 
 It can be plainly seen from their careers that the quacks are nothing 
 but regular swindlers. The above mentioned "Christian friend and fellow 
 sufferer" J. H. Tuttle, first became known by frauds which he committed 
 on his employer in New Jersey. This J. H. Tuttle is also the originator 
 of the so-called Express-swindle, which we described in the chapter on 
 swindlers. He is also connected with various other forms of swindling, 
 as the love powder swindle etc., so that quackery is for him nothing but a 
 new variation of bis many swindles. 
 
 A certain "Professor" Silas Rogers & Co. also carries on a very inter- 
 esting business under the mask of a quack. He offers in lithographed 
 circulars, to sent first class imitations of tapeworms, in all sizes to 60 feet 
 long, for $10. The object of these imitations is of course none other, than 
 to enable other quacks, to gain a reputation by apparently expelling a 
 tapeworm. Further more this individual offers in his circulars a certain 
 stuff "to easily cause the spread of certain diseases." This worthy says 
 in his circular: "This stuff brings good times for the doctor, as the people 
 
THE QUACK DOCTORS. 481 
 
 become sick, and he lias plenty to do. It works surely. A doctor iu 
 Alliance, Ohio, made several thousand dollars by it in the course of a few 
 months." The price of this wonderful stuff is only $5. The best part of 
 this disgusting affair is, that the "professor" only sends these articles as 
 well as the "Arabian love perfume", "Love rings", "Love candy", etc., 
 which he also oilers for sale, exceptionally, and pockets the money arriving 
 by letter. He well knows that the fools and rascals, who buy such stuff 
 from him, dare not take legal steps against him. 
 
 The quacks as well as other swiudlers have a variety of names, under 
 which they carry on their business now in one place, then in another. We 
 give below some of the better kuown of these aliases, which are often found 
 in the newspapers. 
 
 The above mentioned J. II. Tuttle is also known as J. H. Reeves, 
 Reeves & Co., Tuttle & Co., Tuttle & Reeves, and Reeves & Tuttle. 
 
 A "Doctor" Warner also carries on his business as Dr. II. Morell & Co. 
 Dr. Wallace Mortour, Dr. Fracy de Lorme (the celebrated consumption 
 doctor), and Lehbur & Drayton, New York. 
 
 Dr. Sam. Henderson performs his wonderful cures under the name of 
 Dr. Blaud, or Ilawkinson, and Dr. Hawkinson & Co., New York. 
 
 Dr. Lockraw is the same person as Dr. La Croix, Dr. Hen slow and 
 Dr. Hindon, Albany. 
 
 The various names of Dr. Evans, the well known abortionist who has 
 also gained some notoriety as a quack have been given in the preceeding 
 chapter. We could considerably enlarge this list, but we think that what 
 we have given, will be sufficient. 
 
 But what is the object of so many names, some of our readers will ask. 
 The explanation is very simple. Every swindle becomes stale in time, 
 and the large majority of the victims are only swindled once by the same 
 man. If such a "doctor" finds, that his business is getting dull, he quickly 
 assumes a new name, and ccntinues his old game, changed very little or 
 even not at all. Thus Mr. J. II. Reeves has the pleasure of seeing those 
 apply to him again who curse Mr, Tuttle as a swindler and a rascal. Or 
 the poor fellow suffering with consumption, who has come to the conclu- 
 sion that Dr. Wallace Mortour had only swindled him out of his money, 
 hopes to find a deliverer in Dr. Fracy de Lorme whom he has seen an- 
 nounced in the papers as the "celebrated consumption doctor". 
 
 But there are also other considerations which induce the quack to occa- 
 sionally change their names. If their swindle becomes too open, the post- 
 office returns the money letters addressed to them, to those who sent them, 
 and the quacks presenting money orders, are simply turned off. This 
 wounds the quack in his most tender spot. The former Dr. Warner, for 
 example, suddenly becomes Dr. H. Morrell, and keeps this name until the 
 post-office discovers this transformation scene, and the money arriving for 
 him, instead of going into the quack's pocket, again finds its way to the writer. 
 
 31 
 
482 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 The following case we have already mentioned in the chapter on swind- 
 lers. The patient receives a letter from the "doctor" containing the post 
 money order sent for medicine etc., in which the former is requested to 
 send the money by express. As an explanation for this request, the doctor 
 states that he had neglected to collect the money at the proper time, and 
 that it would cause him an immense amount of trouble to collect it now. 
 As it makes no difference when a post money order is presented, i^s return 
 is a sure sign that the person presenting it, is well known as a swindler, 
 and as such payment was refused him. Another quack distributes circu- 
 lars under various names at the same time, and advertises in the papers 
 as so many different doctors. He enlarges his custom considerably in this 
 way, and also has the advantage that patients who do not trust him as 
 Dr. A., apply to him as Dr. B., or the reverse. This is one of the ad- 
 vantages of the circular and correspondence practice. Another plausible 
 reason for the many names is the desire very easily explained, to keep out 
 of the reach of the authorities. 
 
 The fact that the quacks assume several other names besides their own, 
 lets their number appear much larger than it really is. Even if we allow 
 each one of them six different names on an average, the number of quacks 
 is still very large. A small book could easily be filled with the different 
 names of the quacks, male and female, who have made their appearance 
 in the course of a few years in New York, and have announced and 
 praised their infallible cures, wonderful remedies, patent medicines, etc., 
 in circulars, pamphlets and the newspapers. In most of the large dailies 
 a separate department is found among the advertisements w r ith the head- 
 ing "Medical". This "medical" department, any one not initiated in the 
 secrets of the trade, would suppose to contain all the medical advertise- 
 ments brought together in one column. But he would be disappointed, if 
 he were to look here for the address of any respectable physician. But if 
 he should read the advertisements during his search, he would get very 
 peculiar ideas about the physicians of our city. But the initiated know 
 that they need not look for a respectable physician among these advertise- 
 ments. A physician laying claim to the least respectability, would sue a 
 publisher for heavy damages, if lie should put his advertisement in this 
 infamous list. It would be a poor recommendation for him to have his 
 name appear in this company, composed of abortionists, quacks and char- 
 latans of all classes. The strongest part of the whole thing is, that this 
 class of advertisements, bearing so plainly the stamp of obscenity and 
 boasting ignorance upon their face, do not hurt the advertisers rather than 
 benefit them. And yet they pay very well, as can easily be seen from the 
 fact that they appear day for day and year for year. Below we give as 
 samples a few of these "medical" advertisements. 
 
 " Special notice for ladies. Ladies who have had misfortune and are in 
 need- of good medical treatment, should be extremely careful in the choice 
 

 THE Ql Ai K DOCTORS. 
 
 of a physician. Many physicians promise help but do not give it. The 
 tie organism is so complicated that only physicians fully acquainted 
 with it, should undertake to treat it. A thorough knowledge of anatomy 
 and physiology is absolutely necessary for the successful treatment of fe- 
 male diseases. Dr. Humbug No. 1 has for the past 25 years exclusively 
 treated female diseases, with and without medicine. His age and his 6UC, 
 •uring this long practice ai e the best guarantees. Our mode of treat- 
 ment has been endorsed by the highest authorities and is our exclusive se- 
 cret. Let all those come to as, who have been cheated by quacks, or have 
 undergone false, treatment. You will quickly see the difference between 
 good treatment and mere quackery. Strictest secrecy of the consultations 
 is understood, and patients will feel with us as if at home. They are seen 
 by nobodv but the doctor. Ladies who need careful nursing before and 
 after their confinement, will always find elegant rooms in readiness. No. 
 — X. street. 
 
 "Ladies physician and friend of the unfortunate. Dr. Humbug No. 2 
 guarantees to ladies a painless cure. Board, servants, and if necessary 
 medical advice. Rooms private, fees moderate. The oath taken by Dr. 
 Humbug No. 2 upon his graduation is as follows : To preserve and defend 
 the honor of women and families, to preserve the life of the patient, and 
 to keep secret for ever the communications made to him in his capacity of 
 physician." 
 
 "Special notice for married and single ladies. The most wonderful, 
 trustworthy and at the same time the healthiest remedy for married and 
 
 single ladies are the pills. Thousands of ladies have used them 
 
 suceessfullv. They cure surelv and are at the same time not unhealthy. 
 Price $5.00. Dr. Humbug No. 3, profes-or of female diseases, has been 
 for twenty years the sole agent and proprietor." 
 
 k> Ye unfortunate be wise, and learn to know your diseases. Consult the 
 experienced physician, Dr. Humbug No. 4. who cures all secret diseases, 
 wiihout regard to the length of their standing, as well as nervous debility, 
 impotency, rheumatism, and all skin diseases, and will restore your 
 health." 
 
 "S1000 retcard for any case of secret diseases, nervous debility, rheu- 
 matism, scrophula etc., which I fail to cure. No mercury or change of 
 diet. Address Dr. Humbug No. 5. 
 
 "Dr. Humbug No. C, No. — X St., where everybody will be cured free 
 of charge." 
 
 These are a few specimens of the advertisements of quacks to be found 
 in almost all daily papers. They are however not by any means the worst 
 yet, as we could bring ours -Ives to publish, specimen of the most obscene 
 kind. In general the column headed by "Medical" in the advertising 
 columns of the dailies, is a disgrace to American journalism. As it has 
 been clearly proven that the public opinion cannot force the papers to reject 
 
484 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 these advertisements, it would be eminently fitting for the legislature to 
 prevent their publication by law. But we will treat of this advertising 
 nuisance more fully in another chapter. Legal penalties are wanted almost 
 as much for the circulars and pamphlets of the quacks. The newspaper 
 reader can discontinue a newspaper if it contains obscene advertisements.. 
 But how can he keep away from the circulars of still more obscene con- 
 tents brought to him by mail or smuggled into his house by carriers, who 
 push them under the door or throw them into the open window. There 
 the one Mho finds them first can read them, and very often these finders 
 are innocent children, whom their parents had carefully kept from obscene 
 literature. 
 
 Many will wonder, how the quacks ever get hold of their names and 
 addresses. They do it in a very simple manner. They buy up city di- 
 rectories, hotel registers, lists of subscribers of newspapers, and make use 
 of the names thus obtained in flooding the persons with circulars by maiL 
 They choose a number of names from these lists, without knowing their 
 intended victims personally, or ever having had any business connection 
 with them at all. 
 
 A new quack-firm goes to work in a different and more successful man- 
 ner than that employed by any of their predecessors. 
 
 It takes from the sources already indicated the names of men, women, 
 and even young girls. These are one day surprised by a letter from this 
 firm, couched in respectable terms, in which they are made the following 
 offer : They are to send the firm a list of at least fifty persons living in 
 their neighborhood, together with their full addresses. Sick persons, espe- 
 cially those afflicted with chronic diseases, are to be noticed particularly 
 in this list, and notices of the diseases and the circumstances in connection 
 with them, are especially desired by the firm. As a recompense for the 
 trouble taken in making out this last, the firm promises to send a beauti- 
 ful chromo. The letter also abounds in sentimental phrases about the sa- 
 tisfaction which the getter-up of such a list must feel in having rendered 
 his fellow citizens a valuable service. 
 
 Many are led by the highsounding title of the quack-firm to accede to 
 their wishes. They do not know that in so doing they are allowing them- 
 selves to be misused for dirty plans. It would be indeed a poor service 
 they would thus render a sick person in their neighborhood. The quacks 
 would in the true sense of the word bombard the sick man with their cir- 
 culars and pamphlets on his disease, and would do everything they could 
 to get him into their power. Let every one beware of opening the doors 
 of a sick room in such a manner to these people. The "elegant chromo" 
 moreover is nothing but a promise as easily broken as made, and only in- 
 tended as a bait for childlike simplicity. 
 
 Whatever has been said in the foregoing pages about the quacks, can 
 be equally well applied to the quack medicines. If we can expect a quack 
 
THE QUACK DOCTORS. 4*5 
 
 behind every boastful self-praise of some "doctor" who announces his 
 wonderful cures in the papers and offers to heal any and every disease, the 
 same is the case with those medicines whose praise stares the public in the 
 face in all the papers. A medicine may bear any name whatever, the fact 
 that it is recommended as a remedy for all or even a few dozen different 
 diseases, characterizes it as a quack medicine. This is the case with a 
 majority of the so-called patent medicines, as syrups, drops, extracts, 
 elixirs, balsams, waters, pills, plasters, salves, etc. They are all the more 
 dangerous, the more serious the diseases are, for which they are recom- 
 mended. If we read the advertisements and the pamphlets with the praises 
 of the wonderful powers of these remedies, we should almost be inclined 
 to think that each one of them would be able to heal all sicknesses. That 
 alone is sufficient for common sense to condemn them, 
 
 In their effects they are either directly dangerous or in the most fortunate 
 case entirely harmless, and therefor in neither case a medicine. Their 
 effect is chiefly felt in two directions. They either stimulate, by means of 
 very active agents, the organs weakened by disease to renewed activity, 
 or by means of narcotics reduce morbidly excited organs to insensibility. 
 This stimulating effect however is no more a strengthening of the weakened 
 organs, than the exhausted horse is strengthened by a severe application 
 of the spur and whip. The last remnant of strength is only brought into 
 play, and complete exhaustation is the natural result of the unnatural 
 efforts. No benefit is derived from it. In the less dangerous cases of 
 illness, the convalescence which would take place without any medicines 
 at all, is only retarded ; in more serious cases of illness, and with the con- 
 tinued use of these stimulants, they soon become dangerous to the consti- 
 tution. 
 
 Not less dangerous are those agents, in which the narcotic is the chief 
 ingredient. In making the organs insensible to pain, in allaying cough or 
 in producing sleep, they by no means remove the causes of the pain, the 
 cough or the sleeplessness. These causes not only continue to exist, but 
 make all the more rapid progress, as the whole organism is simultaneously 
 weakened in all its important functions. The experienced physician is 
 always very careful in the application of narcotics or stimulants, aud uses 
 them only when he considers it imperatively necessary. The highly 
 praised medicines are brought among the public and are used indiscrimi- 
 nately by persons of every age and sex, only upon their own esiimate of 
 their real or imaginary complaints. 
 
 Many of our readers will hardly believe all that we have said. For 
 does oue not know from his own experience of the "excellent" effects pro- 
 duced by some pateut medicines? Vie believe him ! We are even con- 
 vinced that many thousands have had the same experience. But still that 
 proves nothing for the quack mediciues. As many thousands can un- 
 doubtedly be found whom these medicines either did not benefit at all or 
 
486 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 even hurt, and as many thousands more who in similar cases have taken 
 some other medicine or none at all and became well again. The explana- 
 tion for this is found in the fact, that man if he is sick does not necessa- 
 rily die, and often g^ts well in spite of the wrong medicines which he takes. 
 In many cases it is indeed a wonder how the patient's constitution has 
 been able to get over the sickness, and the medicines which are sometimes 
 much worse. "What in reality is due to the constitution is then accredited 
 to the medicine which was last used. This medicine is again used in the 
 next case of illness and as the patient does not die in this case either, it is 
 proclaimed infallible. This fame is all the more easily obtained, as the 
 patent medicines are only used in cases of a light illness or of chronic dis- 
 eases, running through many years. In the first case they are also credited 
 with having prevented some dangerous sickness as cholera, typhoid fever, 
 etc. But if some afflicted with a chronic disease should die, after having 
 swallowed a bushel of patent pills or a gallon of patent medicine, his nu- 
 merous friends cannot find words enough to praise this wonderful medicine,, 
 without which the sick man would undoubtedly have died long ago. 
 
 But these patent quack medicines not only aggravate those diseases 
 which they pretend to cure, but they are also dangerous, in that they often 
 make well persons sick. This is especially the case with those nostrums, 
 which taken for the stomach or as a cordial, have become a necessary 
 medicine. If any one accustomed to take his cordial regularly in the 
 morning and evening, should stop its use, he would feel ill. He begins to 
 suffer from that disease, which he wished to alleviate by means of the 
 patent medicine. This seems to him to be a proof of its effectiveness, and 
 he again uses it. It was indeed a proof of its effectiveness, but not of its 
 good but of its bad effectiveness. ^The medicine has so much weakened 
 his stomach, that this organ is no longer able to perform its usual func- 
 tions, without the stimulant. This weakness increases with the continued 
 use of the cordial. The doses become more frequent and larger, until at 
 last that terrible monster, dyspepsia is brought forth and has assumed such 
 dimensions, that it even laughs at the efforts of the best physicians. Very 
 often these alcoholic cordials breed a desire for strong liquors, which not 
 unfrequently finds its terrible end in the "delirium tremens". Occasion- 
 ally much ado is made in the daily papers about some new infallible me- 
 dicine for some dangerous sickness. Testimonials are printed of patients 
 who have been cured by this medicine, and physicians, who have effec- 
 tively used them in their practice. All those unfortunates who suffer of 
 this same disease, now procure this medicine as quickly as possible. They 
 gladly pay the very high price, which is demanded of them, but when it 
 arrives, the desired effect by no means takes place. It then appears in its 
 true character of worthless quackery, which either has its origin in inten- 
 tional swindle, or less frequency in unintentional deception. We recall 
 here the swindle with so-called wild tea, which as a sure remedy for can- 
 
TIIK QUAi B !•" rOBS. 
 
 ( - appearance about H y It soon appeared however, 
 
 that it was nothing but the - ■■ Inch hud been brought into 
 
 opera ti m by a Philadelphia speculator, to sell a comparatively worthless 
 herb (winter green) for a high price. In Bpite of the disclosure of the 
 iwindle, the puffing of the tea through the papers, had had good e€ 
 The speculator did a first rate business. Orders came in from all parts of 
 the United .States and Canada for this wonderful tea, which he sold at $12 
 per quart, while the same herb can be had at 56 cents a pound in any 
 drug store, or can be gathered by the cart load in auy forest. So strange 
 is the power of humbug. 
 
 The "wild tea" enthusiasm had hardly subscribed when the poor unfor- 
 tunates suffering with cancer were again raised to the highest pitch of ex- 
 citement and hope by a new "infallible remedy" coming from South Ame- 
 rica, called "Cuudurango'. For this remedy also, patients and physicians 
 were immediately produced, who testified to its efficiency. And yet this 
 "Cuudurauga root" has been proven by fair and impartial tests to be en- 
 tirely ineffective in cases of cancer. 
 
 The same is the case with the many thousand "secret remedies', which 
 are praised up in newspapers and pamphlets, as infallible remedies, by 
 persons with and without the M. D. after their names. They are gene- 
 rally nothing but miserable stuff, which does no one any good but the 
 quack himself, while those who buy them can be happy if they escape 
 without any serious damage to their health. 
 
 The damage that is done by the quacks can not be estimated too highly. 
 How many deaths are caused by them every year, it is impossible to tell, 
 although their number is certainly not small. In very few cases can the 
 death of a victim be brought home to the "doctor", and he be punished for 
 malpractice. The injury they do is furthermore increased by the fact that 
 the patients lose valuable time with them, and only apply to a respectable 
 physician when their disease has considerably iucreased. Thousands who 
 6uffer from so-called "chronic" diseases, increase their sickuess by swal- 
 lowing thi so-called medicines which are praised by quacks or their agents 
 as infallible remedies. Nothing is furthermore so apt to ruin a strong 
 constitu ion and to make it susceptible to disease as the variously named 
 patent medicines. Even in the most fortunate cases they are nothing but 
 means to draw money out of the people's pockets under false pretences. 
 
 The different pamphlets, circulars etc., distributed by quacks, are also 
 of a very dangerous character. They are written in such a manner that 
 timid and nervous people easily imagine themselves to be afflicted witlh 
 some disease. Such imagination is often more perilous than the most dan- 
 gerous disease. For the power of imagination is very great. At the time 
 of Louis XIV a prominent uoble man was condemned to death, but the 
 kinu r resolved to let the mortal terror which ha must endure suffice. He 
 wa= told that lie would not be executed publicly, but that he would suffer 
 
488 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 punishment by gradually bleeding to death. He was then laid on a nar- 
 row bed in his cell and the veins opened ou both his arms. But this was 
 only done apparently. The physicians only slightly scratched the skin, so 
 that some blood began to flow, while by an arrangement fixed to the bed, 
 water began to drip into two tanks on either side of ths bed, and thus pro- 
 duced the impression on the prisoner's mind that it was blood flowing out 
 of his veins. From time to time the physicians felt of his pulse and found 
 it to be just as weak as if he had actually lost a large amount of blood. 
 As the poor fellow gradually began to become insensible, it was decided 
 to stop the cruel experiment. But it was too late then. The unfortunate 
 fellow who had only lost \ oz. of blood, died, in spite of all efforts, of the 
 weakness produced in his imagination by the bleeding. 
 
 In a similar manner the quack's description of the symptoms of different 
 diseases works upon nervous characters. This is done all the more easily, 
 as these treatises are written for the express purpose of producing and 
 nourishing hypochondrical fears. There are people who cannot read a 
 novel describing a sick room, without thinking themselves afflicted with 
 the disease. Even in medical colleges the same thing happens occasionally. 
 There are often students who think they discover all the diseases on which 
 their professor is lecturing. 
 
 The unhappy propensity to discover diseases on one's person, is un- 
 fortunately very wide spread. It is a rich source of real and imaginary 
 diseases and is the most powerful ally of the quacks in their operations 
 against other people's money. Nothing spreads more difficult among the 
 people at large than a sound opinion on the advances made in medicine. 
 The large majority are very far behind yet in that respect and look up to 
 the parchment etc. of the last century as their authority. If persons who 
 have suffered for years and have tried in vain everything that medical 
 science could do, apply to a quack, they are certainly not to blame. But 
 there is another class of people, and it is not small, who believe that their 
 bodies, like a lame horse, need some spur or incentive to do its duty. For 
 this purpose they constantly keep on hand a quack drug store with drops, 
 tinctures, pills, salves, etc., to keep in order, or as they say, "to regulate" 
 their stomach, liver, kidneys, blood, etc. This is a relic of the super- 
 stitious middle ages, that medicines were not only necessary to cure sick 
 persons, but also to prevent healthy persons from getting sick. Beginning 
 with this foolish idea, thousands continually weaken their organism and 
 accustom it to perform its functions only upon the application of some 
 stimulant. In thus taking medicines, we might say as food, they overload 
 the orgauism with things that are foreign to it and which lay the founda- 
 tion for those diseases which they are intended to prevent. 
 
 The conscientious physician will always oppose such doings. He knows 
 nothing besides a natural mode of life to preserve health and to prevent 
 disease. If the health is lost, he tries to restore it not so much by medi- 
 
THK QUACK DOCTORS. 48!) 
 
 cines, as by trying to discover the causes of the diseases and to remove 
 them. That is his most important duty, which he fulfills' with the aid of 
 medicines. lie knows that it is not his duty to cure the disease, but only 
 to remove the obstructions which prevent nature from performing her nor- 
 mal functions. 
 
 These are views with which very many people cannot yet acquaint 
 themselves. The balance of power of confidence still rests with the medi- 
 cines, and the confidence in the doctor is bared on the supposition, that he 
 knows all those medicines, which are able to cure this or that disease. A 
 passive cure by simply regulating the diet, mode of living etc., is simply 
 looked upon as inactivity on the part of the physician, by which the dis- 
 ease is given time to settle down Often enough the physician is forced to 
 prescribe some harmless medicine, to give the patient and his relations 
 some visible proof, that something is done against the sickness. Besides 
 the majority of the patients are much more inclined to swallow the most 
 disgusting medicines, than to give up old and bad habits, or to return to 
 them upon the least sign of recovery. 
 
 The quacks chiefly speculate upon and pamper to these prejudices and 
 peculiarities of the public. They see that the world will be cheated in 
 this respect, and they oblige it as much as possible. No superstition is 
 more wider spread than the medical. It not only keeps captive the unen- 
 lightened masses, but a large number of those, who stand on the steps of 
 the ladder of science. Thus we have the strange contradiction, of having 
 a schism in the church produced by the dogma of the infallibility of the 
 pope, while thousands consult one of the daily appearing quacks in blind 
 faith. It does seem indeed as if the world will be cheated. 
 
 It would hardly be of any use to mention the names of all those quacks 
 who have gained an unenviable notoriety in the last few years. The name 
 as we have seen is only of secondary importance, as the quack imme 
 diately begins business under a new name, when the old one becomes too 
 well known. It is quackery which is to be avoided, whether it is carried 
 on by A, B, C, or D. We have furnished enough particulars to recognize 
 quacks or quackery under any disguise. The evil of quackery is at present 
 scarcely any worse, than a pestilential epidemic. It ruins the health of 
 thousands annually, and leads other thousands to an early grave. The 
 quacks not only rob their victims of life and health, but also of millions of 
 dollars, and we can well say that quackery is dearer iu the end than the 
 treatment by a regular physician. 
 
 Laws, however much they may contribute to limit quackery will never 
 be fully able to suppress it. The best guard against it, is iu the hands of 
 the public itself. The patient is at liberty to employ the services of auy 
 physician whatever, and no law in the world can prevent him from con- 
 sulting some old women in reference to a regular physician if he so chooses. 
 When this state of affairs will be changed, WLen people will cease to ex- 
 
490 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 pect wonders from doctors aud medicines, then and not before will the 
 time arrive, when swindlers will cease to do a profitable business under 
 the physician's mask. As the belief in witches and exercisers of the devil 
 was only swept by laws of progress, so will it also be with that supersti- 
 tion, which enables quacks, and their wonderful remedies to flourish to 
 the present day. But the day that will see this reformation is still far 
 away, and what has been said in the preceding chapter about the family 
 of quacks, may be considered as a small contribution to hasten its approach. 
 
 LOTTERIES AND POLICY. 
 
 The desire for fortune is born in man, and this so evidently, that it 
 eeems quite natural that people should hunt and struggle for it. The ideas 
 of luck are indeed quite different, but they all agree in this, that they re- 
 cognize in wealth either fortune itself or one of the means of obtaining it. 
 The almighty dollar is the chief idol and the tyrant of our times, and any 
 one, who will exist at all, must condescend to worship it, at least to a cer- 
 tain degree. The poor laborer, the rich banker, the man of business as 
 well as the scholar, they all do it, although each in a different manner- 
 Thousand diflerent gates lead according to popu'ar idea to fortune, and every 
 one chooses which seems nearest to him, or through which he thinks he can 
 reach his goal quickest and easiest. The "gate of chance" is unfortunately 
 a very popular one and is sought every day by a blinded mass of senseless 
 people. Steady labor seems to many too hard or too slow. They prefer 
 to trust to chance for their fortune, which shall throw it into their lap 
 without any effort of their own. Without doubt chance is a powerful fac- 
 tor in every struggle in life, and it is in human nature to bring this chance 
 into account in every undertaking. JFor hope, that powerful incentive in 
 human life, is chiefly built on it. But this dependence on chance should 
 never exceed a certain point. It always becomes dangerous and fatal, if 
 success is more dependent on chance, then on one's own exertion?. 
 
 In this respect is it that lotteries come here into account with us. For 
 in them the thoughtless masses blindly worship chauce, and lazily await 
 their fortune from chance's will, rather than gain it by their own energy. 
 They annually cheat thousands out of the real fortune, by fraudu'ent re- 
 presentations of a possible one, and thus by smothering the desire for en- 
 ergetic action, continually swell the ranks of the paupers of our city. They 
 act perniciously on single persons and on the public in general and form a 
 worthy companion piece to the gambling houses treated of before. 
 
LO'Ii ERISA and POLICY. I ) . 
 
 Many will wonder how lotteries can be classed among the "Dark - 
 of New York", as they are prohibited by law, and are even less favored 
 than dance-houses, concert-saloons etc.. The prohibition by law does exist, 
 and includes not only the lotteries themselves, but the sale of lottery ticket*., 
 and the publishing of lottery advertisements are forbidden by laws which 
 punish an offence of this kind with 61000 fine or a corresponding imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 But in spite of this law from 500 to 600 ollices exist in this city, in 
 which lottery tickets are sold, and by this act are classed among lotteries, 
 while their business pays so well that their proprietors are all millionaire*. 
 According to all calculations the receipts of these offices cannot be taken at 
 less than $20,0 JO per day, or $120,000 per week, or $6,240,000 per year. 
 These are facts and figures which speak for themselves. A large part of this 
 money, it is true, does not come from New York. But New York City 
 alone is certainly interested in this glittering swindle to the sum of 
 $1,000,000 per annum. These offises of course do not bear the disreput- 
 able name of lotteries or policy shops. In most cases the words "Exchange" 
 or "Exchange oflice'' cover their doings. If any one sees these words over 
 an office, he can very easily guess their true meaning. In many cases a 
 look into the show window will show us coins and valuable papers exposed 
 in the manner, usually adopted by brokers. This is done not to deceive 
 the police, but to attract customers, who would not like to enter an open 
 lottery or policy shop. 
 
 The policy shops vary considerably according to the locality in which 
 they are situated, from the miserable den in Cherry or Thompson 6ts. to 
 the elegant office on Broadway. Inside however they all have a suspi- 
 cious look, from the endeavor appearing everywhere to hide their real 
 business. A look into the largest policy shop in the city, situated o;; 
 Broadway near St. Paul's church, suffices to show us this characteristic 
 feature. From without the uninitiated would suppose the office to be that 
 of a money broker, from seeing coins, banknotes, valuable papers, etc. 
 lying in the window. Upon entering nothing is seen, which would destroy 
 this illusion, only it seems strange, that the office is so small and is di- 
 vided into two compartments by a wooden partition. The initiated knows 
 the meaning of this partition and the door in it very well. He therefor 
 walks boldly through the door and finds himself in the hall devoted to the 
 goddess of fortune. It is not very inviting, long and extremily narrow 
 room, which is so poorly illuminated, that gas must be burned throughout 
 the day. A long counter extends on both sides of the room, behind which 
 a number of clerks wait upon the customers. The walls are covered by 
 plans of the drawings of the various lotteries. In the back of the room 
 are two blackboards, on which ihe numbers drawn are placed, upon the 
 telegraphic announcement of their drawing. They are the chief centre of 
 attraction for a number of professional players, who pass most of their time 
 

 492 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 here and await with much anxiety the moment when the clerk will bepin 
 to put the numbers fatal for them upon the board. This space situated 
 behind the partition is the real lottery office, while the front part, purport- 
 ing to be a broker's office, is only a mask to cover the true business. la 
 .streets, in which the population considers policy and lottery respectable 
 amusements, these masks are more or less wanting, and the visitor upon 
 opening the door immediately sees the true character of the place. Id the 
 majority of places however the person entering sees four or five feet from 
 the door the above mentioued partition with a door, whose windows, if it 
 has any, are always made of dim glass. If any one should be deceived 
 by the superscription "Exchange Office", and remain in the front office 
 after waiting a little while, a clerk would appear from behind the partition 
 -and ask his business. If the unsophisticated had any broker business to 
 transact, the clerk would declare with a hardly concealed smile, that he 
 could not do anything for him, and would disappear again behind the par- 
 tition. ^ 
 
 But such mistakes occur very seldom indeed. For, in the first place, 
 the meaning of "Exchange Office" is almost universally known, and 
 secondly, the appearance of these places is sufficient to prevent a person 
 of even a higher degree of "greenness" to transact any money business here. 
 
 In these offices the tickets of almost all our inland as well as of some 
 foreign lotteries are sold, and sometimes of lotteries which have never 
 existed. The best known among the inland lotteries are the Alabama, 
 Kentucky, Missouri and Louisiana state lotteries. Besides these states 
 Delaware also has its lotteries, and a large number of so-called "special 
 lotteries" appear and disappear sporadically in different states. Among 
 the foreign lotteries, the Royal Havana enjoys the greatest popularity. 
 The tickets of the different lotteries vary considerably in price. The 
 dearest are those of the Havana lottery, in which a whole ticket costs $32. 
 But they are also made accessible to persons less favored with this world's 
 fortunes, as tenth and twentieth tickets are sold at considerably reduced 
 prices. The various state lotteries however are considerably cheaper; the 
 clearest do not cost over $10. Halves and quarters are also to be had of 
 them. The majority only charge $5 for a full ticket, and drawings take 
 place once a week in which the price is only $2.50, and one drawing in 
 which $1 is the price for a full ticket ; so that even a poor fellow can buy 
 the privilege of building air castles until the day of drawing with 25 cents 
 for a quarter ticket. Besides these named above, tickets can be had of 
 almost all the large European state lotteries in the agencies here. 
 
 The Havana lottery is conducted on a single number plan. This is as 
 follows : The numbers are in one wheel, from which they are drawn with 
 certain formalities. Together with each number a piece of paper is drawn 
 from a second wheel, on which is stated the prize which the ticket draws. 
 The highest prize in this lottery is $200,000 gold. The drawings take 
 
LOTTERIKS AND POLICY. 498 
 
 place at regular periods of seventeen days each. Every ticket represent* 
 a certain number. 
 
 This plan differs, however, considerably from that adopted by the lot- 
 teries licensed in different states of the Union. They are conducted ou 
 tin' throe number combination, and every ticket bears three different num- 
 Iprs. As an example we will take the Kentucky lottery which has two 
 drawings a day at Covii gton. One of the three commissioners present 
 picks up the s< venty-eighl numbers on the table, one after the other, shows 
 them to the public and places them in a metal tube open at bo:h ends, and 
 puts these tube.- into a glass wheel, the so-called "wheel of fortune". When 
 all the 78 numbers are in the wheel, it is closed and is rapidly turned in 
 several directions. A blind boy whose arms are bare to the shoulder, is 
 then led to the wheel. He draws from this a metal tube which he hand* 
 to the commissioner, who takes from it the number, shows it to those 
 present and calls it out to the clerk who writes it down and again in his 
 turn calls it out in a loud voice to a telegraph operator. The wheel is 
 then closed, turned again, and the drawing continued until all the prizes 
 have been drawn, generally thirteen or fourteen in number. The closing 
 scene is the act of executing the drawing certificate by the commissioners, 
 which certificate is then telegraphed to all the principal lottery agencies 
 in t':e country. The drawings of the Alabama, Missouri, Louisiana and 
 other lotteries are conducted in a similar manner, and their prizes are 
 arranged as in the Kentucky lottery. These prizes are much less than in 
 . the Havana lottery. They also vary on the different days of the week, 
 1 according to the prices of the tickets. These tickets may win, if all three 
 Dumbers are drawn, from $50,000 to $300, while if two numbers are 
 drawn, double the price of the ticket, and if one number, the original price 
 of the ticket is paid. In all cases however a deduction of 15 per cent, is 
 made from all prizes. After each drawing, the lucky numbers are tele- 
 graphed to all the principal agencies, and from these to all the minor offices 
 in the country, so that within an hour they are known to thousands of ex- 
 pectant players. The agents receive a commission of 12 per cent, on all 
 tickets sold in their ollices, and the large income they derive therefrom, 
 shows plainly the extent to which lottery is played in our city. 
 
 The sale of these tickets is only one, and by no means the worst feature, 
 of lottery. Until now we have only seen the different lottery dens operate 
 as agencies for the different state lotteries. They also practice a similar 
 game on their own account, which is called '"Policy". It consists in betting 
 on certain combinations in a particular drawing of the Kentucky or other 
 lottery. The player may bet on one, two, three, or even four numbers, 
 a.- well as on the order in which the numbers are drawn. If two of the 
 numbers on which the player has bet, are drawn, it is called a '-Saddle" ; 
 if three, a '"Gig" ; and if it should happen that all four are drawn, it is 
 called a "Horse '. A "Flat gig" is. when a player has bet on only three 
 
4W4 THE DAKK SIDE OF NEW YORK LTFE. 
 
 numbers, and all three have been drawn. The player may also combine 
 •all these different bets. Thus he may bet on four numbers in such a man- 
 ^r, that he is betting at the same time on a "Horse", "Gig", "Saddle", 
 and each number separately. 
 
 The chances of winning are so exceedingly slim for the player, that we 
 may justly wonder how people can be found outside of a lunatic asylum, 
 who will bet on a "Flat gig" or even on a "Horse''. The lottery agents 
 well know their advantage in policy, for they apparently give the players 
 most dazzling chances. They pay on single numbers four times, on 
 "Saddles" 40 times, on "Gigs" 300 times and on "Horses" 500 times the 
 original bet. If a number is drawn in a certain order denoted by a player, 
 as the first, or fifth or any other, they will even repay the original bet a 
 thousand fold. This policy game is spread much more in the city than 
 even the true lottery, and is especially played with great passion by the 
 lower classes of the population. 
 
 These then are the forms under which, in spite of all legal enactments, 
 lottery is carried on in almost every street of New York, in Wall street 
 and Broadway as well as in the regions of the Arch Block and the Five 
 Points. It is a noticeable fact that the Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri and 
 Louisiana lotteries are controlled by Simmons & Co. in New York, who 
 are justly regarded as the heads of the American lottery business. If 
 these gentlemen do not openly announce themselves as the proprietors of 
 these establishments, it is from the fact that it has a better appearance to 
 have the proprietors at the place of drawing. Thus, Murray, Miller & 
 Co. in St. Louis, and Howard, Simmons & Co. in New Orleans, are the 
 nominal heads of the Missouri and Louisiana state lotteries, although 
 Simmons & Co. are just as mueh the directing powers in these concerns 
 as in the Alabama and Kentucky lotteries which are openly conducted in 
 their name. Formerly the name of the "Hon." Ben Wood was identified 
 with the lottery system in our city. He was one of the original proprietors 
 of said lotteries, and in 1866 sold his share to Z. E. Simmons in New- 
 York. As some slight mistake had occurred in the bill of sale, the 
 "Honorable" Ben Wood tried to make use of this to get the concern into 
 his hands again. But this "smart" plan was doomed to failure, for the 
 courts in Washington as well as in Louisiana decided against him. Since 
 then these lotteries are under the control of Simmons & Co. What names 
 are concealed behind this firm is only known to a small number of ini- 
 tiated. They are certainly "prominent and highly respectable" men of 
 great political influence, who like to make money, but do not care to let 
 the world know the means they employ to accomplish this end. 
 
 These unknown "Honorables" hide themselves therefor behind the known 
 "Honorables", the brothers Simons, who were the confidential clerks of 
 Ben Wood. When Zacharias E. Simmons bought the share of Wood, he 
 gave to his brothers, William L. and Chester E. Simmons, a large number 
 
LOTTERIES AND POLICY. 405 
 
 Of shares. He retained for himself the chief contract of the business, 
 while lie intrusted his brother William with the superintendency. The 
 business flourishes under him as well as uuder his predecessors, so that in 
 the short space of seven years he has made hundreds of thousands of 
 dollars. 
 
 The city trade rests almost exclusively in the hands of William L. Sim- 
 mons, the superintendent. It is a noticeable characteristic of this man, 
 ihat he never dares to go out in the streets alone. He is always accom- 
 panied by a number of "Heelers", who are loafers in his employ, always 
 ready to use their fists for him when it becomes necessary. This is most 
 certainly a sign of an impure conscience, and is an imitation of the Italian 
 bandits etc. Like brother Zach., "William is worth several hundred thou- 
 sands. The third in this union, Chester E. Simmons, was formerly super- 
 intendent of the headquarters, No. 372 Bowery. Very little is known of 
 him, except that he unceasingly watches over the details of the business. 
 The names of Chas. II. Murray, John A. Morris, Wm. Cook, John Mor- 
 rissey and Andrew Sheehan are also mentioned among the most prominent 
 of American lottery men. 
 
 These then are the men, in whose hands the lottery business in New 
 York rests. Let us now look at the business itself a little closer, and first 
 of all its results for the player. It is an undisputable fact that the lottery 
 players as a class are poor, and that for every one who has grown rich by 
 it, tens of thousands can be mentioned whom lottery has forever ruined. 
 But these thousands are not mentioned, while the few exceptional cases 
 are put up for years as tempting bait. They are much more properly 
 proofs of the infrequency of such a stroke of fortune. For we speak of an 
 event the longer and all the more often, the more seldom it lakes place. 
 And riches gained by winning in a lottery, may be properly included 
 among the rarest events. We need only look at the crowds of those who 
 are regular customers of the lottery shop. They have all played for years 
 and all boast of knowing all the secrets of the game. But their appearances 
 do not in the least indicate wealth. They all bear more or less ihe stamp 
 of decay, which is more clearly expressed every } T ear and which plainly 
 shows, that lottery not only does not help one, but that it lets him sink 
 deeper every year. 
 
 In contrast to the undeniable poverty of the players, we cannot overlook 
 the rapidly accumulating wealth of the proprietors. The fact that the 
 "Woods", the "Simmons' " and the "Murrays" became millionaires, can 
 only be explained by the fact that their lotteries made thousands of rich 
 men poor, and reduced poor men to beggary. That rich people participate 
 in lottery in its various forms, by no means proves anything in its favor. 
 They most certainly do not owe their riches to their luck in lottery. They 
 are not impoverished by lottery, because their means are such as to allow 
 them to cover their loss. But even riches do not always guard from the 
 
496 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 sad consequences of playing lottery when it has become an incurable pas- 
 sion. A sad case of this kind became known a few years ago. A cashier 
 in one of the most prominent houses in New York had become violently 
 addicted to playing lottery. He also seemed to have good luck, for he won 
 in the course of several years about $60,000. But it was a very singular 
 fortune, whose nature very soon became apparent. One day he disappeared 
 and his body was soon after found in the neighborhood of the city, where 
 he had committed suicide by a shot in the head. A letter to his family 
 explained the motive for this terrible deed. He had not only lost his own 
 not inconsiderable fortune, but also $100,000 which he had taken from 
 his employer, in playing lottery, out of which sum he had defrauded his 
 employer in the vain hope of "forcing his luck". And that was a player 
 who had had u luck" and had won about $60,000. The downward course 
 is of course much quicker, where no property is at the player's disposal as 
 a reserve. People of this class may be considered from the moment that 
 lottery becomes a passion with them, as irretrivably lost. And it becomes 
 a passion only too easily and holds its victims with a power, against which 
 the warning voice of common sense, of duty and of nature are ineffectual. 
 The following may be considered as an example of what has been said 
 above. 
 
 Herbert Lawrence was a clerk in a well known broker's office, and the 
 only support of his widowed mother and sister. He was in every respect 
 an examplary young man as a son and brother and in his business. Al 
 though still quite young, his salary was a very good one, and he seemed 
 to be at the starting point of a very promising future. But one day he 
 allowed himself to be persuaded by a friend to buy a ticket in the Dela- 
 ware lottery. He did it more for a joke than with any idea of winning 
 anything. He had in fact entirely forgotten the ticket, when he met his 
 friend who congratulated him on his good fortune. Lawrence did not 
 know for the instant what luck he meant, whereupon his friend told him 
 that his (Lawrence's) ticket had won $1000. 
 
 The stroke of luck was perhaps a not very large one, but nevertheless 
 one which could make a man in Lawrence's circumstances feel happy. 
 Unfortunately Lawrence was not satisfied with the passing happiness. 
 Luck had brought him on a stake of $5 a sum which he would hardly 
 have been able to earn with half a year's hard labor. Just as he had won 
 $1000, he might win $50,000 or more. Luck had come to him unsought, 
 why should he not take the hint and in turn seek for fortune ? Such were 
 the reflections that had been aroused in the young man by his prize, and 
 he resolved to invest the whole $1000 in the lottery again, with the hope 
 of having the money thus risked returned to him ten and hundredfold. 
 
 Of his prize Lawrence only received two thirds, as the other third went 
 for commissionage etc. ; but soon he began to execute his design, and be- 
 came a regular customer in the different lotteries. Now and then he would 
 
LOTTERIES AND POLICY. 497 
 
 win a small prize, but his capital rapidly declined. At the same time he 
 neglected his duties, as all his thoughts were concentrated on the result of 
 each drawing. The more eagerly he sought to grasp the mirage of fortune, 
 the more quickly would it flee from him. The original prize had long ago 
 been returned to the lottery, and Lawrence now broke upon his savings. 
 But these also dwindled away, and he used part of his current salary for 
 buying lottery tickets. For, he thought, as he had had so much continued 
 misfortune, a change for the better must soon come. But this change did 
 not come. He tried to force the luck, suffered his mother and sister to 
 want, and even contracted debts, only to be able to buy tickets. But all 
 in vain ! The luck would not come. lie became absent-minded and for- 
 getful and committed so many blunders that he was threatened dismissal. 
 He then conceived the unfortunate idea of making a last desperate venture 
 and then let it end as it would, never to play again. He would take so 
 many tickets that it would be a wonder, if he did not win. He did, and 
 for this purpose used money belonging to the firm, which he took with the 
 intention of repaying it with his expected prizes, or if he should have mis- 
 fortune, by the strictest economy. One drawing after another came, but his 
 numbers were on none of the lists. Lawrence felt completely broken down. 
 Whether he would have held to his resolution, never to play again, cannot 
 be said, for in the meanwhile his defalcations were discovered, and the 
 head of the firm had all the less regard for him, as he had changed very 
 much for some time. The end of this sad story is easily told. Lawrence 
 is in jail. The mother is in her grave, to which grief has brought her, 
 and the sister is cast frieudless upon the world. Heaven alone knows 
 what her fate may be ! And all this was written on that lucky ticket 
 which Lawrence had bought "for a joke". 
 
 Hundreds of similar examples could be mentioned here. The policy 
 game especially makes itself severely felt among the middle and poorer 
 classes. Experience seems to be of no effect with this kind of gambling. 
 The passionate policy player in his senseless chase for luck may be re- 
 duced from affluence to poverty and ruin ; but he will not give up the idea 
 that one day his luck will change and he will at last become rich and 
 wealthy by some fortunate combination of numbers. 
 
 In every large lottery office these characters will be found as daily 
 visitors. This man, for instance, with the gray beard and hair, with fixed 
 look, and the fleshless body hardly covered by some torn rags, belongs to 
 this class. Ten years ago, although not rich, he was still comfortably 
 situated. What he is now, policy has made him. Hoping from year to 
 year, and from day to day, that the magic of dreams and of numbers 
 would make him rich, he gradually lost his money and at last his reason. 
 But to the present day he kuows no greater happiness than to sit in the 
 lottery office, studying the numbers drawn and ciphering out what numbers 
 must follow. He still lives in the hope that he will sometime become rich. 
 
 32 
 
498 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 In another lottery office an equally sad speetacle can be observed : A 
 pale young man in torn clothes, keeping the office clean and performing 
 similar services. He is the well educated son of a farmer, talented and 
 "well stocked with knowledge. He has been caught in the meshes of policy 
 and soon changed from au active, happy youth into an idle dreamer. The 
 hope of sudden riches by lucky numbers has crushed out all energy within 
 him. He feels satisfied in his low position which, besides furnishing him 
 board and lodging, also secures him the privilege of playing on three num- 
 bers daily. The lunatic asylum and the pottersfield will in all probability 
 also be the end of his career. 
 
 The passion for playing lottery in all its different forms is spread far 
 and wide. No age, no sex, and no standing in society is free lrom it. 
 Even school children can be found saving their pennies to buy a lottery 
 ticket or to play on some number. Parents often let their children want 
 the most necessary things, that they may not by any means lose a draw- 
 ing, from which they expect the realization of some long nourished dream. 
 The high opinion that some persons have of the lottery agent, is sometimes 
 really ludicrous. They look upon him as a kind of deity, in whose power 
 it lies to put an end to all their troubles and to realize all their hopes for 
 riches. Not seldom do letters come to the agent from widows and fathers 
 of large families, which, besides money tor a ticket, also contain touching 
 sketches of the poverty and misery of the writers. Many declare the 
 money sent to be the last they have, and beg the agent to take pity on 
 their misery and to let them win for once. The cool attempt to gain the 
 agent's good will by a promise of "halves", is also of not infrequent occur- 
 rence. These people probably know nothing of the immense swindle that 
 goes hand in hand with all lotteries, and that lotteries do not exist to let 
 the players win, but to draw r the last cent out of their pockets. This is 
 the case with even the most respectable lottery, if there can be any idea 
 at all of respectability in connection with lotteries whose first principle 
 already has the seed of swindle imbedded within it. 
 
 In regard to management, the Havana lottery still enjoys the best repu- 
 tation. But the different lotteries licensed in Louisiana, Alabama, Ken- 
 tucky, Missouri and other states, perhaps not injustly, do not enjoy much 
 confidence. Of the Alabama lottery it has been said often and publicly 
 hi the daily papers, that if it would have to pay large amounts for the 
 numbers drawn, they would be changed for others. The other lotteries 
 are not entirely free from the suspicion of dishonesty. We therefor do 
 them no injustice by saying that the player must expect to be swindled 
 just as much as the "greenhorn" who tries his luck in "Three card monte" 
 or in "Thimblerigging". 
 
 But the fact that licensed lotteries in various states and the policy game 
 are nothing but a hidden swindle, by no means ends the matter. There 
 are a number of agencies whose lotteries are the most shameless swindles 
 
LOTTERIES ANI> POLICY. 4'.)9 
 
 practiced in New York. They either deal in forged tickets, or in tickets 
 of lotteries that never had any existence. In both cases they simply re- 
 ceive the money without giving the buyer of the tickets any chance what- 
 ever to win. We have already mentioned this class of lotteries in the 
 chapter on swindle and have especially spoken of the so-called "Spanish 
 lottery'* as an example. In order to fully illustrate the doings of the lot- 
 teries in general, it will be necessary to recur to this subject and to ac- 
 quaint the reader with the history of one of the most impudent and best 
 known lottery swindles. 
 
 The firm under which this swindle still flourished about 10 or 11 years 
 a^o, has left behind as G. W. Huntington & Co. a poor reputation in 
 New York as well as in the rest of the U. S. The name of the firm was 
 of course an assumed one, as the partners belonged to the "most respect- 
 able" families in the city. Besides advertisements in almost all the papers, 
 the company published a monthly paper containing plans of their lottery, 
 together with sensational reading matter. Of this publication over two 
 hundred thousand copies were distributed gratis every month. At the 
 same time the firm represented itself as the agents of a large number of 
 other lotteries, many of which did not exist at all. Thus Huntington & 
 Co. came into possession of a correspondence extending over all the states 
 of the Union, as people applied to them from all parts for tickets for this 
 or that drawing. Thousands of letters received by them contained money 
 in amounts from 50 cents up to $10. How w r ell their business must have 
 flourished, will be seen from their mariner of conducting the drawings. 
 Real drawings did not take place in the lotteries arranged by the firm. 
 They simply determined beforehand upon nine numbers which should be 
 considered as "drawn". Let us suppose these numbers were 1, 7, 14, 35, 
 11, 8, 55, 91 and 240. According to their announcements, the ticket 
 which contained three of the above numbers in the same order, was en- 
 titled to prizes ranging from $50,000 to $250,000. Smaller prizes were 
 also offered for two of the drawn numbers in the same order as above. As 
 the swindlers knew the numbers "drawn" beforehand, it was an easy 
 thing for them to arrange them as they pleased. Thus it was that no one 
 was ever known to have drawn a grand prize in their lottery. It did 
 happen indeed that buyers sometimes received tickets with 1, 7, 80, or 
 14, 35, 9 etc., and thus obtained small prizes. The possessors of such 
 tickets always received the list of drawing with the following letter: 
 
 "We are sorry that your ticket with 14, 35, 9 did not win anything, but 
 you have the satisfaction of knowing how near the grand prize you came. 
 If instead of 9 you had 11, you would be a rich man to-day. But perhaps 
 you will be more fortunate the next time. Perseverance is a virtue which 
 is always sure to gain its end. Hoping that you will honor us with further 
 orders, we remain Yours truly 
 
 G. TV. Huntinnrton & Co." 
 
500 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Maqy were flattered by the attention which the great banking house 
 G. W. Huntington & Co. seemed to show them by this letter. The fact 
 also that they had nearly drawn the grand prize, stimulated their passion 
 for playing further. But not one of the swindlers' victims, and they could 
 be counted by hundred thousands, ever received a grand prize. If a new 
 customer sent a larger amount as $10 or $20, tickets were sent which 
 according to program would draw prizes amounting to about $2 or $3» 
 Thus confidence of winning was excited in the new customer and he was 
 stimulated to play further. The company never failed to let regular 
 customers occasionally win so as to encourage them. 
 
 The company had over one thousand agents in postmasters and other 
 persons scattered through all the states. These of course received a cer- 
 tain commission for the tickets sold by them. Huntington & Co. therefor 
 considered it no more than fair that these gentlemen should be plucked in 
 their turn. This was done in the following genial manner. 
 
 They instituted a "Great Consolidated Union Lottery", the advantages 
 of which were set forth in extravagant terms in circulars which were 
 distributed everywhere. The tickets were printed on fine paper in colored 
 ink, and the cheapest of them cost $10. It was of course to be expected 
 with such high prices that very few tickets would be sold. Every agent 
 was furnished with a small number of these tickets, at the highest three or 
 five. In a "confidential" circular accompanying them, it was stated that 
 this drawing was regarded as a benefit for the old customers and that more 
 prizes had been put in than ever before. 
 
 The day of the drawing came, and as the company had expected, nine 
 tenths of the tickes remained unsold. This event however had been fore- 
 seen. Printed circulars had already been in readiness for some time, 
 which were now sent to all the agents. These circulars were as follows : 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 The drawing of "Grand C. U. Lottery" took place 
 yesterday at 12 M. You will please return the tickets remaining unsold 
 in your hands, immediately. You will also endeavor, where it can be 
 done, to buy back the tickets sold by you, and debit us for the amount thus 
 paid out. Do not ask for our reasons in doing this, but send the tickets, 
 upon receipt of which we will send you a certified list of the drawing. 
 Yours etc. G. TV". Huntington & Co." 
 
 Each one of the agents now thought that one or more of the tickets sent 
 them had drawn large prizes and that the company was trying to get them 
 into their possession. This seemed undoubtedly. But which tickets bore 
 the luck numbers? A little risk in this case might bring unbounded riches. 
 The bait was so tempting that all the agents without exception kept back 
 as many tickets as possible, and hundreds sent, instead of the tickets, from 
 $30 to $50 with many excuses that it was not possible for them to buy 
 back the tickets. There had never been so many tickets sold before in 
 
I. oil I. KIT IS AND POLK ^ • 501 
 
 any lottery, and what seemed still stranger, was that four fifths of all the 
 tickets were held by the agents. These agents awaited with great anxiety 
 the lists of drawing, from which they hoped to read their luck. Bat to 
 their astonishment and horror it came otherwise Even those who had kept 
 all the tickets, so as not to let the grand prize escape them, found that 
 they had not won a cent. For the company, however, the swindle had paid 
 exceedingly well, while at the same time they had cheated the agents out 
 of a part of their commission. 
 
 This will give a fair idea of the mode of doing business employed by 
 this firm. It is therefor not to be wondered at, that the mayor as well 
 as the police authorities were constantly receiving complaints against the 
 company lrom all parts of the country. Many complained that they had 
 played so many years in Huntington & Co.'s lotteries without ever winning, 
 and as there seemed to them to be something out of order, they asked for 
 information about the company. Others again were convinced that their 
 tickets had won, and asked the authorities to help them to obtaiu justice. 
 The worst of it was however, neither the police nor the mayor knew who 
 the firm Huntington & Co. were, or where it existed. It could only be 
 reached by mail, and so slyly had the arrangements been made that the 
 police could not come upon their track, even by watching the mails. De- 
 tectives were placed near the post box to follow the person receiving the 
 letters. But he did not seem to have any particular way to go, as he 
 crossed and re-crossed the most lively streets and at last disappeared in 
 some crowd or overcrowded eating-house. Once the rascal, after having 
 led the detective a great distance, was arrested by the latter, when it ap- 
 peared that he had already delivered the letters, and had probably given 
 them to some member of the firm while passing him in a crowd. He stuck 
 to it however that he did not know anything of the firm, but had been 
 requested by some unknown gentleman to get the letters for him. The 
 attempt to force a confession from him by continued arrest, was also a 
 failure. The company soon discovered his arrest and had him released 
 through a lawyer in a very short time. Thus the matters stood, when a 
 new complaint was received against the company, which iuduced the 
 mayor to entrust the celebrated detective Geo. S. McWatters with the 
 breakiug up of this swindle concern at any price. 
 
 A farmer from the neighborhood of Bangor, Maine, was the happy pos- 
 sessor of a Huntington ticket which had "almost drawn a graud prize". 
 Immediately after the drawing he received from the firm the list of the 
 numbers drawn, together with the letter containing: "We are very sorry, 
 etc." The farmer was not satisfied with this. He saw that he had lost 
 the grand prize. But after a careful study of the plan of drawing, he dis- 
 coveres that he is entitled by the two numbers drawn, to a smaller prize. 
 lie immediately informs the company of his opinion, and requests them 
 to sent him his prize by return of mail. But instead of this he receives 
 
502 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 a letter from the company stating that he is entirely mistaken. But all in 
 vain ! • The farmer knows his right, and will have his prize or he will go 
 to law about it. The company thereupon answers that he may do about 
 it as he pleases. The farmer now gives the case into the hands of a law- 
 yer, between whom and the lawyer of the company a bitter war breaks 
 out, the end of which seems to be more distant every day. 
 
 The farmer at last loses his patience. He starts for New York to go 
 at the swindlers himself. One fine morning we find him in the city wan- 
 dering down William street with a firm step. Here in No. 23 the rascals 
 have their office, as he sees from the circular of the company which bears 
 the picture of the house with a large sign of "G. W. Huntington & Co., 
 Bankers/' as a heading. He quickly finds No. 23. The house on the 
 circular is exactly like No. 23, only the large sign wanting. But that 
 makes no difference, he thinks. He enters at the first door and asks for 
 puntington & Co., but nobody knows anything about them. There are 
 plenty of offices in the building, mostly of lawyers, but no banking establish- 
 ment has ever been known to have been in the building. This is bad, and 
 our friend the farmer tells his sad tale to Mr. Wheaton, an able and learned 
 lawyer having his office in the building. He declares, after listening to 
 the story, that the firm Huntington & Co. was in all probability a swindle 
 concern, and that it would be very difficult to do anything in the matter. 
 He directs a note to the address of the firm, informing them of the arrival 
 of the farmer as well as of his intention to force his claims in a court of 
 law. The mxt day a lawyer appeared in Mr. Wheaton's office and pre- 
 sented himself as the representative of Huntington & Co. who, he declared, 
 would not pay a cent in this case. As for further details, he was authorized 
 to treat for the company with Mr. Wheaton. The attempt however to 
 discover the office of the company failed completely. The smart lawyer 
 declared cooly that he had been engaged as the representative of the com- 
 pany by a third person, and that he did not know nor care to know the 
 office of these gentlemeu. 
 
 The case of the poor farmer now was hopeless. Mr. Wheaton therefor 
 advised him to be satisfied with some small sum, rather than to lose any 
 more time or money by further steps against the swindlers. He saw the 
 good sense of this advise and was happy, when a few days afterwards the 
 lawyer of the company declared himself authorized to refund to the farmer 
 the travelling expense to and from Maine. But the impudence with which 
 the swindlers mocked the law in this case, was the cause that upon Mr. 
 Wheaton's representations, the mayor took energetic steps against the 
 rascals. But only after many fruitless attemps did the detective McWat- 
 ters succeed in breaking up this band. Their circulars afforded the first 
 clue, as the detective, after all other means had failed, tried to discover the 
 printing office where they had been printed. But he soon found that they 
 had not been printed in the city. That was not very much, but upon 
 
LOffTEtilBfl AM» POLICY. 
 
 further inquiry he gained some more information. A compositor en 
 on the Tribune,, thought he recognized peculiarities in the circulars which 
 Reminded him of a printing office in Norwich, Conn., where he had for- 
 . worked for BOme time. The detective immediately sets out for Nor- 
 wich. He goes to the printing ofiice and sees that the proprietors arc; 
 .-table business men who would never allow themselves to be used 
 knowing! v tor purposes of a swindle, and has the satisfaction of finding 
 that tliev indeed printed the circulars. From these gentlemen he received 
 further information which enabled him to discover the office of these rascals 
 in Xo. b Tryon Bow. But it was no lottery office, but over the door was 
 a sigu with u Real Estate Office' . This office however was in connection 
 with another office, the door to which showed a sign with "Private Con- 
 sulting Room". The detective now knows that hi must seek the solution 
 of the secret in that room, and immediately makes every preparation to 
 that effect. By watching the office, it was an easy matter to discover the 
 other partners and to arrange everything for the final blow. After having 
 taken every precaution, he arrested the swindlers, of whom he found the 
 chief in the consulting room in the midst of circulars, tickets and letters. 
 At the same time all the clerks, as well as all the books and the corres- 
 pondence of the firm, consisting of over 2000 letters, were secured. Ther2 
 was therefor no want of proof against the swindlers. The members of 
 the firm as well as all the clerks belonged to the richest and most pro- 
 minent families of the city, and were eager to save themselves the disgrace 
 of a public disclosure by a full confession. From regard to their families 
 as well as their confession and the promise never again to undertake the 
 swindle, the mayor resolved to content himself with the breaking up of 
 the firm and to abstain from further legal measures. The money letters 
 received by the last mail were returned to the writers, and a circular was 
 sent to each one of their customers, 18,000 in number, stating that the 
 firm Huntiugton & Co., as a great swindle, had been broken up by the 
 police. The firm paid all the expenses for postage, clerks, office hire etc., 
 arising from this work. This was the end of one of the most notorious 
 lottery firms, a swindling concern, the impudence of which was perhaps 
 never equalled in cur city. But its spirit continues to exist, although 
 more or less hidden iu all the lotteries of the present day. We gave this 
 detailed sketch, which we have taken from the notes of detective Geo. S. 
 McWatters, a man most eminent in his profession, as a warning insight 
 into the doings of lotteries in jreneral. 
 
 Unfortunately it is a warning only to the victims of the lottery swindle, 
 but not to the swindlers themselves. For the treatment of these prominent 
 swindlers can hardly be regarded as a punishment at all, much less as a 
 punishment for those gigantic swindles practiced through a number of 
 years. Even the names of these rascals were kept from the public from 
 considerations for their families. The more important considerations of 
 
504 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 right and justice have been overloked most inexcusably in this case. The 
 lottery swindle, we are sorry to say, still continues to exist in New York, 
 and dozens of agencies, with known or unknown offices, carry on a most 
 profitable business. A kind of lottery swindle which is carried on under 
 the mask of charity, we have spoken of in another chapter, as the charity 
 swindles. Another swindle which is nothing but a variation of the "Gift 
 enterprises", already described, is attempted so often that we cannot leave 
 it unmentioned here. Besides speculating on pious simplicity, the swind- 
 lers also speculate on a loose conscience. It is much oftener successful 
 than we would suppose. It is conducted in the following manner. The 
 victim selected by the swindler one fine day receives the following letter : 
 
 "Dear Sir : As we write this letter in your own interest, there is no 
 necessity of excusing our liberty. We know very well that it would have 
 a good effect for us, if somebody in your vicinity would win some large 
 prize and would show the money about stating at the same time, in which 
 lottery he had won it. We therefor take the liberty of sending you a well 
 arranged package of tickets w r hich we have expressly selected for you. 
 This however is only done on the condition that you try to work among 
 your acquaintances in our interest. You must not forget that the chief 
 object in this arrangement is a recommendation of our firm, and that we 
 therefor expect that you show the money about stating at the same time 
 that you have received the lucky number from our office." 
 
 "Should you have any objections to lotteries and should have conscien- 
 tious scruples against accepting the money, you will of course not answer 
 this letter. But this is our offer, and we are so sure in selecting a lucky 
 number that in case this package of tickets does not win at least $5000, 
 we will send you another bundle of tickets for our extra drawing, free." 
 
 The attentive reader of this letter cannot overlook the swindle hidden 
 therein. For the writer promises to put a winning ticket into the package. 
 But whether he does so or not, he is a swindler in either case. It is a sad 
 fact, but most persons only see the tempting promise of a sure prize of 
 $5000. For that money they think they can oblige the company and puff 
 them up a little. They send the money for the tickets, and that is the 
 last that they hear of the swindlers. If they can show their neighbors 
 anything, it will not be a prize to iuduce them to play in a lottery, but 
 their package of tickets as a proof of their own verdancy and a warning 
 of the lottery swindle. 
 
 Very often conductors of lotteries write to persons in the country, en- 
 closing tickets. In such cases it is of no infrequent occurrence that people 
 are foolish enough to send the money for the ticket. The lottery swindler 
 then thankfully pockets the money and after some delay informs his 
 customers that their tickets have not won anything and tnat he wishes them 
 better luck next time. Others are smarter and completely ignore such tickets 
 sent to them. In that case they receive the following letter in a short tirao : 
 

 LOTTERIES AND POLICY. 505 
 
 "No. 10 Mechanics Exchange, Newport, Kv.. March 8, 1873. 
 
 "Dear Sir: Your ticket lias won a prize of $250. But as you have 
 
 yet paid tor your ticket, you can only draw the prize iu the following 
 
 manner. AVrite a letter to me, dating it from the day of drawing, and 
 
 enclosing the price of the ticket. As soon as I receive the letter, I will 
 
 I it unopened to the directors of the lottery with the remark that it had 
 
 mislaid iu the post office, but that it is all right. These gentlemen 
 
 do not know that you are the possessor of this ticket. They will therefor 
 
 receive tiie money and send you a certificate for it. But do not mention 
 
 by any means that I wrote to you about it. Just put the money in the 
 
 letter and leave it in your post office. I can easily alter the date of the 
 
 cancellation here. After receiving the money, you will greatly oblige me 
 
 .owing the money to your friends and get them to buy tickets from 
 
 my office. Yours etc. 
 
 J. M. Percival." 
 
 The beginning of the letter, "your ticket has won a prize", is intended 
 to tickle the possessor of the ticket. In most cases the trick is indeed suc- 
 cessful. The majority hasten to follow the directions of the swindler. 
 They send the money and letter in the desired manner and impatiently 
 wait for the certificate necessary to obtain the money. But this does not 
 come, and after waiting for some time, during which no answer arrives 
 to several letters dispatched to "J. M. Percival", our friend begins to see 
 that he has been more easily cheated than his friends who sent the money 
 in the first instance. The swindler has nothing to fear in the matter, as 
 !ii> victims make themselves accomplices to a fraud, although only a 
 stimulated one. That part of the above letter, in which Percival speaks 
 of altering (that is, forging) the date of the cancellation, is not put in there 
 without a special object. 
 
 But enough of the swindle, as the "honest" lotteries are even bad enough. 
 What would we say to a game in which the player must always lose, and 
 the banker always win. This is actually the case with the lottery. If we 
 take all those holding tickets as one, and the lottery as the other of two 
 parties playing, the lottery always wins. Thus the undertakers of these 
 lotteries are enabled to build palaces, while their regular customers with 
 whose money they do it, sink lower every year, until after a mi-speut life 
 they go to the poor house, or the potter's field. If the blinded slave of 
 lottery would devote the energy to an honest industry, which he devotes to 
 lottery, he would be sure to make his mark in this world. But he sinks 
 slowly, but surely down to ruin. He only sees the possibility of winning, 
 and this has the same power over him, as the certainty would have. If all 
 tickets are sold, somebody must win, always supposing houesty to prevail. 
 But this is always only one in a thousand. It just as many thousands 
 should one after another jump down from trinity steeple, there is just as 
 much probability that some of these fools would get off unhurt. This would 
 
506 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 be regarded as a wonder, and the unfortunate ones would be held up a? 
 warning examples of the danger of the undertaking. 
 
 Not so in lottery. Here a fortunate winner shall always prove to the 
 world how easy it is to make one's fortune. In 1871 a tenth of ihe ti 
 winning the grand prize in the Havana Lottery, had been sold in New 
 York. An Agency of this lottery in Wall street harped ou this event a 
 whole year and published it in the daily papers as well as in circulars. 
 Although the drawings of the Havana Lottery take place evory 17 days,. 
 New York has not been favored with another stroke of luck from this 
 source. Thus while the winner stands alone in his glory of the present 
 day, the number of losers can be counted by hundreds of thousands. 
 
 It is still worse with the prizes in our inland lotteries. Many think the 
 chances of winning very great, because f^r instance in the Kentucky Lot- 
 tery out of 78 numbers 13 must win. But this is a great mistake. Ot 
 78 numbers each one exists in a thousand different combinations with two 
 others on the different tickets. Through these combinations the actual 
 number of tickets is raised to 78,000. Furthermore, as only those tickets 
 win which bear the numbers in the order in which they are drawn, the 
 possibility of winning a prize or two (an u Ambo") or even on three (a 
 "Terno ") is very small. Only in the probability of a prize on a simple 
 number (a "Solo") are the changes of winning in the ration of 13 to 78. 
 Such a prize however only pays back the price of the ticket, and that not 
 without deducting 15 percent, as is the case with every prize. Thus the 
 player must even lose in the last case. These "Solos" with an occasional 
 "Ambo" are the chief magnets which attract lottery players and as a gua- 
 rantee for future luck, stimulate them to renewed daring aud losing. Many 
 lottery players have the unfortunate idea that they can force the luck. 
 They belong to the worst class of gamblers. Suicide, the lunatic asylum 
 or the prison not seldom forms the closing scenes of the lives of such per- 
 sons. They know the secret how such "forcing" can be done, and theo- 
 retically they are right. They say if you play at every drawing and always 
 double your stakes, you will surely win a prize some time, that will cover 
 all your former losses. This is undoubtedly true. Only to bring such 
 an experiment to a close, it would be necessary to have the patience of 
 Job, aud the riches ot Croesus. This will be easily seen. If a player 
 according to this "forcing system" should begin with 1 cent, he would re- 
 quire in the twentieth drawing a stake of over $5000. But let him begi:» 
 with 5 cents, and his stake in the 20th drawing will be over $20,000 ; or 
 with an original investment of $5, the 20ih drawing would require a capita 
 of over $2,000,000. But whoever has so much money at his disposal can 
 make a better use of it than by "forcing" his luek iu the lottery. Poorer 
 people had better keep the first stake in their pockets, and dismiss every 
 idea of "forcing" their luck in lotteries. Small tricks are also not wan- 
 ting by which passionate lottery players try to gain the good will of fortune. 
 
 
LOTTERIES AND TOLICV. 507 
 
 One, f° r instance, supposes, he will insult dame Fortune, by not letting 
 chance have full play in obtaining his tickets. lie therefor always takes the 
 tir>i tickets that come into his hands, and takes good care not even to glance 
 at them. This is a sure way of winning. And not until the drawing has 
 taken pace does he look at his tickets, fully expecting that each one has 
 drawn a prize. If he is mistaken, he consoles himself with the hope, that 
 he will have all the more luck the next time. 
 
 Another player again believes that there is no chance in this world, but 
 that everything goes on according to "eternal and unchangeable laws." 
 And as the lotteries undoubtedly belong to this world, he also denies the 
 existence of chance with regard to them, and he makes it the business ot" 
 his life to find out the "eternal and unchangeable laws', according to 
 which the prizes are drawn. If we should hear such a lottery philosopher 
 talking, we would suppose he had already solved the great problem. He 
 keeps a close account of all drawings. For him lottery is a science, and 
 the numbers and combinations of numbers in which he plays, are always 
 the result of deep study, and complicated mathematical problems. He 
 always plays such numbers, as he is sure must win. Still they do not- 
 win. This does not trouble him a bit. He makes new calculations, to 
 find the mistake in his former calculation. He soon finds it, and with 
 more confidence he finds the numbers that must be drawn the next time- 
 Another mistake and another discovery, and this continues until the poor 
 fellow has calculated himself into the poor-house or the lunatic asylum. 
 
 The last two however, are only specimen of a very small class. The 
 large majority of the lottery gamblers believe in a mystic connection of 
 dreams with the lucky numbers. They neither trust to chance nor to- 
 calculations, and live in the happy idea, that man dreams only to win in 
 the lottery. It is only to interpret the dreams correctly. This is dene bv 
 a book which bears the beautiful title of "dream book". Any person 
 only half way in his senses, can only find the most disgusting nonsense in 
 this book, which has preserved the superstitions of the middle ages to the 
 present day. More nonsensical stuff than we find in this book, could not 
 possibly be thought of. Every dream, picture or sensation produced by 
 the mind of the sleeper is not only explained in this book, but also possesses 
 a number. If the dreamer plays on the numbers in the lottery, he 
 will surely become a millionaire. He has perhaps taken a late and heavy 
 supper the night before and as a natural consequence his slumber is not 
 easy. He dreams of elephants with cat's eyes aud fiery teeth or any other 
 monstrosities. The first thing he does when he awakens, is to consult a 
 dream book. With its help he has soon combiued the elephant, cat's eyes 
 • and fiery teenth in numbers, and he hurries to the policy shop in the sure 
 hope that a "flat gig" will recompense him for all the pains and fear en- 
 dured during the night. But he does not win, aud not once but hundreds 
 of times has the dream book misled him in such a mauner. But never- 
 
308 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 tl.eless he consults it every day with undiminished confidence. No super- 
 stition is deeper seated, and more difficult to uproot, than that of dream 
 numbers. This is probably so from the fact that it only takes root in 
 those heads, whose organization enchives the possibility of receiving any 
 , reasonable arguments whatever. These dreamers of numbers are the 
 lowest and most wretched of all the lottery players. Many of them at 
 last only live to dream, and dream to play in the lottery. What wonder 
 then that such people at last degenerate in every respect and mostly close 
 their career in the poor house, or in the lunatic asylum. The less edu- 
 cation a person possesses, the easier does he take to this superstition. Among 
 I he uneducated masses of our negro population it is spread the most, but 
 white men and women are also not wanting, who are not a bit better than 
 ihe negro in this respect. It is chiefly the policy game which has in the 
 <!reain book its inseperable ally. In this respect it is a real hot-house of 
 -superstition, and as it can be played for any amount, it is one of the most 
 dangerous accompanyments of the lotteries. It almost seems to possess 
 an epidemic character. We are almost forced to this conclusion upon 
 noticing the effect which the entrance of a male or female lottery or policy 
 player has upon a neighborhood, which is not yet infested by "Policy." 
 It has almost the same effect as we would see if a person afflicted with 
 small-pox should be moved into a densely settled neighborhood. 
 
 But how is it, that the lotteries with dangerous influence extending in 
 all directions, still exist and flourish in our midst, in spite of all law and 
 ordinances to the contrary. The explanation, simple as it is, is very un- 
 satisfactory. The best laws are of no use, if the officers entrusted with 
 their execution do not do their duty. Why they do not do their duty may 
 partly be due to the immense wealth and political influence of those at the 
 head of these concerns. The police certainly know the lottery shops ex- 
 isting in all the streets, as well as the public. As long as they do not 
 close them as ordered by law, so long does the accusation stand against 
 them that they are gained by bribery. For only occasionally does the 
 police seem to remember the lottery laws. They then pounce upon some 
 small offices in side streets. But the next morning the same shops are 
 again in full blast as well as the large policy shops in our principle streets. 
 In the summer of 1870 it seemed for a short while as if the lottery and 
 j>olicy shops were to be wiped out of existence. One fine day the police 
 made a complete raid on all the lottery shops between the Battery and 
 Harlem, and arrested everybody connected with them. Thus the city 
 seemed to be effectually cleared of "Policy". The papers and the respect- 
 able community rejoiced over the final triumph of law. But the rejoicing 
 was a little too early. The policy shops remained closed for just one day. 
 when they again resumed business as if nothing had happened to interfere 
 with it. Nobody was punished, arid the number of policy shops has in 
 <i eased, if anything, since that time, so that the raid seemed to have beei. 
 
IHI LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 509 
 
 f no use whatever. After such a sample not much was hoped for any 
 
 love from law, which nobody could he found to execute. Aud still a law 
 ould be of groat beuefit which would make it punishable for any one to 
 •i 1 lottery circulars by mail. For a large part of the lottery business 
 nd all the business of the lottery swindles is done by mail. But the in- 
 uence which can prevent the execution of disagreeable laws, is also strong 
 nough to prevent their framing. 
 Thus it will be a good while before lottery aud policy disappear from 
 ic list of the "dark sides" of our city. They have brought misery to 
 sands of families, and even a "luck", that is occasionally gained by 
 ome, is not always without its cause. We have found them to be among 
 he most powerful promoters of pauperism aud ignorance, as well as the 
 overiug for the most shameless swindles. That they still exist in oui 
 jidst shows the emptiness and hypocrisy of the reform phrases, which are 
 hrowu about the more liberally, the less they are used in earnest. 
 
 THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 
 
 The saddest kind of diseases to which man is subject, are those of the 
 uind, in which the action of the brain is more or less permanently inter- 
 iipted. This form of disease is probably as old as mankind itself, and 
 nsanity can be traced into ancient times, when the mist of the age of 
 hbles was broken by the first rays of history. In those ancient times iu- 
 ianity was not regarded as a disease. Not seldom are the senseless utter- 
 tuces of idiots thought to be expressions of a supernatural inspiration. 
 The idiot was then looked upon as the in-pired seer, and attempted to 
 solve the prophetic meaning of his words. Another view of insanity was 
 that which looked upon an idiot as "possessed by the devil". They were 
 then shunned as such, driven into the deserts and even killed, as they were 
 considered hardly any better than the evil one himself. There was of 
 course no idea of a treatment of such unfortunates with such views, un- 
 less exorcising the devil was considered a treatment. The so-called court 
 'fools or jesters at the courts of princes, were originally nothing but idiots 
 of a pleasant and contented nature, whose foolish actions and words amused 
 the "noble" men as well as the low people. Only one hundred years ago, 
 idiots chained in narrow cells, were shown for money, just as it is done at 
 present with wild animals in a menagerie. And even to-day there are 
 thousands who look upon the unfortunate inmates of a lunatic asylum as 
 
•510 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 ii they were looking at wild beasts in a menagerie. A long while even 
 rJ'or insanity was recognized as only a disease, was the medical treatment 
 of idiots confined to subduing and intimidating the patient. 
 
 The lunatic asylums therefor resembled prisons more than they did hos- 
 pitals, and all that it was intended to do, was to prevent the insane from 
 injuring themselves or other persons. Only in recent times has the pro- 
 gress of science produced a reform in the treatment of idiots. Our present 
 lunatic asylums, if they were conducted with spirit of reform, would be 
 institutions in which the unfortunate patient is not only prevented from 
 injuring himself and others, but where they also receive a proper medical 
 treatment, in accordance with the laws of humanity, and return again as 
 useful members of society. Thus they are philanthropic institutions of the 
 noblest kind, and the finest productions of the progress of our a<re. 
 
 But how do they come among the "Dark Sides of New York"? Simply 
 because a thing is not always that what it is supposed to be, and that there 
 is a great difference between things as they are and as they ought to be. 
 Thus it is also with the lunatic asylums of our city, in which until very 
 recently the greatest abuses were openly practiced, and if indeed it is any 
 better at present, it is not at all impossible that these abuses will be repeated. 
 Next to being buried alive, no idea is more inspired to fill any one 
 with horror than that of being imprisoned in a lunatic asylum, while in 
 possession of all his faculties. Real and invented adventures of this kind 
 circulate among the people, and are one of the chief causes of the horror 
 with which lunatic asylums are looked upon to the present day. The 
 past few years have also brought to light some facts with regard to our 
 insane asylums, which do not reflect very creditably upon their adminis- 
 tration. They led to the belief, that the laws with regard to sending 
 lunatics to an asylum, did not only not prevent the incarceration of per- 
 fectly sane persons there. ° At the time other facts came to light which 
 seemed to show that the administration in the treatment and care of the 
 patients, was a century behind time. 
 
 In order to find out whether there were any truth in these rumors, and 
 to work for the abolition of the abuses, in case of their truth, the N. Y. 
 Tribune in August, 1872, determined to adapt a new as well as an original 
 manner to solve the question. One of its reporters, Mr. Chambers, re- 
 ceived orders to assume insanity, whereupon two of his friends should 
 secure the necessary medical and judicial documents and remand him to 
 the asylum in Bloomingdale. The lunatic asylum in Bloomingdale was 
 chosen, because it had long been considered a model institution, and if 
 anything proved itself rotten there, the conclusion was easily arrived at, 
 that the other institutions must necessarily be so, as in truth they seemed 
 to be without any investigation at all. We will speak of the result of the 
 investigation further on. This experiment had at the same time the benefit 
 that it made not only the lunatic asylums, but also all other institutions of 
 
THE UNA II- \-Yl.l MS. 51 1 
 
 •harify and correction the subjects of discussion in our daily press, and 
 ised further inquiries to be set on foot, which brought to light a number 
 of in eresting discoveries. Thus the N. Y. Tribune tore off the hypo- 
 critical mask from these institutions, and proved the startling rumors to 
 founded on fact, on the basis of which we undertook to treat of these 
 
 jtitutinns under the "Dark Sides" of our city. 
 
 The B.oomingdale asylum is a private institution privileged by the state, 
 and is a branch of the "New York Hospital", formerly situated on Broad- 
 way opposite Pearl street, but which is at present suspended until the com- 
 ion of its new building in White Plains. It is situated on 117th street, 
 between 10th and 11th avenues, and is considered one of the best ar- 
 ranged ( ?) institutions of the kind in the world. It is governed by a board 
 of directors who are called the governors of the institution. The '-New 
 York City Lunatic Asylum", a large building on Blakewell's Island, can 
 contain, together with its side buildings, over 576 patients. As this build- 
 ing proved itself too small, a new one Mas begun on Ward's Island about 
 three years ago. 
 
 This is a large commodious building of 475 feet front, and can receive 
 about 500 patients. Both of these institutions are under the control of the 
 commissioners of charity and correction. Both of these institutions to- 
 gether do not suffice for the accommodation of all applicants, as the pa- 
 tients under the charge of the commissioners of charity amounted to 1300 
 i .i 1870, while now, after the completion of the new Ward's Island asylum, 
 there is accommodation for only 107G patients. 
 
 These then are the institutions to wich the following has reference. The 
 Tribune gave its reporter strict instructions. According to these he should 
 conduct his investigations with the greatest impartiality, and only report 
 Wich facts which he could swear to in a court. Mr. Chambers went to 
 work at once. On the 12th of August, in the afternoon, he went to the 
 Grand Central Hotel in Broadway, where he rushed into the office in great 
 excitement, and entered his name on the hotel register with great affecta- 
 tion. Having been shown to his room, he continued to draw attention 
 . towards himself by continually pulling at the bell rope and giving the 
 waiters answering these calls the most absurd orders. Upon the arrival 
 of night he did not lie down to sleep, but walked up and down the room 
 with a heavy tread, or he sat down by the open window. All this as well 
 as the fact that his two carpet bags were still in the middle of the room 
 where the porter had placed them, was easily noticed by the attendants of 
 the hotel as he had left his door wide open. Every one who saw him, 
 therefor, came to the conclusion that his mind must be slightly deranged. 
 The following morning a friend called upon him, who had undertaken to 
 start the affair. He greeted Chambers most cordially, who however did 
 not recollect of ever having seen him. After this scene, which had also 
 been enacted with open doors, had continued for some time, the friend 
 
512 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 left, apparently deeply moved, and as he said in the hotel office, he went 
 for a doctor. He went to a doctor in Amity Street, whom he related the 
 affair, and who immediately declared that the young man must either be 
 intoxicated, or suffering from the effect of some narcotic administered to 
 him. He went however with the friend to see the patient. 
 
 The patient was sitting by the open window, and gazing vacantly into 
 the open air, when they entered. The doctor tried to engage him in a 
 conversation, felt of his pulse, but all without eliciting any response from 
 him. The only result of his investigation was that he dropped the idea 
 of intoxication, as he noticed no smell of liquor on the patient, and ex- 
 plained his condition as the result of a stupefaction, caused by some nar- 
 cotic. But that was of no account, and a little brandy and peppermint 
 would quickly set him to rights again. The two "remedies" were ordered 
 and the doctor mixed the ingredients with a businesslike air. After con- 
 siderable coaxing the patient so far took notice of the doctor as to receive 
 the tumbler, only to empty its contents out of the window, however. 
 This took the doctor quite aback. As an adviser of good "Bourbon", he 
 expressed the opinion that no one should so far forget himself, as to treat 
 good brandy in such a manner, and declared, after another unsuccessful 
 attempt to induce the patient to take the medicine, that it was a clear case 
 of insanity. He thought it too dangerous to leave the pa'ient alone in the 
 hotel, and offered to take the patient to his office and to watch him, which 
 offer was accepted by the friend. The doctor left with Mr. Chambers, 
 while the friend went according to programme, to call the uncle of the 
 sick man. The Amity Street doctor would, in all probability, not have 
 hesitated to issue a certificate of insanity, but the object was to obtain a 
 certificate from a doctor, who laid claim to a scientific education, and a 
 special knowledge of diseases of the mind. While Chambers continued 
 his acting in Amity Street, his friend together with his uncle, called on 
 Dr. Lockrow in Great Jones Street, and invited him to a consultation with 
 the Amity Street physician. This however he declined to do, as he did 
 not recognize the practice of that physician as respectable. At last it was 
 decided to leave the Amity Street doctor, and to place the patient in the 
 hands of Dr. Lockrow. This was done after a partner of the Amity 
 Street doctor haol declared the patient undoubtedly insane. But Dr. 
 Lockrow also was not able to see through the deception, and even thought 
 the condition of the patient so excitable as to prescribe a calming remedy. 
 He also advised that if the patient did not get any better during the night, 
 it would be best to send him to the lunatic asylum at Bloomingdale. In 
 the meantime, upon the recommendation of Dr. Lockrow, he was brought 
 to the La Pierre Hotel in Eighth Street, where an experienced attendant 
 should watch over him during the night. The attendant began his duties 
 by supplying himself with a good supper. But the "lunatic" soon began 
 to cut up in such a manner, as to frighten the attendant as well as all the 
 
THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 513 
 
 inmates of the hotel. In his fright the attendant asked the assistance of 
 one of the hotel porters, and the doctor who called during the evening, 
 also sent a student of medicine, to carefully observe the patient until 
 morning. Tiie night passed as it had begun. "When the doctor called in 
 the morning, terrible stories were related to him by each of the three 
 persons in the room. There was no doubt then as to the insanity of the 
 patient. It was therefor decided that Dr. Lockrow should hold a final 
 consultation with some specialist in the field of insanity, and then, if 
 necessary, send the patient to the Bloomingdale asylum. The consultation, 
 which was held with Dr. C. E. Bellington of Lexington Avenue, took 
 place the same afternoon. The patient took no notice whatever of the 
 physicians and answered none of the questions directed to him. The 
 doctors felt of his pulse, placed their hands on his forehead, and then re- 
 tired into a corner of the room, where they held their consultation, to- 
 gether with the student and the attendant. It did not last long, and con- 
 vinced all that Chambers suffered of insanity, dangerous both to himself 
 and to his surroundings. It was consequently decided, to take the neces- 
 sary legal steps immediately, to bring the young man to Bloomingdale. The 
 two doctors now rode in company with the uncle to the Jefferson Market 
 Police Court. There the matter was brought up before Judge John Cox, 
 whom the uncle requested to furnish the necessary papers, to bring Cham- 
 bers to the lunatic asylum, remarking at the same time that two physicians 
 were ready to sign them. The police judge immediately ordered the clerk, 
 to make out the papers. After this was done, he required the two phy- 
 sicians to sign the following document : 
 
 Police Court of the Second District, State of New York, 
 City and County of New York. 
 
 Arthur Lockrow, M. D., and C. E. Bellington, M. D., declare upon 
 their oath, that James J. Chambers is insane, and is so much deranged in 
 mind, that it would be dangerous for his own person, as well as for the 
 person and property of others, if he were not placed in safe confinement. 
 They have personally examined said Chambers, and consider his mind so 
 deranged, that he is no longer able to distinguish right from wrong, or to 
 know the consequence of his deeds, as he has completely lost the free and 
 natural use of his mental faculties. 
 
 Sworn to before me this 14th day of August, 1872. 
 
 John Cox, Police Judge. 
 Arthur Y. B. Lockrow. C. E. Bellington. 
 
 Thereupon Judge Cox signed the following document : 
 Police Court of the Second District, Jefferson Market, State of New York 
 
 City and County of New York. 
 To the Police Officers and the Warden of the "Bloomingdale 
 
 Lunatic Asylum/' 
 
 After it has been declared to me, the undersigned, a police judge of 
 
514 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 said .city, by the sworn and written declarations of Arthur Lockrow and 
 C. E. Bellington, two respectable physicians, that James J. Chambers is 
 insane, and that in consequence of this insanity, he is so much deranged 
 in his mind as to endanger his own person, as well as the person and 
 property of others, in case he should remain at liberty, and after i" have 
 convinced myself by a personal examination, that it would be dangerous to 
 let him remain at liberty. 
 
 I do hereby order in the name of the people of the state of New York, 
 the above-named police officers and warden, and take the said Chambers 
 into their custody, to confine him in the lunatic asylum at Bloomingdale, in 
 the city of New York, (a secure place, designated by the governor of the 
 cliaritable institutions for this purpose, and confined as a fit place for the 
 detention of lunatics, and by a standing resolution of the city and county 
 of New York) and to treat him in accordance with the law. 
 
 Given under my hand and seal, this 14th day of January, A. D. 1872. 
 
 John Cox, Police Judge. 
 
 This document was handed to the uncle, and after having been assured 
 by the clerk, that this order would suffice for the reception of the patient 
 in the asylum, the party left the court-room. The whole affair had not 
 lasted more than ten minutes, although a human being had been con- 
 demned by it to the sad imprisonment in the lunatic asylum. So little 
 trouble does it cost to declare a person insane by means of the courts, and 
 to rob him of his liberty, under the plea of insanity. It may be objected 
 that in this case the victim had imitated insanity, and had brought into 
 operation all means of deception, in order to be detained in the lunatic 
 asylum. This is true indeed, but is in this case of secondary importance. 
 Police Judge Cox, with whom the decision rested in this cas3, had never 
 seen the man before, who pretended to be the uncle of Chambers. He 
 did not know who he was, nor did he even ask his name or his address. 
 The "uncle" had scarcely spoken twenty words, when Judge Cox, guessing 
 his business, ordered the clerk to make out the necessary papers. Nor 
 did he know the physicians, he did not convince himself that they were actually 
 "respectable physicians", and not quacks, bribed by the uncle for a criminal 
 purpose. The Judge did not even consider it necessary to see the chief 
 person in the whole affair, the lunatic himself, whom his order condemned 
 for an indefinite period to the lunatic asylum, to which, as will be seen 
 ferther on, the access is much easier than the egress. The reception in 
 the asylum was attended with even less formalities, than the furnishing of 
 the necessary documents. Dr. Burrill, who acted as chief of the insti- 
 tution in the absense of Dr. Brown, only raised the objection that a permit 
 from a member of the asylum committee would be necessary for the re- 
 ception of the patient. Upon the declaration of the uncle, that a part of 
 the money for board &c, would be paid down, and that the permit would 
 be obtained tlio next day, the patient was received temporarily upon the 
 

 THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 5l5 
 
 payment of $80, for four weeks' board. No examination of the patient 
 took place, except that we call it an examination, that Dr. Burrill, while 
 shaking hands with him, felt of his pulse for a few seconds. No questions 
 were asked of his friends as to his sickness, his mode of living, his temper 
 etc. The payment for board, and the obtaining of the permit, were the 
 principle points on which the reception depended. That it is also an easy 
 matter to obtain this permit, will be seen from the following. The follow- 
 ing morning the friend and the uncle went to No. 52 Wall Street, the 
 office of Geo. Cabot "Ward, one of the members of the asylum committee. 
 They said nothing of the permit, but only wished to pay the balance 
 necessary for the reception of the patient. Mr. "Ward declared himself not 
 authorized to receive this money, as this must be paid in the institution 
 itself. But he asked them, whether they had a permit for the reception of 
 their patient, and if not, he would be happy to furnish them with one. 
 This he did immediately by filling out the following document : 
 "To the Warden of the Insane Asylum. 
 
 New York, August 15th, 1872. 
 
 Upon the reception of James J. Chambers of Brooklyn, in the insane 
 asylum at Bloomingdale, I agree to pay $20 per week for board and 
 medical attendance, to the Society of the New York Hospital, through the war- 
 den. I also agree to be held responsible for all damage done to the windows, 
 bedding and furniture of said asylum, by said Chambers, to supply him 
 with clothing, to receive him upon his dismissal from the asylum, and to 
 pay the funeral expenses in case of his death." 
 
 (Signature of the applicant.) 
 
 "In consideration of the reception of said James J. Chambers in the 
 asylum, and of one dollar paid to me by said society, the receipt of which 
 I hereby acknowledge, I declare myself responsible for the performance of 
 the above agreement.'' 
 
 (Signature of the warden.) 
 
 "Permii for James J. Chambers, as a patient in the asylum, upon pre- 
 payment of $260 for board for 13 weeks, and the usual security. The 
 order of the judge, required by the revised statutes, will be delivered to 
 you before the reception of the patient. 
 
 Geo. Cabot "Ward, for the Committee on Asylums." 
 
 This permit as we see does not give guarantees to prevent the imprison- 
 ment of perfectly sane persons in the asylum, but is only intended to 
 look out for the pecuniary welfare of the institution. The permit together 
 with the balance of $180 for board, was sent to the institution by a third 
 person, and thus the detention of Mr. Chambers in the asylum was secured. 
 The consequences which may be derived from this experiment of the 
 Tribune are by no means pleasing. They prove the fact alreadv con- 
 clusively settled by other insane asylums, how easy it is to misuse the 
 "charitable institutions" known as lunatic asylums, for the purpose of 
 
516 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 prisons. Mr. Chambers remained in this institution twelve days. Neither 
 the doctors nor the attendants noticed that the new arrival was perfectly 
 sane. This is saying a good deal, when it is remembered that he did not 
 simulate insanity after his arrival, but simply played the part of a quiet 
 observer. As stated above, Dr. Burrill did not enquire in the least about 
 the patient upon his arrival. The question for his first name, and feeling 
 of his pulse sufficed to send the quiet and depressed looking patient to the 
 department for excited lunatics (raving maniacs, etc.). There he re- 
 mained fonr days. During this time he was not examined by a physician.. 
 An occasional feeling of the pulse, and a "How are you to-day'*? "How 
 " have you slept?" was the only notice taken of the patient by the visiting 
 physician during this time. At ona time two directors of the institution 
 made a visit. It did not last over five minutes however, and although 
 Chambers, who was the last arrival, placed himself in their way in such 
 a manner, that they could not help noticing him, still they took no notice 
 whatever of him. After four days Chambers was at last transferred from 
 the department of maniacs into one of milder forms. In this department 
 he remained eight days without showing any symptoms of insanity. There 
 his pulse was not felt once. But a friend who wished to see him, gained, 
 permission to see him for five minutes, with the greatest difficulty only. 
 At the same time Dr. Burrill remarked that the patient was still in a condition,, 
 which would make his dismissal during the next few weeks extremely 
 dangerous, and would possibly bring about a relapse. According to his 
 views the relatives of the patient should still leave him in the institution,, 
 and not pay any attention to what the patient might communicate to them,, 
 either orally or by letter. How long the patient might have remained 
 in the asylum, if his pretended relatives had had an actual interest in 
 keeping him there, can not be said. Chambers had already made enough 
 observations, to furnish a thorough description of the administration, and 
 the condition of the patients of this lunatic asylum, and of course desired 
 to regain his liberty. It only remained to discover whether the accusation 
 was true, that the officers of the institution were always notified of the 
 issuing of a writ of Habeas Corpus, and then dismissed the patient, before 
 the writ was served. In this manner, it was said, did the institution pre- 
 vent the doings in their institution from being brought to light by an 
 official investigation. 
 
 In the case of Mr. Chambers this was found to be not true, for the writ 
 of "Habeas Corpus" was actually served in this case, before the patient 
 had left the asylum. The dislike for an official investigation was still 
 very apparent. Dr. Brown, the chief of the institution, whom Mr. Cham- 
 bers had never before seen, now condescended to visit him in his room. 
 He reasoned with him how disagreeable it would be for him to have his. 
 name in the newspapers, as dismissed from the lunatic asylum, and tried 
 to persuade him to use his influence for withdrawing the writ of "Habeas 
 
THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 0l7 
 
 Corpus". As Mr. Chambers did not consent to do this, similar steps 
 taken with the uncle, whose attention was especially called to the 
 that if an investigation was ordered, he (the uncle) would appear to 
 brought his nephew into the lunatic asylum without any reason. The 
 uncle at last consented to effect a compromise with the counsel of the 
 applicaut, that the writ should be withdrawn, and the supposed lunatic be 
 discharged from the asylum. This was done without leaving the physi- 
 cians of the asylum the least idea, that the dismissed patient was probably 
 the clearest head that had ever been within their asylum. The reports 
 which Mr. Chambers then published in the N. Y. Tribune, were by no 
 means flattering for the institution. Carlessuess and incompetency on the 
 part of the attendants as w r ell as the physicians, poor and insufficient food 
 which could hardly be compared with that of a second-class boardinghouse, 
 rude treatment, aye even cruel abusing of patients by the nurses^a want 
 of proper comfort, etc., all these facts proven by Mr. Chambers by ex- 
 amples, present a picture which resembles almost anything but a char- 
 itable institution. He admits that the four days in the department of 
 maniacs, had almost been sufficient to derange his mind. And this was 
 the case with him, who had intentionally smuggled himself into this place, 
 and full well knew, that he could leave at any time. We cannot here go 
 into the details of the mismanagement, brought to light by Mr. Chambers' 
 report, on account of space. But from what is said above, we ean plainly 
 see, that the institution was managed more with a regard to its own finan- 
 cial interest, than that of the unfortunate patients. This was done in a 
 private institution, which charged its patients high prices, and claims to 
 be a model institution. If this then is the case with our model institutions, 
 how must it be w r ith those which lay no claim to this title. Among these 
 are our public lunatic asylums, erected by the city on Blackwells and 
 Wards Islands. They have not escaped the fate of all the other public 
 departments, and have become so estranged from their original purpose, 
 that at present they rather serve to supply politicians with offices, than to 
 furnish medical attendance and a home to poor lunatics. In thug making 
 charitable institutions subservient to party politics, may be found the root 
 of that evil, by which richly endowed charitable institutions, which, with 
 an able and honest administration, would be the pride of the city, are 
 rather blemishes. But the object of these lines is not to uncover the 
 present or past mismanagement of this or that institution. Nor is it to be 
 taken for granted that because w r e have particularly treated of the lunatic 
 asylums as one of the "Dark Sides of New York", that all others of our 
 charitable institutions, as hospitals, poor houses, etc. are entirely free from 
 mismanagement. By no means ! They also have their dark sides, w T hich 
 would give them a place in our "Dark Sides". But we confine ourselves 
 entirely to lunatic asylums in general, because their mismanagement, to- 
 gether with not very clearly defined laws, make it possible to use then? d+ 
 
518 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 prisons for disgusting private purposes. No one will deny after what hag: 
 been said, that such a misuse of the lunatic asylums is possible. Further- 
 more, that the detention of perfectly sane persons, under the plea of in- 
 sanity, has actually occurred, can also be proven. Even the official reports, 
 cf the public lunatic asylums do not deny this fact. The New York State 
 Lunatic Asylum, for example, admits in its report, that in 1869 not less 
 than 6 patients were received, who were afterwards found to be perfectly 
 sane. In the City Lunatic Asylum fifteen patients were admitted iu 1870, 
 and 125 since 1847, who upon a close examination were found to be sane. 
 It may indeed be true what the physicians say, that it is much easier to- 
 detect insanity, than perfect saneness in a person ; but a method, by which 
 for example, Mr. Chambers was received and detained in the Blooming- 
 dale asylum, contains much more a guarantee for the reception and de- 
 tention of. any sane person, than his rejection or dismissal. Mr. Cham- 
 bers relates in this respect a very characteristic case, which happened 
 under his own notice in the Bloomingdale asylum. A certain Mr. Estrada 
 was detained there as long as his relations paid for him. After they 
 stopped paying for him, the officers of the asylum sent him to the asylum 
 on Blackwells Island, when the physicians soon after recognized him as 
 perfectly sane, and dismissed him. The following case of intentional de- 
 tention of a sane person in a lunatic asylum, and which occurred in the fall 
 of 1872, also needs no further commentary. Conrad Jacob, a German,, 
 married soon after his arrival in New York, in 1851, a German girl, with 
 whom he had become acquainted in Paris. They did not live together 
 very happy, and their married life was nothing but a continual warfare, 
 broken only by an occasional truce. Nevertheless they were well blessed 
 with the goods of this world, and a large laundry which they had estab- 
 lished in 3rd Avenue, was a source of a good income to them. They also 
 had four children, the oldest of which, a daughter, was already twenty- 
 one years old in the fall of 1872. This daughter had lately been the cause 
 of dissension. Now it is nothing unusual for a young girl of twenty-one 
 years to fall in love, nor is it wrong. But it was wrong that she gave her 
 love to a loafer, who spent twenty dollars for every ten he earned, as the 
 father soon found out. But it was still worse that the mother assisted the 
 loving pair, and favored the young man's suit, the more the father opposed 
 it. The mother at last decided to make short work of it, and to make- 
 her husband harmles by a coup d'etat: She soon found the "doctors" who 
 obliged her by issuing a certificate in due form, declaring Mr. Jacob insane. 
 With this certificate she succeeded in obtaining an order from a police 
 judge, for the detention of her husband in the asylum on Black well's 
 Island. Mr Jacob was then induced to visit the "Island" under some 
 pretext of business, where the disagreeable surprise awaited him, to be- 
 immediately detained as a lunatic, and in spite of all protestations, to be- 
 confined in a cell. In this terrible condition he passed five days. For- 
 

 THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS, 519 
 
 tunately one of the physicians took a special interest in him, and soon dis- 
 covered that he showed no traces of insanity. lie now caused him to be 
 watched, and as in consequence his mental sanity was not to be doubted 
 in the least, Mr. Jacob was dismissed. Ilis wife, however, was anything 
 but overjoyed at his quick dismissal. Therefor, when Mr. Jacob tried 
 again to assume his position at the head of the family, he met with some 
 objections. His wife called to him from the window, that she did not 
 want to see him any more, that he could go where he pleased, but that lie 
 should never again think of entering that house. The end of this family 
 drama was enacted in the courts, where Jacob sued his wife for the re- 
 covery of his property, and the physicians who declared him insane, for 
 Si 0,000 damages. That was a case that had a fortunate termination. 
 It shows nevertheless the astonishing facility, with which any rascal can 
 obtain the necessary documents for the execution of his criminal purposes. 
 Another interesting case is that of a nun, Rose McCabe, which occurred 
 in 1872, where a physician signed a certificate of insanity, only to oblige 
 a brother physician. Dr. Nugent, this is his name, was asked one day 
 by one of his colleagues, while accidentally meeting him, to sign a document 
 declaring Miss McCabe insane. Dr. Nugent had never seen her before. 
 He knew nothing whatever of her state of mind, but what had been told 
 him by his colleague. He knew full well the consequences of a document 
 of that kind, and yet he signed his name, without first satisfying himself 
 as to the truth of his colleague's statements. What could have induced 
 him to do it? Perhaps the $100, which had been promised him for his 
 signature. Thus this bad world is only too easily inclined to think. But 
 the doctor explained it in a far different manner. He sigued, as he said, 
 only to see whether any one could be sent to a lunatic asylum on the cer- 
 tificate of a physician, who had never seen the person. Physicians, how- 
 ever, need not even be very bad or careless, to declare a man insane, when 
 he is anything but that. It is well known how easily old, nervous persons 
 of a morbid irritability, are suspected of being insane, when rascally re- 
 lations do everything in their power, to bring about this result. Such 
 persons can easily be worked up for a time, into such a passion, that even 
 good physicians will look upon it as a consequence of their deranged mind. 
 For as in the case of Mr. Chambers, an experienced specialist in diseases 
 of the mind, was not able to detect the simulated insanity, how much 
 easier must it be for an ordinary physician to mistake the highly excited 
 condition of a nervous man, with that of a lunatic. And if in addition, 
 the physician has been prepared and been led to expect a lunatic, by the 
 talk of the family, even a very respectable physician may aid in sending a 
 sane man to the lunatic asylum. When such an unfortunate fellow is 
 once in the asylum, his condition is pitiable indeed. We have seen how 
 a patient was received and sent to the department of mad-meu, without 
 any medical examination worth speaking of. Now put yourself in the 
 
520 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 place of an old and nervous person, who is in his full senses, sees himself 
 put out of the way in this manner by his relatives. The position is such 
 as to break even the strongest spirit, and derange the strongest mind. How 
 much more so must that be the case, where a morbid irritability already 
 exists. The praying and beseeching of the patients, the assurances of 
 their sanity, the accusations against their relatives, or their rage against 
 the imposition practiced upon them, are either not noticed at all, in these 
 institutions, or are even regarded as the signs of a deranged mind. To 
 this is added in private lunatic asylums the pecuniary interest, which 
 keeps a patient under treatment all the longer, the higher the sum is that 
 is paid in advance. In this respect, a gentleman who had been kept 
 prisoner in a lunatic asylum by his children, who wished to come into 
 possession of his money, for over two years, declares, that any lunatic 
 asylum in the United States will keep every patient delivered to it, insane 
 or not, as long as they are paid for. This is a very serious accusation, 
 but there are examples which tend to show it not to be without foundation. 
 Another very serious accusation against the Bloomingdale asylum is, that 
 if a writ of "Habeas Corpus" is taken out for any patient, he is dismissed 
 before the writ can be served. Thus, it is said, do the officers prevent 
 anything going on in their institution, from being brought out to light by 
 an official investigation. For as the patient has already been dismissed 
 as cured, they can deliver him to the court, and any investigation of the 
 case is cut off. In how far this accusation is founded on fact, we can not 
 say. In the case of Mr. Chambers it was found not to be true. But 
 there are cases, which it seems impossible to set aside as without any 
 foundation. The best known case of this kind is that of Mr. G. F. Van 
 Vleck, a prominent and rich merchant of our city. As his story casts a 
 peculiar light upon our subject in other respects too, we will give its main 
 features below. 
 
 Mr. Van Vleck, while sitting at breakfast on the morning of March 
 27th, 1871, was suddenly seized by two men, perfect strangers to him, 
 and dragged out of the house into a carriage, standing there in readiness. 
 He had no idea what the meaning of this could be, and only wondered 
 that his family as well as the servants made no attempts, in spite of his 
 cries for help, to prevent his abduction. When the carriage drew up be- 
 fore the lunatic asylum in Bloomingdale, he guessed to his horror, what 
 was to be done with him. His protest against this treatment, made to 
 Dr. Porter, was of no avail. He found himself so closely watched, that 
 he did not succeed in communicating by letter with the outer world, except 
 through such letters as passed through the hands of the officers, i. c, were 
 read by them, and he found his hope of soon regaining his freedom, to be 
 in vain. The consciousness of his helplessness so worried him, that he 
 feared he would actually become insane. Only by his strength of mind, 
 and his resolution to foil his enemies, kept him alive, both in mind and 
 
THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS. ^21 
 
 body. He undertook to keep a close account of everything that occurred 
 in his surroundings. This, together with the attempts to preserve his 
 notes from discovery and destruction by the attendants of the asylum, 
 furnished him useful employment and diversion. After a year he was at 
 illowed a little more liberty, and succeeded in sending a letter to a 
 r, Mr. Townsend, with whom he was well acquainted. Mr. Town- 
 send visited him, and promised, after satisfying himself of his sanity, to 
 procure a writ of "Habeas Corpus" for him. This step however was un- 
 necessary. For the olhcers had received notice of the threatening writ, 
 and before it could be served, they dismissed him. This was on June 
 21st, 1872, sixteen months after his reception. During this entire period 
 Mr. Van Vleck did not know which judge and which physicians had sent 
 him to the asylum. Nor did he know in what his insanity consisted. 
 Mr. Van Vleck was G2 years of age at the time of his reception, and had 
 always enjoyed perfect health of mind and body. 
 
 In private institutions the money question very often is the cause of not 
 hastening the dismissal of a patient. For every patient is a good boarder 
 for the institution, who helps to swell the annual income. This money 
 question drops out of sight, more or less, in the public institutions. The 
 consequence is just the opposite of what we have seen in the private lun- 
 atic asylums. The patients are dismissed much earlier than would seem 
 advisable, both for the patient's interest and that of his relations'. Relapses 
 with such prematurely dismissed patients, are not unfrequent, and are 
 often attended with the most serious consequences. The following tragic 
 occurrence, which happened in the fall of 1872, may serve as a proof for 
 the above. 
 
 A certain Patrick Levy had been sent on account of temporary dis- 
 turbances of the mind, in which he threatened the lives of the members 
 of his family, to the asylum on Ward's Island. After he had passed a 
 week in the asylum, he was visited by his wife, who was overjoyed to 
 find him apparently much better. The patient also considered himself 
 cured, and begged his wife to take him home again. The poor woman 
 allowed herself to be persuaded, and requested the physicians to dismiss 
 her husband. Although the insanity of the patient was of such a dan- 
 gerous nature, and he had been under their treatment for so short a time, 
 that they could hardly have formed an opinion as to the condition of the dis- 
 ease, they nevertheless granted the request. They dismissed him on trial for 
 a month. But this trial had a terrible conclusion. After three days had ti 
 passed, during which time he had behaved very well, his desire to murder 
 suddenly returned with greater fierceness than ever before. Unfortun- 
 ately his daughter did not notice the first symptous of returning insanity, 
 when he said to her one evening : "I shall murder you all to-morrow". 
 The insane man was terrible in earnest when he said these words. For 
 on the following morning, as Mrs. Levy was preparing to go to church, 
 
522 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 he took his carpenter saw. and stepped to the door with it. As his wife 
 stepped out without a thought that anything was out of the way, he struck. 
 her two powerful blows with the saw, killing her almost instantly. He 
 was about to strike her again, when his daughter hurried to the scene, 
 crying loudly for help, and caught the uplifted arm of her father, who 
 now turned upon her. After a short struggle she succeeded to tear her- 
 self away, and to escape. He caught her again and knocked her down 
 senseless with a blow of his saw. Thereupon he caught his twelve years 
 old niece by the throat, and would have also murdered her, if a policeman, 
 who had in the meanwhile arrived, had not knocked the saw out of his 
 hand. But he was also not able to master him, and would have suc- 
 cumbed to the mad-man, if some other person had not come to aid in 
 time, and had helped to overpower him. These were the consequences of 
 dismissing a man on trial, who suffered of insanity in its worst form, viz.,. 
 the desire to kill, and who had not been under treatment a week. 
 
 If we have heard already from Mr. Chambers facts from the Bloom- 
 ingdale asylum, which kindled our righteous indignation, the state of 
 affairs in the public asylums, on Ward's and Blackwell's Islands, are much 
 worse. It almost seems as if insanity was there considered a crime, and 
 that the unfortunate patients are accordingly treated as criminals, and 
 that, as it would not be suffered in any respectable prison. One of the 
 most disgusting cases of brutal treatment became known in the fall of 
 1872, when in the asylum on Ward's Island, two unfortuuate patients 
 were ill-treated in such a manner by one of the attendants, by the name 
 of Farrell, that they died shortly after. The investigation brought to 
 light the following revolting facts: Ornell, a Swede, was not really in- 
 sane, but a helpless cripple, suffering from almost total paralysis. He was 
 entirely harmless, and good natured as a child. This poor man was found 
 one day on his bed in a state of complete exhaustion, covered by bruises 
 and blood. With the greatest care he could only be brought back to life 
 so far, as to answer the questions how he had come to be in this condition? 
 All that he could say was that the "big attendant" had struck him. When 
 all the attendants stepped up before his bed, he recognized Thos. Farrell 
 as the perpetrator. Ornell died the following day. The only punishment 
 inflicted on Farrell was, that he was dismissed. But Farrell was not ar- 
 rested until after the death of Ornell, another inmate of the asylum cor- 
 roborated the statement of the deceased. The arrest had hardly taken place, 
 when the head physician was informed that a colored patient, by the name 
 of Seymour, was seriously ill. A visit to the sick-bed showed the physi- 
 cian bruises and wounds on the head of the patient. His principal suffer- 
 ing however, arose from inflammation of the bowels, which had been 
 caused by exterior injuries on the abdomen. Upon being asked how he had 
 been injured in such a manner, the sick man said that he had been knocked 
 down and kicked about by Farrell a few days ago. Upon searching fur- 
 
THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 523 
 
 ther, patients were found who had been witnesses of Farrell's brutality 
 towards Seymour. Seymour also died, and Farrell was charged by the 
 coroner's jury, of having caused the death of Oruell and Seymour. 
 
 But this seemed to have no effect upon the other attendants. On the 
 contrary, matters seemed to become worse. A patient, Samuels, ailing 
 for a long time, died in consequence of insufficient food, and an ice-cold 
 bath, administered to him as a punishment, for disobeying the regulations., 
 by a certain McDonald. The same attendant a few days after, broke the 
 nose of an insane man, for putting on two pairs of pantaloons. Another 
 patient, the Italian Rafaello, was badly hurt by the attendaut Mc 
 Gloughlin. Attendant Foles did the same thing to a certain Thomas 
 Cooper. Attendant Michael O'Reilly abused and kicked a harmless pa- 
 tient. All these cases, and many others, occurred iu the course of a few 
 weeks, and only in two instances were the attendants dismissed, while in 
 the others nothiug was done to them, and they remained in their positions. 
 
 This will suffice to characterize the class of people employed in our lun- 
 atic asylums as attendants. The medical attention was also a tyrannical 
 one, and was calculated to make the condition of the patients rather worse v 
 than better. As an example for this we would mention the case of a certain 
 Condon, who was in the asylum on Blackwell's Island, in the department for 
 daugerous lunatics (in the so-called "Lodge"). Condon was kept iu the 
 "lodge" under the most severe restrictions, although nothing iu his char- 
 acter justified such a treatment. Far from being excited, he was one of 
 the most harmless patients. Whenever he saw the doctor, he begged him 
 to let him out of the "lodge", and let him breathe some fresh air. All 
 these requests were however refused without any cause and were com- 
 pletely ignored. This made the poor fellow desperate. He resolved to 
 get out of the lodge at any price, if he even should risk the gallows by 
 doing so. With these thoughts uppermost in his mind, he obtained a- 
 knife from one of his companions, with the intention of first trying it 
 again with begging, and if that was of no use, to stab the doctor. Upon 
 the doctor's next visit he asked him again to let him out of the lodge, and 
 put him in one of the other departments. The doctor refused as before s . 
 and declared that he would have to remain iu the "lodge". Thereupou 
 Condon knocked him down and stabbed him in the back of the neck. He 
 would have certainly killed the doctor, if the attendants had not over- 
 powered him in time. An examination, which was then undertaken in 
 the lodge, brought to light not less than Jive knives, which were found- iu 
 the possession of maniacs, which was certainly a very good recommenda- 
 tion for the care employed by the attendants. It is unnecessary to men- 
 tion that Condon did not better his condition by his desperate deed. He 
 was put in chains, which he was forced to carry continually, until fortun- 
 ately for him, he wai transferred to the Ward's Island asylum. Upon hig. 
 arrival there, he was relieved of his chains, aud this produced a marked 
 
524 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK I^E. 
 
 change for the better within him. In a short time he wa3 one of the 
 quietest and most pliable patients, and gave no cause for complaint what- 
 ever. He worked diligently, and took particular care of his weaker com- 
 panions. He strictly obeyed the directions of the physician, and was as 
 thankful for the kind treatment he experienced in the new institution, as 
 he always remembered with great bitterness the cruelties which he had 
 suffered in the "lodge" on BlackwelPs Island. 
 
 The following case may serve as a sample of the supervision of the 
 patients. In January, 1873, a young Irish woman jumped out of the 
 window of the lunatic asylum on Blackwell's Island, and injured herself 
 in such a manner, that she soon after died. She was afflicted with a 
 suicidal mania, and tried to jump into the water, because, she said, she 
 would become a "pretty little fish". She had jumped into the East River 
 once before, and had only been saved with the greatest difficulty. Since 
 then she wore the straight jacket, in which she was allowed to walk about 
 in the corridor for maniacs. As the nurse one day opened the door to 
 the corridor, to admit somebody, the unfortunate woman slipped through 
 the door and rushed to a window, beneath which she saw the East River 
 flowing along. She immediately raised herself on the window sill, in spite 
 of her straight jacket, and before any one had noticed her, she jumped 
 down. She injured herself so severely, that she died soon after. Neg- 
 ligence on the part of the attendants, and the singular fact, that the patients 
 had access to windows without bars, were according to the verdict of the 
 coroner's jury, the chief causes of this sad accident. It is not an unfre- 
 quent occurrence that lunatics on Blackwell's Island jump into the water. 
 From 1847 to 1870 not less than 10 such cases have occurred. It is 
 hardly possible to depict a more terrible picture of the abuses existing in 
 our public lunatic asylums, than has been done by Dr. Echeverria, in his 
 report to Mayor Hall, in the fall of 1872. Dr. Echeverria was head phy- 
 sician in the Ward's Island asylum, and did his best to lay bare and to 
 correct the abuses, existing there and on Blackwell's Island. All his com- 
 plaints and charges were found to be true in every respect, by a special 
 committee appointed to investigate them. But the committees for chari- 
 ties and corrections, looked very unfavorably upon the exertions of the 
 doctor, and dismissed him. Dr. Echeverria makes a sketch in his report 
 of the state of affairs existing in the lunatic asylum, which is calculated 
 to fill every well meaning citizen with disgust. The rooms of the com- 
 missioners, the physicians, the stewards and of the matron, as well as the 
 general office, were the only rooms in the entire building, furnished at all. 
 The rooms of the patients did not contain the least bit of furniture, when 
 the institution was opened for the reception of patients. The former in- 
 mates of the old asylum on Blackwell's Island, did not find the least com- 
 fort upon their arrival on Ward's Island. The majority were compelled 
 io sleep on the bare floor, with only a bare covering to protect them against 
 
THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 525 
 
 the bitter cold. Many of the attendants installed in the new asylum, were 
 rude fellows, who from the first day they were in the institution, openly 
 inclined to insubordination and disrespect for the rules of the new asylum. 
 On January 2Gth, 1872, Dr. Echeverria reported to the commissioners the 
 existence of a eontagious disease among the lunatics, and criticised upon 
 this occasion the gross carelessness of the steward and the matron, recom- 
 mending at the same time measures to remedy these abuses. The com- 
 missioners neither answered his request, nor did any one of them person- 
 ally inspect the institution. The consequence was, that from February to- 
 April, 21 died out of a division of 59, of typhoid fever. At last, when 
 the eastern wing of the new asylum was finished in April, the patients 
 who were still living at that time, wer^ transferred thither, and through 
 the exertions of the physicians the disease was here stopped. The pro- 
 vision for the patients was fully equal to the coarse treatment they received 
 at the hands of attendants. In February, 1872, the number of patients- 
 was 375, besides which the institution contained 118 convicts from the 
 poor house, 19 attendants and a number of other persons, together 525 
 persons. 7,792 pounds of meat were requisite for their maintenance, 
 while they only received 5,512 pounds. On the other hand, they received 
 200 pounds of bread more than was needed for the patients. But the 
 latter had no benefit of this plenty, on the contrary, complaints were heard 
 of insufficiency of the bread supply. What the steward had done with 
 the bread, he was never required to tell. 
 
 On February 27th, a committee of physicians was requested by the- 
 commissioners, to examine the state of affairs in the lunatic asylum. The 
 report of these gentlemen verified all the Jatements of Dr. Echeverria, 
 and recommended the execution of the measures proposed by him. Never- 
 theless the commissioners let everything remain as it was. The only 
 change w T hich was undertaken, was that a warden, with a salary of $2,500 
 per annum, and a clerk were appointed. The former official was made 
 the head of the institution. Soon however, Dr. Echeverria was compelled 
 to complain of the man for drunkenness. Another reform of the com- 
 missioners consisted in sending Dr. Echeverria to Blackwell's Island, who 
 however, refused to leave his post, enquiring at the same time why the 
 patients sick with the typhoid fever did not receive the benefit of the ap- 
 propriation of $100,000, made for this purpose. On June 16th, 1872, the 
 commissioners authorized another committee, consisting of Professor John 
 \Y. Draper, Prof. Robert Ogden Doremus, and Prof. Charles F. Chandler, 
 to inspect the lunatic asylum. The reports and recommendations of this 
 committee were also without any effect, and the state of affairs in the 
 lunatic asylum at that time were really terrible. The employees from. 
 the warden down to the lowest workman, were drunk day after day, while 
 prostitutes from the workhouses carried on their disgraceful trade, with, 
 the same shamelessness as formerly in the streets of the city, and offered 
 
526 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 their persons to the employees of the institution. Besides the scandalous 
 orgies performed by this disgraceful set of people, two lunatics were af- 
 flicted with disgusting diseases. 
 
 Dr. Echeverria urged the commissioners to stop these disgraceful scenes. 
 The president of the board then told him to leave the institution for a 
 short time, during which the warden and the matron should restore order 
 in the asylum, and if they failed to do it, they should be dismissed in- 
 stantly. When Dr. Echeverria returned after a month, on September 
 11th, 1872, it was worse than it ever had been before. In spite of the 
 large amounts expended on the institution, the walls of a few cells only 
 had been white-washed. Otherwise everything was in a dilapidated con- 
 dition. The patients were covered with vermin, and many bore the marks 
 of cruel beatings. Many were without shoes or stockings, and often did 
 not change their clothing for months. All the employees belonged to a 
 political clique, the "O'Brien Association". A committee appointed by 
 the commissioners, to investigate the charges against these institutions, 
 always showed itself ready to obey the dictates of the politicians, and men 
 who had been guilty of the most glaring abuses, and disregard of their 
 duties, were at most transferred to another institution. The murder of 
 Ornell and Seymour by Thos. Farrell, was followed by a number of cruel 
 abuses of patients, and the death of Levi Samuels, through the cruel 
 treatment at the hands of the attendants, some of whom at present again 
 occupy their former position in the asylum. The governor of the state 
 •convinced himself by personal inspection of the state of affairs existing 
 in the asylum. And all thes£ abuses were going on under the very eyes 
 of the commissioners. As long as Dr. Echeverria held his position, none 
 of the commissioners thought it necessary to give a single hour to the in- 
 spection of these institutions, or to listen to the complaints of the physi- 
 cian. None were on hand to receive the dying depositions of Ornell anc 
 Seymour. 
 
 Should we believe it possible that such a thing should happen in 
 civilized state, and in a so-called charitable institution? That is one of 
 the many fruits of that pernicious system, which looks upon all the d( 
 partments of the administration as the rightful spoils of the victorioi 
 political party, and always fills the various offices with persons, whose 
 only recommendations are the services rendered to their party. No matter 
 what party gains the ascendency, it always proceeds in this respect, ac 
 cording to these principles. An improvement is therefor not to be expecte( 
 in this respect, as long as the civil service is not made independent of 
 politics, and an appointment holds good during the good behavior and 
 iulfillment of his duties by the appointee. 
 
 With regard to the administration of the lunatic asylums, the appoint- 
 ment of ward politicians as wardens, attendants, etc., has born the fruits 
 described above. Our public lunatic asylums, through this system, have 
 
THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 527 
 
 "become houses of refuge for drunken politicians, and the unfortunate 
 lunatics are only the pretence under which the citizens are taxed to support 
 political favorites. 
 
 The wretched administration in the private asylum in Bloomingdale, 
 can be traced to auother reason. There was a time when it was indeed a 
 model institution. But this time is long past : Not properly controlled 
 by the authorities of the state, a backward movement soon began ; and 
 instead of earning fresh laurels, the institution rested lazily on its old ones. 
 Dr. Brown, the head physician, was used much more by the governors of 
 the institution, to figure as wire puller in the financial interest of the in- 
 stitution, at Albany, than to tend to his duties at home. Thus the con- 
 trolling head was wauting, and carelessness and superficiality began to 
 show themselves for several years, as it would never before have been 
 thought possible. 
 
 With regard to the much more serious evil, of detaining sane person3 
 for criminal purposes in insane asylums, the root of the evil will be chiefly 
 found in the defective legislation. A careful observation and examination 
 of a patient immediately upon his arrival, would restrict the time of the 
 detention of a sane person to a few days at most, and make his detention 
 for months and years an impossibility. But even the possibility of such 
 short detention in lunatic asylums could be prevented by better laws. In 
 several states no patient can be sent to the asylum, who has not been de- 
 clared insane by a jury. In one of the last sessions of the legislature, two 
 bills were brought forward to do something in this respect. The one had 
 for its object a better control of the asylums, and ordered that no person 
 could make it a business of caring for lunatics, without the consent of the 
 commissioners of charities. The second bill intended to make it more 
 difficult to obtain a certificate of insanity. Instead of the affidavit of two 
 physicians, a certificate of a certain number of physicians should be re- 
 quisite, which physicians were to be appointed for every county. Upon 
 this certificate the police judge, after a careful examination, should be 
 allowed to issue an order for the reception of the patient. But before the 
 reception of the patient, the record of the proceedings should be sent to the 
 county judge, who could either confirm or annul the decision of the police 
 judge. Furthermore, each of the physicians issuing the certificate, should 
 notify the county judge immediately, and the superintendents should im- 
 mediately notify the county judge of the reception of a patient. It was 
 also intended by this bill to empower the county judge, to enquire at any 
 time into the condition of auy person held in the asylums, and if necessary, 
 to give the case in the hands of a jury. These bills were defeated because 
 the Bloomingdale asylum were against them. As stated before, the gov- 
 ernors took good care to look out for their interests in Albany, while these 
 bills were in the interest of poor, unfortunate lunatics, and the public in 
 jreneral. 
 
528 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Thus to the present day the accusal of insanity is followed by the most 
 terrible imprisonment in a lunatic asylum. The accused, who in many 
 cases does not know his accusers and the judge who robs him of his lib- 
 erty, has no chance to defend him. If he were accused of some crime, 
 the law would offer him the most liberal advantages to defeat the accusa- 
 tions brought against him. A murderer can to-day, by a smart use of 
 insanity as a defence, fool justice. This seems strange if compared with 
 the facility with which a perfectly saae person, by criminal plotting, can 
 be put out of the way for some time, under the plea of insanity. "We 
 have also seen how a short time ago a judge sent George Francis Train 
 to the state lunatic asylum, although he full well knew that the accused, 
 with the exception of a little eccentricity, was as sane as any man in the 
 court-room. That Mr. Train did not goto the lunatic asylum, and thus 
 saved our administration of justice a new disgrace, was not the fault of 
 the judge. The lunatic asylum is the most terrible of all prisons. The 
 judge who would with the greatest carelessness send a person, represented 
 to him by others as insane, to the lunatic asylum, certainly deserves great 
 blame. But we cannot find words strong enough to condemn that judge, 
 who would send a person to a lunatic asylum, when he knew him to be 
 sane. The law should certainly make it just as difficult to send a sane 
 person to a lunatic asylum, as to send an innocent person to prison. Not 
 until this is the case, when the same care is accorded to the unfortun- 
 ate inmates of our lunatic asylums, as to the less unfortunate inmates of 
 our hospitals, not until then will our lunatic asylums become truly char- 
 itable institutions, and cease to be a fitting theme for the "dark sides of 
 our city". 
 
 FORTUNE TELLERS. 
 
 In many of our larger dailies the reader will find a standing column of 
 advertisements, with the strange heading "Astrology". The word 
 voluntarily reminds us of the middle ages, and we can only wonder to 
 find it at the head of a column of advertisements, in a paper in our en- 
 lightened century. But our curiosity is aroused and thus fulfills the object 
 of the advertisers, who wish to attract the eyes of all to these advertise- 
 ments, by their strange heading. It also gives a respectable name to a 
 very disreputable affair, and is in this respect also of advantage for the 
 publishers of the newspapers, who need a fitting head for this group of 
 advertisements, and out of regard for the advertisers and themselves, denote 
 
 
THE FORTUNE TELLERS. . r >2? 
 
 something that is actually a swindle, as astrology. In its days of glory 
 astrology was also nothing but swindle, depending as it did upon fraud 
 and willful deception. But it also had its uses. For as alchemy (art of 
 making gold, etc.) became the true mother of chemistry, thus the art of 
 reading in the stars (astrology) contributed very much to raise the science 
 of the heavenly bodies (astronomy) to its present standard. At the same 
 time it had an excuse in the superstition of the centuries in which it 
 flourished. What our dailies call astrology however, is a product of moral 
 depravity, and the most senseless nonsense, and not only ridicules the en- 
 lightenment of our century, but tends to promote demoralization. Let us 
 look however, at some of these astrological advertisements. There we 
 can read among others : 
 
 "Attention ! Mrs. — , the celebrated medical clairvoyant and prophetess 
 of the future, can be consulted for any events in life. She never fails to 
 recognize the nature of any disease, to discover secrets, to give inform- 
 ation of absent friends, law-suits, lucky numbers in lotteries, etc. Fees, 
 50 cents to $1.00. For ladies only/' 
 
 "Twenty years' experience ! Mrs. — may be consulted on business, 
 losses, enemies, love, marriage, diseases, etc. Fees for ladies, 50 cents to 
 $1.00 ; for gentlemen, $1.00 to $2.00." 
 
 "Madame — , clairvoyant and doctoress, answers every question. Send 
 your age and natal star. Strictly confidential. Send for a circular. Fees 
 25 cents." 
 
 "Madame — , clairvoyant, can be consulted on all affairs of life. Fees 
 for ladies, 75 cents ; for gentlemen, $1.00." 
 
 "Attention ! Know thy fate ! He who knows what is comino-, can 
 easily arrange his affairs beforehand. Do not be cheated by swindlers, 
 
 but go to No. Street, where the best clairvoyant of the age can be 
 
 consulted. She brings unfaithful husbands back to their duties, unites 
 lovers, brings about quick marriages, and success in business and love. 
 Preserve this advertisement !" 
 
 "Madame — , the greatest medical and business clairvoyant and proph- 
 etess of the nineteenth century, gives information of the past, present, and 
 future, names lucky numbers, shows the portraits of the future husbands, 
 and wives, and possesses the wonderful Persian Amulets, for procuring 
 love and a quick marriage." 
 
 "Madame — , spiritualist for medical and business affairs, can be con- 
 sulted on all affairs of life. Cures cancer, skin-diseases, etc." 
 
 "Not to be overlooked ! Consultations on business, law-suits, personal 
 enemies, losses, absent friends, love, marriage, sickness and death. Pay- 
 ment refused, if satisfaction is not given." 
 
 "Madame — , the great natural clairvoyant, reveals to the visitor hia 
 whole life, from the cradle to the grave. She cures cancers, tumors, and 
 other diseases. Consultation $1.00." 
 
 34 
 
530 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 "Miss — , the English gipsy, can read the prophecies of heaven, written 
 in'starry characters, and reveal the future events in the life of her visitor. 
 She is the possessor of a love powder, known only to her tribe, and never 
 fails to unite long seperated lovers. Fees $1.00." 
 
 "Who would not seek his fortune? Do not fail to visit Miss — , the 
 great English prophetess, who stands above and unsurpassed in her art. 
 Consultations (personal and by letter) on all affairs of life, love, stolen or 
 lost objects, law-suits, travels, hidden treasures, etc. She brings drunken 
 or unfaithful husbands back to the path of duty. She has also on hand 
 a large assortment of genuine Roman or Arabian amulets, for luck in love, 
 business, and other affairs. The effect oi these amulets is guaranteed for 
 a whole life time." 
 
 "A reader of the planets ! There is no other possibility to unveil the 
 future, than by reading the planets. Professor — is the only person in 
 New York, who can do it. Senp! a stamp for a circular." 
 
 Others of these modern "astrologists", who, as we see, arc nothing but 
 fortune tellers, announce themselves as the seventh daughter of a seventh 
 daughter, or of a seventh son, or they impart to the world the interesting 
 secret, that they were born with a veil. But it would take up too much 
 space and time to recount all the nonsense here, which the advertising 
 columns of certain papers present to their readers. We actually do not 
 know after reading them, whether to send the advertisers to prison, or those 
 who apply to them, to the lunatic asylum. It would be hard indeed for 
 the latter, but as we will see in the course of the chapter, only just for 
 the former. Some of our readers may ask : "Are there then indeed per- 
 sons who will let themselves be taken in by such advertisements?" Un- 
 fortunately we must answer that there are more than we should think 
 possible. This is seen from the fact alone, that the number of professional 
 fortune tellers in our city is very large, and that their business is a paying 
 one. Those advertising in the newspapers, are altogether a small fraction 
 of the actual number. Their income is estimated on an average at $3 to 
 $6 per day, while some can even boast of an income as high as $50 to 
 $100 daily. Two of these lady prophets have amassed a fortune by their 
 business, which is estimated at over $100,000. This is probably the most 
 practical gauge to estimate* the spread of superstition, which alone enables 
 this fortune telling swindle to exist at all in our city. 
 
 It would be foolish for us to try and prove that no means exist to lift 
 the veil of the future. There never were such means, nor ever will be as 
 long as the world exists. Whoever would deny the truth of this, for him 
 all further arguments would be in vain. We will not go to this trouble ; 
 we have also no space in this book, which treats on the "Dark Sides of 
 New York", for the comical part of fortune telling in its various forms. 
 From our standpoint we look upon fortune telling as a covering for far 
 worse thiDgs ; a covering, seemingly harmless, which hides a very dan- 
 
T1IK FOKTINK TBLLEBS. "' '1 
 
 porous trap. To remove this covering, and to show the trap hidden be- 
 neath it to the unsuspicious eye, is the object of the present chapter. 
 
 In — Street, near a public school, Mrs. N. keeps a small cake bakery. 
 This bakery however is only a mask for the fortune telling, carried on by 
 this woman, as fortune telling is in its turn a mask for a much worse- 
 criminal business. The proximity of the school brings as customers to 
 this woman's shop many schoolchildren, among them girls from 12 to 17 
 years of age, who there spend their pennies for cakes, candies, etc. Among 
 her steady customers was Emma R., a girl of about 16 years of age, 
 abounding in youthful health and beauty. For her Mrs. N. shows a par- 
 ticular interest, and tells her one day confidentially that she knows how 
 to read the fortune of a person from cards. Of course, Miss Emma im- 
 mediately desired to have her future revealed. Her wish was fulfilled. 
 The woman takes up the cards and begins to give their meaning. With 
 glowing cheeks and beating heart the girl listens. Nothing but love and 
 happiness and happiness and love do the mystic cards prophesy. A 
 "beautiful young man" of great wealth is her destined husband. She will 
 soon be married to him, and as the mother of many children will live 
 long and happily with him. A beautiful mansion, carriages, servants, etc., 
 are other less important points which assist in turning poor Emma's head- 
 How dead and empty does the present life suddenly seem to her, with the 
 expectation of that brilliant future. How she does long to see the "beau- 
 tiful young man", who is destiued by fate to make her happy and rich. 
 After a few days she again applies to the woman, to hear further partic- 
 ulars. The cards this time not only confirm the prophecy made before, 
 hut even aid that Emma is to see her intended in a very short time. She 
 is also told to come again the next day, when she will see the picture of 
 her iutended. Emma comes punctually at the appointed time. The for- 
 tune teller tells her to look into a dark box, which she does with great 
 solemnity. At first she sees nothing ; but soon it begins to grow lighter 
 in the back-ground, a figure begings to form, and at last she sees the picture 
 of a really handsome young man. Thus she has seen the picture of her 
 iutended, but when will she be permitted to see him in reality? Mrs. N. 
 can also answer this question. She gives Emma an amulet, and tells her 
 to wear it three days and three nights on her heart, and then to go to 
 Brooklyn on the 3 o'clock boat from Fulton Ferry. These directions are 
 faithfully obeyed. The poor girl hardly dares to look up as she steps on 
 the fatal boat. Upon raising her eyes she sees opposite to her the living 
 image of the picture she saw in the camera of the "prophetess", and each 
 feature of which is deeply engraved on her mind. The prophecy has been 
 strangely fulfilled, with regard to the meeting place, and Emma saw in 
 this a guarantee, that the more pleasant part of the prophecy would also 
 be fulfilled. At the landing of the boat the young man succeeded to get 
 near Emma, and to render her some slight service, without appearing to 
 
55J THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 obtrude. After a short and aimless walk she returned home, and to her 
 joy found the young man again on the boat. This time he sat down be- 
 side her, and began to talk to her. Emma would in all probability not 
 have noticed him under any other circumstance. But the handsome un- 
 known was the husband intended to her by fate, and she was therefor more 
 friendly to him, than it would seem to be warranted with such an ac- 
 quaintance. He also took the liberty to conduct her from the boat to a 
 street-car, where they parted with some friendly words. On the following 
 day another accidental ( ! ) meeting occurred, when Emma came from 
 school. A beautiful bouquet, which he presented to her, paved the way to 
 further intimacy, and everything seemed to point to the conclusion that 
 the events would take the course foreshadowed by the woman. In he? 
 imagination poor Emma saw herself already as the wife of her adored,. 
 and without any cares she gave herself up to her love, which she carefully 
 concealed from her friends, upon the advice of her friend, the fortune 
 teller. No more is necessary for the reader to guess the end of this sad 
 romance. As it could have been expected from the character of the prin- 
 cipal actors, an innocent girl, a heartless rascal, and a miserable procuress, 
 it ended in seduction and desertion of the poor girl. But how is the 
 wonderful fulfillment of the first part of the prophecy and the magic pic- 
 ture to be explained? In the most natural manner imaginable. A rich 
 and dissolute young man had seen Emma several times on her way to 
 and from school, and had taken a fancy to the pretty girl. But she had 
 been well brought up by respectable and wealthy parents. Her seducer 
 saw that he would not gain his point by ordinary measures, and therefor 
 made use of the fortune teller, whom he had known some time already as 
 a procuress. For a large sum of money she arranges the matter, and the 
 wonder with the picture, as well as the meeting on the ferry-boat some 
 time after needs no further explanation. 
 
 With this story the veil is raised which covers the true occupation of 
 most of our fortune tellers. The customers who apply to these people- 
 with a superstitious belief in their powers, are not so numerous as to ex- 
 plain with their small fees, sometimes only 25 cents, the large income of 
 these people. They must therefor possess some other and better sources 
 of income. These sources have been fully indicated by the above sketch. 
 The principle customers of the fortune tellers are young and old rakes, 
 whom they assist in procuring interviews with girls and women. Very 
 Beldom indeed are such interviews arranged for the purpose of marriage. 
 Seduction is almost always the outspoken, and only to the victims unknown 
 object. 
 
 It is not difficult to undertand how easy it is for seduction to gain its 
 end in such a case. The superstitious girl to whom a rich marriage is 
 prophesied, and to whom her future husband is so pictured, that she must 
 recognize him in the person of the rascal, who has determined upon her 
 
THE FORTUNE TELLERS. 533 
 
 ruin, seldom possesses sufficient moral strength to resist the temptation. 
 She only awakens from her dream when it is too late. Very often the 
 victim then again applies to the woman, in the hope that she may possess 
 some means of bringing her faithless lover back to her. But hhe jumps 
 from the frying-pan into the fire. Her fortune telling "friend" soon shows 
 her a new happiness, and thus leads her into the hands of another rascal, 
 or delivers her to some "Ladies' Boarding House", where her doom is 
 sealed forever. It is a fact well known to the police, that the fortune 
 tellers are in the employ of brothels, which receive from them a large 
 Dumber of their pitiable victims. This kind of business pays much better 
 for the fortune tellers, than their revelations of the future, as they receive 
 from the rakes $10 to $15, and as high as $50 from the brothels for each 
 service of this kind. 
 
 Very often the residences of the fortune tellers are at the same time 
 houses of assignation, and a look in the biography of these sybils would 
 show, that their present occupation is only a variation of their former 
 business of prostitution. The girl or the woman who enters such a den, 
 should therefor know, that in so doing she takes the first step to the house 
 of assignation or brothel. Hundreds of unfortunate creatures would never 
 have known the latter, if they had avoided the former. The least that 
 can be said of the fortune tellers is, that they are without exception 
 swindlers. They cheat knowingly and intentionally, and not one believes 
 the nonsense which she tells her superstitious friends. We have already 
 indicated how they show a future husband or wife. If the woman has 
 no reason to show any particular picture, she lets a picture appear in her 
 magic box, so indistinct, that the visitor with a little imagination can con- 
 struct any man or woman out of it. In many cases any photograph is 
 put in the box and shown plainly. Thus it was that a young reporter, 
 who visited a fortune teller in female apparel, and who desired to see 
 his "future husband", was surprised by the picture of a well known actor. 
 Six years have passed since then, and as the reporter is still a man, and 
 the aetor has married in the meantime, the fulfillment of the prophecy 
 seems at present to be rather impossible. 
 
 Very often the fortune tellers have persons in their ante-rooms, who are 
 apparently waiting, but in reality are examining the visitors. The result 
 of this examination and questioning is then reported, and the woman then 
 surprises her visitors by her kuowledge. The proverb, that walls have 
 ears, also applies to the ante-rooms of fortune tellers, and such walls with 
 ears are often very useful assistants in the fortune telling business. 
 
 As foolish as the majority of the visitors of the fortune tellers are, it 
 would be gross iujustice to accuse the fortune tellers themselves of being 
 fools. They may be very bad, but they are not stupid. Although mostly 
 are without any real education, they still possess a knowledge of the human 
 character, which enables them to determine* the class of their visitor with 
 
534 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 on,e sharp look. At the same time they thoroughly understand the ar& 
 of drawing out a person, so that in a short time the visitor has furnished 
 them all the material they require for points to found their prophecies 
 upon. Where such points are wanting they help themselves with common 
 place remarks, or with the ambiguity of indefinite phrases, which the 
 visitor is allowed to interpret himself. This is the true art of the fortune 
 tellers, and the more they excel in this the higher will their fame rise. 
 With regard to the power of the fortune tellers to determine the lucky 
 numbers in lotteries, we believe that they perform as wonderful acts in 
 this respect as the dream books do, and of them we have spoken in the 
 chapter on lotteries. The only strange thing about it is that these ladies 
 do not play on these numbers themselves, and thus become millionaires in 
 the quickest possible manner. The amulets and love powders, for which 
 superstitious fools often pay these fortune tellers as high as $5-, are either 
 dangerous poisons, or harmless stuff simply intended to cheat. The curing 
 of diseases by fortune tellers we can only class among the very worst kind 
 of quackery. Sometimes these women even try their hands at abortion, 
 or they act as agents of abortionists, to whom they often send women in 
 distress (often through their own fault). 
 
 A large part of the business of our fortune tellers is done by mail, and 
 extended over the entire United States. For our "sybils'* understand the 
 art of announcing to far-off persons their destiny, upon the receipt of a 
 small sum, the age, the hour of birth, etc. The money in such cases of 
 course plays the most important part, while the other things may be omit- 
 ted if necessary. Upon sending $1 we can also receive the picture of our 
 future husband or wife. Our prophets have for this purpose a large supply 
 of pictures constantly on hand, which they buy from photographers on 
 whose hands they have remained. As laughable as it seems it is never- 
 theless true, that the fortune tellers do a large business with these phot 
 graphs, as well as the love medicines, and the Persian, Egyptian, Roman 
 and other charms. 
 
 Many persons order these things from sheer curiosity. This kind of 
 curiosity however benefits these rascals just as much as stupidity. Curi- 
 osity which shows itself in such a manner does not savor very much of 
 wisdom. 
 
 We cannot explain here the method employed by the fortune tellers to 
 determine the future. The good old method of reading one's fate from 
 the lines of the hand has gone out of use almost entirely. A similar fate 
 seems to threaten the cards. Of astrology however, there is not the least 
 idea. Not one of all this crowd, including the "English gipsy", and the 
 "Planet reading professor", hardly know enough of astronomy to dis- 
 tinguish the full moon from the other stars. Among those whom super- 
 stition leads into the hands of the fortune tellers, the female sex forms the 
 large majority. For the above mentioned reasons the fortune tellers 
 
 m 
 
 : 
 
 n, 
 
THE FORTUNE TELLERS. 
 
 speculate chiefly on womea and girls. For they are the ground for the 
 business of the procuress, which hides itself behind that of the fortune 
 teller. They enjoy therefor certain privileges with regard to the prices, 
 as can be seen from the advertisements. Especially the poorer classes of 
 girls and women are the chief support and the victims of the fortune 
 tellers. But not infrequently does superstition draw one of the stronger 
 sex into the toils of the fortune tellers. It must undoubtedly be considered 
 a strange paradox, when educated men and women of great influence, be- 
 come the protectors of fortune tellers, and do not fail to consult them in 
 affairs of even the least importance. 
 
 It is indeed sad that such a remnant of the dark ages should continue 
 to flourish in our enlightened age. But unfortunately this is not all, as we 
 have seen. Fortune telling is often only a name which hides the worst 
 sores of society. Prostitution, abortion, quackery, lottery, and swindle 
 join hands with it, and have in it a powerful ally. "With regard to their 
 power and their inclination to do evil, our fortune tellers are in no way 
 better than those strange creatures, whom the superstition of former 
 centuries called witches. The suspicion of being a witch often sufficed 
 to bring innocent women to torture and to the stake. We shudder when 
 we think of the barbarity of this kind of justice, but the indifference with 
 which modern justice looks upon our modern witches, is scarcely less in- 
 comprehensible. No law threatens or punishes their activity, which in 
 all cases is most certainly suspicious, and in many cases even dangerous. 
 The fact that they openly plunder the pockets of the simple minded, would 
 not be the worst. But they also know how to use superstition in such a 
 manner, as to seriously endanger female virtue and innocence. Under 
 the pretence of discovering secrets, they have already destroyed the happi- 
 ness of many families, and have sown hate and discord in many family 
 circles. Under the pretence of revealing the future, they have already 
 cheated many women out of all happiness of this future. They are power- 
 ful promoters of superstition and of demoralization, and are therefor dan- 
 gerous enemies of society. As such the fortune tellers should not be en- 
 tirely disregarded by the laws. Superstition, of course, can not be ex- 
 terminated by law, this must be done by a liberal education of the people. 
 But what the law can and should do, is to regard the business of fortune 
 telling as that what it is in reality, a swindle and fraud in every case, and 
 only too often a mask for much worse abuses and crimes. 
 
536 THE DARK SIDE OV NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 MEDIUMS. 
 
 The leap from the fortune tellers to the spiritualistic mediums is not 
 very large. Both interfere with the other business so much, that it is 
 difficult to determine the boundary between them. But the true mediums 
 have some mystical religious theori3s as a basis, which, although by no 
 means new, have yet been brought up again in our present age in a new 
 form. These theories are comprised under the head of spiritualism. 
 What interests us most in spiritualism, is the belief that an uninterrupted 
 intercourse exists between the living world and the spiritual world, and 
 to such a degree, that according to the belief of the spiritualists, it can 
 hardly be assumed that these two worlds are separate from each other. 
 This intercourse however, say the spiritualists, needs a medium, and only 
 persons peculiarly constituted both in person and mind, can be mediums. 
 Their name is derived from the Latin word "Medium" (the middle), and 
 denotes that the persons bearing it, form the middle between this and the 
 spiritual world. These mediums are said to possess such an affinity for 
 the spirit world, that they can not only see spirits invisible for other eyes, 
 but are at times so completely identified with these spirits, that whatever 
 the medium says or does is regarded as emanating from the spirits them- 
 selves. All those wonders said to be performed by mediums, are explained 
 by this "control of the spirits", as it is termed. For it is the spirit that 
 controls the medium at the time, and not the medium itself which performs 
 these wonders. The spiritualist to whom a painting is shown, executed 
 by some medium, "entirely ignorant of drawing or painting" (!), sees 
 nothing wonderful in this feat. According to his theory, the medium at 
 the moment of painting the picture, was controlled by the spirit of Raphael 
 or Fetian, and what wonder then that it should paint these pictures. It 
 seems still more natural to the spiritualist, that the spirits of deceased 
 friends and relatives are ready to communicate by means of mediums, 
 with their friends in this world, and to answer questions and give good 
 advice. But we cannot here go into the details of the spiritualistic views. 
 It suffices for our purpose to know, that according to the spiritualists all 
 questions of the past, present and future can be solved with the aid of 
 mediums, and that all the trouble of your own thinking and research in 
 science and in every day life, can be replaced by simple questioning of the 
 spirits. That and nothing less does spiritualism promise as its results. 
 
 Without the mediums, the bridge crossing the gulf between this and 
 the spirit world, would be forever broken down. The mediums are there- 
 for to be regarded as the prophets of spiritualism. They must therefor 
 be recognized as the representatives of spiritualism, and must be held re- 
 sponsible for the good or evil effects of spiritualism in the world at large. 
 We will therefor take up only those mediums, whose actions in our city 
 
THE MEDIUMS. 537 
 
 have greatly contributed to bring the name "spiritualist" into disgrace. 
 These actions also contribute to make the name ''medium" synonymous 
 with humbug and swindle. 
 
 As it cannot be denied that the majority of the spiritualists actually 
 believe what they profess, so it cannot be denied that the majority of the 
 mediums are swindlers. The spiritual manifestations of Hume, the 
 Davenports, and others, have been often described as what they really 
 were, viz., very clever jugglery, so that it will be scarcely necessary to 
 return to them here. We will simply confine ourselves to the so-called 
 mediums at present existing in our city. 
 
 In the Spring of 1873, a number of prominent merchants determined to 
 oppose this humbug. They appointed a committee of seven to visit the 
 most prominent of the mediums of the city, and to make observations which 
 would facilitate the exposure of their so called wonders. The first visit 
 was paid to Dr. J. V- Mansfield in 6th Avenue, a medium who receives 
 sealed letters for the spirits and without opening them answers them. For 
 this service he charges $5 and four 3 cts. postage stamps. The doctor 
 received the seven gentlemen politely, but stated that the spirits did not 
 manifest themselves to more than two visitors at a time. Five of the 
 gentlemen therefore left. The two remaining ones received thin transparent 
 paper, on which they should write their questions to the spirits. This was 
 done and they were further instructed how to fold their letters. One of 
 the gentlemen had asked the spirit of his father about an affair only known 
 to the family. The other wrote to the spirit of his brother Charles, asking 
 him whether he was present %. the room and would converse with him. 
 
 Dr. Mansfield took these letters separately, rubbed them in his hands, 
 folded them together, and undertook several other manipulations with them, 
 most of which probably had no other object than to divert the attention of 
 the visitors. At last he shrank back, and while moving the forefinger of 
 his left hand as if telegraphing, he wrote the answer with his right hand. 
 This answer showed that the doctor had actually known the contents of 
 the letter. But this was the easiest part of the business, as the committee 
 were afterwards also able to read letters on this paper, without opening 
 them. In other respects however the spirits had left the doctor in the 
 lurch. The spirit of the father was not able to say anything just then 
 about the family matter, and told him to enquire again some other time. 
 (As each visit cost $5 and four 3 cent stamps, this advice was probably 
 more agreeable to the doctor than to the sou.) At the same time the 
 father's spirit declared that he was overjoyed to see his son take such in- 
 terest in the great truths of spiritualism. 
 
 The doctor fared far worse however, with the inquiry of the second 
 gentleman. The spirit of Charles declared through the doctor that he was 
 present in the room, and asked his brother to believe in spiritualism. But 
 at the moment that the spirit of brother Charles was dictating these words 
 
538 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 into, the pen of the doctor, he was himself alive and well in his counting 
 room. The other gentlemen of the committee also led the spirits of the 
 doctor astray that day. Upon the question, "where is our dear little 
 Tina" and how she was getting on in the other world, the answer came, 
 that she was a "pretty little angel" and very happy in heaven. In reality 
 she was a worthy old lady of 210 lbs., who by no means expected to ex- 
 change the joys of this world for that of another. Another gentleman 
 who had never had a brother, was nevertheless surprised by the doctor 
 with a letter in answer to a question to "his dear departed brother". 
 
 After Dr. Mansfield, Dr. H. Slade in West 43th street was visited. This 
 Slade is considered one of the most prominent members of the spiritualists.. 
 His spirits usually write their own answer on a slate. The doctor however 
 always enquires beforehand whether the spirit will write or not. If he 
 assents to do so, he raps three times on the leg of the table, which denotes 
 in the language of the spirits, "Yes, I will." His spirits are also musically 
 inclined, and play on an accordeon, which the doctor holds with one hand 
 under the table. The secret of Dr. Slade's power is the rapidity with 
 which he performs his tricks. But any juggler or conjurer does the same 
 and still better tricks. For this jugglery Dr. Slade charges $5, and always 
 finds enough believers to make his business pay. 
 
 In R. W. Flint, of Broadway, the committee found an equally wonderful 
 but cheaper medium. His fee is $2 and three 3 cent stamps. His art 
 consists in letting his spirits write letters a la Mansfield, in answers to 
 others written to the spirits, which he reads with their aid. The most won- 
 derful part of the whole performance howev# is, that he requires a whole 
 weeks time, as he is so pressed with business, that his time is taken up for 
 several days ahead. Nobody can object to that, as it is an old rule that 
 "first come, first served." The gentlemen were therefor compelled to leave 
 their letter, which contained the old question to the father about the family 
 matter, and wait till the following week for an answer. 
 
 When the gentlemen returned in the course of a week, the unopened 
 letter as well as the answer to it was handed to them. The answer was 
 almost the same as that given by Dr. Mansfield. The control of the medium 
 was not very good, and it was impossible for the father to say anything 
 about the family matter this time. Perhaps next time etc. — 
 
 This was not very satisfactory, and the only question remaining was 
 whether it required supernatural powers to become acquainted with the 
 questions contained in the sealed letter. The seals and the envelopes 
 seemed to be untouched. The committee went to work to solve this 
 question, and soon discovered how easily seals can be detached from the 
 paper by means of a heated knife, and without showing a trace of the 
 manipulation be pasted together again. They found it still easier to dis- 
 solve the gum on the euvelopes by steam in such a manner, as to make 
 the opening and closing of the envelope a very easy matter. They there* 
 
 
• THE MEDIUMS. 
 
 for gave to the medium some questions in a letter, written on the ver r 
 tinest tissue paper, which was very carefully sewn together by a sewing 
 machine. This letter, as had been expected, proved too difficult to ansWei 
 for Mr. Flint and his spirits. He gave as an excuse that his magnet i 
 condition had not reached the proper intensity, to allow him to operate as 
 a medium. 
 
 Another visit was made to Dr. Parker, in 4Gth Street, a "celebrated" 
 spiritual physician, who cures all kinds of diseases by means of his spirits. 
 He is the possessor of a telegraph, through which the spirits telegraph all 
 the answers to him. The whole committee went to see the doctor in a 
 body, and found a number of spiritualists in meeting. They were received 
 in the "circle", which was formed in such a manner, that all persons took 
 hold of a wire which connected a galvanic battery in the adjoining room, 
 with a telegraph apparatus on the table. But probably on account of the 
 seven unbelieving members the spirits were in bad humor, and sent no 
 dispatches. They only condescended to move the table, to lift it or to 
 make it creak. As this began to be tiresome, the spirits by means of the 
 medium, made known their desire to have the room darkened. This re- 
 quest was fulfilled, and suddenly in the back of the room two lights ap- 
 peared, which the medium declared to be angels. A respectful admiration 
 reigned in the circle of believers. One of the unbelieving intruders how- 
 ever, left the table and advanced noiselessly and unseen towards the angels. 
 He soon had discovered their nature. Through little holes in the door 
 rays of light from a bright light burning in the next room, fell upon a 
 mirror, from which they were reflected on the wall. He closed the holes 
 and in the same moment the angels had also disappeared. For this the 
 intruders however indemnified their believing companions by helping the 
 spirits. Soon knocking was heard in all parts of the room, then this or 
 that believer felt himself caught by invisible hands by the neck, legs, etc.. 
 and the table as if possessed by a thousand spirits, moved about the room 
 in all directions, until at last it overturned. The faithful crew present 
 were in ecstasies, for never had they witnessed such active manifestations 
 of the spirits as in this sitting. No one, with the exception of the doctor, 
 had the remotest idea that profane unbelievers had anything to do with 
 this. 
 
 Similar results were obtained by the committee upon visiting other 
 mediums. Everywhere it found that what seemed to be inexplicable at 
 first sight was simply jugglery. Not a single question that could not be. 
 answered by a common place answer, was answered satisfactorily, and 
 into every trap that was set for them, the spirits without exception would 
 fall. The committee then had sitting itself, in which one of the members 
 performed all the tricks learned from the medium, to the great satisfaction 
 of even earnest spiritualists. The committee also issued a notice to all 
 the different mediums, asking them to perform their manifestations under 
 
540 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. • 
 
 the eyes of the committee. Although a large sum was offered for char- 
 itable institutions, if one of the mediums could then bring about the same 
 manifestations, the notice remained unanswered. Spirits do not like to 
 be tampered with. 
 
 It would lead us too far to lay bare all the tricks which the mediums 
 i»ake use of to cheat the superstitious. One medium even goes so far as 
 to let the spirits appear, by letting the visitors look through a small hole 
 in a curtain. The magic lantern also plays a prominent part in the con- 
 juring of spirits by mediums. With regard to the pictures painted by 
 mediums, we are forced to believe the medium when he tells us that he 
 has actually painted the picture, or that he has never learned to paint. 
 But the critic will always come to the conclusion, that the spirits are either 
 -very poor painters, or that in the case of Raphael or Titian they have 
 fallen out of practice. It is a strange fact, that while the female sex pre- 
 dominates in the field of fortune telling, the mediums are almost without 
 exception men. This is probably chiefly owiug to the character of the 
 business ; jugglery is a field in which ladies have not yet tried their hand. 
 As the business of a medium depends chiefly on credulity and superstition, 
 it need not be wondered at that it sometimes takes a criminal form. Ex- 
 amples of this are not wanting. The following case shows how easily 
 superstition can turn the heads of even those who count themselves among 
 the educated classes. 
 
 Mary, a poor but beautiful and highly educated young lady, was en- 
 gaged to Mr. P., an old but very wealthy merchant. Although much 
 younger than Mr. P., she still loved him with all her heart, and her love 
 was fully returned. Nevertheless the beautiful bride became depressed 
 more and more, the nearer the day of the wedding approached. The fear 
 had taken possession of her heart, that on account of the inequality of 
 their worldly possessions, the love of her future husband would in time 
 die out, and that then her position as wife would change into a dependent 
 one, against which her pride revolted. This troubled her so much, that 
 she already thought of breaking off the engagement. In the meanwhile 
 her aunt from New Orleans unexpectedly came on a visit. This worthy 
 lady soon noticed that not everything was as it ought to be with her niece. 
 She spoke to her about it, and the latter at last poured out all her sorrows 
 in the ears of her aunt. The aunt however, laughed at her fears. She 
 called her a little fool, and said if it was nothing else than that, a remedy 
 could easily be found. The simplest thing would be to go to a clairvoyant 
 or a medium, and get his advice. Many girl and woman had already 
 been helped in this manner. It was a pity that they were not in New 
 Orleans, she would soon know where to go to, but in New York — well 
 she would see. Mary, who was not inclined to be superstitious, knew 
 still less of the clairvoyants and mediums of New York than her aunt. 
 At last aunty remembered the papers, and from the "astrological" adver- 
 
THE MEDIUMS. 541 
 
 tisements in the Herald, the name of Mrs. Seymour in Grand Street wai 
 Belected. The next day found the aunt and the niece on their way to 
 Grand Street, the latter more to oblige her aunt, than for any other reason. 
 In the house of the seeress they were received by Mr. Seymour, a sharp- 
 looking Irishman. As they had to wait, the loquacious aunt was soon in 
 full conversation with the man, who, while asking her but very few 
 questions, soon knew who the two were, and what had led them to come. 
 He then left the ante-room, and soon afterwards the aunt and niece were 
 led into the presence of the prophetess. After greeting them, she told 
 them the object of their vi?it, and many family affairs, which quite as- 
 tonished the niece, who had not noticed what her aunt had said, and the 
 aunt, who did not remember what she had told the Irishman in the ante- 
 room. Filled with confidence at the manifestations of these extraordinary 
 powers, the two visitors now brought forward their request. Mrs. Sey- 
 mour listened with the air of one who was fully acquainted with every- 
 thing that was said. In reply she said that the matter was a very im- 
 portant one, and that she usually strenghtened herself by a prayer in her 
 chamber in such cases. She then left the ladies, and returned to the 
 parlor in about a quarter of an hour. She seemed to be glorified, and. 
 told the ladies that she saw clearly into the matter. During her prayer, 
 she said, she had seen angels descending from heaven. These angels- 
 adorned each other with jewels, which before being presented were con- 
 secrated by a beautiful priestess. She understood the meaning of this 
 vision completely. Mary should marry her intended without any fear. 
 She was destined to be happy and would continue to be so, if she acted 
 according to the following advice. After her wedding she should collect 
 all the money, valuables, jewels, etc., which her husband had handled or 
 had worn upon his person, and bring them to the woman. She would 
 then consecrate these things as she had seen it done in the vision. Thus 
 consecrated the treasure must be put in a separate box, which the young 
 wife should take home, and keep it as near as possible to herself for a few 
 weeks, when Mrs. Seymour would come to the house and open the box,, 
 and would thus give back the articles to their ordinary uses. The larger 
 the number of these consecrated articles, and the higher their value, the 
 surer and more lasting would the love of her husband be. 
 
 This was the advice of Mrs. Seymour, which the ladies heard with 
 wondering faith. As a fee for this sitting she charged $50, but as the 
 ladies did not have so much money with them, she was satisfied with $25 
 and the promise to pay the rest the next time. The w T edding took place 
 on the appointed day, and the happy couple made a short bridal trip to 
 Canada. Soon after her return the young wife visited the prophetess with 
 the first lot of the articles to be consecrated, consisting of a watch set 
 with diamonds, a diamond ring, gold and silver medallions, and a number 
 of other valuable articles. Mrs. Seymour received all these articles and 
 
542 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 retired with them to her praying chamber to consecrate them, as she said. 
 When she came in again and returned the articles to the young wife, she 
 suddenly remembered that she had a box which would do very well to 
 hold the consecrated things. She brought a small box of papier mache, 
 and gave it to Mrs. P., who thankfully received it. At the same time 
 she advised the young wife to keep the box as near as possible to her per- 
 son, and to try and fill it as soon as possible. The charm would be all 
 the more active the quicker it would be brought to a close. She a!so re- 
 marked in this connection, that anything her husband had worn or handled 
 would do equally well. The young wife did not hesitate to follow this 
 .advice, and the box was soon filled. After she had also added $2,000 
 which she had received from her husband, the final consecration of treasure, 
 amounting to about $5,000, took place in the praying room of the seeress. 
 The ceremony of closing and sealing the box took place in the house of 
 the young wife, where in her presence the treasure had been put in the 
 box piece by piece. To complete the charm it was only necessary that 
 Mrs. Seymour should pray over the sealed treasure, during which however 
 she must be alone in the room. She therefor requested Mrs. P. to leave 
 the room a few minutes, which she did without any suspicion of wrong. 
 The prayer was not a very long one, for soon "Madame" came out of the 
 room, whereupon the ^wo brought the box into the bed-room, and deposited 
 it in a suitable place. ' After this had been done, Mrs. Seymour took her 
 leave, with the promise to return in two months, when the charm would 
 be completed, and the valuables could be taken from the box. Any open- 
 ing of the box during this time would destroy the charm, which would 
 also be the case if other hands than her own should break the magic seal. 
 The young wife strictly obeyed these directions. Mr. P. however, became 
 every day more loving to his wife, who thought she saw in this the effect 
 of the charm. How will it be when the charm is completed ? the young 
 wife thought. She was overjoyed and could hardly wait for the end of 
 the two months. They passed at last, but Mrs. Seymour did not come. 
 In her impatience Mrs. P. sent for her, but the messenger did not find 
 her, and had only heard that she had moved to Brooklyn. But there also 
 she could not be found. What was to be done ? The young wife feared 
 that if she touched the box, she would destroy the charm. Therefor she 
 left it in its place, in the confident hope that Mrs. Seymour would some 
 day appear. Thus three months had passed, during which Mrs. P. in 
 spite of all research, could not find a trace of the one she sought, and 
 during which, strange to say, not the least suspicion had arisen within her. 
 During the visit of some of her husband's relations, the conversation 
 happened to turn on certain family jewels, and Mr. P. rose to get them. 
 To his astonishment however, he could not find them at their usual place, 
 and upon further research it was found that they as well as some other 
 valuables had disappeared. Theft was the only possible explanation, and 
 
THE MKDITM3. 543 
 
 (he police were already talked of, when the wife, greatly embarrassed, 
 palled her husband aside and told him the whole story. He kissed her 
 embarrassment away, and assured her that it needed no charm for her to 
 secure his love, she should only open the box to please him, as the old 
 witch, satisfied with the $50, would probably never return. The wife 
 consented, although not without many misgivings. The box was taken 
 from its hiding place, and Mr. P. opened it with jokes on the magic seals. 
 Both however, were considerably astonished, when instead of gold and 
 jewels they found nothing but old iron and stone wrapped up in cotton. 
 Mr. P., in order to spare his wife any disagreeable remark and shame, in- 
 tended to drop the matter, but Mrs. P. insisted that the woman should be 
 tracked out by the authorities. Detective McWatters succeeded in dis- 
 covering this woman in Boston, where in a fashionable quarter she was 
 creating considerable excitement as a spiritual medium, under the name 
 of Mrs. Bradley. He went to her in order to receive news from his dead 
 wife (who was alive and well in New York). Mrs. Bradley immediately 
 communicated with the spirit world, from which she reported everything 
 good about his wife. 
 
 Upon this proof that Mrs. Bradley was still the same swindhr she had 
 been as Mrs. Seymour in New York, the detective dropped his mask. He 
 now presented himself as "medium", as the medium of Mrs. P. in New 
 York, who had been robbed by a certain Mrs. Seymour in Grand street 
 of valuables amounting to $5000. LookiDg sharply at the woman who 
 suddenly grew very pale and had nearly fainted, he went on stating that 
 he had already discovered a part of the stolen valuables, how following the 
 traces of the crime, he had been led to Boston, and into this house. She 
 was Mrs. Seymour, and had committed the theft in Mrs. P's. house. The 
 woman who had already betrayed herself by her embarrassment, soon said 
 that the detective knew so much of the affair, that it would be hopeless to 
 try and deny the crime. She therefor readily accepted the proposition to 
 restore the value of the stolen goods and thus save herself from arrest. 
 Thus in this case, Mr. and Mrs. P. received back their property, but the 
 thief remained unpunished, and is at liberty to continue to rob as a spiri- 
 tual medium the victims whom superstition brings to her. This little ex- 
 ample of the dexterity of Mrs. Seymour shows a genius, which is certainly 
 capable of being cultivated. 
 
 Another story in which a female medium successfully tried herself on 
 the field of swindle, is too good to be omitted here. It happened in No- 
 vember, 1872, and is probably unparallelled for its boldness, as well as the 
 credulity displayed by the victim. 
 
 A young man, Mr. G., partner in a large firm in the country, had come 
 to tfie city on business. In order to pass a pleasant evening, he allowed 
 himself to be persuaded to take part in a spiritualistic meeting, and to 
 witness the manifestations of the spirits. The guest was very much in- 
 
544 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 terested in the manifestations, and he was only sorry, that he did not see 
 some of the many spirits, which his spiritualistic friends told him, filled 
 the room. Among other things a lady told him that she saw the spirit of 
 an old man, who continually looked sadly at him (the young man). The 
 guest was very curious to know, and tried to think who this spirit would 
 be that took so much interest in him. He was told that the spirit might 
 possibly want to tell him something, and he would therefor do well to apply 
 to the above mentioned lady. Our friend did so. The lady very kindly 
 told him that she would communicate with the spirit, and invited him to 
 call upon her the following day. Mr. G. was there punctually at the ap- 
 pointed hour. The lady received him very kindly and began at once to 
 relate the results of her communication with the spirits. A distant relation 
 of his was dying, and he would receive from him a large legacy. But 
 before this would happen he would receive very valuable and for him in- 
 teresting family jewels. This was all that the spirit, which was that of 
 one of his ancestors, had told here. The young man therefore willingly 
 paid the fee demanded by the mediums and returned home — full of joy over 
 such a happy news. Quickly he settled his business in the city and hurried 
 back to his town with all possible speed, that he might not miss the arrival 
 of the jewels. But these did not seem to be in any particular hurry. Day 
 after day passed, but yet they did not come. Our friend already began to 
 have his doubts as to the correctness of this communication of the spirits, 
 until at last an expressman entered his office one day, and handed him a 
 package addressed to him. It was pretty heavy, and as Mr. G. made a 
 little hole in the paper enclosing it, he saw that it contained a polished 
 mahogany box. This box contained the jewels and the supposition seemed 
 justified by the "C. O. D." (cash on delivery) and the very large amount 
 $180 to be collected. He immediately paid the money to the expressman, 
 and hurried to his inner office, tore off the paper covering and as he finds 
 no key to open the box, he forced the lock. Upon raising the lid, he saw 
 instead of glittering diamonds and gold, a layer of saw dust. It seemed 
 rather strange to him, that jewels should be packed in saw dust, but the 
 box was heavy and the treasure was certainly hid under this little promising 
 covering. He therefor hastily removed the saw dust, and really found 
 ornaments, but miserable bronze affairs, which would have been dear at 
 a dollar, while the bottom of the box was filled with iron and lead, which 
 had produced the weight. 
 
 Full of rage he threw the box into a corner, and rushed to the express 
 office. There nothing was known of such a package, and he received the 
 poor consolation, that the supposed expressman was nothing but a swindler. 
 The merchant now began to see that the swindle was connected with the 
 spiritualistic lady. But he saw that he had no means of proving it in a 
 court of law, while on the other hand, if the true state of affairs became 
 knowu in the city, there would be no end to the raillery of his companions. 
 
Till'. MKIUI.'MS. 
 
 He therefor preferred to bear his loss silently, and take it as a Lesson for 
 
 the future. But since then lie lias had very little faith in spiritualism and 
 mediums, and declared them all to be humbugs, without giving his reason 
 lor this special view. 
 
 But it would be unjust to designate all mediums without exception as 
 swindlers. There are also among them persons of a high moral character 
 and with a good education, whom we would do great injustice with such 
 a conclusion. For they actually believe that they see spirits and hear 
 their voices. There are certain morbid conditions, which without de- 
 ranging the mind, often conjure such lively pictures of the imagination, 
 that the person who sees them takes them for truth. Such pictures of 
 the imagination often present themselves in voices and forms, which with 
 the least inclination to superstition, may be easily taken for spirits and the 
 voices of spirits. 
 
 If we look at the pale and nervous forms of the honest mediums, we will 
 easily notice their morbidness. Instead of combating medically against 
 this condition, it is promoted, and if we may say so, perfected by practice. 
 Is it a wonder then that such mediums at last learn to prodnce such pic- 
 tures as they may wish to see, and in answering questions, actually be- 
 lieve that they are speaking under an inspiration, while they only give us 
 the products of their own imagination. They first learn to deceive them- 
 selves, and then to deceive others. This seem3 to us to be the most na- 
 tural description of the honest medium. Those who actually believe in 
 the inspiration of mediums have a striking argument against them. No 
 medium, always supposing him to be a trained tool in the hands of pro- 
 fessional swindlers, can answer questions put to him, in any other manner 
 than would be warranted by its education. Thus for example, the spirit 
 of Shakespear or Byron will speak miserable English in the mouth of an 
 uneducated medium, or the spirit of Newton or Humboldt will speak the 
 greatest nonsense in natural history. No medium has ever answered a 
 question that had not been solved by science, or has predicted any of the 
 great events that have taken place during the past 25 years, since which 
 time spiritualism has flourished. Thousands of mediums have, according 
 to their statement, conversed with hundreds of thousands of spirits in this 
 world, without having benefitted this world in the least. All the great 
 truths that have been brought to light, all the inventions made, and the 
 great ideas that have originated in our time, have all been the result of 
 the steady progress of science. The whole crowd of the spiritualists can 
 not show one man who is recognized as an authority in the scientific world. 
 
 Humboldt died when spiritualism was still in its infancy, and his un. 
 favorable opinion of it may not be taken into account by many spiritualists. 
 "We will therefor give in preference the opiuion of one of the most prom- 
 inent English naturalists, Huley, who not long ago expressed himself in 
 the following manner on spiritualism and mediums : "To my extended 
 
 35 
 
546 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 examination on the supposed apparitions of spiritualism, I was only able 
 to discover the most disgusting ignorance and the plainest swiudle. I for 
 my part would rather earn my bread by sweeping the streets, than to be- 
 come a spirit, and talk the greatest nonsense for a guinea a sitting." This 
 was said by Professor Huly before a committee of the Dialectic society of 
 London, which had been ordered to investigate the spiritualistic manifes- 
 tations, and had invited the professor to take part in this investigation. 
 It has been often attempted to raise spiritualism to the dignity of re- 
 ligion. But in this respect it has been a complete failure. Is it possible 
 to imagine a greater profanation of the idea of immortality, than is con- 
 tained in spiritualism. If spirits have nothing else to do than to give 
 foolish answers to foolish questions, and to please idlers, perform tricks, 
 which jugglers would be ashamed to perform, who would not join Huley 
 in choosing the lot of a street cleaner in preference to such immortality. 
 Judging from their manifestations, the spirits appear to any impartial 
 mind, to have forgotten a good deal, and to have learnt nothing since iheir 
 exit from this world. We have also seen, that judging it by its exponents, 
 the mediums, spiritualism occupies a very low position indeed. None of 
 the common mediums have ever done anything worth mentioning. But 
 whatever extra-ordinary feat has been performed by more prominent 
 mediums, has upon a closer examination, been shown to be simple jugg- 
 lery, and these mediums may therefor be considered as simple jugglers, 
 and as swindlers, because they represent their art to be something else than 
 what it is. The frequency of this swindling is not at all denied by prom- 
 inent spiritualists. They say however, that a good cause is not to be con- 
 demned if it is joined by bad elements. This is true, but if we drop the 
 swindlers among the mediums, we must also drop all those strange mani- 
 festations, which have formed the strongest defence of spiritualism, and 
 which form the rocks on which it has laid its foundation. What remains 
 are only visions produced by a morbid excitement, and which have their 
 origin in an excited imagination, and are gone when the morbid excite- 
 ment has passed away. And these visions have been taken hold of by 
 low speculative minds, who every day more shamelessly continue to make 
 superstitious and credulous minds their victims. The "honest" mediums, 
 whom we can only regard as persons to be pitied, have long ceased to draw 
 crowds, while humbug and swindle have taken his place, and continue to 
 produce astonishing manifestations. In this form the mediums have be- 
 come an actual public nuisance, which is to be feared all the more, as it 
 speculates on the superstitious element in man, aud tries to draw quackery 
 and fortune telling within its bounds. The evil threatens to become worse 
 every day, and it is a subject of regret that the laws against swiudle are 
 not more strictly enforced. These laws could very well be brought into 
 operation against sensational mediums, and would cripple their business 
 in such a manner that it would no longer pay. The mediums as well as 
 
THB PAWNBROKERS. 547 
 
 the spirits and their manifestations would then cease to be a satyre on the 
 civilization of our century. 
 
 THE PAWNBROKERS. 
 
 "Pawnbrokers", "usurers", "bloodsuckers", are names commonly ap- 
 plied to that class of people, which forms the subject of the following 
 pages. Judging from the names applied to them, they do not stand in 
 very good repute, nor do they enjoy any popularity. The bad reputation 
 of the pawnbrokers is not caused by their business. The business itself 
 13 not only necessary, but also beneficial, but the manner in which it is 
 conducted, has brought it into bad repute in olden times, and it is chiefly 
 used to-day as it was centuries ago, to take advantage of poverty and 
 misery in the most heartless manner, instead of forming a refuge for the 
 poor. We say since olden times, for pawnbrokers or what amounts to 
 the same thing, money lenders, are institutions which are as old as the 
 hills, and have flourished with the Chinese and Israelites thousands of 
 years before our era. The three golden balls also date back several cen- 
 turies. A family of quacks in Milan, in the 14th century, began to in- 
 vest their money by lending it out on good security, at a high rate of in- 
 terest. They thus accumulated great wealth, and gained great influence 
 with the princes, who would apply to these money lenders whenever they 
 were in want of money. Thus it was that this family was at last raised 
 to the nobility, and received in consideration of their occupation as quack 
 doctors (doctors in Italian being "Jfecfcci") that name which afterwards 
 became so famous in European history, Medici, and for their coat of arms 
 three golden pills. The family continued to carry on their business of 
 lending money in Italy and in London by agents, who made known their 
 establishments by the three golden pills, the coat of arms of their masters. 
 After the rapidly rising family of the Medici had given up the business of 
 money lenders, and others took hold of it, the three golden pills remained 
 the sign of the pawnbrokershops. The three golden balls which we meet ■ 
 in our streets to-day, are nothing but the coat of arms of the Medici 
 family. These three balls are placed in such a manner, that there are 
 always two opposite the other one. This position is said to indicate that 
 you can always "bet two to one" that the pawned article will not be re- 
 deemed. The pawnbrokers, as we have seen, are not of recent origin. 
 Poverty and frivolity are the ground from which they have sprung, and 
 
548 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 from which they derive their profit to-day, as they did in ancient times,. 
 But in spite of their age no attempts have as yet been successful to reform 
 them in such a manner that they should be welcome aids to poverty, with- 
 out being at the same time promoters of frivolity. 
 
 In many countries of Europe, everything that can be done in this re- 
 spect has been done, and the business of the pawnbrokers has been organ- 
 ized in such a manner, that the poor man or one suddenly placed in diiii- 
 culties, can apply to it for aid full of trust. We in the United States have 
 not yet advanced so far. Our pawnbrokers may give momentary aid, but 
 this aid is always dearly paid for. It is a business that speculates chiefly 
 on poverty, misery and misfortune. From this description of the business 
 we may easily guess the class of people who have chosen it for a pro- 
 fession. Is it a wonder then if pawnbrokers and their shops are regarded 
 with instinctive dislike by the large mass of the people? 
 
 The pawnbroker business is so well known, that it is hardly necessary 
 to waste many words on its description. The fundamental idea is to re- 
 ceive a loan of money, upon leaving a certain article which represents a 
 certain value, as security. From this we see that there is absolutely no 
 risk connected with the business. The pawnbroker possesses in the object 
 a security of a much higher value than what he has loaned on it, and he 
 can only gain, if his customers do not observe the conditions stipulated in 
 the pawn ticket. This business, guarded as it is against all loss, has been 
 furthermore favored by the legislature, by allowing it to charge 25 per 
 cent interest per annum in its transactions, while any other business is- 
 only allowed to charge 7 per cent interest. Any business that receives 
 25 per cent sure, must be certainly regarded as a quick way of getting 
 rich. For the pawnbrokers their business is a very profitable one. But 
 it is very different if we look at it with regard to its customers. Let us 
 first look at those customers whom it is intended to help, the poor labor- 
 ing classes, who by strokes of bad luck have been suddenly plunged into 
 the greatest poverty and misery. A loan coming at all near the actual 
 value of the pawned articles, would often help many unfortunates over a 
 momentary crisis, and save whole families from starvation. But the little 
 that the pawnbroker pays on pawned objects in general, and especially iu 
 cases where he sees that his customers must have money under any cir- 
 cumstance, is only like a drop of water on a heated stove. Not only can 
 the poor fellow not better his condition with it, but he is all the worse off, 
 as he has robbed himself by it of his last support. 
 
 We can imagine the kind of aid a poor man receives in a pawnbroker's 
 shop, when we know that the pawnbrokers never give over one fourth, and 
 very often only one tenth of the actual value of the object. This money 
 is then charged 25 per cent interest, which by certain tricks is often raised 
 to 50 per cent, without acting contrary to law. This is done by the pawn- 
 broker in adding an extra fee of 25 to 50 cents on every article pawned,. 
 
 

 THE P \ w M'.::« >KERS. 549 
 
 whether it is valuable or not. He who would murmur at this extra charge 
 
 would have his article flung back at him, with an injunction to leave the 
 shop. Poverty therefor dare not protest. The starving children may be 
 crying at home for bread, or the siek husband is waiting for the medicine 
 
 which is to give him health, and thus enable him to support his family. 
 There is no appeal from the decision of the pawnbroker. His heart is 
 without pity and invulnerable against tears. A case is related of a pawn- 
 broker who cooly deducted 5 cts. for a revenue stamp from a poor woman 
 who had pawned a shawl for 10 cts., to buy bread for her children. When 
 the poor woman burst out crying and said she could not buy bread for 
 -5 cts., he answered roughly, that that was none of his business, but if she 
 were not satisfied, she would not get anything. The poor woman took the 
 pawn ticket and the five cents, and left the office. 
 
 No better place than a pawn broker's office can be chosen to study tna 
 true poverty and misery that hides itself from the world. It is true in- 
 deed, that very often the pawnbroker is also patronized by frivolity, or 
 that the thief seeks him out to dispose of his booty. But all this is of 
 secondary importance only, while the chief source of the pawnbroker's 
 wealth is poverty which applies to him as its last resort. And a sad resort 
 it is, an extreme measure, such as is tried by the sinking ship which dis- 
 gorges on the high sea all its precious freight, and thus gains at most a 
 short respite only. Look at the majority of the objects pawned, and which 
 fill a pawnbrokers^ shop to the ceiling. They are neither silk nor satin, 
 nor gold nor jewels, but they are chiefly articles of clothing, such as are 
 used by the common laborer on Sunday, bedding, etc. ; very often the most 
 necessary articles of a household ; in short, articles from which only the 
 greatest poverty could have compelled their owner to part. If we then 
 examine the books of the pawnbroker, we shall find such objects are very 
 seldom redeemed. Where are their owners? Have they become so rich 
 that they need them no longer? Certainly not ; on the contrary, it is much 
 more probable that they have already reached that depth of poverty from 
 which kind fate only rescues a person very exceptionally. The articles 
 that are redeemed, "usually belong to persons who have been hard pushed 
 for money at some time, but whom we cannot therefor class among the 
 poor. 
 
 The pawnbrokers' shops therefor, as they exist with us, are simply dens 
 in which the poor are robbed, and only too often traps which draw those 
 battling against poverty, lower and lower, while they think that they are 
 saving themselves from it. This is the case with the so-called licensed 
 pawnbrokers whose business is regulated by legal enactments, and who 
 undoubtedly are the best of their class. They make money by speculating 
 on the poverty and frivolity of other people, and in this are no worse than 
 many of our Fii'lh ave. millionaires who very often lend their money, if 
 not their names, to a business still more disgraceful. Besides these, there 
 
550 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 is another class of pawnbroker whose business is much lower and more 
 heartless and dangerous, and for whom the names usurer, vampyre, etc.* 
 are much too mild. Among these the proprietors of loan offices come 
 nearest to the true pawnbrokers. Then we have certain money brokers, 
 diamond brokers and others, who offer to advance money on diamonds, 
 watches, etc. For this class the regulations for pawnbrokers do not exist. 
 They carry on their business in such a manner that according to the law 
 they do not come under the head of pawnbrokers, while at the same time 
 they carefully avoid the usury laws. 
 
 A comparison of the pawn tickets of a licensed and non-licensed pawn- 
 broker will explain the latter' s mode of business most plainly. The ticket 
 of the licensed pawnbroker states the quality of the object pawned, the 
 date, the amount loaned, and prescribes that this amount must be paid 
 back in the course of a year, with interest at 25 per cent, per annum. But 
 the ticket of the non-licensed pawnbroker reads quite differently. Let us 
 suppose that Mr. N., on account of a momentary want of money, had 
 entered a loan office to pawn his gold watch. The proprietor receives the 
 watch and hands Mr. N. $20 and the following pawn ticket : "The under- 
 signed agrees to sell to Mr. N. thirty days after date a gold watch for 
 Twenty-five dollars." The meaning of these lines is very plain. No 
 money has been loaned or borrowed, Mr. N. has simply sold his watch, 
 but according to the ticket he has the right to buy it back in the course of 
 one month for $25. By this means the fellow receives not less than 300 
 per cent, per annum for his loan, and need not fear any pawn broker's or 
 usury laws. If Mr. N. cannot buy the watch back within thirty days, 
 the contract is null and void, and if Mr. N. should wish to reclaim his 
 timekeeper in five weeks, he would perhaps not be able to buy it for $100.. 
 Not always do these usurers content themselves with 300 per cent. If 
 they see that a customer needs money very badly, they do not hesitate to 
 take 600 per cent, or more. They know very well that poverty and 
 frivolity do not look beyond the present moment. But why, some readers 
 will ask, are such pawnbrokers patronized, if there are others who are 
 satisfied with much less, if not even with the legal 25 per cent. 
 
 There are several reasons for this. Many go into such loan offices 
 without having an idea of the great difference existing between them and 
 the licenced pawnbroker's offices^ They go into such an office with the 
 intention of pawning a watch, some jewelry or other valuable. No one, 
 except he be a steady customer of a pawnbroker's office, will enter such a 
 place without a feeling of shame and humiliation. Every one wishes to 
 transact the unpleasant business as quickly as possible, and again reach 
 the fresh air. Hardly one in one hundred ever thinks of quietly examin- 
 ing the pawn ticket handed to him. If he looks at it afterwards, when he 
 is at home, he will certainly begin to feel rather strangely. The ticket 
 does not mention a word of the deposit of an object with the broker. It Lfr 
 
THE PAWNBROKERS. . r >51 
 
 simply an agreement, in which the broker engages himself to sell a watch, 
 jewelry, etc., for a certain sum within thirty days. t> The general pawn- 
 broker's regulations, one year's time, etc., do not exist for him. He must 
 raise the money and buy back the watch within one month, or his valuable 
 property is lout for him. Neither the police, nor the courts can help him, 
 for, according to his ticket, he has sold the watch to the broker and has 
 only reserved the right of pre-emption for thirty days. Hundreds, strangers 
 especially, have already been swindled out of valuable objects in this man- 
 ner, which they would never have pawned on such dangerous conditions. 
 
 Another reason why these usurers are sought out by many, is that they 
 advance more than the licensed pawnbrokers usually do. These people 
 however overlook the immense difference in the interest, aud the short 
 time, thirty days only, given for redemption. During one year, which 
 time is allowed by all the licensed pawnbrokers, many changes can occur, 
 and a man may be raised from poverty to affluence. The possibility of 
 redeeming is therefor, as we would be inclined to think, very great. A 
 look into the books of the pawnbrokers teaches us better. For we see 
 that on an average not more than 16 per cent, of all articles pawned are 
 redeemed. And how much less must the chances of redemption be, when 
 the time allowed is only thirty days, and the loan has been increased by 
 an interest at the rate of 300 to 600 per cent, per annum. 
 
 The business of these fellows is greatly favored by the foolish and sense- 
 less legislation which forbids a licensed pawnbroker to lend more than 
 S25 on any one object. If anyone therefor wishes to have more than $25 
 loaned on a valuable article, he is driven, unwillingly perhaps, into the 
 dens of these non-licensed vampyres. The customers of this class of pawn- 
 brokers belong almost exclusively to the better classes and even to the 
 "Upper Tens". The loan offices however are for the rich no less dangerous 
 thau the licensed pawnbrokers are to the poorer classes. We give in the 
 following a case that happened several years ago, and created great ex- 
 citement by its tragic end. 
 
 A young lady belonging to the most aristocratic circles of our city, was 
 the possessor of some very valuable jewelry which she had received as a 
 wedding present from her husband. With all her good qualities, she had 
 one failing, and that was the desire to be the acknowledged leader of her 
 set. But this cost more than her husband, in spite his large income, could 
 afford. She clearly saw this, but was to weak to act according to her 
 better understanding. One day a beautiful new dress captivated her heart 
 but she did not dare to ask her husband for the large sum of money which 
 was necessary to buy it. Then suddenly a good friend helped her out of 
 the difficulty by advising her to pawn her jewels. The young wife im- 
 mediately acted upon this advice. She could easily spare her jewels for 
 some time, and with a little economy she would be able to redeem them 
 within a few weeks. Accidentally her husband soon missed these jewels, 
 
552 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 and asked for them. She did not dare to confess the truth, but said that 
 she had lent them to her sister. In her carelessness she had not even 
 looked at the pawn ticket, and when she did so in a spare moment, she 
 found that she must pay back the money within a month. She was startled, 
 for only two days were wanting to complete the thirty, and shame still 
 restrained her from letting her husband know that she had pawned her 
 bridal present. 
 
 She tried to obtain the money by all possible means. But this was more 
 difficult than she had imagined, and it was only with considerable trouble 
 that she raised the money two days after the day it was due. She hurried 
 to the pawnbroker's office with the idea that it was still time. But in this 
 she was mistaken. The jewels were too valuable for the pawnbroker to 
 have missed the opportunity of obtaining possession of them so cheaply. 
 She handed him the ticket and opened her pocketbook. The rascal cast 
 one look upon it and pushed it back with the words : "Too late ! The 
 jewels have been due for two days already, and have been sold." The 
 lady grew pale. One look into the heartless features of the man before 
 her showed her that all further words would be wasted. She staggered 
 out of the office, and after having made a small purchase in a drug store, 
 she returned home. When her husband came home in the evening, he 
 found her very sick. The physicians who were immediately summoned, 
 declared the case hopeless, and gave as their opinion that she had been 
 poisoned. All that their skill could do was to bring the unfortunate woman 
 back to consciousness for a short time, when she confessed to her husband 
 the story of her jewelry and that fear and shame had caused her to end 
 her life. 
 
 Another and similar case, also in the ranks of our Upper Tens, although 
 it did not end in suicide, still resulted in shame and a divorce. The lady 
 in this case, when the time came to redeem some valuable jewelry, helped 
 herself by selling her honor. And before this act, this woman had been 
 considered a model lady and housewife. The fear of the discovery of her 
 frivolity led her to choose the opening offering itself by selling her honor. 
 She saved the jewels, but the price she had paid for them was discovered 
 and the consequences were a divorce and the destroyed happiness of a 
 family. 
 
 These loan offices are always willing promoters of the frivolity of the 
 higher classes, and have thus already often become the ruin of wealthy 
 families. It is a sad fact that women of the highest classes very often 
 send their confidential servants to pawn their jewels, to cover a deficiency 
 caused by some fashionable extravagance of which the husband shall know 
 nothing. Thus, for example, the jewelry of the wife of one of our mil- 
 lionaire was safely hid away in the safe of a Broadway diamond broker, 
 while the lady wore an imitation of bronze until she was able to redeem 
 the real jewels. As it was necessary to renew the loan from month to 
 
Till-: PAWNBROKERS. 2>«>9 
 
 month, the sum that she paid at last WU exactly double that which she 
 had at first received. 
 
 For such aristocratic cusloraers these loan offices very often have a 
 private entrance, and even S private office, where such business trans- 
 actions are conducted secretly and conlidentially. The articles alone on 
 which these pawnbrokers advance money, show the class of customers. 
 .Diamonds and jewelry in general, with and without setting, watches and 
 ornaments, gold and silver ware, pianos and valuable furniture, valuable 
 furs and other articles of clothing, valuable papers of all kinds, life insur- 
 ance policies, etc., almost always the property of persons who would be 
 rich, if they lived within their income, but who through the fatal desire 
 to appear richer than they really are, are on the best way to become poor. 
 
 A third class of pawnbrokers are private persons, small business men 
 and others who try to enlarge their savings by lending money on articles 
 -within certain circles. Although they take more than the legal 7 per cent, 
 ior their services, it would still be unjust to designate them as a class as 
 usurers, although some of them fully deserve this name. 
 
 Thus we have seen rich and poor men among the customers of the 
 pawnbrokers. The distress of the poor, the recklessness of frivolity and 
 crime produce the customers of the pawnbroker. As the true object of 
 the pawnbroker shops is to give to poverty wrestling with adversity a 
 momentary support, we will look at these institutions from this view. 
 From what has been said, we can see that the pawnbroker shops not only 
 do not fulfill their mission in this respect, but are rather an enemy than 
 a friend of the poor man. A pawnbroker's shop therefor, in its present 
 form, is an evil, with which we cannot even reconcile ourselves, because 
 it is a necessary evil, as some say. Nobody will deny that in our present 
 state of affairs the institution is necessary. The facts that the pawn- 
 broker do a better business, the harder the times are, and that in times 
 Avhen work and money are plenty, the pawnbrokers complain of poor busi- 
 . speak plainly for themselves. The legislature has also recognized 
 this necessity, and as the laws on this subject will do much to enlighten 
 <>ur readers with regard to this institution, we give below extracts from 
 these laws. 
 
 The mayor shall issue licenses for pawnbroker shops to respectable per- 
 sons only. The license shall cost $50, and the person thus licensed shall 
 give two securities of £500 each for the strict observance of the ordinances 
 respecting pawnbroker establishments. Pawnbrokers shall keep a strict 
 record of all articles pawned and redeemed, and shall issue certificates 
 (pawn tickets) for all articles pawned. These records shall always be 
 open to the authorities lor inspection. For every violation of the city 
 ordinances by a pawnbroker he shall pay a fine of §25. Pawnbrokers 
 shall not charge interest at a higher rale than 25 per cent, oar auuum. 
 Net more than $2 5 shall be loaned on one single article, and it shall not 
 
554 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 be 'lawful to divide any article into several parts, in order to receive a. 
 higher amount on it. No object pawned shall be considered forfeited, or 
 be sold before a year's time has elapsed. The sale of such forfeited ar- 
 ticles must take place by auction. If the sale of such an article brings a 
 higher amount than was loaned on it, the owner of the article is entitled 
 to any money remaining after deducting all costs. 
 
 The law means well, but is at the same time such a piece of legislative 
 nonsense, that we would be inclined to laugh at it, if it did not also have 
 such a serious side to it. The law is intended to restrict usury, but goes 
 to work so clumsily that it works right into the hands of the usurers. It 
 forbids licensed pawnbrokers to advance more than $25 on any single 
 article, and thus makes it impossible to benefit such persons a3 need more 
 than $25 and have only one valuable object to pawn. The pawning of 
 diamonds and other articles of great value is thus directly given into the 
 hands of the real usurers, while the business of the licensed pawnbrokers 
 is so much restricted, that according to the opinion of well informed per- 
 sons, two-thirds of the entire business is in the hands of the unlicensed 
 pawnbrokers. The licensed pawnbrokers still do a splendid business with 
 the one-third remaining for them, but the large profits which the business 
 is known to yield, go into the pockets of the non-licensed pawnbrokers. 
 
 With regard to that part of the law, according to which licenses are 
 given only to respectable persons, much could be said. The public has its 
 own opinion about the pawnbrokers, which is not very favorable to them. 
 Certain it is that no one would look for pity in a pawnbroker. A pawn- 
 broker with a feeling heart would be ruined in half a year. The little 
 that can be said in their favor is, that they are not quite as bad as they 
 might be, or as they are thought to be by the public. Thus it is com- 
 monly believed that they would without any hesitation advance money on 
 stolen goods. , In this respect they are better than their reputation, and 
 there among them only a few who are suspected by the police of being 
 receivers of stolen goods. In general, they are rather the victims than the 
 associates of thieves. They know full well that in looking for stolen goods, 
 the police generally first looks to them. If a stolen article is found in their 
 possession, it is simply confiscated, and the article and the money advanced 
 are both lost to them. A careless acceptance of any article would therefor 
 be a bad policy for them. It occurs just as seldom that pawnbrokers re- 
 fuse to return pawned articles on the plea that the ticket has been forged, 
 or on any other pretence, or that they try to cheat the owners of jewelrv 
 by replacing it by mock-jewelry. This kind of honesty is all the more 
 astonishing, as such a trick could easily be done through the indistinct, 
 wording of the pawn tickets. But the pawnbrokers know the prejudice 
 existing against them, and know that they would certainly come out 
 second best, if a suit should be instituted against them. Nothing more 
 disagreeable could happen to them therefor, than if a mistake occurred in 
 
THE PAWNBROKERS. 
 
 the delivery of packages. Very few perhaps would hesitate to cheat the 
 pawnbroker, the "usurer". For example, it has never yet happened that 
 anv one returned a gold watch to a pawnbroker, which he had received 
 instead of a silver-plated one. But a terrible indignation would be aroused, 
 if the proprietor of the golden watch should receive the plated one. Thus 
 it happened once that a pawnbroker could not find a common cotton shawl 
 which had not cost more than $6 when new, and on which he had ad- 
 vanced $2, when the owner came to redeem it. The owner, an Irish 
 woman, created such a row that she soon had the whole street assembled 
 in front of the office. The pawnbroker became frightened, and he offered 
 to pay the full price of the shawl to the woman. She assented to this and 
 named $100 as the price for which she had bought the shawl in London. 
 That was more than the pawnbroker had bargained for, and the matter 
 was brought before the courts. Then the woman and half a dozen friend* 
 6wore oath upon oath that the shawl had been bought in London for $100, 
 and the pawnbroker considered himself lucky on being ordered to pay the- 
 woman §50 for the shawl. 
 
 Jn other respects, the pawnbroker is not as well off as he seems. He 
 also has his losses, which take their share of the three hundred, five 
 hundred, or higher per cent. As smart as he generally is, he is not 
 infallible, and instances are not wanting in which a pawnbroker has 
 become the victim of swindlers. This was often the case when electro- 
 plating was first introduced, and before its products came into the trade. 
 This invention cost the pawnbrokers of our city thousands of dollars 
 before they discovered the trap set for them. At that time it was nothing 
 unusual to see a closely-veiled lady or a gentleman leaving a carriage, 
 and entering one of those places with a large bundle. They generally 
 played the part of rich people who were in want of money, and their 
 whole bearing seemed to show how hard this step was for them. They 
 generally brought very heavy and old silverware ( ! ), spoons, cups, etc.*. 
 with coats-of-arms, and other family marks, and especially inquired how 
 long it would be before they became forfeited. The pawnbrokers, who 
 were not yet acquainted with the new invention, supposed the plated 
 articles to be silver, and advanced a proportionately high amount on them. 
 With this money the "ladies" or "gentlemen" left the office, and never 
 returned. 
 
 Other losses which the pawnbrokers suffer are caused by moths. This 
 insect can be smuggled by any article of clothing into their warerooms, 
 and, before it is noticed, cause a loss of several hundred dollars. Many 
 persons may think that the pawnbroker is not affected by this vermin, as 
 a special clause on the ticket declares that he is not responsible for any 
 damage done by fire, moths, or theft. That is true, but the pawnbroker 
 never counts upon the redemption of the articles. He knows full well 
 that 8-i per cent, of the articles pawned remain as his property, and 
 
556 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 therefore hates the moths because they destroy that which he already 
 regards as his own. For him the business is a buying and not a loaning 
 business. This also explains the fact that he advances as little as possible 
 on an object, although it would bring him more interest if he advanced 
 one-half, or even one- fourth, instead of one-tenth of the value of the 
 article. Not the interest makes him rich, but the objects forfeited, and 
 the less he advances on them, the cheaper has he bought them in the end. 
 
 But there are still more dangerous enemies for him than moths, and 
 those are contagious diseases, which are brought into his office by articles 
 of clothing. He looks with especial dread on the woolen coverings during 
 an epidemic. They may look as clean and unsuspicious as they please, 
 and may still come from the bed of a person afflicted with the small-pox 
 or the cholera. Such coverings are very seldom properly disinfected or 
 destroyed. Often does the attendant hide them away, and afterwards 
 leave them with the pawnbroker. He or his clerk, whoever examines it, 
 then has the best chance to catch the disease. In the manner in which 
 articles are stored away in his office, the possibility is also contained of 
 communicating the disease to other articles, and thus help to spread it 
 from these shops. 
 
 The matter is very bad indeed, look at it as we may, and our wise 
 legislature has only made it worse by the above-mentioned laws ; and yet 
 a reform in this matter is not only possible, but examples worthy of 
 imitation have existed for some time. We need only look to the conti- 
 nent of Europe, where pawnbrokers are either controlled by the govern- 
 ment, or the business is in the hands of the government itself, and has 
 thus become a popular and beneficial institution. 
 
 . The institution which is at the same time the most popular, the best 
 conducted, and the grandest of its kind, is the loan-office in Paris known 
 as the Mont de Pietd, which, called into existence during the first French 
 Revolution, and reformed whenever it seemed necessary, now stands 
 forth as a firmly founded and popular institution. It is in the hands of a 
 company of shareholders privileged by the state, and is subject to a strict 
 supervision by the government. It advances money on all articles of 
 value.; on gold, silver, and jewels, as high as four-fifths of their value; 
 oi) .other articles, two-thirds of their value. The time of forfeiture is 
 one year. After this period the articles are sold at auction, and what- 
 ever remains, after deducting the money advanced and the costs, is placed 
 to the credit of the owner for three years. Who does not present his 
 claims during this time loses all further right to the money, which then 
 goes to the company.' The interest is not higher than 10 per cent, per 
 month, without regard to the object pawned. The capital of the institute 
 consists of the paid-up shares of the shareholders, the surpluses of the 
 various charitable institutions, the bonds of the government officers, and 
 the profit resulting to the institution by acting at the same time as a 
 
THE PAWNBROKER?. O.) I 
 
 sayings bank. The transactions of the institution are carried on with 
 the greatest impartiality. Whoever wishes to have money advanced, 
 hands the object he wishes to pawn to an ollicer of the institution, who 
 sends il to the appraiser. He determines the highest amount that can 
 be advanced on it. This appraiser never sees the applicant, and does not 
 know whether he is rich or poor, or how much he wishes to receive on it. 
 His decision is final, and then the applicant can receive from the cashier 
 any amount on it which does not exceed the amount stated by the 
 appraiser. 
 
 Such a system guarantees complete impartiality, and whoever is com- 
 pelled to pawn au article can do so with the firm conviction that his 
 momentary difficulties will not be made use of to his disadvantage. 
 Furthermore, the interest is much lower than with us, and all the extras 
 by which our pawnbrokers often double the legal interest are also done 
 away with. The whole undertaking is furthermore guaranteed by the 
 government, which||>laces the idea of a failure out of the reach of the 
 possible. 
 
 Why such an example is completely ignored by our legislatures, or 
 rather why the laws relating to this subject are turned into such miserable 
 farces, it is difficult to understand. Some years ago some capitalists 
 applied in Albany for a charter for an institution similar to the Mont de 
 Piete, but the plan was not followed up. In the interests of the poor, it 
 is only to be hoped that this important enterprise will be again taken hold 
 of. The fact that the Mont de Piete of Paris has survived all the storms 
 and changes in the political life of France, and to-day enjoys a greater 
 activity than ever before, shows that the idea animating it is one that has 
 sprung from a popular want, and one that is able to live. The number 
 of objects pawned this year amounts on an average to 1,313,000 for 
 Paris alone, while this number is considerably increased by the articles 
 pawned with the various branches of the Mont de Piete in the Depart- 
 ments. 
 
 The name " Mont de Piete " denotes " mountain of piety," and is 
 derived from the Italian " Monte di Pieta," for in Perugia, in Italy, the 
 first institution of the kind was established, in the fifteenth century, on a 
 hill bearing that name. The name of the hill was then transferred to the 
 institution, and the similar institutions which were afterwards established 
 in other cities adopted this name, which had already gained great popu- 
 larity. These institutions were all conducted more with a view for the 
 benefit of the poor, than for their own benefit. They, as well as the 
 "Montde Pietd," and the public loan establishment conducted by the 
 government in Germany, are truly charitable institutions. They are, as 
 such, of a beneficial influence and a blessing, especially to the poorer 
 classses, while our system is in reality nothing but licensed usury, and 
 as such, a curse to those who are compelled to look to it for aid. It U" 
 
558 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 therefore, all the more difficult to understand why we ignore a system 
 which has been successfnlly introduced in all the more advanced countries 
 of -Europe, with the exception of England. But, as we have seen, 
 money is to be made with our system of pawnbroker establishments. 
 Many of the licensed, as well as the non-licensed, pawnbrokers of our 
 city are not themselves the owners of the establishments they conduct. 
 They are only the business managers for other and more influential per- 
 sonages, who give their money but not their name to the business, and, 
 as they are not known to the public, pocket their blood-money with the 
 appearance of respectable men. The money and the political influence 
 of this class of " honorable men " are probably among the chief reasons 
 why our pawnbroker-shops do and will belong, for some time to come, to 
 the " Dark Sides of New York Life/' The introduction of public loan 
 offices, according to the above-mentioned European models, would make 
 its beneficial effects felt in all classes of society, and might be regarded 
 as a forward step of our social conditions. & 
 
 THE EMIGRANT SWINDLERS. 
 
 The territory of the United States is so extensive that it could easily 
 Accommodate the entire population of Europe, while our population is 
 about equal to that of France only. The state of Texas, whose area is 
 about equal to that of France, could therefor accommodate the entire 
 population of the United States, without beiDg more densely populated 
 than the state of Massachusetts is at present. Thus the 38 millions of our 
 inhabitants could be settled in the state forming the S. E. corner of the 
 Union, while all the rest of the United States from the gulf to the lakes, 
 and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, would remain an uninhabited desert. 
 So large then is the territory within our boundaries which is still w r aiting 
 to be settled v Great as this territory is, so great are also the rssources 
 slumbering within it, whose development can only progress in the same 
 proportion as our population increases. We will therefor become as a 
 nation greater and more powerful, the quicker oar extensive territories 
 are filled with an energetic and prosperous people whose every part as in 
 a complicated machine work actively for the common end. This great 
 truth has been recognized in our day by every one. The fact that the 
 United States still need over 300 million ''Americans", has effectively 
 silenced the old party cry, " America for the Americans," with which 
 
Tin: i:.mk..;ani SWIXDLEB8. 559 
 
 ..hort-sighted nativists have so long made our nation an object of ridicule 
 and scorn in the eyes of the European nations. Every one who makes 
 our free soil his home is an American. Thus it was when our Pilgrim 
 Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, and thus it is at the present day, 
 when large fleets of steamers land thousands of future citizens on our 
 shores every month. But, as many as there are already, there is still 
 room for ten times the number. But we do not intend, by any means, to 
 demonstrate the necessity and benefit of immigration for our country. 
 This would be as superfluous as if one should attempt to demonstrate that 
 sunshine and rain are necessary for the crops. The disappearance of the 
 "Know-Nothings" and "Nativists'' speaks more plainly for the change 
 of public opinion which has taken place in this respect. The " Home- 
 stead Law " shows how our national government recognizes the value 
 and importance of immigration. The different State governments, espe- 
 cially those of the little-populated South and West, try by valuable con- 
 cessions and inducements to draw the flood of immigration to their States, 
 and in all the large cities of the Union private associations have been 
 formed to guard the interests of the emigrant. 
 
 Our State, with New York as the principal port for the European 
 emigration, has not been backward in this respect. The authorities have, 
 for a long time, already taken measures to protect the large number of 
 emigrants arriving here from being the victims of swindlers, as well as 
 to afford the poor and sick proper accommodations and care. But much 
 as has been done by the State and municipal authorities and the citizens 
 themselves, the measures taken for the protection of emigrants are still 
 entirely inadequate ; for we have amongst us a class of people with whom 
 the voice of humanity and right has lost its power, and who speculate on 
 the helplessness of the emigrants, and make the most of it with a heart- 
 lessness which exceeds anything that can be imagined. These are the 
 emigrant swindlers, the worst kind of rascals, who excel in every field of 
 crime and depravity, but use their genius almost exclusively to swindle 
 and plunder the emigrants arriving in our city. They are a separate 
 class of criminals, who carry on their nefarious business under various 
 names. Many of them are very rich. Almost all play a prominent part 
 in elections as " repeaters," and in similar roles, and enjoy the protection 
 of prominent political personages. 
 
 Their attention is principally directed to swindling, but, if it is in their 
 interest, they do not shrink from any crime. Their business is very 
 extensive, and includes everything connected with the transportation of 
 emigrants, their lodging in this city, and their further transportation to 
 their final destination. With regard to their transportation from Europe, 
 Ave will only state that many of our emigrant-swindlers have their agents 
 in the principal European ports, who prepare the ground on which their 
 masters are to build. We coufine ourselves, however, entirely to 
 
560 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 describing the doings of the emigrant-swindlers in our city. Of course- 
 we cannot go into details here, and only add that if thousands of emi- 
 grants, upon their arrival here, do not suffer from the swindlers, the cases 
 of swindling are still so many that, in spite of all measures taken to 
 suppress them, they have brought our city, as a landing-place for emi- 
 grants, into bad repute. 
 
 The agents and subordinates of the more important emigrant-swindlers 
 are the so-called " runners," and they are generally the persons with 
 whom the emigrant becomes first acquainted, often before he has even set 
 foot on dry land. The business of these " runners" is to hang about the 
 landing-places of ocean steamers, on railroad depots, hotels, etc., to creep 
 into the confidence of unsuspecting emigrants or travelers, and cause 
 them to transact their business by railroad or steamer tickets in certain 
 swindling offices. They are even to be found on the trains and on steamers, 
 where they study the passengers with a view to business. They mostly 
 belong to the scum of society, and would just as quickly murder their vic- 
 tim as rob him of his money. These runners generally belong to that 
 nationality which they intend to work upon. Thus we find among them 
 Frenchmen, Germans, Irishmen, etc., fellows who are incapable and un- 
 willing to gain an honest living. Many of them have a rascally appear- 
 ance, while others again look quite harmless and innocent, and make use 
 of many disguises with the aptness of a trained actor. They play equally 
 well the part of an honest countryman, and that of a professional rowdy. 
 Cases have occurred, in which the "runners" have treated the emigrants 
 in such a manner as to remind a person of the corsairs of the middle ages* 
 This has happened especially where large passenger ships have been de- 
 tained in quarantine, and the passengers who were well have been sent on 
 small steamers to Castle Garden. These steamers are generally much too 
 small for the number of emigrants they contain, so that the latter are 
 literally packed together like herrings. The runners are informed of the 
 time when these transportations take place. They wait in small rowboats 
 until the steamer is out of view of quarantaine. They then row up to it, 
 clamber on board and mingle with the crowd. They soon know where to 
 look for money or valuables, and where plain stealing or swindling will 
 not suffice, they take to open robbery. Their knives and revolvers in- 
 timidate the strangers only too easily, and he who would offer resistance, 
 would be knocked down. Women are insulted most shamefully, and it 
 has even occurred that they have been abused. The officers of the boat 
 take no notice of these things, nor would they be able to offer much assist- 
 ance in the crowded condition of the boat. As soon as they draw near 
 Castle Garden, the rascals who are all dressed alike to make their indenti- 
 fication more difficult, row ashore where they change their clothing and 
 again take up their business in a different form. They approach the emi- 
 grants under the guise of friendship and try to bring them to certain 
 
 

 TIIK BMI0BAH1 '-SWINDLERS. SCI 
 
 lodging houses, emigrant hotels, or ticket offices. If any one observes the 
 .migrants leaving Castle Garden, he will surely notice the numerous ruu- 
 uers moving about, whom he will easily recognize by their villaineous 
 countenances. As soon as the emigrants appear, this crowd approach 
 them with the greatest impudence, and try every possible means to get 
 them into their toils. T.ie nationality is the most common trap used. The 
 "runner - ', for example, walks up to one emigrant and greets him as an 
 old acquaintance whom he had expected. The old friend of course looks 
 full of astonishment at his countryman, and says at last that he does not 
 remember of ever having seen him, whereat the rascal is immensely astou" 
 ished. "So you have forgotten your old friend in so short a time, or are 
 you not Mr. Confidence ?" Instead of answering the question with a single 
 "No", the fellow thus addressed will stop and explain that his name is not 
 Confidence, but Greenhorn, and thus open the way for a further conversa- 
 tion. His friend of course is very much disappointed. He asks whether 
 Mr. Confidence who looks amazingly like Mr. Greenhorn, was not on the 
 steamer. In the meantime other emigrants have assembled around the 
 two, and they all assert that there was no one on the ship by the name of 
 Confidence, nor any one who looked at all like Mr. Greenhorn. This is 
 very disagreeable to the runner. He had expected his friend Confidence 
 on this steamer and provided good cheap lodging for him in a hotel where 
 the emigrants are not swindled as is too often the case. Thus he has 
 begun a popular theme of conversation, in which the emigrants fall in only 
 too readily. The runner accompanies them, gives all the information they 
 want, and especially advises them to be very careful in the choice of their 
 hotels as "it is really a shame how inexperienced emigrants are robbed in 
 our hotels." At last Mr. Greenhorn asks his apparent friend, as Con- 
 fidence has not arrived, whether he cannot have the lodgings supplied, as 
 he would like to get to a good hotel which is not too expensive. The run- 
 ner looks at his watch and sees that he has no time to lose, and adds that 
 he remembers how he would have liked to have a friend to advise him 
 when he arrived in this country, and he will therefor conduct his friend to 
 the hotel. Soon a second and a third emigrant join the first, and in a 
 short time the runner has a half dozen emigrants who go to the hotel 
 which he has intended "for his friend Confidence". We need hardly add 
 that this hotel is only a den in which emigrants are eased of their money. 
 This is one of the most common tricks made use of by runners, but state 
 as it is, it pays just as well as it did ten or twenty years ago. If the new 
 arrival looks extremely "green", the runner makes short work of him and 
 simply orders him to follow him to a certain hotel where he must board, 
 and in most cases the person thus ordered obeys with the docility of a 
 lamb. 
 
 In this respect, things are much better at present than they were in 
 past years, owing to the exertions of the Commissioners of Emigration 
 
 3G 
 
562 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 and the officers of the German Association of the city of New York. 
 But still much remains to be done before the business of the "runners" 
 is broken up outside of Castle Garden as much as it is inside. It has 
 cost great exertions to banish the emigrant-swindlers from Castle Garden, 
 but it still happeus that their business cards and circulars are distributed 
 among the emigrants by police and customs officers. Such cards and cir- 
 culars then have all the more weight with the emigrants, as they suppose 
 these hotels, boarding-houses, exchange-offices, etc., to be recommended 
 officially. 
 
 It is difficult to tell which is the more dangerous of the two, the officers 
 or the hotels. Both are hardly less than robbers' dens. We will begin 
 with the M exchange and ticket offices," because they are in the hands of 
 the mo6t dangerous rascals, who, owing to their wealth and their political 
 influence, form the true aristocracy of this class of criminals. These 
 offices mostly have a sign with "Exchange Office" on it, and are almost 
 all alike, so that the description of one will do for all. They are found 
 throughout the lower part of the city, but chiefly in Hudson, Greenwich, 
 Washington, and West streets, from the Battery to Canal street, and in 
 the streets crossing them. They have only one window, in which printed 
 show-cards with " Foreign gold changed," " U. S. money changed," 
 "Broker's Office," etc., may be seen. The posters of the different steam- 
 ship lines are pasted or nailed on the door, while in a show-window, pro- 
 tected by wire-work, may be seen a number of foreign coins and United 
 States bank-notes. 
 
 Upon entering we see a narrow, dark office, on one side of which is a 
 counter. The office, which in itself is already very small, is furthermore 
 partitioned in such a manner as to form a small back-room, the uses of 
 which we will see further on. The impression which these offices make 
 on us is by no means a favorable one. They bear the mark of suspicion 
 so plainly on their face that we cannot help but wonder that any one 
 would transact any money-business in them. And yet these offices, with 
 the aid of the " runners," do a splendid business. Hundreds, aye thou- 
 sands, of artless emigrants, whose misfortune or whose stupidity has led 
 them into the hands of the " runners," have been plundered here in the 
 most heartless manner. They are induced to change their money into 
 United Slates money, for which an enormous per centage is charged them, 
 and not unfrequently do they receive counterfeit money. If the customer 
 has an unusually verdant appearance, and has shown a well-filled pocket- 
 book, the so-called " belt game " is tried on him. He is told how dan- 
 gerous it is to travel in America, and is advised to be very careful of his 
 money. If his fears are sufficiently aroused, he is advised to change his 
 money into twenty-dollar gold-pieces, to keep only enough money in his 
 pocket-book to pay his way, and to put the rest in a belt which he can 
 wear directly on his body. He is shown such a belt ; " every traveler 
 
Tin: EMIGRANT-SWINDLERS. 563 
 
 >vears them iu the United States f and the swindlers offer to furnish him 
 with one for nothing. The unsuspicious fellow is quite charmed with so 
 much kindness, and thankfully accepts the offer. His money is changed 
 into shining twenty-dollar gold-pieces, and he carefully puts them into the 
 belt, lie is about to start, when he is asked if he will not put the belt 
 around his body before leaving ; he can easily do it in an adjoining room, 
 lie is then brought into the above-mentioned back-room, and the swin- 
 dlers are so kind as to explain to him how the belt is to be fastened and 
 worn. They help him kiudly, and he does not notice how quickly they 
 change the belt containing the gold pieces for another one containing lead. 
 At la6t the belt is securely fastened, and our newly-imported friend leaves 
 with the happy feeling that he is completely robber-proof, and that he 
 can slumber peacefully without any fear for his treasure. As he has 
 followed the kind advice of the swindlers to keep a small amount in his 
 pocket-book, he sometimes has no occasion to open his belt until he has 
 reached his destination, perhaps some place in the far West. There, in 
 the midst of his friends, he opens his belt ; and his face can be better im- 
 agined than described, upon seeing lead instead of his gold-pieces. 
 
 The majority of the emigrants robbed in such offices are induced by 
 the " runners'' to go there by the representation that they can change 
 their money, or buy their railroad or steamship tickets, much cheaper 
 there than anywhere else. Unfortunately the emigrant is caught by 
 nothing more easily than the supposed greater cheapness of an article, 
 and he will certainly consider that person his best friend who offers him 
 anything at a lower price than anybody else. That is the stumbling- 
 block of the majority of the emigrants, that in trying to save a few dol- 
 lars they let themselves be robbed of all their possessions. Numerous 
 cases occur every year in which emigrants are swindled out of hundreds 
 of dollars in such offices. In 1871 a German by the name of Kronach 
 lost, in one of these offices iu Canal street, not less than §900 by the 
 " belt game." Another victim, Otto Freisam, also a German, was robbed 
 by forged passage-tickets, counterfeit money, and other means, of $682. 
 Fortunately he discovered the swindle before he left New York, and 
 called upon the police for help. This was all right, only he did not know 
 where the office was to which he had been brought by the " runner." 
 With great difficulty it was at last ascertained that it must be either in 
 Courtlandt street or in West street. Inquiries would not have been of 
 any use, as both offices would have denied any knowledge of the matter. ji 
 The authorities, however, assumed an air of great confidence, and de- 
 manded of both offices the $682, fully satisfied that the innocent one 
 would protest. But it happened otherwise, for both offices immediately 
 sent the $682. Freisam thus received his money back. But the fact 
 that both offices had declared themselves guilty by sending the mouey, 
 showed conclusively that another emigrant had also been swindled, and 
 
564 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 that too out of a sum greater than $682. The reason why he had not 
 applied was probably that he had already arrived at his destination, and 
 perhaps did not even suspect how cruelly he had been plucked by the 
 emigrant-swindlers. 
 
 Another method of swindling employed by these offices consists in the 
 sale of railroad and steamship tickets. The "runners" generally suc- 
 ceed in convincing their victims that the tickets can be bought much 
 cheaper in the offices recommended by them than in any other. The 
 newly-arrived emigrant has generally no idea whatever of the price of 
 tickets, and as they only too easily fear swindling in any other form than 
 that in which it presents itself, they confide in those only too quickly who 
 offer their services and friendship. They therefore follow the "runner" 
 into the swindling-office, and there buy their tickets at double or three 
 times their regular price, or buy a ticket for half the distance at full 
 price. The attempt is very seldom made, however, to sell forged tickets 
 to emigrants, for they could not leave the city with them, and the police 
 would be set on the track of the swindlers too quickly. This ticket- 
 swindle reached its highest point at the time of the California gold-fever, 
 but is by no means to be considered extinct to-day. Not only " green " 
 emigrants are victimized by it, but even those who have been in the 
 country for years, and wish to undertake a trip to the "old country." 
 Thus an Englishman by the name of Church allowed himself to be 
 drawn into one of these offices by a " runner," and was induced to buy 
 tickets for himself and family for passage on one of the European 
 steamers. He paid the price for the first cabin, but upon arriving on 
 board he found that he was only entitled to a steerage passag3. He called 
 upon the police for aid, and they had the money restored to him. As this 
 was done immediately before the sailing of the steamer, Mr. Church had 
 no opportunity to notice that he had not escaped the hands of the swin- 
 dlers entirely unhurt. When he arrived in Liverpool, he found that 
 almost all of the restored money was counterfeit. 
 
 Besides leading the emigrants to those offices, it is also the business of 
 the " runners " to bring them to the so-called emigrant hotels or boarding- 
 houses. Our city contains a large number of these boarding-houses, 
 whose proprietors are in the employ of emigrant-swindlers, or who carry 
 on their business on their own account. Most of them are found in 
 Greenwich street. Many of these hotels have their own " runners," who 
 often make the trip from Europe. They are without exception very 
 smart and talented men, who thoroughly understand the art of obtaining 
 the confidence of their fellow-passengers, and enjoy great popularity 
 through their jovial demeanor and by treating freely. They pretend that 
 they have lived in America for some time, and are well-off and well 
 acquainted with the circumstances existing there. They describe Castle 
 Garden, the German Society, as well as all the official measures taken to 
 
THK EMIGEANT- BWIKDLEB8. 565 
 
 protect emigrants as humbugs, aud the end of the story generally is that 
 they recommend some particular hotel as the best, the cheapest, and the 
 most respectable. No one possesses more influence on an emigrant-ship 
 than a traveliug-eompauiou who gained the confidence of the emigrants 
 by his general behavior, his liberality, and his pretended knowledge of 
 American affairs. Such " runners" are therefore in general very suc- 
 cessful, and manage to bring a large number of the emigrants to the hotel 
 recommended by them. 
 
 The following may serve as an example of how successfully these 
 " runners" operate on emigrant-ships : The proprietor of a hotel who had 
 been excluded from Castle Garden on account of maltreatment of emi- 
 grants, posted his u runners" outside of the building closed to him, who 
 now tried everything to induce the emigrants arriving to go to their hotel. 
 He also persuaded the police and customs officers to distribute his cir- 
 culars among the emigrants. But his enterprising spirit did not let him 
 rest here. He sent his "runners" to Europe, so that one returned on 
 every German steamer, whose business it was to persuade emigrants to 
 stay a few days in that hotel in New York. One of these " runners " 
 returned on the steamer Donau, which had several hundred passengers 
 over half of whom left Castle Garden, upon their arrival, and went with 
 their baggage to this hotel. Not long after another of his "runners" 
 arrived on the steamer Deutschland. He had also tried to induce a large 
 number ef emigrants to leave Castle Garden, because they would not be 
 treated as well there as in his hotel, where they would find everything 
 necessary to continue their journey. He had expended a large amount 
 on the journey in treating the emigrants to beer, etc. Upon their arrival 
 the "runner" entered himself as an emigrant, and placed himself next 
 to the express company's agent. He asked the emigrants to give him 
 their baggage checks, as their baggage would be sent to the hotel. This 
 aroused the suspicion of the officers of Castle Garden, and caused them 
 to inspect this over-officious gentleman a little more closely, when they 
 recognized in him a well-known •' runner " to whom the entrance to Cas- 
 tle Garden had long ago been forbidden. He was made short work off ; 
 they gave him his baggage, and swiftly put him out of doors. Although 
 the emigrants had been informed of his character, and had been warned 
 of him, still a large number went to the hotel which had been recom- 
 mended by him. 
 
 After what has been said, it is hardly necessary to add anything further 
 about the lodging-houses, boarding-houses, hotels, etc., kept by emigrant 
 swindlers. The emigrant who gets into one of them by chance may be 
 happy if nothing worse happens to him than receiving miserable lodgings 
 and board at extremely high prices. Generally the hotel-keeper plays 
 the part of an anxious countryman for his " green" guests. He recom- 
 mence them to restore themselves from the effects of their long journey. 
 
566 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 There is plenty of time to think of work. Well paying situations as well 
 as easy and profitable work can be had here at any time, and we will look 
 out for them in this respect. He tells the same thing to his guests who 
 are bound for the interior, and whom he advises to remain with him yet, 
 so that they may prepare themselves for the climate. Of money and pay- 
 ment very little, if anything, is said. For the hotel keeper has the bag- 
 gage of his guests in his care and is well informed as to the contents of 
 the trunks as well as of those of their pocketbooks. The less he says of 
 the money question, the more does he bring his guests into temptation to 
 spend their money. Generally he is aided by runners and other vagabonds 
 who also stop at the house as supposed emigrants, by treating, etc., to 
 make the emigrants careless and bring their dollars into circulation as 
 quickly as possible. Thus it is that an emigrant depending on the assur- 
 ances of a hotel keeper and his confederates, passes his days without a 
 thought for the future, and only bagins to think of work when he sees the 
 bottom of his purse. Too soon only does he find then that work in a city 
 flooded with workmen of all kinds, is found often with the greatest diffi- 
 culty, and sometimes not at all. The proprietor also changes his tone 
 then. If the poor emigrant has looked in vain for work, has spent his 
 last dollar and owes for a few days board, the heartless proprietor simply 
 puts him out of the house and keeps his baggage for security. Sometimes 
 it also happens that such poor fellows are intoxicated and sold to some 
 outward bound ship. Such boardinghouses are especially dangerous for 
 the female emigrants. The proprietors very seldom hesitate to deliver 
 them to brothels, with the proprietors of which they are often in close 
 connection. This point we have already spoken of in the chapter on pro- 
 stitution. v 
 
 The frauds practiced on emigrants are of very frequent occurrence. 
 Hardly a day passes, but that a case of this kind is brought to the notice 
 of the police. We can see that the rascals understand their business from 
 the fact that the sums taken from the emigrants by swindling and other- 
 ; wise, amount, according to the statements of the police, to about $200,000 
 annually. But we can safely assume that but one out of 50 cases is ever 
 brought to the notice of the police. Many who are swindled by the exor- 
 bitant bills of the hotel keepers, do not perhaps even know that they are 
 swindled. Others again, the victims of the ticket and belt games, only 
 discover the fraud practiced on them when they are hundreds of miles from 
 the city, and very seldom does any news of their misfortune come to the 
 ears of our city authorities. Others again are so intimidated by the threats 
 of the villains that they do not dare to make any complaint. Tiie experi- 
 ences of such emigrants who have taken legal steps against such swindlers,. 
 are also not of the pleasantest. For, according to our laws, the witness 
 in criminal cases must give bail for his appearance, as well as the criminal. 
 Generally the poor emigrant robbed of his last dollar, is unable to find any 
 
TIIK BMIGRANT-3 WINDLEBS . 507 
 
 one who is willing to go bail fur him. The emigrant-swindler who enjoys 
 ■ high political protection, can always fiud bail, no matter what his offence 
 may he. Thus it is nothing unusual that the poor emigrant who was 
 robbed, is kept in close confinement for weeks, while the person who 
 robbed him, continues his business as if nothing had happened. The busi- 
 ness is therefor, exclusive of the high political favors it enjoys, a not very 
 dangerous one for those who carry it on. For a considerable length of 
 time it was even considered an impossibility to punish them. 
 
 At the same time however we can only wonder at the simplicity or 
 rather stupidity of the emigrants, for no trick is too clumsy for them to be 
 caught by it. All the tricks described under the head of swindle are suc- 
 cessfully applied by the runners on emigrants. A prominent example of 
 such stupidity happened in November 1872. The victim, a Scotchman 
 by the name of Stevenson, was by no means a "greenhorn", but a man 
 who had lived for several years in New York aud was about to re- 
 turn to his native country with his savings. The day of leaving had 
 arrived, and our Scotchman started to take a short walk yet before leav- 
 ing. He entered a saloon to take another drink, when he happened to 
 meet a young man with whom he engaged in conversation. Stevenson 
 
 mentioned that he was about to start for England on the steamer . 
 
 This seemed to make the young man feel happy, for he had also taken 
 passage on that steamer. Stevenson also felt overjoyed at this news. The 
 glasses were again filled, and they drank to a successful journey. While 
 the two were sitting and drinking, a man stepped up to them and asked 
 Stevenson's friend to pay express charges on his trunks, which had been 
 brought on board of the steamer. The fellow answered that he had only 
 a few sovereigns in his pocket, but his friend, Mr. Stevenson, would cer- 
 tainly lend him the money for a few minutes. Stevenson of course could 
 not refuse his pleasant companion this small request. Pie gave him ten 
 dollars for the stranger, who thereupon left. Stevenson's kindness, how- 
 ever, was not yet exhausted. His friend asked him in a little while to 
 lend him his watch, as he had a short errand to perform yet, and it would 
 be disagreeable, to say the least, to miss the steamer. Stevenson, with- 
 out the least suspicion, handed him the watch, whereupon they separated. 
 Stevensou waited for some time on board, but his friend did not make his 
 appearance. At last suspicions began to arise withiu him, and he asked 
 the captain whether a certain McNeil (the name the swindler had given) 
 was on the passenger-list. He was answered in the negative, and he saw 
 that he had been swindled. But what w r as to be done? The steamer 
 was to sail in a few hours. He again rushed into the street, hoping to 
 see something of the rascal. But all in vain ; and he was just on the 
 point of returning to the ship when, to his astonishment, he saw his 
 friend looking calmly at the steamer aud the people on board of her. He 
 had him immediately arrested ; but his money and watch were gone. 
 
568 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 The police recognized in McNeil a celebrated confidence swindler and 
 runner. He stoutly denied ever having seen Stevenson, and, as the latter 
 had no desire to be detained as a witness, the swindler had to be re- 
 leased. 
 
 A peculiar kind of emigrant-swindlers, which stands alone by itself, 
 and has nothing in common with the above-mentioned class, was brought 
 to the notice of the public during the summer of 1873. The persons who 
 compose it are engaged in the importation of children from Italy, who, 
 according to contract, are let out from their country to Italians living 
 here, to serve them as street musicians for a number of year3, and to be 
 further educated in music. 
 
 Thus at least is the wording of the supposed contract. As a compen- 
 sation for the musical education of the children, the contractors here take 
 the money they collect in their wanderings as street musicians. Upon 
 the expiration of the contract, the contractors ("padroni" as they are 
 called) are to take them back to Italy, and to pay them a nominal grati- 
 fication of forty or fifty ducats. But in reality the thing is quite different. 
 As has been discovered by researches instituted in Italy, these poor chil- 
 dren are sold by their parents to speculators, or are even stolen by these 
 rascals. When they arrive in our city as compulsory emigrants, a sad 
 lot awaits them. The persons by whom they are taken are generally the 
 lowest and most degraded class of Italians in our city. Of education 
 there is no idea. The children are in reality nothing but the slaves of 
 these padroni. They do not understand the English language, while amDng 
 the inhabitants of the city there is hardly one in one hundred thousand 
 who understands the Italian language. They are furthermore instructed 
 by their padroni to avoid every one who seems to take an interest in 
 them, and especially to look upon those who speak Italian to them as their 
 enemies. 
 
 Thus these little slaves are completely isolated, and believe that they 
 have no other friends in this great city than the padroni, while they in 
 reality are their worst enemies. The children, who all know how to play 
 on some instrument, generally the violin or the harp, are compelled to 
 perform in the streets and in saloons. The money thus raised by them is 
 all appropriated by the padroni. Each one of these little slaves must 
 brin<* home a certain sum in the evening. If he lacks a few cents only 
 of the required amount, he is unmercifully beaten. 
 
 The den that is given to these poor children as a home, is a bitter satire 
 on that sweet word. The homes of the padroni are generally in the low- 
 est quarters of the city, near the Five Points or the Arch Block. When 
 the little street musicians come home in the evening, they find a heap of 
 dirty rags as a bed. Food they are generally told to obtain by begging. 
 
 The business was a very easy and very profitable one for the padroni. 
 More and more of these youthful slaves were imported ; child-buying be- 
 
TIIK B MIGRANT SWINDLERS. 569 
 
 came more frequent in Italy, and the dirty and sickly-looking children in 
 our streets became more numerous. At last the terrible secret hidden 
 behind these youthful emigrants came to light. New York shuddered 
 when it discovered that it had such open and terrible slavery in its midst. 
 The press hurled its thunderbolts against it, and the police cast a watch- 
 ful eye on this sore spot of our social organism which was thus laid bare. 
 At last, the respectable portion of the Italian citizens and the Italian 
 consul took energetic steps against it. Although the discovery of, and 
 the agitation against, this evil is still new, it has nevertheless already 
 received its deathblow. Investigations were instituted, and a number of 
 these little sufferers were taken from their padroni, and were placed in 
 our charitable institutions. This good work is still continued, and we can 
 safely assume that this kind of emigrant-swindling will soon belong 
 to the things of the past. For, as we said before, these Italian 
 emigrant-swindlers belong to the lowest class of society, and, as they do 
 not take the least interest in politics, and can therefore not be even used 
 as "voting cattle," they do not possess the political influence which makes 
 the other class of emigrant-swindlers so powerful. In such cases Dame 
 Justice does not hesitate to do her duty, and we can therefore congratu- 
 late ourselves on the fact that the evil was eradicated the moment it be- 
 came known to the public. 
 
 The swindling of emigrants was carried on for years with the most 
 shameless impudence, while the authorities took no measures whatever to 
 combat the evil which threatened to become a lasting disgrace to the Re- 
 public. At last the state authorities awoke to a sense of their obligations, 
 and created a so-called emigrant commission whose duties should be to 
 watch over the interests of the emigrant, from the time of his arrival until 
 the time of his departure from the city. Before the creation of this com- 
 mission, all that had been done to protect the emigrants, had originated 
 with private associations formed to protect their respective countrymen 
 (German and Irish). These private associations exert to the present day, 
 «ven after the creation of the above mentioned commission, a beneficial 
 influence and have each a vote in this commission. 
 
 The state board of emigration consists of 13 members, 9 of whom are 
 appointed by the governor of New York, the mayors of the cities of 
 Brooklyn and New York, and the presidents of the German and Irish 
 societies forming the other 4. The duties of this board are, to protect the 
 emigrants and to afford the sick and the poor assistance and proper care. 
 For this purpose the building situated in the Battery and known as the 
 Castle Garden, has been designated as a place where arriving emigrants 
 must be landed. When an emigrant ship arrives off quarantine, a member 
 of the board of emigration goes on board, examines the sanitary condition 
 of the emigrants, make3 inquiries as to their treatmeut on their voyage 
 over, and receives all complaints made by passengers. He remains on 
 
570 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOKK LIFE. 
 
 board until the passengers are landed in Castle Garden, and sees that no 
 unauthorized persons come on board and mingle with passengers. When 
 the baggage of the passengers has been examined by the custom house 
 officer, the emigrants are landed in the Castle Garden depot. There the 
 name, the age, the place he came from, etc., of each emigrant are entered 
 in a book. The names of those for whom money or letters have been left, 
 and of those who are expected by friends, are then called out. Upon 
 identification, they receive the money or the letters, or are brought to their 
 friends, which friends are first sharply examined to ascertain whether they 
 are really what they pretend to be. 
 
 The various steamship and railroad lines also have offices in Castle 
 Garden where the emigrants can procure their tickets for their further 
 journey. There are also broker's offices which are so closely controlled 
 by the commission, that the emigrants can change their money there with- 
 out the least fear of being swindled. Cheap and substantial meals may 
 be had in a restaurant, while an intelligence office registers the names of 
 all those seeking employment, and, if possible, immediately supplies them 
 wi;h positions. A telegraph office sends despatches from the emigrants 
 to their friends and relatives, while in another office there are clerks who 
 will write letters for emigrants in almost any language. Those emigrants 
 who wish to go out west without any further delay, are brought by licensed 
 agents of the railroads directly to the respective depots. Those emigrants 
 however who wish to remain in the city for some time, will find proprie- 
 tors of boarding houses who are under the control of the commissioners, 
 and whose prices are fixed by a special tariff. These hotel keepers or 
 their agents take charge of the emigrants applying to them, and bring 
 them and their baggage to the boarding house. Sick emigrants are taken 
 to the hospital on Ward Island, where they are cared for and nursed free 
 of charge until their entire recovery. 
 
 After such regulations, which seem to be equally liberal and practical, 
 we justly wonder that the swindling of emigrants, is still carried on so 
 openly and boldly. We should be inclined to suppose that the business 
 had been completely ruined by the Board of Emigration, together with 
 Castle Garden and Ward's Island ; and yet we have seen that this is not 
 the case, although the swindling of emigrants has lost considerably in 
 extent as well as in brutality. It is still able to give a number of villains 
 a splendid income. The system and the idea of the State Board of Emi" 
 gration are both very good, but the men who shall execute the idea are 
 not very human, but in many cases politicians, and wherever in charita- 
 ble institutions political party questions are brought into consideration, 
 something will always be out of order. Honorable as the intentions of 
 the commissioners may be, they are not able to draw a line in the party 
 considerations in appointing their subordinates. Thus it is that the 
 official guard for the emigrants occasionally shows a weak spot, of which 
 
THE KMIGRANI-SWINDLKI;-. 571 
 
 the emigrant-swindlers immediately take advantage. How could the 
 scenes be otherwise explained, which we have described as occurring dur- 
 ing the transportation of emigrants from quarantine to Castle Garden? 
 In a word, the protection of the emigrant shows in all directions the 
 abuses which are not the fault of the system, but the fault of the persons 
 entrusted with its execution. Another share of the blame, and that not 
 a small one, falls on the emigrants themselves. We have seen how 
 eagerly they bite at every bait that is offered to them, and how a large 
 Dumber of them, after a fellow-passenger had been proven to them to be 
 a runner and a swindler, had still gone to the boarding-house recom- 
 mended by him. What is the use of explanations and warnings with 
 such people ? They will always follow the swindler, who knows how to 
 make use of their weak points, and will suspect treachery in the plain 
 speech of an honest man. This class of people can only learn from a 
 bitter experience. The large majority of the victims of emigraut- 
 swindlers can be safely set down as belonging to this class. Another 
 reason which enables the emigrant-swindlers to flourish so much can be 
 found in the laxity with which our laws are brought into operation against 
 those rascals, who play important parts in elections as local politicians, 
 ballot-box stuffers, rowdies, etc. The first sign of independence in this 
 respect was shown by Recorder Hacket, who lately sentenced two well- 
 known emigrant-swindlers, in spite of all the political influence which was 
 brought to bear on him, to several years in the State Prison. This was 
 formerly regarded as an impossibility. But it was done after the over- 
 throw of the " Tammany Ring," aud it is to be hoped that emigrant- 
 swindling, which was a part of this " ring," received a blow through its 
 overthrow from which it will not so easily recover. This will be the case 
 if our judges continue to do their duty. Whatever has been done until 
 now against the emigrant-swindlers has only been defensive. The swin- 
 dlers have been left undisturbed, and they have been permitted to lay 
 their snares at their leisure, and the authorities have been satisfied if, in 
 cases where they could not escape, they would disgorge their booty. But 
 this by no means suffices, and is not the protection which the law must 
 afford against crime. The law shall act on the offensive. It must make 
 the existence of swindling offices and swindling hotels an impossibility,, 
 and should send the swindlers to where they belong, viz, the State Prison. 
 For this it is necessary to repeal that law which makes it dangerous thing 
 for the plaintiff to enter a complaint against these swindlers. We have 
 reference to that law which imprisons the plaintiff if he cannot give bail 
 for his appearance, while the swindler, who can always give bail, goes 
 free, and, if he thinks it necessary, can make himself invisible. In a 
 word, the business of the emigrant-swindler must be made as dangerous 
 as possible for him, and political influence must not be allowed to Wind 
 the eye of justice, or to deprive her arm of power. This not only re- 
 
572 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 quired by our inborn sense of right, but also by our national honor, for 
 by nothing does this suffer more than by the greatly enlarged stories and 
 rumors of the emigrant-swindlers of New York, the chief port for the 
 landing of emigrants, which circulate in all parts of Europe. 
 
 We cannot close this chapter without noticing a new enterprise, said to 
 t>e undertaken in the interest of the emigrants. Until now it is only 
 known by its name, the " United German- American Association." All 
 that we know of it is that it states as its object the protection of the emi- 
 grant, and is said to have established a branch office in Berlin. Its first 
 board of officers was as follows : Dr. S. Ehrenberg, president ; Hugo 
 Elloser, secretary ; M. Mandel, treasurer ; directors, Ernest von Blom- 
 berg, T. Rothenburg, C. W. Meyer, William Fischer, E. E. Evers, R. D. 
 Davis, E. H. Muldauer, Dr. W. Wildner, M. Blank, and C. Schaaf. 
 Messrs. Ehrenberg and Mandel, however, are two very suspicious char- 
 acters, and President Ehrenberg has even had the honor of residing for a 
 number of years in the Missouri State Prison, not a very favorable re- 
 commendation indeed. Hugo Elosser, who has been named as on the 
 board of directors of the Association, has protested against this in a letter 
 to the German Society. He declares that his name has been used with- 
 out his knowledge or consent as secretary of the * U. G. A. Association/' 
 that he knows nothing of the objects or the character of the " Association," 
 and that he had never had any connection with it whatever. Nor could 
 anything be learned in Berlin about the branch office in that city. All 
 this seemed so peculiar that the German Society adopted the following 
 resolution, offered by Mr. Willy Wallach : 
 
 " Resolved, That, as neither the public press nor the untiring efforts of 
 private persons have succeeded in bringing to light any definite know 
 ledge of the tendency and activity of the so-called " United German- 
 American Association," and as the President, Dr. S. Ehrenberg, and the 
 treasurer, M. Mandel, are known as notorious swindlers and adventurers, 
 the board of directors of the German Society considers its its duty to warn 
 its fellow-citizens against giving said persons any aid, either by contribu- 
 tions or otherwise." 
 
 This, as well as many other things, seems to have opened the eyes of 
 the better elements in the " Association." A movement was begun in 
 the ■" Association," the object of which was to get rid of the suspicious 
 characters at its head. The movement was successful, and resulted in 
 the resignation of Ehrenberg, Mandel, and their special friends. This 
 was done in the meeting of August 1, 1873, in which a president and 
 secretary pro. tern, were also chosen. Thus the matter rests at present. 
 The u Association " has taken a great step forward by ridding itself of 
 these two notorious swindlers, but yet it is not possible to give a final de- 
 cision on its true character so long as the public remains in the dark as to 
 He true object, as well as the means to be employed in the attainment of 
 
THK KMK.i; LB 1 -WINDI.KK-. 
 
 this object. If the M Association " desires to gaiu credit ia the eyes of 
 the public, it will not lack opportunities to do so. Until then, however, 
 the warning of the German Society must remain in full force. 
 
 Although we have attempted to give the dark side of our emigrant sys- 
 tem, owing to the object of the book, we still cannot close the chapter with- 
 out directing the attention of the reader to a bright side, which may be re- 
 garded as the forerunner of a new and better era. It is an undertaking 
 set on foot by our German fellow-citizens for the benefit of the German 
 emigrants, and is the erection of an u emigrant home/' which is to pro- 
 vide the emigrant with good and cheap lodging, in the full guarantee of 
 safety against being swindled, and of good treatment. The undertaking 
 was first set on foot by Rev. W. Berkemeier, and has been energetically 
 pushed until its completion. The association which has furnished the 
 means bears the name, M Lutheran Emigrant-Home Association of New 
 York." It has bought the house situated at No. 16 State street, opposite 
 Castle Garden, for $30,000. The house is 28x60 feet, and five stories 
 highland posseses ample accommodations. With such an emigrant-house, 
 and under the control of an association which has only charitable object* 
 in view, the most practical way has been taken to break up the disgrace, 
 ful business of the "emigrant-runners." The undertaking is a truly 
 charitable one, and free from all sectarian spirit. The name, " Lutheran 
 Emigrant-Home," by no means denotes that it is only open to Lutherans, 
 but that it was erected by a Lutheran community. 
 
 We hope that this good example will find many imitations, and that 
 thus at last the odium resting on the good name of our city, through the 
 still flourishing "emigrant-runners," will be removed. They have been the 
 cause of the most abject misery. Thousands of emigrants, who stepped 
 on our shores full of hope, have perished miserably, or have been forced 
 into the paths of crime, because they found themselves in a strange 
 country without friends, and without means of subsistence. Everything 
 that tends to protect the emigrant against the dangers threatening him, 
 and to show him that he is not regarded as a stranger in the country 
 which he has selected for a home, is a work of true humanity which 
 ought to be promoted in every possible manner. 
 
$74 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 BOGUS INTELLIGENCE OFFICES. 
 
 Among the institutions which would be a blessing, if they were con- 
 ducted in the right manner, we may also class the intelligence offioes. 
 Their true object is to serve both employer and employee, to furnish the 
 one with a workman and the other with work. The employer is therefor 
 interested in them as well as the employee, as he needs the workman as 
 much to make use of his capital, as the employee needs work to gain his 
 livelihood. Our restless age can spare none of the existing working powers, 
 and we can therefor say that for every able workman who is without work 
 in one place, the lack of his labor is felt in another. The source of the 
 evil is therefor not to be sought in a surplus of labor, nor in a scarcity of 
 demand for those now existing, but in their unequal distribution, in the 
 fact that they are not to be found where they are wanted. The single 
 workman however does not always know where his labor may be needed, 
 while the employer is often at a loss where to seek the necessary additional 
 labor. Both have two ways open to them. The one is to make known 
 their wants through advertisements in the newspapers, and the other to 
 ' a Ppty t0 intelligence offices. Both ways are so often used that a large 
 business has grown out of both. Both are of great benefit, but both also 
 have their dark sides. The dark sides of advertising will be spoken of 
 further on, while in this chapter we will treat of the dark sides of intel- 
 ligence offices, that is the "Bogus Intelligence Offices". 
 
 "VVe regret that we are forced to remark here in the beginning that the 
 number of bogus intelligence offices is very large. The respectable ones 
 are the exception, and on account of the suspicious light that is thrown on 
 them through the large number of their criminal colleagues, they lose the 
 confidence of the public and thus the power to do good. The intelligence 
 offices are scattered throughout the city, but are all pretty much conducted 
 on the same system. The person looking for work must pay a certain 
 sum, ranging from fifty cents to several dollars, in advance. His name, 
 the kind of employment desired, his age, etc., are then entered in a book 
 kept for this purpose, and which is referred to in case of an application. 
 A second book contains the names, etc., of employers who are looking for 
 help. */rom this the applicant for work is supplied with addresses of per- 
 sons who might possibly make use of his services. But if none of the 
 situations should suit him, he is at liberty to sit down in the waiting room 
 and wait day after day for somebody looking for help, or to pursue a more 
 pleasant but not quite as safe a plan, to call several times each day and 
 inquire whether anything has been found for him. Many of those who 
 look for servants or workmen come to these waiting rooms from time to 
 time to look at those waiting for situations. Scenes occur then sometimes 
 which cause the looker-on to have very peculiar ideas about our republican 
 institutions. Many of the applicants must undergo an examination which 
 
BOGUS iNTBTUGSKCE-OrnCES. 5T5 
 
 equals those formerly in vogue in our southern slave marts. If the appli- 
 cant succeed in obtaining a situation, he must often pay another fee which 
 varies according to the value of the situation obtained. But very few are 
 so fortunate as to obtain employment. It is indeed in the interest of the 
 offices to supply as many applicants as possible with work, and thus gain 
 renown and perhaps receive another fee. But the majority obtain their 
 true revenue exclusively from the registration fees, without taking any 
 further trouble as to obtain employment for the applicants. If a situation 
 accidentally turns up, — well, all the better. If not, the applicant is put off 
 from day to day, until he loses his patience and stays away, or finds em- 
 ployment by some other means. Many of such offices try to obtain appli- 
 cants by means of advertisements of very favorable situations. These 
 situations however are often only imaginary ones, and are only intended 
 to 6erve as bait, the better the situations are, the greater the want of work 
 is at the time. Applicants come to the offices in large numbers and pay 
 the exorbitant registration fee, so-called. An example will show best how 
 this infamous plan works : 
 
 Some time ago an intelligence office advertised a situation for a clerk 
 in a large oil establishment in Pennsylvania. The salary was stated at 
 S1000. Of course applicants were not wanting. Among them was a 
 young Englishman who had just arrived in this country. After a few 
 formalities, the situation was as good as promised to him. The president 
 of the oil company, he was told, would be in the office in a few days, and 
 he would then be introduced to him. That sounded very hopeful, and the 
 Englishman almost exhausted his entire means to pay the $6 required as 
 a fee. After three days, the young man again applied in the office, but 
 he was put off to the next day. The following day he was again put off, 
 and so on until his money and his patience were exhausted. He now 
 asked for the situation or for his six dollars, but received only rude 
 answers. Upon answering back in the same tone, he was told to leave, 
 or he would be arrested for breaking the peace. This intimidated the 
 the young man, who was entirely unacquainted with our laws, etc., and 
 he left the office with a feeling bordering on desperation. And he was 
 not the only victim ; hundreds of others had applied for the same posi- 
 tion during the month in the course of which this advertisement had 
 appeared. They all paid the same price for the introduction to the 
 " president," whose arrival was put off from day to day with them also, 
 until the poor fellows were tired of waiting or were sent off as the Eng- 
 lishman had been. 
 
 These advertisements are especially tempting for newly-arrived emi- 
 grants, and for young men from the country. As they see these good 
 positions continually advertised, they suppose that all they need do is to 
 apply and get them. They have not the remotest idea that these adver- 
 tisements are but simple devices to rid them of their money. 
 
576 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Many of these offices go to work with great smartness. The applicant y 
 whom we will call Smith, applies to the office ot Jenkins & Co., pays the 
 registration fee of two dollars, and is told the next day that they know of 
 a very good opening in " Sharpersville," with $150 per month. Mr. 
 Jones, the proprietor of the business, is present in the city, and will make 
 his choice among the applicants. Mr. Smith is told that Jenkins & Co. 
 take a special interest in him, and as Jones is an old friend of theirs, he 
 (Smith) can count safely on the position. But if he is engaged he must 
 pay the office $15. Smith readily agrees to that, and is introduced to 
 Jones the same day. He seems to be a good business man, for he ex- 
 amines Smith pretty sharply as to his qualifications. At last he seems 
 satisfied, engages the young man, and requests him to go to his hotel with 
 him, where he has several things to settle before his departure. The 
 clerks of Jenkins & Co. congratulate Smith on his good fortune, and he 
 gladly pays his $15. 
 
 Upon arriving at Jones's room, that individual remembers that he 
 has to keep an appointment, and requests Smith to wait a few minutes. 
 He returns soon, and is about to take up a bundle of letters, when he 
 misses a ten-dollar bill which he had laid on the table under a book. He 
 says that he saw the bill when he left the room ten minutes before, and it 
 must therefore be still in the room. He looks in the corners and all over 
 the room, and Smith, who fears that he will be suspected of stealing it if 
 it is not found, busily assists in the search. But the bill does not make 
 its appearance. Jones'syassertion that the bill was in the room when he 
 left becomes more and more pointed. At last his remarks take such a 
 form that Smith is forced to believe that he takes him for a thief. He 
 protests against such a suspicion, whereupon Jones's remarks become still 
 more insulting. At last Smith answers back in the same manner, and 
 the end of it all is that Jones puts Smith out of the room, declaring that 
 he will have nothing more to do with, such an impertinent and suspicious 
 fellow, while the injured Smith leaves with not very friendly words- 
 Thus the position disappears, and what the applicant regrets most is the 
 $15 which he has paid. But he hopes that he can still save this money. 
 He has no idea that Jones is only a professional swindler, working hand- 
 in-<*love with Jenkins & Co. He does not know that his engagement and 
 the ten-dollar bill were only tricks to cheat him out of the money paid to 
 that bogus firm. He therefore goes again to the office of Jenkins & Co., 
 and thinks he can induce these " gentlemen " to restore the money by re- 
 lating his story. But they are willing to procure him another situation, 
 and charge him nothing for it. Thus Smith is again induced to pay $2 
 as a registration fee, and to wait for another engagement. But that never 
 comes, at least through the office of Jenkins & Co., and he considers him- 
 self fortunate when some friends procure him a situation, although not 
 with $150 a month. 
 
LI G El !-■'.: 
 
 How many others looking for employment were swindled in this man- 
 ner by Jenkins, Jones Ov Co., it is difficult to tell. This method baa this 
 intage for the swindlers, that their victims do not know that they 
 have Icon swindled. As in the above case, it often happens that the 
 victims again apply to the swindler, and actually believe that they have 
 lost the situation by their own rashness. It would be foolish to think 
 that such offices are only found in out-of-ihe-way places. On the con- 
 trary, they can be found in the most fashionable quarters of the city. 
 This was the sad experience of five Irishmen who had just arrived from 
 the " old country." Upon the advice of a friend (probably a "runner"), 
 they applied in a Broadway intelligence-office, in order that they might 
 obtaiu work as quickly as possible. They were received with the greatest 
 kindness in the office, and were told that they would receive work in a 
 few days at most. They should only pay the required tax of three dol- 
 lars each, when their names would be entered on the book. They paid 
 the money, but, although they applied every day, none of them could get 
 employment. It was certainly no wonder that they became impatient, 
 and thought that three dollars was too much money for the privilege of 
 walking a great distance every day. At last two of them received the 
 addresses of two firms who were in need of workmen, as they were told. 
 These two fortunates immediately set out, while the remaining three 
 were filled with hope for themselves by the success of their comrades. 
 But the joy of the two fortunate ones, as well as the hopes of the remain- 
 ing three, received a sudden damper. The firms to whom they had been 
 sent seemed very much astonished, and declared very decidedly that they 
 were in no need of workmen, and they knew nothing of the intelligence 
 office that had sent the applicants to them. This looked too much like 
 swindling for the five Irishmen not to see through it. They went in a 
 body to the office, and demanded each his three dollars. In answer they 
 were shown the door. As they were sadly deliberating in the street 
 what to do next, a kind old gentleman stepped up to them and asked 
 them the cause of their trouble. They told him -their story, whereupon 
 the kind old gentleman took the trouble to take them to the mayor's office, 
 where they made their charge. The consequence was that the proprietor 
 of the intelligence office was brought by a policeman, and immediately 
 restored the fifteen dollars to avoid further trouble. 
 
 One class of these swindlers have no real office, and simply pperate by 
 means of advertisements from some obscure back-room of some out-of- 
 the-way street. They advertise for a number of book-keepers, clerks 
 and men for other positions, and then, like Micawbcr, " wait for some- 
 thing to turn up." Such advertisements are generally answered from the 
 country by letter, and on these the swindlers speculate. In answer to 
 these applications, he replies that a certain fee must be paid before any- 
 thing can be done for them. This fee is generally sent. The swindler 
 
 37 
 
578 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 pockets the money received, and thus finishes his part of the business. 
 The applicants hear no more of him, and in most cases are not able or 
 inclined to push the matter any further. Occasionally such a victim docs 
 come to the city, and handles the rascal rather roughly, and then it is not 
 unfrequent that the latter will have a black eye or some other mark to 
 show the effects produced by such a visitor. If the office has already 
 earned a bad reputation under one name, the proprietor begins the busi- 
 ness in some other place under a new name, and carries it on as before. 
 Not unfrequently do such swindlers make use of the names of respectable 
 firms, so that their victims may be more easily induced to send their 
 money. Smith & Co. is a not very imposing name for example, but it 
 gains considerably by having a line at the head of their letter-paper which 
 reads, " Hereules Mutual Life Insurance Company of the United States,'' 
 although this company has no idea of the existence of Messrs. Smith & 
 Co. These Smith & Co. announced themselves for some time as " Mer- 
 chants' Agency," and offered to procure situations for clerks and others. 
 Of course many applied to this agency. Among the applicants was a 
 clerk in New Haven, and his experience has probably been that of all 
 other applicants. Upon his letter to the firm, he received the following 
 answer : 
 
 Dear Sir: We take the liberty to inform you that we have several very good 
 positions for book-keepers, freight-clerks, and others at our disposal, with salaries 
 ranging from eight hundred to fifteen hundred dollars per annum. We could also 
 furnish you with a position on a steamer, if you preferred that. If you should 
 desire to make use of our services, you will please send the customary fee of two 
 dollars, when we will do our best for you, and will keep you informed of all that 
 may interest you. 
 
 Yours, &c, 
 
 SMITH & CO. 
 
 This letter, as we have mentioned before, bore at its head the name of 
 the Hercules Fire Insurance Company, and also contained a card of this 
 company with " E. B. Smith, Financial Secretary," printed on the back. 
 As the young man did not know that Smith & Co. had obtained the cards 
 and paper by criminal means, he could not but believe that Smith was 
 connected with this company. He therefore sent the required two dol- 
 lars, and anxiously awaited the result. But, as Smith & Co. gave no 
 sign of life for over two waeks, he wrote again and again, but without 
 effect. At last he decided to save his postage stamps, and consider his 
 chance of obtaining employment from this source, as well as his two dol- 
 lars, as lost. 
 
 These bogus intelligence-offices, if they have a position at their disposal, 
 do not hesitate to supply an applicant for it, for in this way they can de- 
 mand from the applicant, as well as the employer, an additional fee. 
 Whether the applicant is fit for the position matters little to the office. As 
 long as he is willing to accept the situation, the office does not hesitate to 
 
BOGUS INTELLIGEK< B- OFFICES. 579 
 
 recommend him as a model of a diligent and honest young man, and one 
 who would do credit to the position he fills. Their object is to bring 
 about his employment, so that they may charge their fees. Whether the 
 employer and the employee agree is of little consequence to the intelli- 
 gence office. It is as ready to swindle the employer as the employee ; 
 that they chiefly take to swindling employees is explained by the fact that 
 there are fifty applisants for every vacant position. A workman has just 
 as much chance of obtaining a situation through one of them by paying 
 the fee, as he would of winning in policy if he invested in that game. 
 
 A separate class of these intelligence offices are those who confine 
 themselves to obtaining situations for female servants. Among these 
 respectable offices are also not wanting, to which servants, as well as 
 ladies, can apply with perfect confidence. But these are always in the 
 minority ; even the best conducted ones have their faults. For them the 
 business is the principal thing, and they care very little for the character 
 of the servant, or for that of the lady to whom they introduce her. They 
 receive their fees from both, and what comes next they don't trouble 
 themselves about. If anything is done at all in this respect, it is for the 
 benefit of the lady, as the servant is generally required to bring a certifi- 
 cate from her last position. Such certificate, howevgj-, has only a nomi- 
 nal value. Nothing whatever is done in the interest of the servant, and 
 she is left to find out for herself whether the lady dressed in silk or satin 
 is a respectable lady or a low procuress. And the risk that a friendless 
 girl, who has just arrived on our shore, incurs by assuming a position in 
 a strange house is often much greater than that of a wife in her family. 
 
 Many of these offices, however, are not much better than the resorts of 
 thieves, the proprietors of them being the direct accomplices of thieves 
 and burglars, for whom they obtain opportunities to ply their trade. For 
 this purpose they have a number of female thieves, and these they place 
 as servants in wealthy families. These servants, however, suddenly dis- 
 appear, and the families with whom they stayed find that a number of 
 valuables have disappeared with them. A part of the stolen goods goes 
 itito the pocket of the proprietor of the intelligence office, who then pro- 
 cures another position for the thief. 
 
 Sometimes there is a third party to the transaction, viz : a burglar. 
 The servant-girl does not herself steal in such a case, but finds out all 
 about the house, and reports to her confederate. Then the further plans 
 are laid. The girl forgets to bolt some door or window on a certain 
 evening, and the next morning shows that a burglary has been committed 
 by some one acquainted with the house. 
 
 Thus we see that the danger arising to families from these places is 
 very great ; but the danger for the servants is much greater. It is a 
 a well-known fact that it is a perilous venture for a young and pretty girl 
 to visit an intelligence office in quest of employment, the proprietor of 
 
580 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 which she is not well acquainted with. Even the most respectab'e offices 
 are sometimes not all3 to detect the procuress or the proprietress of a 
 brothel, while these persons often look to the intelligence offices to supply 
 them wit'i girls. Very often the less respectable offices are in direct con- 
 nection with these people, and do their share in leading the innocent girls 
 to a life of shame. The rascally proprietors of such places immediately 
 notify houses of prostitution, procuresses, etc., if an extra pretty girl 
 enters their places. Very soon a richly-attired " lady" makes her appear- 
 ance, looks at the girl, and, if she is young and pretty enough, she is 
 engaged. The poor girl discovers the character of the house to which 
 she is brought only when it is too late, when she is cut off from all human 
 help, and when she cannot resist the temptations surrounding her, to 
 which very often brute force is added. This connection of houses of pros- 
 titution w r ith certain intelligence offices has already been mentioned, and 
 it is to be deplored that such a terrible business is continued under the 
 very eyes of the authorities. As it is, the intelligence offices are very 
 dangerous traps for young girls looking for employment. It would, there- 
 fore, be no more than right that the servants should require satisfactory 
 evidence of the respectability of the families with whom they are to live, 
 as well as the latter*require certificates from the servants. The idea has 
 been much ridiculed, but the ruin of many an honest girl would have 
 been averted if society had accorded to innocence and virtue the same 
 safeguards with which it surrounds riches. 
 
 From what has been said, we can easily estimate the value of intelli- 
 gence offices. They are generally conducted on a plan which is wantiog 
 in strict honesty. They take payment without holding themselves bound 
 to render any equivalent service ; that is, to supply the applicant with 
 work. This is indeed not possible, many will say, for in our city the 
 supply of labor far exceeds the demand. True indeed ! But why do not 
 these offices confine themselves to taking fees from those whom they 
 actually supply with work ? The objection that the business would not 
 pay them is simply a concession that these offices are paid by applicants 
 for services from which it is expected that a large number will receive no 
 benefit. If we wish to take refuge behind that lame excuse, that by pay- 
 ing the fee every applicant obtains a chance of getting a situation, we 
 place the intelligence offices on the same level with lotteries, where every 
 one who buys a ticket also sees a chance of winning. They would cer- 
 tainly not gain by this comparison. 
 
 With regard to the bogus intelligence-offices, however, they cannot be 
 judged too severely. They are the most contemptible class of swindling 
 dens, for they look for their victims among the poor. The workman who 
 has lost his situation, and who lives on his rapidly-diminishing earnings ; 
 the young man who has come to the city with the idea of bettering his 
 situation, and now anxiously counting the hours until some position shall 
 
BOGUS INTELLIGENCE-OFFICES. 581 
 
 save him from starvation, which stares him in the face ; the friendless 
 emigrant, aud others in like position — are those whom these villains seek 
 for their victims. Their swindle is all the more dangerous, as it selects 
 poverty and misery for its victims rather than superstition aud simplicity. 
 It is, therefore, by no means a necessary requisite to become a victim of 
 these swindlers that a person should be " green." 
 
 A protection from this class of swindlers would therefore be very 
 necessary. The existence of so many intelligence offices, living exclu- 
 sively by swindling, is a standing accusation against our authorities, and a 
 puzzle the solution of which (although in a manner exonerating our authori- 
 ties from all blame) is not possible. To wait until the authorities awake 
 to a proper sense of their duties wouM in the end become tiresome. The 
 best thing would be, for the intelligence offices existing under the aus- 
 pices of private or official institutions of charity to at once enlarge their 
 spheres of action, and other institutions of a similar nature be brought to 
 life. Every man has a natural right to live. From this point of view, 
 the socialist declares that every man has a natural right to that which is 
 necessary to life, and consequently to work. But generations may pass 
 away yet before the State will guarantee this right. In the meanwhile, 
 there is no worthier object for charity than to bring work within the reach 
 at all those who are actually looking (or it. 
 
 THE TENEMENT-HOUSES. 
 
 • 
 
 In our first chapter we have already had opportunities to take insights 
 into our so-called tenement-houses, which were of a not very pleasant 
 nature. This was the case when we looked into them for poverty, of 
 which, as we have seen, they are the true home. Cut it is not exclu- 
 sively the poor classes that crowd into the tenement-houses. It is an 
 impossibility, considering the large population of our city, that every 
 family can possess its own home. Tenement-houses are therefore a neces- 
 sity (or a large number of our inhabitants, who, although we cannot call 
 them rich, are still very well off. But there is a great dilference between 
 the numerous tenement-houses, and among them are a large number 
 which by no means belong among the dark sides of our city. Ajcordin^ 
 to the law, every house that is inhabited by more than three tenants is a 
 t* tenement-house." Thus we have the bound to one side, aud the trouble 
 of living with three other tenants in one house would therefore not be 
 very great. But, in the other direction, there seems to be no limit what- 
 
582 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 ever. Tenement-houses with twenty or thirty tenants are nothing un- 
 common, and there are some that contain one hundred and even two 
 hundred tenants. In this respect, it must not be overlooked that the 
 space allotted to such human dens is comparatively very small, as in a 
 case which came to our personal knowledge where over two hundred 
 tenants were crowded into a house five stories high, being 50 feet long by 
 150 feet wide. To bring the pleasures of such homes more forcibly 
 before our mind, we need only remember two hundred tenants are not 
 single persons or small families, but that their number is often swelled 
 by boarders to over twelve. 
 
 It is in this direction that the tenement-houses reach far into the dark 
 sides of New York. A gloomy shadow rests over them all ; nor does it 
 seem to be in a hurry to disappear, as the small houses disappear more 
 and more every year in the old part of the city, and are replaced by 
 these large barracks. The room for living for our working classes 
 becomes smaller and more expensive every year, and the genius of our 
 architects is almost exhausted in trying to devise methods by which they 
 can crowd the largest number of people into the smallest possible space. 
 The result of their efforts stares us in the face wherever we go, in th& 
 form of the immense tenement-houses which are piled up story after story, 
 as if they w^re seeking in the upper regions for that necessary amount of 
 light, air, and sun in which they are so sadly deficient below and inside. 
 But let us first see into what terrible extremes tenement-house life is capa- 
 ble of degenerating. As an example, we cite the barracks situated in 
 Chatham street, known as Gotham's Court, or, as named after its propri- 
 etor, " Sweeney's Shambles." This building does not exist any more in 
 the form described below, as it was closed some time ago by order of the 
 Sanitary Commission, and the proprietor was forced to renovate it com- 
 pletely. We give the description all the more readily as there are many 
 similar houses in our city which exactly answer it. This sketch, from 
 the well-known pen of Mr. Edward Crapsey, of the New York Times, 
 was the direct cause of the closing and renovating of the building. Mr. 
 Crapsey describes his visit as follows : 
 
 "As we stopped in Cherry street, at the entrance to Gotham Court, and 
 Detective Finn dug a tunnel of light with his bull's-eye lantern into the 
 foulness and blackness of that smirch on civilization, a score or more of 
 boys who had been congregated at the edge of the court suddenly plunged 
 back into the obscurity, and we heard the splash of their feet in the foul 
 collections of the pavement. 
 
 14 ' This bull's-eye is an old acquaintance here,' said the detective, ' and 
 as its coming most always means * somebody wanted,' you see how they 
 hide. Though why they they should object to go to jail is more than I 
 know ; I'd rather stay in the worst dungeon in town than here. Come 
 this way, and I'll show you why.' 
 
THE TENEMENT-HOT SE3. 
 
 "Carefully keeping in the track of light cut into the darkness by the 
 lantern, I followed the speaker, who turned into the iirst door on the 
 right, aud I found myself in an entry about four feet by six, with steep, 
 rough, rickety stairs leadiug upward in the foreground, and their counter- 
 parts at the rear giving access to as successful a manufactory of disease 
 and death as any city on earth can show. Coming to the foot of these 
 stairs, I was peremptorily halted by the foul stenches rising from below ; 
 but Finn, who had reached the bottom, threw back the relentless light 
 upon the descending way, and urged me on. Every step oozed with 
 moisture, and was covered sole deep with unmentionable filth. But I 
 ventured on, and, reaching my conductor, stood in a vault some twelve 
 feet wide aud two hundred long, which extended under the whole of West 
 Gotham street. The walls of rough stoue dripped with slimy exudations, 
 while the pavements yielded to the slightest pressure of the feet a suffo- 
 cating odor compounded of bilge-water and sulphuretted hydrogen. Upon 
 one side of this elongated cave of horrors were ranged a hundred closets, 
 every one of which reeked with this filth, mixed with that slimy moisture 
 which was everywhere as a proof that the waters of the neighboring East 
 river penetrated and lingered here to foul instead of purify. 
 
 " ' "What do you think of this?' said Finn, throwing the light of his 
 lantern hither aud thither, so that every horror might be dragged from 
 the darkness that all seemed to covet. 'All the thousands living in the 
 barracks must come here, and just think of all the young ones above that 
 never did any harm having to take in this stuff!' and the detective struck 
 out spitefully at the noxious air. As he did so, the gurgling of water at 
 the Cherry street end caught his ear, and, penetrating thither, he peered 
 curiously about. 
 
 " ' I say, Tom,' he called back to his companion, who had remained 
 with me in the darkness, 'here's a big break in the Croton main !' But 
 a moment later, in an affrighted voice : k No, it ain't ; it's the sewer ! I 
 never knew of this opening into it before. Paugh ! how it smells. That's 
 nothing up where you are. I'll bet on the undertaker having more jobs 
 in this house than ever !' 
 
 " By this time I began to feel sick and faint in that tainted air, and 
 would have rushed up the stairs if I could have seen them. But Finn 
 was exploring that sewer horror with his lantern. As I came down I 
 had seen a pool of stagnant, green-coated water somewhere near the foot 
 of the stairs, and, being afraid to stir in the thick darkness, was forced to 
 call my guide, and frankly state the necessity for an immediate return 
 above. The matter-of-fact policeman came up, and cast the liberating 
 light upon the stairs, but rebuked me as I eagerly took in the compara- 
 tively purer atmosphere from above. ' You can't stand it five minutes ; 
 how do you think they stand it year in and year out?' 'Even they do 
 not stand it many years, I should think/ was my involuntary reply. 
 
584 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK 
 
 ZlFE. 
 
 "As we stepped out into the court again, the glare of the bull's-eye 
 dragged a strange face out of the darkness. It was that of a youth 
 of eighteen or twenty years, ruddy, puffed, with the corners of the 
 mouth grotesquely twisted. The detective greeted the person owning 
 this face with the fervor of old acquaintanceship : " Eh, Buster ! what's 
 up?' * Hello, Jimmy Finn! what yez doin' here?' * Never mind, 
 Buster ; what's up?' i Why, Jimmy, did't yez know I lodges here now?' 
 4 No, I didn't. Where? Who with? 7 * Beyant, wid the Pensioner.' 
 4 Go on ; show me where you lodge/ i Sure, Jimmy, it ain't me as wud 
 lie to yez. y 
 
 " But I had expressed a desire to penetrate into some of these kennels 
 for crushed humanity ; and Finn, with the happy acumen of his tribe, 
 seizing the first plausible pretext, was relentless, and insisted on doubting 
 the word of * Buster/ That unfortunate with the puffy face, who seemed 
 to^know his man too well to protract resistance, puffed ahead of us up the 
 black, oozy court, with myriads of windows made ghastly by the pale 
 flicker of kerosene lamps in tiers above us, until he came to the last door 
 but one on the left side of the court, over which the letter U S" was 
 sprawled upon the coping-stone. The bull's-eye had been darkened, and 
 when the * Buster* plunged through the doorway he was lost to sight in 
 the * impenetrable darkness beyond. We heard him, though, stumbling 
 against stairs that creaked dismally, and, the slide being drawn back, the 
 friendly light made clear the way for him and us. There was an entry 
 precisely like the one we had entered before, with a flight of narrow, al- 
 most perpendicular stairs, with so sharp a twist in them that we could 
 only see half way up. The banisters in sight had precisely three uprights, 
 and looked as if the whole thing would crumble at a touch ; while the 
 stairs were so smooth and thin with the treading of innumerable feet, 
 that they almost refused a foothold. Following the ' Buster/ who had 
 grappled with the steep and dangerous ascent with the daring born of 
 habit, I somehow got up stair% wondering how any one ever got down in 
 the dark without breaking his neck. Thinking it possible there might be 
 a light sometimes to guide the pauper hosts from their hazardous heights 
 to the stability of the street, I inquired as to the fact, only to meet the 
 contempt of the ' Buster ' for the gross ignorance that could dictate such 
 a question. 'Alight for the stairs! Who'd give it? Sweeney? Not 
 much! Or the tenants ? Skaselv ! Them's too poor !' While he gut- 
 tered, the 'Buster' had pawed his way up stairs with surprising agility, 
 until he reached a door on the third landing. Turning triumphantly to 
 the detective, he announced, ' There's where I lodges, Jimmy ! You 
 knows I wouldn't lie to yez/ 
 
 u ' We'll see whether you would or no,' said Finn, tapping on the 
 door. Being told to come in, he opened it ; and on this trivial but dex- 
 terous pretext we invaded t >e sanctity of a home. 
 
TIIK TENEMENT-HOUSES. 585 
 
 44 No talc is so good as one plainly told, and I tell precisely what I saw. 
 This house was composed, in the parlance of the place, of a * room and 
 bed-room.' The room was about twelve feet square, and eight feet from 
 tloor to ceiling. It had two windows opening upon the court, and a large 
 fireplace filled with a cooking-stove. In the way of additional furniture, 
 it had a common deal table, three dilapidated wooden chairs, a few dishes 
 and cooking utensils, and two 4 shake-downs,' as the piles of straw 
 stuffed into bed-ticks are called ; but it had nothing whatever beyond 
 these articles. There was not even the remnant of a bedstead ; not a 
 cheap print, so common in the hovels of the poor, to relieve the blank- 
 ness of the rough, whitewashed walls. The bed-room, which was little 
 more than half the size of the other, was that outrage of capital upon 
 poverty known as a ' dark room,' by which is meaut that it had no window 
 opening to the outer air, and this closet had no furniture except two 
 4 shake-downs.' 
 
 44 In the contracted space of these two rooms, and supplied with these 
 scanty appliances for comfort, nine human beings were stored. First 
 there was the 4 Pensioner,' a man of about thirty-five years ; next his 
 wife ; then their three children ; a woman lodger with two children, and 
 the 4 Buster ' — the latter paying fifteen cents a night for his shelter ; but I 
 did not learn the amount paifl by the woman for the accommodation oi 
 herself and children. The 4 Buster,' having been indignant at my inquiry 
 as to the light upon the stairs, was now made merry by Finn supposing 
 he had a regular bed and bedstead for his money. 4 Indade he has not, 
 but a ' shake-down ' like the rest of us,' said the woman ; but the 4 Buster ' 
 rebuked this assumption of an impossible prosperity by promptly exclaim- 
 ing, 'Whisht! ye knows I stretch on the boords without any 4 shake- 
 down ' whatsumdever.' 
 
 44 Finn was of opinion the bed was hard but healthy, and, fixing his eye 
 on the 4 Buster's' flabby face, thought it possible he had any desirable 
 number of ' square' meals per day ; but that individual limited his ac- 
 quirements in that way for the day then closed to four. Finn then touch- 
 ing on the number of drinks, the 44 Buster,' being driven into conjecture 
 and a corner by the problem, was thrust out of the foreground of our 
 investigations. 
 
 44 By various wily tricks of his trade, Detective Finn managed to get a 
 deal of valuable information out of the 4 Pensioner ' without seeming to 
 be inquisitive or obtrusive, or even without rubbing the coat of his pov- 
 erty the wrong way. From this source I learned that five dollars per 
 month was paid as rent for these two third-floor rooms, and that every- 
 body concerned deemed them dirt cheap at that price. Light was 
 obtained from kerosene lamps at the expense of the tenant, and water had 
 to be carried from the court below, while all refuse, not emptied into the 
 court itself, had to be carried to the foul vaults beneath it. The rooms, 
 
586 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIEE. 
 
 having all these drawbacks, and beiDg destitute of the commonest appli- 
 ances for comfort and decency, did not appear to be in the highest degree 
 eligible; yet the 'Pensioner' considered himself fortunate in having 
 secured them. His experience in living must have been very doleful, for 
 he declared that he had seen worse places. In itself, and in so far as the 
 landlord was concerned, I doubted him ; but I had myself seen fouler 
 places than these two rooms, which had been made so by the tenants. 
 All that cleanliness could do to make the kennel of then * Pensioner ' hab- 
 itable had been done, and I looked with more respect upon the woman 
 who had scoured the rough floor white, than I had ever looked upon a 
 gaudily-attired dame sweeping Broadway with her silken trail. The 
 thrift that had so little for its nourishment had not been expended wholly 
 upon the floor, for I noticed that the two children asleep upon the ' shake- 
 down ' were clean, while the little fellow four years of age, who was 
 apparently prepared for bed, as he was entirely naked, but sat as yet upon 
 one of the three chairs, had no speck upon his fair white skin. A painter 
 should have seen him as he gazed w r onderingly upon us, and my respect 
 deepened for the woman who could, spite the hard lines of her rugged 
 life, bring forth and preserve so much of childish symmetry and beauty, 
 and keep it clean in this foul spot. «. 
 
 " Having observed these general facts, I turned to the master of this 
 household. He was a man of small stature, but rugged frame, and his 
 left shirt-sleeve dangled empty at his side. That adroit Finn, noticing 
 my inquiring look, blurted out, ' That arm went in a street accident, I 
 suppose?' 
 
 " 'No, sir ; it went at the battle of Spottsylvania.' 
 " Here was a hero ! The narrow limits of his humble home expanded 
 to embrace the brown and kneaded Virginian glades, as I saw them just 
 seven years ago, pictured with the lurid pageantry of that stubborn fight 
 where Sedgwick fell. This man, crammed with his family into twelve 
 feet square at the top of ' Sweeney's Shambles,' was once part of that 
 glorious scene. In answer to my questions, he said he belonged to the 
 Thirty-ninth New York, which was attached to the Second Corps, and 
 that he received a pension of fifteen dollars per month from the grateful 
 country he had served as payment in full for an arm. It was enough to 
 keep body and soul together, and he could not complain. Nor could I ; 
 but I could and did signify to my guide by a nod that I had seen and 
 heard enough, and we went down again into the slimy, reeking court. 
 
 " Looking upward, I saw the vast tenement-house, which contained 
 two hundred such suits of apartments as the one I had just left, rising 
 five stories above the narrow court, and I tried to imagine the vast total 
 of human misery it embraced. The reflective official at my side guessed 
 my thoughts, for he assured me that, coming as I had on a pleasant night 
 of the early summer, I had seen the place at its best. In August, when 
 
THE TENEMENT- HOUSES. 587 
 
 these two hundred homes had been blistered for two months, the odors 
 would be unendurable to a stranger ; and, although the atmosphere was 
 purer in winter, the place was then made as ghastly in a different way by 
 the sight of these thousands of human beings suffering for want of fuel 
 and clothing. For I knew, without being told, that only the wretchedly 
 poor could harbor in these holes. In many of the rooms were widows 
 struggling to maintain children by their scanty earnings as charwomen. 
 Where there was a male head to the family, he was usually either phy- 
 sically disabled by sickness or injury, as in the case of the ' Pensioner,' 
 or was one of the wretched army of unskilled labor. There were, how- 
 ever, among the tenants some craftsmen, such as printers, carpenters, and, 
 in fact, representatives of all trades, who had lost their earnings through 
 the bottle ; and knowing this fact, 'Sweeney's Shambles' loomed into 
 the misty night an irrefutable temperance argument. But, whatever the 
 failings of these wretched people, or whatever the reason of their pov- 
 erty, there could not be any excuse for the barbarity which crams one hun- 
 dred families into a building having a front of fifty feet, a depth of one 
 hundred and fifty feet, and five floors, when that building is 4 Sweeney's 
 Shambles,' devoid of every appliance for health, privacy, or decency, and 
 with those terrible vaults under the two courts upon which the east and 
 wrest sides of the edifice open." 
 
 This sketch has given the reader a pretty fair idea of the two low T er 
 classes of our tenement-houses. And it is a sad fact that there are other 
 tenement-houses, which not only equal Gotham Court in its wretchedness, 
 but are even much worse than it ever was before its reconstruction. But 
 to go into details in this direction would lead us back again to pauperism. 
 Our present object, however, is to describe the tenement-houses, not so 
 much with a view to the poorer classes, but rather to the working classes. 
 We cite Gotham Court as an example to show to what depths the tenement- 
 house system can degenerate. But we will find that even the newest and 
 best built tenement-houses possess almost the same faults, with the sole- 
 difference that they do not stand out so prominently as in the latter case. 
 
 According to the census of 1870, there are seventy thousand houses in 
 our city used as places of business and residences. Of these, twenty 
 thousand are so-called tenement-houses ; that is, they are inhabited by 
 more than three families. These twenty thousand houses are inhabited 
 by not less than one hundred and sixty thousand families, and, counting 
 four persons to the family, it would make a total of four hundred and 
 sixty thousand persons. Distributing this number equally among the 
 twenty thousand houses, it does not seem so very large ; but, upon a. 
 closer inspeetion, we see the matter in a different light. In the Seven- 
 teenth ward there there are 2,395 tenement-houses, which contain not 
 less than 85,635 persons. Furthermore, the total population of the city v 
 according to the census of 1870, was 942,202 ; the area of the city at 
 
588 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 the same time was twenty-two square miles. But by the census we see 
 that 477,804 — that is, over one-half of the total population — were crowded 
 together in the wards situated below Seventeenth street ; that is, on a 
 space of two square miles. The solution of the problem, how so many 
 persons can be crowded together in so small a space, is found in the 
 tenement-houses, the majority of which, over eleven thousand, are found 
 in this district. These tenement-houses also explain the curious fact of 
 -how many of our wards contain a larger population, on their small terri- 
 tory, than many of our large cities. Thus the Seventeenth ward, with 
 an area of 331 acres, or one-half of a square mile, has a larger popula- 
 tion than Cleveland, Ohio, which in point of population ranks as the 
 fifteenth city of the Union. The Fourth ward, with 83 acres, and five 
 five hundred tenement-houses, contains 23,748 inhabitants, or only 3,000 
 less than the well-known manufacturing city of Springfield, Mass. The 
 Eleventh ward, 196 acres, two thousand four hundred tenement-houses, 
 contains 64,230 inhabitants ; that is, more than Mobile, Ala., or Salem, 
 Mass. We could give many similar comparisons, but what we have said 
 suffices to give our readers a fair idea of the crowding together of our 
 inhabitants produced by the tenement-houses. In many parts of the city, 
 especially in the Eleventh and Seventeenth wards, there are whole streets 
 composed entirely of tenement-houses. A short walk through such 
 streets on close summer evenings enables a person to give a pretty good 
 guess as to the number of persons living in these immense houses. The 
 sidewalks, as well as the door-steps, swarm with persons of all ages, 
 while every window, from the pavement to the sixth or seventh story, 
 forms the frame for a larger or smaller group of faces. What a con- 
 trast to the aristocratic quiet and solitude of Fifth avenue. But it 
 will no longer wonder at this contrast when we remember that Fifth 
 avenue, from Union Square to Central Park, a distance of three miles, 
 contains hardly half as many inhabitants as a single block in one of the 
 lower wards. In Gotham Court we have had a sample of a class of 
 tenement-houses which are fortunately on the decline. Below we give a 
 sketch of a tenement which may be considered a fair sample of the large 
 majority of tenement-houses as they exist at present, and as they are still 
 in the course of erection. 
 
 Such a tenement-house is usually built on a lot 50x250 feet, and gen- 
 erally is of four, five, and even six stories. On each side of the house 
 there is an " alleyway," which is excavated to the depth of the cellar, but 
 on the level of the street it is arched over and paved with flags. In this 
 space gained by overarching are contained the privies, which are in most 
 cases without doors, and are in connection with the street sewer. Some- 
 times a grating in the top of this vault supplies the air so necessary to a 
 proper ventilation. The stairs, as well as the hallways, are so narrow- 
 that two persons meeting each other have hardly room enough to pass, 
 
TIIK TENEMENT-HOUSES. 589 
 
 while at the same time they are equally dark and badly aired. The 
 dwellings in the different stories generally consist of a sitting-room and a 
 bed-room, with, in most cases, a so-called closet, and sometimes with one 
 window only, and that opening on the hallway. This hall has a window 
 at each end, but the window in the rear part, which opens into a dark 
 court, is of little account. Ou each floor the water and gas pipes enter 
 every room, thus cuabliug those tenants who wish it to have gas-light. 
 Not the whole of the lot is ;sed f r the building, for there are two sepa- 
 m buildings erected on v.u , an< the law prescribes that there sha'.l be 
 a fe nee of at least 25 feet between the rear and the front building. The 
 rea- building is of course situated much more unfavorably with regard to 
 ligh and air, as its front windows look upon the court-yard of 25 feet, 
 and tii the rear upon the wall of the opposite building only 8 feet distant, 
 With the exception of those houses facing upon the street, these tenement- 
 houses are very badly off indeed with regard to light and air, and ou 
 cloudy days they are sometimes so dark that it is impossible to read iu 
 them without a light. 
 
 If we take into consideration that the tenants of these houses also 
 receive boarders, and that it is nothing unusual for two and even three 
 families to share one dwelling, we will no longer wonder that these houses 
 sometimes contain as high as one hundred and twenty families, or about 
 seven hundred persons. And these are among the better class of tenement- 
 houses in the lower wards, and by reason of the accommodations they 
 contain, are perfect paradises as compared with dens like Gotham Court. 
 
 Another class of tenement-houses which are beginning to spring up, 
 especially in the upper part of the city, are furnished with all the elegance 
 and comfort of private houses, and are generally rented out by the floor ; that 
 is, to a small number of families only. It is true they do not offer the 
 comforts of a true home, but it would still be unjust to class them among 
 the " Dark Sides of New York." We will, therefore, in the following 
 pages, confine ourselves to that class of tenement-houses which are justly 
 called " barracks." 
 
 From the large number of these tenement-houses, and the correspond- 
 ingly large number of inhabitants they contain, it will be readily seen that 
 they are by no means to be regarded as the exclusive habitations of the 
 poor. Fortunately, pauperism has not yet made so great advances in ou r 
 city that its victims can be counted by the hundred thousaud. The ma- 
 jority of the inhabitants of tenement-houses are industrious laboring men, 
 or small business men, whose means, whose means do not allow them to 
 have their homes far from their places of busiues. But the rents in the 
 lower part of the city are so high that he who is compelled to economize, 
 sees no other way open than to move his family into one of these large 
 "barracks," where the rents are lower, and he is nearer his place of busi- 
 ness. This is the chief reason that keeps the large mass of our popula- 
 
590 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 tion packed together in the lower part of the city, the centre of business, 
 and which enables this system of tenement-houses to flourish. The per- 
 sons living in these houses do not follow their own choice so much in 
 this respect as that of imperative necessity. Among a hundred wo 
 will hardly find ten who would not prefer a country life to the city. But 
 their residence in the city is imperiously demanded by their business, and 
 they are forced to remain there until the question of " rapid transit " is 
 solved in a more satisfactory manner than at present. 
 
 If we now look for the dark sides of tenement-house life, we will find 
 them to be very many. Even the best regulated of them have their dark 
 sides, and the larger and more densely populated the tenement-houses are, 
 the more prominently will these dark sides stand forth. 
 
 First among them are the dangers to life and health. Light and air, 
 these two essential elements of human life, are dealt out to the people 
 living in these places very sparingly. In building these honses, the chief 
 object has been to crowd as many dwellings as possible into the available 
 space. The sanitary regulations, which are just the very least that could 
 be required, are observed only so far as is absolutely necessary, or as the 
 dangers of the situation may dictate. The most prominent point, how- 
 ever, has been overlooked in the sanitary regulations, viz : that of the 
 number of persons to the size of a house. A house that can be safely 
 tenanted by ten families, becomes a breeder of disease if twenty families 
 are crowded into it. Generally the proprietors of these dens care for 
 nothing but the prompt payment of the rent. The tenants have perfect 
 liberty to receive as many boarders, lodgers, etc., as they please, as long 
 as they pay their rent promptly. Thus it is that sometimes the number 
 of inhabitants of such places is double that which it ought to be. 
 
 In such close quarters cleanliness in every direction should be one of 
 the first conditions. But a look into one of these houses will show us the 
 greatest carelessness in this respect. In the hallway, in the court, and on 
 the stairs, dirt and filth meet the eye everywhere, not to speak of the 
 privies, which are noticed by the faculty of smell long before they are 
 seen by the eye. The dwellings themselves are not much better ; among 
 them clean and tidy ones are like oases in the desert. But even local 
 cleanliness is not able to keep the poisonous air, which fills the whole 
 house, away from a single lodging. 
 
 In the middle of summer this atmosphere becomes perfectly unbearable, 
 through the perspiration of so many persons, the fires in the house for 
 cooking purposes, etc., and it is therefore no wonder if the entire popula- 
 tion of such houses crowd into the streetr or to the windows in the even- 
 ing. In the winter the air, which is generally pure, becomes contami- 
 nated, as all doors and windows are anxiously kept closed to keep out the 
 cold, and the heavy air, made more impure by carbonic acid gas, is 
 breathed again and again by the inhabitants. In former years, the streets 
 
THE TENEMENT-HOUSES. 591 
 
 on which these " barracks " are situated were also in a not very clean condi- 
 tion. It was nothing unusual for the tenants to throw dirty water, slops, 
 etr.. into the streets, as is done to the present day in the classic regions 
 of Baxter street, Sullivan street, and Donovan's lane. But, owing to the 
 exertions of the police, the streets have to-day a very decent appearance* 
 Yet this, if anything, makes the matter worse for the tenants of these 
 houses. The dirt, which cannot be thrown into the street, accumulates in 
 the house ; and the proprietors do not remonstrate, for, as we have said 
 before, they care for nothing but the prompt payment of the rent. The 
 air becomes very impure from the noxious odors arising from the nooks 
 and corners into which the refuse is thrown. 
 
 With regard to the absence of entire cleanliness from all the apart- 
 ments, closets, etc., which the tenants have in common, it is a sad reality. 
 But we need not wonder at it. Who shall keep them clean ? The pro- 
 prietor of the house, who resides in some brown-stone palace, or is amus- 
 ing himself at some watering-place or abroad? Most certainly not. The 
 tenants then? It would certainly be in their interest to look to it ; but, 
 for every one who is willing to do his share, there are ten others who 
 stoutly refuse, or ar.3 very indifferent in the matter. Those w T ho are 
 inclined to be clean at last tire of being the servants of the others, and 
 the result may be imagined. In this respect, it is a strange fact that so 
 many of the tenants continually talk about the filth, but would rather 
 suffocate by it than stir a hand to remove it. And they are by no means 
 in want of excuses to explain their singular conduct. Such an excuse 
 was given recently to the Sanitary Commission, upon visiting one of the 
 filthiest tenement-houses in Thompson street. The commissioners were 
 received with the most bitter descriptions of the filth and the smell exist- 
 ing in the house. When the commissioners told the tenants that it was 
 principally their own fault, as soap and water and brushes would do much 
 to better their condition, the good people were highly indignant at them. 
 One fat Irishwoman, almost covered with dirt, stepping up to the commis- 
 sioners with her arms akimbo, said : " What do you take us for? Do you 
 think w r e are going to clean out the house, so that he can clear us out when 
 it looks better, and rent it out to persons who pay more than we?" 
 
 Strange as the words of this woman seem, they are still not without a 
 grain of truth, and show that the characters of many of the landlords 
 are no less dirty than their tenement-houses. Much of the blame that 
 falls on the tenants of filthy tenement-houses is fully deserved by the pro- 
 prietors. This fact is also recognized by the Sanitary Commission in one 
 of its reports. After the report has spoken of terrible evils found in 
 tenement-houses in general, it continues as follows : 
 
 u The worst class of tenement-houses were those where a landlord had 
 accommodations for ten families, and these buildings comprise more than 
 half the tenement-houses of the city, and accommodrate fully two-thirds 
 
592 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 of the tenement-house population. When the number of families living 
 under one owner exceeded ten, it was found that such owner was engaged 
 in keeping tenement-houses as a business, and generally as a speculator. 
 It is among this class of owners that nearly all the evils of the tenement- 
 house system are found. The little colony exhibit in their rooms, and in 
 the little areas around their dwelling, extreme want of care. The street 
 in front of the place was reeking with slops and garbage ; the alleys and 
 passageways were foul with excrement ; the court was imperfectly paved, 
 wet, and covered with domestic refuse ; the privies, located in a close 
 court between the rear and front houses, were dilapidated, and gave out 
 noisome odors which filled the whole area, and were diffused through all 
 the rooms opening upon it ; and the halls and apartments of the wretched 
 occupants wjre close, unventilated, and unclean. The complaint was 
 universal among the tenants that they are entirely uncared for, and that 
 the only answer to their request to have the place put in order, by repairs 
 and necessary improvements, was that they must pay their rents or leave. 
 Inquiry often disclosed the fact that the owner of the property was a 
 wealthy gentleman or lady, either living in an aristocratic part of this, or 
 in a neighboring city, or, as was occasionally found to be the case, in 
 Europe. The property is usually managed entirely by an agent, whose 
 instructions are simple but emphatic, viz : ' collect the rent in advance, or, 
 failing, eject the occupants.' The profits on this sort of property, so 
 administered, are rarely less than 15 per cent., and more generally 20 per 
 cent., upon the investment." 
 
 But, wherever the blame for the evils connected with our tenement- 
 houses may rest, these evils are a sad fact, and will not be without their 
 consequences. After what we have said above, it is a self-evident fact 
 that the sanitary condition of the tenement-houses must be very unfavor- 
 able. A visit into the streets containing these "barracks" must show 
 this even to the most casual observer. Among the numberless children 
 running about there, very few will be found who have a healthy and 
 strong appearance. Mostly with pale and bloated faces, they look like 
 flowers that have grown in places not reached by the sun. Much more 
 serious proofs of unhealthy influences of tenement-houses are found in the 
 mortality lists of our city. These show that the tenement-houses con- 
 tribute a large number of those who are brought to their last resting-place 
 throughout the year. They also teach us that not only do epidemics first 
 appear in the tenement-houses, but that they appear there in their worst 
 forms. We can even say that these epidemics never die out in them, but 
 rest for years, waiting only for favorable opportunities to develop them- 
 selves. 
 
 But tho figures of Dr. Elisha Harris, the sanitary superintendent, speak 
 louder than anything we can say. According to the last annual report of 
 this gentleman before us, the total mortality was 25,607. Of this number, 
 
TUB i IM .vi- N r-H< i 8E3. 
 
 4,00.3 occurred in public institutions (hospitals, prisons, &c), <3,s 1 5 in 
 private houses, hotels, and boarding-houses, and 13,285 in tenement- 
 houses; that is, more than one-half of all deaths in the city occurred in 
 tenement-houses. This proportion becomes still more unfavorable, if we 
 take into consideration that the majority of those who died in hospitals, 
 etc., properly belong to the tenement-houses. We can even go farther 
 and put a large number of the deaths in private houses to the credit of 
 the tenement-houses, for they are true hot-beds of pestilence and epi- 
 demics, which from there spread over the city. Cholera, small-pox, 
 typhoid (ever, etc., generally originate in the filthiest and most densely 
 populated quarters, and there again in the filthy and overcrowded 
 tenement-houses. There it is where these diseases assume such a malig- 
 nant form that they mock all means employed to prevent their further 
 spread. It has even been discovered that a new and, although not fatal 
 yet very serious disease, the so-called "relapsing fever," has been brooded 
 out in the tenement dens of the Five Points. Consumption, diseases of 
 the lungs, blood and skin humors, aud all forms of malignant fevers, 
 seem to be at home in the tenement-houses at all times. Under these 
 circumstances, it needs no further explanation that the mortality among 
 the children in these den3 is very great. 
 
 The inhabitants of tenement-houses are threatened with dangers from 
 other quarters also. AVe need only look at the high buildings crowded 
 with human beings, and at their narrow stairways and entrances, and 
 then suppose that a fire should originate in one of them. Involuntarily 
 wc shudder at the thought. It almost seems impossible that sue i an event 
 should happen without sacrificing at least a dozen human lives. And it. 
 is indeed only by good fortune that this does not happen more frequently 
 than it actually docs. Nevertheless, scarcely a year passes but that a 
 number of human lives arc sacrificed in this manner. The authori ies 
 have also recognized the danger arising from this source ; but, instead of 
 condemning the impracticable manner in which the houses are built, they 
 have coufiued themselves to ordering iron safety-ladders to be placed on 
 the walls of these houses. But, in spite of these ladders, the tenement- 
 houses are to the present day what they have always been, viz : man- 
 traps from which a good fortune only can save the inhabitants in case of 
 a conflagration. 
 
 These houses also exert a demoralizing influence, not only on their 
 inhabitants, but on our whole society. Without a home, no family life 
 can be possible ; and the less the family life is separated from outside 
 influences, the looser will its hold upon it3 members become. For this 
 reason also the custom of the wealthy classes, ot boarding or livin««- in 
 hotels, has been so much condemned. But how is it with the family life 
 in tenement-houses, with their twenty, fifty, and even more families? 
 The iact that so many families live so close together, excludes iho idea 
 
 ( 38 
 
594 TIIE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 of a separate home for each. There they all live together, without know- 
 ing any more of each other than what they see in their daily intercourse ; 
 the good and the wicked, the honest laborer and the professional thief, 
 the innocent girl and the prostitute — they all live here together. It is 
 impossible to keep the children of the family entirely away from impure 
 associations. How is it possible that female tact, this most powerful pro- 
 tector of virtue, should not become dull after living in such places for a 
 considerable time? It is a strange but well-known fact that bad influ- 
 ences will always be found more powerful than good ones. Nowhere is 
 there a better chance to observe this than in tenement-houses. Just as 
 the sense of cleanliness becomes dull by continual contact with the filth 
 existing here, so it is also with the moral feeling in daily contact with 
 rowdyism, immorality, and wickedness. 
 
 The home in these " barracks," however, is so entirely devoid of all 
 attractions, that we need not wonder that the children often prefer the 
 street to it, and the men and women the saloons. But neither the street 
 nor the saloons are proper schools to acquire the virtues of family life. 
 Scenes of beastly drunkenness, domestic quarrels, bloody fights, etc., are 
 not of unfrequent occurrence in tenement-houses. Such scenes can only 
 have a demoralizing effect on the youthful mind. Thus it is at present ; 
 and what can we expect of the generation now growing up in these 
 houses, and whose character has been formed under their influence? For 
 it is the laboring class, the true foundation of our national power, that is 
 chiefly exposed to their evil influences. How can this evil be remedied? 
 This question is much easier asked than answered. With words and on 
 paper it would perhaps be an easy matter, but it will be found more diffi- 
 cult in reality. In itself, it is nothing but a local excess of population, 
 and could be remedied by a proper distribution of the excess of a certain 
 district. New York has sufficient room in its neighborhood to bring 
 cheap and healthy homes within the reach of all. But here again are 
 causes which prevent thousands from making use of this opportunity. It 
 is hard for a laborer to be pressed into overcrowded cars or a ferry-boat 
 for an hour or two every evening, and to reach home half suffocated in 
 summer, and half frozen in winter. It is equally hard on him to take 
 two hours from his necessary sleep, to get up early that he may arrive in 
 time at his place of business. At the same time, with the exception of 
 Sundays, he has no opportunity to devote himself to his family, as the 
 long way to his work and back robs him of the few hours which he could 
 possibly devote to that purpose. Who would blame him, therefore, if he 
 preferred to live near to his place of business, and, as the only way left 
 open to him, looks to the tenement-houses for a dwelling in accordance 
 with his means? 
 
 Thousands and thousands are driven into the tenement-houses on this 
 account, and are kept there iu spite of their disadvantages. The tenement- 
 

 THE TENEMENT-HOUSES. 595 
 
 houses, now so overcrowded, would be immediately cleaned out if the 
 so loug-debated problem of "rapid transit" could be solved in a satisfac- 
 tory manner. Nothing has as yet been done by our authorities to oppose 
 the evils of the tenement-house system. The sanitary regulations, which, 
 even if they are strictly enforced, are entirely insufficient, are in general 
 not at all enforced. 
 
 In midsummer, when cholera or small-pox is expected, our Sanitary 
 Commission begins to bestir itself. It must do something for the money. 
 The tenement-houses are inspected, the papers publish terrible descrip- 
 tions of the misery and depravity laid bare, and reports are made ; but, 
 in effect, everything remains as it was before ; for what benefit is derived 
 from the fact that one of these filthy dens is closed by the authorities, aud its 
 inmates, with all their baggage, put into the streets? Mo^t certainly none. 
 On the contrary, it is a very questionable humanity that would put these 
 miserable creatures on the street, without telling them where to look for 
 a new home. What is more natural than that such victims of the sani- 
 tary authorities should seek refuge in dens similar to that from which 
 they have been expelled? One of these dens has indeed been closed, but 
 others have been overcrowded in proportion, aud have been made all the 
 more dangerous on that account. 
 
 Of what use is it, furthermore, that, at the moment when an epidemic 
 is threatening, a number of these houses are handled with brush and soap 
 by order of the police, and the filth is rather stirred up than cleared away? 
 The Sanitary Commission should not go to sleep when the fear of an 
 Epidemic has passed away with the summer, but should look to it that the 
 evils, which have been been discovered and abolished for the time beino- 
 do not again return. The simplest way would be to hold the owners of 
 such "barracks" responsible for any evils, as filthiness, overcrowding 
 etc., occurring among them. For, even in cemeteries, the number of 
 dead to a certain space is regulated by law- Why should not a similar 
 law prescribe to the proprietors of tenement-houses how many tenants 
 they shall have, according to the size of their houses? From the fact 
 that such a law does not exist, it has come to pass that there are blocks 
 in the down-town wards in which the living have a much smaller space to 
 breathe in than that in which the law allows the dead to rot. But these 
 proprietors are leading men in the political and financial world, and they 
 know how to keep justice at a distance. If the authorities would hold 
 these persons responsible, it would soon become better, and such reports 1 
 as that which denotes the majority of these tenement houses as untenable 
 for some particular reason, would not be repeated every year. 
 
 The improvements undertaken on so large a scale, during the past years 
 within the city boundaries, have also tended to increase the number of 
 tenement-houses, and to fill up their rooms. The laying out of public 
 parka and boulevards in the upper part of the city has so raised the prica 
 
596 
 
 TEE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 of ral eelate, thaf it is an impossibility for a laboring man to possess his 
 own home. But we do not wish to be understood, by any means, that 
 we desire to preach against our public parks and other improvements,. 
 which jiastly fill us with pride. We only speak of the evil which is at 
 the bottom of our political and social conditions — against corruption, 
 which annually steals millions out of the pockets of the tax-payers, and 
 thus raises the taxes to an enormous height. These taxes are chiefly 
 resting on the real estate, and is the principal reason for the high rents 
 existing at present. 
 
 True reform would not remain without its beneficial effects on the 
 tenement-house system. The tenement-houses are a disgrace to our city, 
 and a crime being committed upon the generations now growing up. Only 
 one generation old, they already form one of our most prominent social 
 evils. They form a visible measure of pauperism, and, as the sources of 
 social demora'ization, are to be counted among the causes of pauperism. 
 What we have said with regard to the dangers arising from pauperism, 
 is also very true of tenement- houses. It is indeed true that not every 
 one can live in a palace, and this no one will expect. Not even the most 
 earnest communist woi.ll make such a demand. But, as long as there is 
 no other home open to the laborer and his family than what is offered him 
 in these barracks, so long will there be a wide field open for possiblo 
 reforms. The well-known saying of Horace Greeley, " Go west," can- 
 not be applied here, for all those thousands of our tenement population 
 are necessary to keep the business machinery of our city in motion. Other 
 means must therefore be employed to furnish relief in this respect. We 
 have already given short hints as to the kind of means. The problem is 
 a difficult, but not impossible, one to solve. Its quick solution is a matter 
 of honor for our ci^y. which should pride itself on the absence of such 
 dens as we have seen in the tenement-houses, rather than in the number 
 of its palaces. 
 
 ADVENTURERS AND CHEATS. 
 
 It is an old saying that " one-half of tha world does not know on what 
 the other half lives." It may say a little too much, but certain it is that 
 there are a large number of persons in our miJst who know how to live r 
 and to live well, too, and that without work. We have become &c* 
 quaintcd with quite a number of these gentlemen already, and would here 
 
ADVENTOREBS \M> « ill \ l)V < 
 
 introduce (lie render to another class. AVc have reference to the adventu- 
 rera who, although closely related to the swindlers, still only take to 
 criminal means in very exceptional case?. They speculate on the weak- 
 s of their fellow men, whom they regard as far beneath themselves, 
 and therefore have no scruples as to letting the crowd work for them. 
 N«>t seldom does an adventurer Bucceed in gaining riches and a high posi- 
 tion. But, as he is accustomed to live far beyond his means, and to leave 
 the rest to hick and his genius, his riches and position often fly away as 
 quickly as they were won. Most adventurers, therefore, end their lives 
 cither in the poor-house or in prison. 
 
 Our city is a real gold-mine for all kinds of adventurers. Not only 
 from all parts of the Union, but cveu from all countries of the world, do 
 they assemble here to change their wit into money. They know how to 
 intrude into all classes of society, and there to be recognized as superior 
 beings. The respective circles even consider it an honor that the "rich 
 Southerner," the " political refugee," " my lord," the "great traveler,' 
 or whatever role the adventurer may assume, should notice them. 
 
 The part of the "political refugee," as well as that of the "rich 
 Southerner," are getting to be rather thin and threadbare, but European 
 noblemen have the same power of attraction which they had years ago, 
 and are baits for adventurers at which our republican millionaires still 
 continue to bile. These "noble" adventurers generally do not stop at 
 small things, but aim at something high, and thus often become the sen- 
 sation of the day. It is a humiliating fact that nothing imposes more 
 easily upon an American than a title of nobility. It is not so long ago 
 but that every one can remember, how this aristocracy disgraced the 
 nation by their servility at Hie reception of the Prince of Wales, and 
 later at that of the Grand Duke Alexis. 
 
 But it is not even necessary that it should be the title of " prince" to 
 open the most exclusive circles of our artstocracy. A French marquis, a 
 German baron, or a Russian count do just as well. Whether he really 
 has any blue blood in his veins or not is immaterial, as long as he knows 
 how to play his part as nobleman well ; and as long as he indulges in 
 horseflesh, champagne, roulette, faro, etc., and has a decided distaste for 
 work, he will easily pass for a real baron, marqu : s, or count. Many 
 former lackeys and servants possess these qualifications in a very high 
 degree. If they also have a large quantity of "cheek" and well-formed 
 figures, they will be quickly taken up by the different sets. 
 
 Many of the temporary pets of our shoddy aristocracy, whether they 
 are real or imaginary barons, content themselves with living at the 
 expense of their friends, borrowing money of them, and then becoming 
 invisible. Others, however, are not satisfied with this. They conde- 
 scend to become the husbands of rich widows, or the sons-in-law of mil> 
 lionairee, who feel highly honored by such an alliance with the nobility. 
 
598 
 
 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Very often, however, the young wife discovers, after the wedding, that 
 her husband has a wife living in some other city, or in Europe, which he 
 was forced to leave in a hurry, on account of debts, or for some other 
 reason. The beautiful dream of course stops here. The baron or count 
 disappears as soon as he finds his identity discovered, and generally takes 
 along whatever articles of value he can lay his hands on. 
 
 Examples are not wanting in which the supposed count or marquis has 
 turned out to be a former servant. The love of the American baroness, 
 countess, etc., generally disappears with the discovery of her husband's 
 low descent, and a divorce suit quickly follows it. Very often, however, 
 the woman's heart is stronger than prejudice. The w r ronged woman 
 bears all the scoffing and mocking, and remains true to the man whom 
 she has wedded of her own free choice. But she can consider herself 
 lucky if her constancy does not meet with a poor return. We here give 
 such a case, which is all the more interesting as the adventurer was pro- 
 tected by the influence of his rich father-in-law, and retained the mask 
 under which he had obtained entrance into aristocratic circles. 
 
 Some two years ago a young Englishman made his advent into New 
 
 York, who called himself Lord Richard N . He lived in a style 
 
 which led to the conclusion that his purse must be a very heavy one. As 
 he was at the same time well informed, and was a good talker, he soon 
 had numerous invitations from the upper ten. He made himself perfectly 
 at home there. According to a rumor, which, however, could be traced 
 to no definite starting-point, the young and handsome lord was heir to 
 over one million pounds sterling. This rumor was believed all the more 
 as Lord Richard, although very gallant to ladies in company, was exces- 
 sively haughty and even insolent to the gentlemen. It naturally followed 
 that the noble lord was not very well liked by his male companions. To 
 this was added the fact that the handsome stranger was a dangerous rival 
 in the affections of the republican beau.ies, who all seemed to have fallen 
 in love with his lordship. It is true that it was also rumored that Lord 
 Richard had a great talent for making debts, and that he had had extra- 
 ordinarily good luck at faro. The papers also took notice at last of 
 this lion of the day, but said that in the peerage of England there was 
 no such name as Lord Richard N . But this created all the less sus- 
 picion in fashionable circles, as Lord Richard 'treated these rumors with 
 the most profound contempt, and continued to turn the heads of the 
 women by his gallantries. He succeeded exceedingly well, for one fine 
 day the fashionable world was astonished by the news that Lord Richard 
 
 N had engaged himself to Miss S , a well-known beauty of Fifth 
 
 avenue. The wedding, which followed soon after, was celebrated with 
 all due pomp at the residence of the bride's parents. The new Lady 
 
 N was overjoyed, while her friends were ready to die from sheer 
 
 jealousy. The newly-married couple passed their honeymoon traveling, 
 
ADTBMTURBSfl AND CHEATS. 599 
 
 aud everything seemed to go according to wish. But, while Lord N 
 
 and his young wife were enjoying themselves, dark clouds were gathering 
 
 tor them in New York. The evil rumors circulating against Lord N 
 
 assumed more definite shapes, and soon no doubt remained that the sup- 
 posed lord was a swindler and an adventurer. Creditors came in large 
 numbers, and asked the dear father-in-law whether his lordship would not 
 soon return. Everybody laughed at the turn the affair now seemed to be 
 taking. The same young ladies who, only a week before, would have been 
 
 happy to give to Lord N their hearts and hands, now laughed at 
 
 Lady N , and said that they had recoguized her husband at first sight 
 
 as an adventurer. The father-in-law at last saw himself compelled to 
 act in the matter, and therefore he recalled the happy pair by telegraph. 
 Explanations followed, the nature of which did not reach the public. 
 Only so much became known as that the supposed lord pleaded guilty, 
 and that his young wife declared most emphatically that she would not 
 separate her destiny from that of her husband, lord or no lord. The 
 father decided, for his daughter's sake, to make the most he could out of 
 the affair. He paid all the debts of the son-in-law, laughed at the circu- 
 lating rumors that he was an adventurer, and could not express how 
 
 happy he felt to see his children, Lord and Lady N , so contented. 
 
 lie gave a large party in honor of their return, to which all the first 
 families of Fifth avenue were invited. By these and similar deviceWie 
 succeeded in quieting the rumors, and in gaining for the adventurer the 
 rank which he had unlawfully assumed. So far all has been well. But 
 the future only can tell us whether this story will be without that sad con- 
 clusion which generally belongs to stories of this kind. 
 
 Female adventurers of this class are also not wanting. Many a 
 countess or baroness, with whose presence many a millionaire feels him- 
 self honored, is in a'l probability nothing but a decoy for the gambling 
 hells of fashionable watering-places. These female celebrities also under- 
 stand the art of making the purses of their friends subservient to their 
 wishes. Then, if they disappear some day, a large number of unpaid 
 bills will make their appearance, and leave their friends sometimes the 
 cousolation that they ha to not been the only victims. A well-known role 
 of female adventurers was that of the California widow, who in former 
 years deluded many a fool with more money than brains. This part, 
 however, no longor pays, and has therefore almost entirely disappeared 
 from the list of female adventurers. 
 
 Generally, however, the female cheats act more as the assistants of 
 some male cheat, in preference to going iuto business on their own 
 account. As it may suit them, they are either the wives or daughters of 
 the swindlers. Many of the female sharpers are satisfied with leading au 
 easy life without work. But this always requires a person to have verv 
 peculiar ideas of M easiness," if we take into account the continued 
 
600 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 inventing of new tricks, the always threatening danger of being detected, 
 the continued self-control which must be sustained, etc. An example of 
 this kind happened a short time ago. 
 
 In the fall of 1870 a pretty and interesting lady, aged about thirty-one 
 years, took lodgings in one of our first-class hotels. She had no baggage, 
 and explained this fact to the clerk by saying that her trunks had been ille- 
 gally detained in Boston by the proprietor of the boarding-house, with 
 whom she had some difficulty. She also succeeded in gaining the clerk 
 completely over, and told him confidentially that she had inherited a mil- 
 lion dollars some time ago, and that she intended to buy property in this 
 city. This " confidential " commuaication of course remained no secret, 
 and soon the modest proprietor of a million was the centre of observation 
 of all the guests. Her winning ways soon gained her the friendship of 
 all, and she made use of these numerous friendships to borrow money in 
 large or small amounts. After a short time her character began to be 
 suspected, and she left the hotel, owing a large bill, to continue her game 
 in another. Thus she continued from one hotel to another, and when she 
 had finished the hotels she commenced upon the private boarding-houses 
 of the better class, where she plundered the guests in the most genial 
 manner. So genially systematic did she carry on her business, that she 
 actually lived for two years by her wits. She borrowed and borrowed, 
 ^Jltimes paying old debts by new ones contracted, but in the end nearly 
 all her debts of course remained unpaid. But this game seemed too 
 small for her, and she conceived a plan which should make her rich by 
 one stroke. This plan was nothing less than to buy some very valuable 
 property — of course paying no money. 
 
 In the summer of 1872 she applied for this purpose to one of the 
 largest real-estate agents in the city, from whom she bought a residence 
 in Madison avenue valued at $100,000. She told the agent quite coolly 
 that she would pay the money cash down as soon as the papers were made 
 out to her. So well did she play the part of the rich lady, that the agent 
 had not the least doubt of her ability or her willingness to pay, and they 
 decided upon the day of payment. Then the woman assumed a confi- 
 dential air and told him that she possessed over a million of dollars, and 
 that she had no one in New York whom she could consult in managing 
 her property. The end of the story was that she asked him to manage 
 her property for her as trustee, on the most liberal terms. Her plan was 
 to get the agent to the point that he would deliver the papers into her 
 hands. The agent did not as yet have any suspicion. But he had made 
 it a principle never to act as trustee for anybody. That he remained 
 true to this principle under the most tempting offers in this case, saved 
 him from the impending ruin. The woman left the office when she saw 
 that he was proof against all temptations, saying that she would call on' 
 the appointed day with the money. The day came, but wilh it no lady, 
 
AI>Y i:\TrUEKS AND CHEATS. f'Ol 
 
 and iu vain did the agent and the owner of the Madison avenue house 
 
 wait for her. At last a suspicion of the woman's purpose in asking him 
 to become trustee entered the mind of the agent, and he saw what danger 
 he had escaped by firmly adhering to his principle. Of course he never 
 the woman again. The latter tried the same game with various 
 other real-estate agents, but she was nowhere successful. A daily paper 
 at last called attention to her, and exposed her doings to the public. 
 Whether she Mas unable to stand this disgraceful exposure, or whether 
 she saw her swindling career cut short by it, we cannot say. But the 
 end was that she was found dead iu her bed one morning. She had 
 ended her life by poison. 
 
 ( ' course they all do not attempt to carry on the business on so extensive 
 a scale. Many, for example, cauuot withstand the temptation to try their 
 hands as adventurers or cheats if they sec a chance. Others again carry 
 it on as a profession, but only at retail. These are not considered worthy 
 of the name of " adventurers," and are then called '• cheats." These 
 occasional cheats very often find out to'their cost that cheating, as well as 
 anything else, must first be learned before it can be successlully carried 
 on, and iu many cases their first attempt (very often perhaps fortunately 
 for them) brings them in contact with the law. A case of this kind was 
 before the courts a short time ago. 
 
 A collector of one of our largest business houses entered the office one 
 day, with all signs of the greatest consternation, and said that his pocket- 
 book, with sixteen hundred dollars, had been stolen from him while riding 
 in a Broadway stage. The mau had until then enjoyed a high reputation 
 for honesty, and he related all the circumstances so well that no one 
 doubted the truth of his story. The breast-pocket from which the wallet 
 had been stolen, and which had been cut open, could be regarded as a 
 further proof. The firm was therefore incliued to believe the man inno- 
 cent, but told him to report to the police and describe the person, as closely 
 as possible, whom he suspected. This was done ; but the detectives were 
 not satisfied with the description, and thought they might possibly gain 
 some clue to the thief by the cut in the coat. They examined it, but the 
 result of the examination was quite unexpected — that is, to the collector. 
 Sitting there in sad meditation, he was arrested and told most decidedly 
 that he was the thief and nobody else. This sudden turn of the afFair 
 took the collector by surprise. He became so embarrassed that he hardly 
 knew what he was saying. He attempted to appear indignant, and asked 
 how they could accuse him of such a deed. In answer he was shown 
 his coat, and that the outer cut did not at all correspond with the inner 
 one, as the latter was much longer and in another direction. This could 
 only be explained by t.ie fact that the coat and the pocket had been cut 
 separately. No one but himself could have done it. lie saw he had 
 been neatly caught in his own trap, and confessed on the spot. 
 
602 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 A peculiar class of cheats are those who raise money by pretending 
 that they are authorized to collect money for charitable purposes. They 
 are generally dressed very respectably, and, with the most unctuous look 
 upon their countenances, they go from door to door, and present their 
 petition. They carry books with them, in which they take down the 
 names of the donors, as well as the amount given. They are not easily 
 put off, and are satisfied with the smallest amount. Their respectable 
 appearance and their boldness, which is generally explained by the good 
 object in view, hardly permit a suspicion to arise. And yet they are 
 nothing but cheats, and are all the more contemptible as their trade is 
 carried on under the cover of hypocrisy, and does much to undermine the 
 charitable instincts of our people. 
 
 Other tricks are no less common. Many a merchant has been cheated 
 through sending goods to a house which the buyer only used for the time 
 to receiye the goods. The buyer receives the goods and goes into a room, 
 telling the messenger to wait, and he will bring out the money right away. 
 But he waits in vain, and, after his patience is exhausted, and he opens 
 the door, he sees to his surprise that the door does not lead into a room, 
 but into a hallway, through which the cheat has long ago reached the 
 street and disappeared, taking the bundle with him. 
 
 Ladies, servants, and others are often taken in by the following trick : 
 Some person, who of course is acquainted with the house, calls during 
 the day, and says he is sent by the gentleman of the house to bring away 
 some particular thing. In this manner many articles of clothing, furni. 
 ture, valuable books, etc., have come into the hands of the cheats. For 
 that this person is nothing but a cheat is soon discovered upon the return 
 of the gentleman of the house in the evening. 
 
 Another class of cheats are those who are called " Duffers." These 
 " duffers" carry on their business in the garb of sailors. With a bundle 
 under their arm, they call upon ladies, and ask whether they do not wish 
 to buy silks, link:g-goods, etc., very cheap. They say that they have just 
 arrived from a trip to France, and that they have smuggled these goods 
 through the custom-house. In most cases the trick is successful. Gen- 
 uine French silks and laces, and at very low prices besides, have a very 
 peculiar charm for ladies. It makes no difference to them that the goods 
 are smuggled. No one would take the apparently simple-minded sailor 
 to be what he actually is, a cheat. His bundles are bought, and the 
 buyer finds to her mortification, when the cheat has gone, that her pur. 
 cha-e is miserable stuff, and not worth half the money paid for it. The 
 "duffer" gets another bundle, and continues the business in some other 
 street. Even if should be again seen by one of his victims, he does not 
 care in the least ; for, as they have knowingly bought smuggled goods^ 
 they would not care to have him arrested for swindling. 
 
 The above are only a few examples of the various tricks practiced 
 
i III- niEATBEfl <>b M1E LOWEU CLASS. hi).', 
 
 uuder different forms. To mention them all would lead us too far, and 
 would also be of no particular interest. For the genius of our adveutu- 
 rers and cheats is very inventive. If we should expose all their known 
 tricks to-day, they would have new ones ready to-morrow, with which 
 they would carry ou their business as successfully as ever. They hardly 
 ever come iuto contact with the police, for, in the first place, they excel in 
 the art of becoming in viable at the proper moment ; and secondly, their 
 victims very seldom make a charge against them. In most cases it is the 
 fault of the victim, who has allowed the cheat to get the better of him, 
 and, heavy as his loss may be, he would rather bear it than the ridicule 
 of his friends. But their success sometimes makes the cheats bold, or 
 want drives them to despair. Gradually they lose their aversion to open 
 crime. The step from the adventurer or cheat to the thief and robber is 
 not so very great when a chance offers, and the gates of the prison are 
 ready to receive them. They therefore form a very dangerous element of 
 our society, from which the different classes of criminals constantly re- 
 ceive fresh additions. As they carry on their busiuess under almost any 
 and every disguise, the only rule that can be given to guard against them^. 
 is to employ proper care in your intercourse with strangers. 
 
 THE THEATRES OF THE LOWER CLASS. 
 
 The theatres have not without justice been termed institutions for edu- 
 cating the masses, and whose true object is to purify the taste of the 
 people, and to develop in them that sense of the beautiful which forms 
 the foundation of every true civilization. Unfortunately, however, our 
 theatres do not always fulfill this object. They are conducted too much 
 with a view to the pecuuiarv interest of the proprietor, and this interest 
 demands that only such plays shall be offered to the public as will satisfy 
 their tastes. Xobody will blame the proprietor tor rather being rich than 
 bankrupt ; aud he would certainly become bankrupt if he should act con- 
 trary to the taste of the public, aud perform classic pieces before an empty 
 house. It would therefore be unjust to apply too strici a measure in this, 
 and, if we take everything iuto consideration, it must certainly be con- 
 ceded that we have very good thea'res in New York. 
 
 There are theatres, however, which speculate ou the lowest tastes of 
 Ihe people, and do their be^l to eouiinually iurnish this low taste with 
 
C04 THE DAKK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 new fuel. These theatres, therefore, should most certainly not be over- 
 looked in speaking of the " Dark Sides of New York." Murder and 
 robbery are given here every night, and murderers, robbers, and highway- 
 men are depicted as heroes and martyrs. Indecent farces and ballets 
 occasionally take the place of these pieces. From the character of these 
 pieces, we can judge as to the character of the theatres. But we only 
 fully comprehend their danger to society when we look at the public that 
 assembles there. One-half of this public is beyond redemption. It con- 
 sists of rowdies, loafers, prostitutes, vagabonds, and others of the same 
 class, whose faces would more properly belong in the galleries of a prison 
 than in a theatre. The other half consists either of children, or are 
 young men just removed from home influence, and who here take their 
 first downward step. The children in this motley assembly are chiefly 
 newsboys and bootblacks, a ragged crowd, who, both by their personal 
 appearance and their vivacity, form a prominent feature of such theatres. 
 We can hardly escape the conclusion that it is from this second half of these 
 visitors that the first half continually recruits itself. 
 
 Among these guests we occasionally see persons who do not seem to 
 belong to this company. They are either strangers who want to take a 
 look at the dark side of New York, or unsuspicious persons from the 
 country, or even from the city sometimes, who, not knowing the character 
 of the place, have accidentally strayed into one of these theatres. En- 
 tirely in accordance with this public is their behavior. Those who do 
 not smoke, or chew, or fight, are eating peanuts, the shells of which cover 
 the floor of the gallery, as well as the parquet or pit, as it is called in 
 these theatres, with a crackling covering. Pickpockets actively ply their 
 trade. The fights are considered very amusing additions to the play, and 
 .are real pleasures for the large part of the audience, who take part in it 
 •with hoots and yells. 
 
 And then the pieces that are played here ! Terrible ghost stories and 
 indecent farces certainly do much to demoralize the people, but they are 
 by no means the worst that is offered on these stages. "Dick Turpin," 
 44 Jack Sheppard," and other celebrated robbers, dramatized in all possi- 
 ble variations, form a programme for these theatres, which is always sure 
 to draw crowded houses. Robbery, murder, and even scenes of execu- 
 tion, are given down to the smallest details. The better a murderer kills 
 his victim on the stage, and Ue more naturally he dies on the gallows, 
 the louder is the applause of the roaring and stamping crowd. A simi- 
 lar care is given to the representation of burglaries and thefts ; for the 
 actors doing these scenes know full well that the spectators are good 
 judges in these matters. This is carried so far that these theatres may 
 be fitly termed schools for young thieves and burglars, while the glory 
 with which crime is surrounded on the stage is a strong incentive to 
 crime for the youthful part of the audience. Many unfortunates who 
 
THE TIIEATRKS OF TI1K LOWKR CLASS. 
 
 have ended their lives on the gallows, or who now fill the cells of our 
 prison?, have been first brought on the road to crime by these theatre*. 
 The Bowery Theatre especially produces this class of dramas. It is v 
 therefore, a strange fact that, in its exterior shape, it resembles the Tombs 
 more than any other building of the civ. 
 
 Need we say anything about that which is called a ballet in those 
 theatres? Of that grace which is the peculiar charm of the dance there 
 is nothing to be seen. The dancers have just the smallest amount of 
 clothing on their bodies as is allowed by law. This is probably of not 
 much account, but for the "artisti;" tastea of this audience it is the chief 
 thing. The higher the danseuse throws her legs, the more impudent her 
 looks, the more indecent her motions, the louder is the applause of the 
 galleries as well as the pit. 
 
 This then is a picture of a theatre of the lower classes. Right above 
 them there are others in which the "dark sides" are not so prominent, 
 but which still speculate on the desire for the sensational among the public, 
 and thus do much for the lowering of the tastes of the people. But 
 there are also theatres which, both with regard to their outfit and the 
 talent employed in them, rank among the betier class of theatres, but 
 which occasionally accommodate the sensational desires of the public by 
 producing plays which place them on the same footing as those above 
 mentioned. Niblo's Garden, one of our largest and best furnished thea- 
 tres on Broadway, is an example. We would only recall that sensational 
 piece, " The Black Crook," whose chief attraction lay in i:s indecency, and 
 which has enjoyed great popularity ever since its first production. Other 
 theatres also do not think it beneath them to give an occasional spicy and 
 sensational play, and thus for their pecuuiary interest throw overboard 
 for a time their interest in art. Opportunities are therefore not wanting 
 in our city to satisfy a low taste. It is sad that it is so, but the fault is 
 divided into two pretty equal parts. It is true, nobody would go to see 
 sensational pieces if they were crossed off the lists of the theatres, and 
 only classic pieces of an intrinsic value were given. But it is equally 
 true that the theatres would not give sensational pieces if the public would 
 Dot go to see them. As the theatres depend on the public, and not tho 
 public on the theatres, the greater part of the blame seems to rest with 
 the public. Examples for this are not wanting. The above-mentioned 
 piece, u The Black Crook," gained its chief attraction from the opposL 
 tion of the press, which with one voice denounced it as shameless and 
 indecent. But that proved to be the lest recommendation it could wish 
 for. " The Black Crook " had an almost unequalled popularity, and to the 
 present day draws crowded houses. And yet the proprietors of Niblo's 
 Garden would feel highly insulted if we should class it among the theatres 
 for the lower classes. If we therefore speak of the theatres for the lower 
 classes, we must not restrict ourselves to the u Old Bowery " or to u Tony 
 
606 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Pastor's." The more refined lasciviousness of " The Black Crook," 
 according to an impartial critic, stands just as low as that of the " Old 
 Bowery " and " Tony Pastor's." The effect is also in both cases the 
 same, as in both cases does it tend to deaden every sense of decency, and 
 to lower the standard of public morality. 
 
 Therefore, as we have seen that the source of this evil lies chiefly with 
 the public, it would be difficult to abolish it in any other way than the 
 slow way of a better education of the people. For no one will think of 
 a supervision of the theatres, any more than they will of their general 
 suppression, which has been proposed by some crazy fanatic. It is in this 
 respect with the theatres, as it is with literature, in which sensational 
 literature also plays a sadly prominent part. In theatres, as well as in 
 literature, the good keeps pace with the bad. In both we see, however, 
 that, in the short time of one generation, a great step forward has been 
 taken, and that the taste of the people must therefore have been consid- 
 erably purified, ^This progress will not stop here, and it is this know- 
 ledge which must console us if we see, at the present day, theatres in 
 our midst which may be justly considered the schools of vice and crime. 
 It may still take a long time to make our theatres what they ought to be, 
 institutions to educate the people. But this lies in the nature of the evil. 
 Our theatres are simply images of our rotten social conditions, with their 
 loose intrepretations of morality and right. If in this respect a better 
 era has been inaugurated by means of education, and of a legislation 
 which will be more in accordance with the ideas of law, then, together 
 with other evils, the theatres which are dangerous to morality and justice, 
 will also disappear. They will disappear not in consequence of the man- 
 dates of the authorities, but because the public will be wanting which 
 to-day so freely furnishes the means of their existence. 
 
 BAR-ROOMS AND THEIR FREQUENTERS. 
 
 Our readers need not fear that we intend to give them a tem- 
 perance lecture under this heading. We do not belong to those who 
 speak against the use of intoxicating liquors because their unrestrained 
 use so often produces misery and misfortune. Our opposition is simply 
 restricted to the excessive use of liquors, but by no means to the use 
 itself. If we therefore treat of the bar-rooms in the " Dark Sides of 
 New York," we do it only with regard to intemperance, which changes, 
 
THE BAR-ROOMS AND TIIEIR FREQIKNTI.F>. 607 
 
 for .so many persons, the cup that cheer3 into one of misery, and brings 
 ruin and desolation into the homes of thousands of families throughout 
 our great city. 
 
 Unfortunately it cannot be denied that intemperance in the use of 
 intoxicating liquors has of late assumed alarming proportions, and is to 
 be met with in all grades of society. A walk through the streets of our 
 city will furnish a casual observer with material for not very interesting 
 reflections. The disgusting sight of persons beastly drunk has come to 
 be quite common, so that it does not create any farther excitement. It is 
 furthermore noticeable what a large number of saloons there are in which 
 intoxicating liquors are sold. There are very few streets in New York 
 city which do not contain a saloon in every block, while it is nothing 
 unusual to see four, six, and eight saloons in a block, which vary from a 
 respectable saloon to the lowest "gin-mill." Their number must there- 
 fore be very large, and, according to an estimate made in the sprin^ of 
 1873, amounts to over eleven thousand. In this number are included, 
 besides the regular saloons, wine-rooms, restaurants, bar-rooms, etc., 
 those groceries which are also licensed to sell liquors. According to this 
 estimate, every seventh house in the city is a saloon, so that even without 
 the Croton water, the city would be well supplied with drinking material. 
 In 1871 only 7,500 licensed saloons were known, which shows how rap- 
 idly they iucrease. That these saloons do a good business is shown by 
 the fact that they have the necessary number of customers to live. It is 
 of course very difficult to express the exact number of customers in 
 figures, but our police reports give us some figures which are of import- 
 ance for our subject, and which we will therefore not overlook. Accord- 
 ing to these reports, 32,721 persons were arrested in 1871 in the streets 
 of New York in a drunken condition. Besides these, 6,799 persons were 
 arrested for breaking the peace, 14,935 for disorderly conduct, and 875 
 for assaults with various intents, all of which offenses and crimes had 
 arisen from drunkenness. Thus the arrests which were caused by intem- 
 perance are swelled to 55,439. 
 
 But that does not exhaust the matter. For it is well known that the 
 police only arrest such drunken persons as fall down in the street and 
 cannot get along, or those who break some law by their conduct. Those 
 thousands who, after many mishaps, at last reachhome, must of course not 
 be ignored. If we look more closely at the persons arrested, we find that 
 the weaker sex is not entirely unrepresented. In 1870, among the 23,136 
 persons arrested for drunkenness, 5,615 were females, and among the 
 11,500 arrested for being drunk and disorderly, there were 2,798 women. 
 Fortunately the number of arrests by no means represents the number of 
 drunkards. For the 50,000 arrests probably do not affect more than 
 ten thousand or twelve thousand persons, as one and the same drunkard 
 who has fallen into the hands of the police four, five, or six times, repre- 
 
&08 TUB DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 seats just so many arrests. But even if the number of arrests cannot be 
 considered the same as the number of drunkards, we can still form an 
 idea from it of the extent which intemperance has assumed in our great 
 and thickly-populated city. 
 
 The extent of the evil, and of the bar-rooms, is the subject of which 
 we wish to treat in the following pages. The large number of those who 
 occasionally or even steadily visit a bar-room, without injuring them- 
 selves or losing sight of their duty to their families, do not come under 
 our observation here. For them wine and beer are only pleasant and 
 harmless stimulants, which they drink as they would coffee, tea, or any 
 other article of daily use. The saloons themselves, as can be seen from 
 their external appearance, differ very much. Concert saloons and dance, 
 houses, which are also classed as saloons, we have already become 
 acquainted with. The better class of drinking-saloons are those in which 
 beer and rum are chiefly sold. The more the sale of whisky, rum, etc., 
 predominates over that of wine, beer, ale, etc., the worse do they become. 
 The lowest class are the so-called " bucket-shops." But the evil which 
 all have more or less in common, is found in its worst form in the so- 
 called bar-room, which we have for this reason placed at the head of this 
 chapter. They are the original form of the American drinking-salooi], 
 and their mode of furnishing indicates to the present day what they were 
 intended for. The bar is the chief article of furniture. Tables and 
 chairs are generally wanting, and, if they are there, are only innovations. 
 In short, everything tends to show that these bar-rooms were not, and are 
 not, intended for parties to stay any length of time. The guests came to 
 the bar, took a drink, and departed. 
 
 And thus, to the present day, the bar is the chief centre of attraction 
 to the guests of a bar-room. But, in spite of the absence of chairs and 
 tables, the attraction of the bar is so great that it holds the guests longer 
 than is good for them. A look into such bar-rooms generally shows a 
 group of guests, who stand about or lean on the bar. The glasses are 
 quickly filled and emptied, and the loud talk, as well as the florid appear, 
 ance of the tipplers, plainly shows the effects of the rapidly-disappearing 
 liquor. For the old custom of emptying a glass at one draught is still 
 retained, although the custom of leaving after it has been drained is no 
 longer in vogue. This lingering around the bar is the direct cause of the 
 bad habit of " treating," which is becoming worse every day. For, 
 according to the "code of honor" prevailing in these places, it would Lo 
 an iiisult to refuse a drink if it is offered you. On the other hand, it 
 would be a disgrace to drink in a bar-room without asking the hangers-on 
 to join you — that is, " stand treat to the crowd." Very few have the 
 strength of mind to act contrary to this custom. They accept the drLk 
 offered, and then of course treat in turn, thus again and again incurring 
 the obligation to drink with others, until a customer who only intended to 
 
THE DAR-ROOMS AND THEIR FREQUENTERS. COO 
 
 take one drink, has swallowed, against bis inclination or desire, five or six 
 glasses. If he is not one of those fortunate persons who are able to 
 u stand some," the liquor will soon make itself felt. Thoughtlessly he 
 drinks with the crowd, or allows himself to be drawn to other bar-rooms, 
 until he remains in the corner of one of them, or staggering seeks his way 
 home. Thus the bar-rooms very often become the schools in which young 
 men acquire the dangerous propensity to drink, while the step from the 
 tippler to the drunkard is not very great. These bars with their treating 
 have already been the ruin of many promising young men. Many a young 
 man has filled himself with a stuff supposed to be liquor, until his feet 
 were no longer able to bear him, or until he made a row in the streets, 
 and thus came in contact with the police. To fall into the hands of the 
 police drunk, is a very expensive matter, at least for those who have 
 something to lose. A drunkard in rags is simply sent to prison for ten 
 days by the police judge, and it is in most cases immaterial to him 
 whether he kills time in prison, or whether he loafs about the city. 
 
 In a different manner, however, does justice proceed, if the delinquent is 
 respectably dressed. Only if the court happens to be in session at the 
 time of his arrest, does lie have the good fortune to be brought immediately 
 before the judge. Generally, he has to wait, however, until the judge 
 happens to remember him. When this at last occurs, he is fined $10 ac- 
 cording to law. If he has this money with him, and pays it, he can go, 
 and, if he wishes to, can get drunk again. But if he has not the money 
 about him, the matter is much worse. lie goes back to prison, and re- 
 mains there until his friends procure the money for him. But it costs him 
 a very good sum to communicate with his friends, for those employed on 
 the court, and still more so, the so-called "shysters," or second-hand law 
 yers, charge well for every word they speak, and for every step they take. 
 Thus it is that a person arrested for drunkenness, who does not belong 
 to the lower classes, seldom escapes from the toils of the law under 850, 
 most assuredly a very high price for a spree. lie has also become ac- 
 quainted w r ith the interior of our city prisons, has passed several days in 
 company with the most degraded wretches, read his name in the police 
 reports, and has thus gained experiences, which, although undeservedly, 
 depreciate him in his own eyes and in those of the world. And nothing 
 causes a man to sink more rapidly than the loss of his self-respect. 
 
 The principal business of these bar-rooms is done in whiskey, or rather 
 a mixture which is sold under this name. For there are very few bar- 
 rooms indeed in the city, where pure whiskey or pure liquors of anv kind 
 are sold. A number of years ago, the N. Y. World publised a report on 
 the liquors sold in the principal bar-rooms in the country. The chemical 
 analysis of the different liquors showed that not one liquor in all these bar- 
 rooms was pure, but that all were more or less adulterated. If this then 
 is the case in the principal bar-rooms of the city, how must it be in the 
 
 39 
 
610 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 others. We do not intend to speak at length about the various adultera- 
 tions of liquors, as we have done so in a previous chapter. But a new 
 discovery in this respect is worthy of mention. It is well known that 
 any dregs remaining in glasses, whether it be of beer, ale, whisky, or 
 anything else, is poured into a common receptacle, together w r ith such 
 other liquor as may accumulate. For this not very pleasant mixture 
 there are regular customers, who manufacture from it a highly intoxicat- 
 ing drink, which is much sought for at the bar for its peculiar flavor and 
 cheapness. In general, the power to intoxicate is the measure according 
 to which the frequenters of bar-rooms estimate the quality of a liquor. 
 It is considered the better, the quicker it brings about intoxication. 
 
 With regard to the guests of the bar-rooms, they vary according to the 
 locality, and to the character of the proprietors. Leaving thieves' dens, 
 concert saloons, and similar places out of the question, the bar-rooms 
 have their share of respectable visitors. On the other hand, we do no one 
 an injustice if we say that there is no difference in the character of these 
 persons, who make the bar-rooms their headquarters, whether these latter 
 are Broadway saloons fitted up in the most elegant style, or whether they 
 are Water or Cherry street dens. This class of visitors generally con- 
 sists of loafers, rowdies, vagabonds, and those who are in the best way of 
 becoming such. This latter class also very easily makes itself at home in 
 other saloons, and in its less dangerous type forms the numerous class of 
 "bummers." In them we meet with the first beginnings of pauperism, 
 whose ranks receive the largest number of recruits from the intemperate 
 use of intoxicating liquors. And it is a sad fact that that it is chiefly the 
 poorer and working classes in which this vice is most met with. A walk 
 through the Fourth or Seventeenth wards, with their numberless saloons, 
 will show us some sad facts in this respect. 
 
 It must not be imagined, however, that a desire for something stronger 
 than water is formed only among the mass of the people. By no means ! 
 The inhabitants of our marble and brown-stone palaces on the avenue 
 are, in this respect, no better than their fellow-citizens living in tenement- 
 houses. The millionaire who has drank a few bottles too many of cham- 
 pagne ia Delmonico's, or in his Fifth avenue club-house, rides home in 
 his carriage, and thus of course escapes being arrested. We cannot 
 therefore look to the police reports to estimate the thirst of the " upper 
 tens." But it is a well-known fact that the evil of intemperance exists 
 among our higher classes in no less serious form than among the lowest. 
 If it does not show itself in so revolting a shape, it has not that excuse 
 in Fifth avenue, which, to be just, we must take into consideration in the 
 Fivo Points. 
 
 A reporter of the New York World some time ago took the trouble to 
 take a note of all drinks sold in one day in thirteen of the most fre- 
 quented saloons situated in Wall and neighboring streets. The total 
 
TIIE BAR-ROOMS AND THEIR FREQUENTERS. Oil 
 
 nmount of liquors sold amounted to 5,281 drinks, from hot spiced rum 
 down to ale, and ninety-four bottles of champagne. This was the case in 
 only thirteen saloons, and during the short office-hours. "We must also 
 take into consideration that there are, besides, a dozen smaller saloons in 
 that neighborhood to which the " bulls and bears " come in large numbers 
 to quench their thirst. The above-mentioned reporter therefore assumes 
 that 7,500 drinks and 125 bottles of champagne are daily necessary to 
 keep the financial barometer of "Wall street in motion. If, therefore, the 
 bankers and brokers of Wall street can support, during their short office" 
 hours, a quarter of a hundred drinking saloons, the poorer classes may 
 certainly not be exclusively reproached with their 11,000 saloons. 
 
 We have also stated before that the female sex is not entirely free from 
 the vice of intemperance. In the rum-holes and bar-rooms of certain 
 localities, as the Five Points, the Fourth ward, etc., it is nothing unusual 
 to see women at the bar taking their u whisky straight" or their brandy, 
 with the ease born of habit. Free fights among women are also not un- 
 usual sights in these regions. In a former chapter we have remarked that 
 the prostitutes are almost without exception addicted to drink. There 
 are bar-rooms in Broadway in which whole troops of young girls, ranging 
 from fourteen to eighteen years, may be found every evening, who there 
 drink gin and w r hisky until they are helplessly intoxicated. On Broad- 
 way there are numerous elegant so-called ladies' restaurants, which 
 are frequented by old and young ladies from the first families. These 
 restaurants have all kinds of liquors, and have good customers for them 
 in the persons of their rich guests. During the past few years absinthe 
 has especially become a favorite with these ladies. As this absinthe, 
 however, is a dangerous poison even for men, how much more harmful 
 must the effects of it be on the much more tender organism of females ! 
 
 But enough of these sad details. Let us look at the matter more in 
 general. Here we first meet with the question as to the causes of the 
 evil. Is the prevailing intemperance in the use of liquors the result of 
 the large number of saloons, or are these saloons produced by intemper- 
 ance? We incline to the latter opinion, because the desire is always the 
 originator of the means of satisfying it. On the other hand, however, 
 we acknowledge that the saloons which catch the eye on all street corners 
 are just so many temptations for the weak, and that one-half the saloons 
 would more than satisfy the proper want of liquors. 
 
 A temperance movement, although not according to the idea of our 
 temperance fanatics, would therefore be quite proper. For the damage 
 that is done by intemperance is not only felt by the intemperate, but also 
 by our whole society. The annual expenses for the police force amount 
 to about §4,000,000. If we then read in the police reports that of the 
 54,526 arrests in the year 1870, 50,849 could be put down to intemper- 
 ance, it is easy to see for how much of the $4,000,000 the bottle it 
 
612 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 responsible. It is also a well-settled fact that the majority of the persons 
 robbed, knocked down, or whose pockets were picked, were either intoxi- 
 cated, or were at the time in concert-saloons, dance-houses, or other sus- 
 picious places, and murder and attempted murder are in most cases to bo 
 put down to the excitement produced by intoxication. Without the vice 
 of intemperance, the list of crimes w>uld greatly diminish. Further- 
 more, if we confine oursel es to the 50, <49 arrests for drunkenness, the 
 smallest loss on an average would be unc day's work for every arrest. 
 As the wealth of a community is the result of the activity of its members, 
 every such loss must therefore be felt by the whole community. In the 
 present case, this loss is equivalent to 50,849 working days, or the work 
 of a single individual in more than 139 years. 
 
 Many will object that we cannot take the work done by the majority of 
 those arrested into account, as they are chiefly bummers and vagabonds. 
 But this does not detract in the least from the strength of these figures. 
 The fact that these bummers and vagabonds have become such by intem- 
 perance, is not affected in the least by this excuse. This will suffice to 
 indicate the damage done by intemperance. Is it also necessary to point 
 to the lost lives of single persons as well as whole families, which are the 
 consequences of intemperance? Shall we cite examples where liquor has 
 excited the worst passions in men, and has caused them to commit deeds 
 which the hand trembles to record? Everyone knows such cases, and 
 the papers bring almost daily new and terrible contributions. "We can 
 therefore spare ourselves the sad task of entering more closely into 
 details. 
 
 As we have declared the very large number of drinking-saloons to be 
 the consequence of increased desire for liquors, the question now arises, 
 what are the causes of this increased desire? 
 
 The continually increasing demands made upon the powers of the mind 
 and of the body, and to which man must do justice if he does not wish to 
 perish in the general struggle for existence, are said to be among the 
 principal of these causes. It is said that more is demanded in this 
 respect than man can accomplish, and that thus the desire — and some 
 even say the necessity — for stimulants was caused in mankind. As a 
 proof of this, it is stated that with the advancing civilization, and its 
 increased demands on man, the number of artificial stimulants which 
 become necessities of life constantly increase. This supposition, however, 
 justifies the use only of such stimulants, without being any excuse for 
 their misuse by intemperance. Intemperance cannot be excused in any 
 case, although in some particular cases it may be easily explained. It 
 cannot be denied that our social conditions do much to increase the vice 
 of intemperance. Take, for example, the inhabitants of the Fourth ward 
 tenement-houses, who are crowded together in pestilential holes, wanting in 
 all necessities of life, and often not even fit for animals to live in. Homa 
 
Tin: BAR-ROOMS AND THEIR FREQUENTERS. 618 
 
 life, with its ennobling influences, does not exist for these unfortunates. 
 Everything about them continually reminds them of their poverty and 
 their misery, and who would therefore judge them too harshly if they try 
 to escape from their wretched surroundings for a short time at least? 
 The only chance to do this is offered them in the bar-rooms and the dance- 
 houses of their quarter. These places, disgusting as they may be to 
 persons better situated, are palaces as compared with the majority of the 
 tenement-houses. They offer to the poor purer air, diversity, and the 
 liquor which elevates them, for the time being at least, above their misery. 
 But not only among the poor do our distorted social conditions make 
 themselves felt in this respect. It is extremely difficult to gain admit- 
 tance into family circles in our city. This is felt especially by the thousands 
 of young men, who, being engaged in offices and shops during the day, 
 feel a desire for recreation among friends in the evening. Very few, 
 indeed, are so fortunate as to find this recreation outside of the saloons. 
 It then depends upon the principles that have been instilled into a young 
 man, and the company he finds in a saloon, whether he will be misled into 
 ways that will make him a victim of intemperance. 
 
 Our temperance fanatics take the matter very easy, and simply hold the 
 liquors and the liquor dealers responsible for the evil of intemperance. 
 But they might equally as well attempt to abolish the crime of murder by 
 forbidding the manufacture of knives, pistols, etc. If wine in one com- 
 pany produces pleasure and happiness, and in another disgusting scenes 
 of intoxication, it is most certainly not the wine, but the company, which 
 is responsible for these different effects. Even virtues, if carried too far, 
 turn into vices. We see economy turn into disgusting avarice, liberality 
 into ruinous extravagance, and yet no one will think to speak against 
 economy and liberality. Even religion has, by its extreme fanaticism^ 
 done much harm in the world, yet none of our temperance prophets ever 
 thought of abolishing religion. The temperance movement now in pro. 
 gress, therefore, attempts something as foolish as it is impossible. It 
 attempts to force something by law which can only be a virtue if done by 
 a person's own free will. To keep a minority w r ithin the bounds of tem- 
 perance, it would submit the large majority to a control against which the 
 inborn sense of right naturally rebels. It mistakes the cause for the 
 effect. 
 
 The number of saloons does not explain the continual increase of 
 intemperance, but the increase of intemperance constantly calls out more 
 and unfortunately worse saloons. The real evil, as we said before, is to 
 be found in our social conditions, and there it is where reformatory efforts 
 should begin, if they would gain more than an apparent and momentary 
 success. The reformatory spirit of our temperance apostles should first 
 direct their attention to a more rational education of youth, and the im- 
 provement of the condition of the poorer classes. Experience has shown 
 
614 THE DARK 3IDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 that intemperance increases in this class in the ratio as the necessaries of 
 life become dearer. The poor man, who can only very seldom satisfy his 
 hunger, eagerly grasps at the cheap stuff which, for a few cents, affords- 
 him a deceptive feeling of satiety and strength. 
 
 Why does he not buy bread instead of whisky ? some philanthropists 
 will ask, who are only acquainted with poverty and misery from hearsay. 
 They forget, when asking this question, that the poor man cannot get 
 enough bread to satisfy his hunger, for the money he pays for the whisky. 
 The whisky is for poverty a substitute for bread and meat, rather than an 
 article of luxury. But it is a deceptive and dangerous substitute, which 
 gradually kills a man while it seems to nourish him. Reform which 
 would supply the poorer classes with fresh air, cheap food, and work r 
 would be the most effective temperance movement. If, then, the sale of 
 poisons under the name of liquors were prevented by law, and "licenses 
 only granted to men of respectable character, and under conditions which 
 would prevent them from being used for concert saloons or dance-houses 
 intemperance would rapidly decrease even without the aid of temperance 
 laws. 
 
 LOAFERS AND ROWDIES. 
 
 Both of these names indicate the same class of the scum of our popu- 
 lation. The difference which seems to be indicated by the names is very 
 trifling indeed. It disappears in a very short time, and the young man 
 who beo-an his career as a loafer soon develops into a full-fledged rowdy. 
 The loafer, therefore, we may consider as the harmless form of rowdy. 
 He and the rowdy proper are not really professional criminals, but, if an 
 opportunity offers, they are capable of any crime, from picking a pocket 
 to murder. We shall, for shortness* sake, only speak of the rowdies, for 
 all that can be said of them is equally applicable to the loafers. 
 
 The large majority of rowdies belong to that class of people so peculiar 
 to American cities, who understand the art of how to live without work,, 
 or who only work when all other respectable means of obtaining money 
 have failed. This, however, occurs very seldom in our city, and the 
 principal activity of our rowdies consists in loafing on the street corners, 
 and drinking whisky in the suspicious-looking saloons in which they make 
 their headquarters. In their exterior appearance they generally bear the 
 
LOAFERS AND ROWDIES. 615 
 
 mark of rudeness and depravity, which no amount of clothing, jewelry, 
 etc., is able to hide. For the rowdy loves to dress stylishly, whenever 
 his income allows it. If this is not possible, he also feels himself per- 
 fectly at home in rags, and philosophically awaits better times. He has 
 little in common with man besides the shape ; all his instincts centre in 
 himself, beyond which he has no further ideas. His education is gener- 
 allv neglected, and does not go any further than to enable him to read the 
 "Police Gazette" and similar papers, sensational novels and obscene 
 books. He is never wanting in theatres described by us in a former 
 chapter, whenever a new sensational drama is brought on the stage for 
 the first time. Cock, dog, and rat fights have a peculiar interest for him- 
 The non-plus ultra for him, however, is a prize-fight or an execution. 
 
 These form the great events of his life, in which he plays the part of a 
 looker-on. But the rowdy also possesses the desire for renown, and likes 
 to read of his exploits in the papers from time to time. On occasions 
 which he chooses for such purposes, he never acts alone. For he is in 
 general as cowardly as he is bad, and in his exploits he must be sure that 
 he has a large crowd to back him. 
 
 AVe have already spoken of the deeds of these rowdies in the chapter 
 on " Pic-nics," and have shown how they delight to attack harmless pic- 
 nicking parties without any cause, and to break them up in the most dis- 
 graceful manner. As they undertake such attacks in big crowds, and are 
 well-armed with knives, revolvers, and slung-shots, and very suddenly 
 attack the pic-nics, they generally have easy play. Besides the pleasure 
 of ill-treating unarmed persons, these attacks have also a practical object. 
 The rowdies never forget to take care of the spoils, and to appropriate all 
 watches, chains, rings, etc., that come within their reach. The beastly 
 savageness of these fellows is best seen from the manuer in which they 
 treat tneir unfortunate victims. If they have knocked a man down, they 
 are not satisfied with that, but kick him unmercifully aud jump on him. 
 Examples of such outrages are not wanting. We recall a case that hap- 
 pened some two or three years ago. A number of loafers, none of whom 
 were over twenty-one years of age, entered a saloon on First avenue. 
 They called for drinks, and were about to leave without paying. The 
 barkeeper of course protested. The consequence was they attacked him 
 and knocked him down. Nothing would have prevented them now from 
 leaving the saloon. • But the rascals amused themselves to abuse the 
 senseless barkeeper in the most disgraceful manner, by kicking him and 
 beating him with a club, aud the closing scene of this drama was that 
 one of them drew a revolver and coolly fired it at the head of the unfor- 
 tunate man. This cold-blooded murder can be explained by nothing but 
 the most disgusting bloodthirstiness. 
 
 AVe can safely say that in general robbery and theft are not chief 
 objects of the rowdies. They only commit these crimes en passant, 
 
616 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 while a desire to abuse and ill-treat some harmless person is the chief 
 incentive for their atrocious deeds. For, incredible as it seems, a num- 
 ber ,of rowdies temporarily and even steadily follow some profession 
 which furnishes them with the means of subsistence. This profession is 
 indeed not very respectable, but they have in it a steady occupation, and 
 their acts of rowdyism are only a recreation for them. Others who have 
 no profession, the cavaliers among the rowdies, are supported by prosti- 
 tutes, the price of whose shame generally goes into the pockets of these 
 rowdies, who act as their " husbands." From this disgraceful source do 
 the large majority of our rowdies derive their income. The unfortunate 
 women have often but very poor friends in such husbands. What they 
 do for these women is to protect them from abuse or imposition at the 
 hands of others, while they tyrranize over them in the most heartless 
 manner, beat them, and allow them only a very small portion of their 
 disgraceful earnings. 
 
 All rowdies take a prominent part in politics, and are in this respect 
 important persons, especially in municipal elections. From their number 
 do the party leaders select the repeaters and fraudulent voters, whom they 
 need to elect their candidates. Those beastly countenances which prowl 
 about the voting-places, and often keep timorous voters, by a single look, 
 away from the ballot-box, are also taken from the rowdy element of our 
 city. The palmy days for them are past, however. It is no longer pos- 
 sible to-day, as it was fifteen or twenty years ago, that gangs of rowdies, 
 armed with clubs and revolvers, should take possession of the polls and 
 manipulate the elections as they wished. But still the rowdies are to the 
 present day persons who are very useful to the politicians, and are there- 
 fore protected by the latter in every possible manner. The political pro- 
 tection which these fellows enjoy is also the reason why the police do not 
 proceed against them with that energy which the public welfare would 
 seem to require. Our rowdies also know that they have their friends in 
 high positions, who will protect them if necessary. This knowledge 
 makes them bold, and leads them to believe that they have a right to 
 their disgraceful actions. Some four years ago a young rowdy was arrested 
 for committing a cold-blooded murder. Upon being brought to the sta- 
 tion, he cried out laughingly, " Hanging is played out in New York I" 
 These few words sufficed to characterize the legal proceedings in murder 
 cases as they had been conducted for years, and also the feeling of secu- 
 rity which the rowdies enjoyed. They contained a grave charge against 
 our courts of justice, and awoke the public to an idea of the danger that 
 was threatening them. The consequence was that this poor fellow had to 
 suffer for these words, as he found out to his sorrow that "hanging was 
 not played out in New York." But immediately upon his execution the 
 old state of affairs returned, as is clearly proven by the fact that in the 
 year 1871 forty-two murders were committed in New York, and only one 
 
LOAFERS AND ROWDIES. 817 
 
 case of capital punishment took place during the same period. Can 
 we wonder at the wickedness of the rowdies of a city that hangs less 
 than three per cent, of its murderers? 
 
 Even at the present day it very seldom happens that a rowdy is 
 arrested. Places of amusement which have been much frequented by 
 rowdies during the past years, seem to be still ignored by the police. 
 This is particularly the case with Coney Island, from which the respecta- 
 ble citizen has been almost entirely crowded out by the rowdy. This 
 Rowdyism also extends to the steamboats plying between New York and 
 Coney Island, and in such a degree that it is dangerous, especially for 
 |adies, to undertake this trip. How the rowdies carry on aboard of one 
 of these steamboats, the following incident, which occurred in the summer 
 of 1^73, will show : 
 
 Among the passengers of the steamer Metamora, which left Coney 
 Island one Sunday night for New York, there was a part of the famous 
 "West Houston street gang," in company with a number of prostitutes # 
 As soon as the boat had left the island, the rowdies rushed into the ladies' 
 cabin, and insulted the occupants with the most disgusting language. A 
 gentleman who tried to remonstrate with them was knocked down, and, 
 as the officers of the boat did not do anything to stop th^m, the rowdies 
 had it all to themselves. At last they squirted water into the cabin, so 
 that the passengers were forced to leave the saloon to them, and to seek 
 safety on the upper deck. They theu apparently began to quarrel among 
 themselves, until the disorder among the crowded passengers seemed great 
 enough. They then suddenly cried out, " Man overboard V and asked 
 the captain to stop the engine. As everybody, in consequence of this 
 cry, rushed to the side where the man was said to be overboard, they 
 made use of the crowding to ply their trade of picking pockets. The 
 consequence was that a large number of passengers lost their watches, 
 pocket-books, jewelry, etc. As nothing was done by the officers of the 
 boat to stop these proceedings, it was an easy matter for the gang to 
 leave the steamer in the city, and before the other passengers, and thus 
 evade the possibility of an arrest. 
 
 But even if there is a possibility of arresting the villains, it is brought 
 about by chance, or some other strange cause, that the police get hold of 
 the wrong parties, and that the rowdies escape unharmed. A strange 
 case of this kind happened in August, 1873. A car of the Second ave- 
 nue one evening was returning with a party of Germans, who had been 
 spending the day on a pic-nic in an uptown park. There w r ere men, 
 women, and children, all iu the happiest mood. Near Sixty-second 
 street, however, this happiness was destined to have a sudden termina- 
 tion. A number of rowdies began to bombard the car with stones, and 
 then entering it, they beat the men and insulted the women in the most 
 shameful maimer. Of course the passengers did not take it very meekly, 
 
618 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 but defended themselves as well as they could. At last the police came 
 to the rescue, and, by a liberal application of their clubs, and by arrest- 
 ing six of the 4t rioters," at last restored order. The reader will of course 
 think that the six persons arrested, as well as the oue who had been 
 clubbed, were rowdies. But far from it ! They were peaceable Ger- 
 mans, who had had the u audacity " to defend themselves, and to protect 
 their wives and daughters from insult. Why did they want to sing, and 
 thus incur the displeasure of our Sir Rowdies ! And why did they not 
 allow themselves to be beaten, and permit their wives to be insulted, 
 instead of disturbing the public peace by their resistance? In this case, 
 as in all others, our police were in the right, for our police are most cer- 
 tainly infallible ! 
 
 In a similar manner do the police proceed in many other cases, where 
 they have to settle disputes between peaceable citizens and rowdies. Is it a 
 wonder then if rowdyism flourishes in our city, and disgustingly brutal 
 scenes are among our daily occurrences? In those times which are hap- 
 pily now past and gone, when our Fire Department was made up of 
 volunteer companies, it formed, in spite of the many good elements it 
 contained, a regular hotbed of rowdyism. Street fights between rival 
 companies were nothing unusual. Knives, revolvers, and stones were 
 freely used in such fights, while the police kept at a distance. The change 
 of the volunteer into a paid and strictly-disciplined body of men was 
 therefore greeted by all friends of order as a decided improvement. 
 
 The rowdies possess a certain organization among themselves, and form 
 separate gangs, the names of which have often survived a generation. 
 These names are either so-called fancy appellations, as " Plug Uglies," 
 " Short Boys," " Dead Rabbits," or they have reference to the particular 
 locality of a certain gang, as the " Bowery Boys," " Fourth Warders," 
 or the " Nineteenth Street Gang." Such gangs are most numerous in 
 the quarters containing the tenement-houses, and the Sixth ward espe- 
 cially had for a time the unenviable notoriety of containing the greatest 
 number and the worst rowdies. This fact, as well as the large number 
 of crimes occurring in it, gave it the name of the " Bloody Sixth." It 
 was for a time the centre of rowdyism in our city. But since the former 
 labyrinth of streets in the neighborhood of the Five Points has begun to 
 fill up with large stores and warehouses, it can no longer lay claim to this 
 distinction. 
 
 When the rowdy begins to grow old, and has sown his wild oats, he 
 very often settles down and becomes " solid." He opens a rum-hole, or 
 a saloon for thieves, or, in company with some pretty prostitute, he opens 
 a panel-house, in which he plays the part of " badger." Concert-saloons 
 and dance-houses are also in some cases the object of his ambition. But, 
 in his new position, he remains true to the traditions of his youth, and is 
 in constant intercourse with his former companions, who make his saloon 
 
LOAFERS AND ROWDIES. 619^ 
 
 their place of meeting. For many, however, the life of a rowdy is only 
 a state of transition to that of a professional criminal. The burglars, 
 highwaymen, etc., especially recruit themselves from the ranks of the 
 rowdies. Besides excelling as highwaymen, our rowdies as above- 
 mentioned play a prominent part as local politicians. Many a rowdy has 
 succeeded in gaining, as a reward for his services to " the party," some 
 fat office, from deputy-sheriff to that of alderman. Thus it was under 
 the Tammany " Ring." How far the new reform administration will do 
 better, can only be seen in the future. Until now the political reform, so 
 loug promised to us, has brought forth little more than high-flown 
 speeches. 
 
 Where do our rowdies come from? From what element of the popu- 
 lation do they recruit themselves? Rowdyism has been denoted as an 
 evil peculiar to the United States, and it has been attempted to trace it 
 back to the peculiarities of our system of education, and of our political 
 conditions. Some even go so far as to hold our climatic, geographical, 
 and other conditions responsible for rowdyism. They see in it nothing 
 but the outbreak of Indian savageness, which they regard as a necessary 
 feature of the primitive condition of the inhabitants of this continent. 
 The physical theory may be left out of the question. These would first 
 show themselves in the descendants of the earliest settlers, as they have 
 been exposed to them longest. But this is not the case. On the con- 
 trary, it is a fact that the majority of rowdies are the children of Irish, 
 German, and other foreign parents. Education and political conditions 
 have undoubtedly a large share in the development of rowdyism. They 
 favor a premature independence of the individual, and a dislike of subor- 
 dination to a strange authority, which in itself is indeed a guarantee of 
 liberty in general, but only too easily exceeds the proper bounds. But 
 we have another and a more prominent source of this evil. In former 
 chapters we have already made several remarks in this respect, and the 
 reader could easily see the sources of rowdyism laid bare in the chapters 
 on pauperism and street children. We also refer the reader to the chap- 
 ter on the theatres of the lower classes, where we have called his atten- 
 tion to the ragged crowd of newsboys, bootblacks, etc. It is quite natural 
 that" children who receive such an education will not grow up to be orna- 
 ments of society. These boys who, side by side with the lowest specimens 
 of humanity, witness the glorification of crime, are by no means the worst 
 kind of our youthful street Arabs. They follow some honest profession,, 
 and generally have a certain home, furnished them by their parents or by 
 public charity. But there are hundreds who know no other home than 
 the streets or the wharfs, and have no other means of subsistence than 
 begging or stealing. Is it not quite natural, then, to look to our street 
 children as the chief source of rowdyism? If we furthermore take into- 
 consideration that the large majority of these children are paupers, we 
 
620 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 are forced to declare rowdyism the worst fruit of pauperism, for it is the 
 incipient stage of crime. 
 
 We have already spoken, in our first chapter, of the dangers arising 
 from pauperism. We have in that connection referred to the bloody riots 
 of 1863, in which our rowdies showed themselves in their most savage 
 character. What happened then may happen again upon any occasion, 
 perhaps on a still larger scale. Rowdyism is like a mine threatening to 
 destroy the foundations of our society. A chance spark may explode this 
 mine at any time. But what can be done to avert the danger arising from 
 this evil ? It would be a hopeless task to try to reform the rowdies. All 
 that society can do against it is to assume a watchful position, and to keep 
 them as much as possible within bounds, by the police club, or, in extreme 
 cases, by the bullets and bayonets of the militia. The true reform must 
 be directed to the root of the evil, pauperism, and its immediate out- 
 growth, the street children. The reformer should pay particular attention 
 to the street children, so long as their youthful minds have not been hard- 
 ened by crime. We must try to bend the tree w T hile it is young and 
 supple. It is not only more humane, but also cheaper, to prevent crimes 
 than to punish them, and crime is most easily prevented by stopping our 
 destitute children from becoming criminals. But the law is satisfied to 
 punish and intimidate the existing rowdyism, and little thinks of bettering 
 the abnormal conditions which are at the bottom of it. But, in this 
 respect, further contemplation would lead us to a field which we have 
 already touched in the chapters on pauperism, street children, and 
 tenement-houses. The rowdyism in our city is a product of these three 
 factors, and is greatly favored by gambling, prostitution, a certain class 
 of bar-rooms and theatres, and political corruption. It will decrease only 
 as we succeed in abolishing the above-named evils. 
 
 PRIZE-FIGHTERS. 
 
 If any one desired to study the faces of different men, he can see on 
 .-street corners, or in the neighborhood of suspicious groggeries, persons 
 whose appearance unconsciously reminds him of that of the bulldog. A 
 round, knotty head, with the hair cropped close, low forehead, broad 
 shouldered, and thick-set — in short, all the outward signs of brute strength 
 
rRIZE-FIGHTERS. C21 
 
 are found in all these forms in a very high degree. But in vain do we 
 look for those higher attributes, which raise the human being far above 
 the criminal. We would not advise any one to make such studies 
 too closely, for bulldog appearance is no empty show with these creatures, 
 and, before the student of human nature could hinder it, a broken nose or a. 
 few teeth knocked out would have taught him that the bulldog head belonged 
 to one of that class of rowdies termed " pri »* ighters." 
 
 The rowdy, as we have seen, is in himselt a dangerous creature, and 
 the prize-fighter is all the more dangerous, as in him the consciousness of 
 a formidable strength is added to the savageness of the rowdy. As the 
 prize-fighter is only a separate class of rowdy, we need not waste many 
 words on his general character. What we intend to do here is to 
 acquaint ourselves with that peculiarity which distinguishes him from the 
 rowdy. 
 
 Every prize-fighter is a rowdy. But the reverse of this is not the case, 
 for not every rowdy is a prize-fighter, happy as he would be to gain that 
 distinction. The prize-fighter needs a certain degree of physical strength, 
 with which nature has, fortunately for the rest of mankind, not endowed 
 everybody. The rowdy, therefore, who is particularly favored with phy- 
 sical strength, does not fail to become accomplished in the " manly art of 
 self-defense," as the trade of the prize-fighter is sometimes called. He 
 then belongs to the craft of prize-fighters, and has a good opportunity to- 
 be some day counted among the great men of the country. The papers 
 faithfully report when, where, and with whom he intends to fight accord- 
 ing to the rules of the prize-ring, and, when the affair has taken place, it 
 brings long descriptions in which the victors, as well as the vanquished^ 
 are the lions of the day. 
 
 A regular prize-fight is always preceded by several weeks' preparation,. 
 a so-called " training," which is undergone by each of the contestants, 
 under the care of some well-known authority in such matters. The dis- 
 cipline during this time is excessively strict, both in regard to food and 
 drink, as well as to bodily exercise. For in it not only is the honor of 
 the prize-fighter at stake, but also thousands of dollars which have been 
 bet by his friends on the fight. When such a prize-fight has been 
 arranged, a so-called " sparring match " is given beforehand by the friends 
 of the opponents. The money raised by such an affair belongs to the two 
 contestants preparing for the real prize-fight. Such a sparring match is 
 always an event for all the loafers and rowdies, as well as the members 
 of the fashionable sporting circles, who are not much better than the 
 former with respect to their morality, aud is therefore always very pro- 
 fitable for the prize-fighters. In former years Mozart Hall, on Broadway, 
 was generally the place where such sparring matches were held. For 
 some time, however, this distinction has been awarded to halls on less 
 pretentious streets. The boxing scene is generally the most prominent 
 
£22 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 feature of a sparring match, and the most prominent members of the 
 prize-ring take part in it. The rest of the time is taken up with perform- 
 ances with Indian clubs, songs, dances, recitations, etc. 
 
 As prize-fights are forbidden by law in New York State, everything is 
 done to deceive the police as to the time and place of such an encounter, 
 and in most cases the leaders are successful. Generally the police only 
 make their appearance after the brutal affair is over, and the parties have 
 dispersed. Very often the scene of action is laid a great distance from 
 here, say in Canada or some Western State, and so intense is the interest 
 taken in it by the rowdies and sporting men, that the distance in no way 
 diminishes the number of spectators. This of course is only the case 
 with celebrated members of the prize-riug. The large number of more 
 obscure members of the fraternity hold their exhibitions in some deserted 
 spot in the neighborhood of the city, or in some low groggery in the city 
 itself. These prize-fights are often gotten up on the spur of the moment, 
 and pic-nics and other excursions often become the scene of such disgust- 
 ing encounters. The notoriety which such members of the ring enjoy is 
 the reason why prize-fighters in general form a kind of aristocracy among 
 the rowdies, and the weight of their fists alone is sufficient to gain the 
 respect of that crowd with which brute strength is the highest authoritjr. 
 "We can easily imagine that the prize-fighter does not reserve his strength 
 for sparring matches or prize-fights alone. He is always ready to knock 
 down any person who may incur his displeasure ; and nothing is more 
 difficult than not to incur the displeasure of such a rowdy. 
 
 Their highest ambition is to be feared by every one. Whoever shows 
 no fear of such a rowdy is his enemy, and is sure to feel the weight of 
 his fists the first opportunity that offers. The desire to 'be recognized as 
 the strongest and best fighter often leads to quarrels with colleagues who 
 will not recognize this assumptiou. The friends of each then take up the 
 matter, large sums are bet on both, and at last a prize-fight is arranged 
 to determine which of the two is the best man. With more obscure 
 Towdies the excitement that precedes such a prize-fight is confined to the 
 different circles of the rowdy and sporting world. When, however, the 
 two contestants are well-known celebrities of the prize-ring, the excite, 
 ment is also shared by the public in general, and, if one of the rowdies 
 belongs to a foreign country, seems to attach to it a national importance 
 and interest. 
 
 We would only recall, in this respect, the excitement prevailing in the 
 city when Heenan went to England to fight Sayers, and to determine 
 which was the " better man " of the two, and, as they both considered 
 themselves the "best (?) man" in the world, who was the " best man" 
 in the world. When in later years the fate of the Union depended on 
 the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg, the reports of the battles were 
 expected with no greater eagerness and suspense by the public, and the 
 
PRIZE-FIGHTERS. f>23 
 
 papers published accounts of these great military contests which were in 
 no way more detailed than the minute reports of the prize-fight between 
 Heeuan and Savers. 
 
 The disgusting brutality of such a prize-fight can hardly be described 
 in words. As the aim of the heavy strokes is always the face of the 
 opponent, the head of the contestant is in most cases within a very short 
 time a swollen and unshapely mass. But the fight is continued, even 
 when both of the contestants are unable to see out of the swollen eyes. 
 If both become weak and exhausted, their friends are ready to wash 
 them, and to do everything to continue the fight as long as possible. Not 
 tinfrequently does it happen that one of the two is knocked senseless by a 
 blow of his opponent. But by no means can he give up the fiirht on that * 
 account. As long as he has strength enough left to stagger into the 
 middle of the ring, he must expose himself to the blows of his opponent, 
 who is perhaps not much stronger. 
 
 The final scene of such a fight is particularly savage, when the two 
 have pounded each other out of all human shape, and the wild passions 
 of the beastly audience have reached the highest pitch. The two oppo- 
 nents can hardly be recognized, and the spectators who crowd around the 
 ring seem to be transformed into demons. Thousands of dollars have 
 been staked on the result, and, as victory now seems to rest with one and 
 then the other, the betters give vent to their feelings by cries and howls 
 .and curses in the most disgusting manner. A prize-fighter would fare ill 
 if he should give up the fight before his " friends" consider it advisable. 
 These friends would fall upon him w T ith the ferocity of wild beasts, and 
 without much ado beat out of him the little life left by his now victorious 
 opponent. 
 
 Not unfrequently does the excitement rise so high that the ring is 
 broken. The scene then becomes very lively and " interesting." Tae 
 w T ild crew tackle and pound each other with clubs most pitilessly. Un- 
 fortunately the police arrive about this time. " Unfortunately !" Why? 
 Because without their interference a dozen heads w r ould in all probability 
 have been broken, and the world would have been rid of a dozen or so of 
 its worst characters more effectively than prison and the gallows could 
 have done it. 
 
 We have already remarked that our prize-fighters form a kind of 
 nobility among the rowdies. Their influence with these fellows, who are 
 necessary to the ward politicians, is very great, and this influence again 
 gives them a political importance. This importance explains very many 
 things which would otherwise be unintelligible. It explains why our 
 prize-fighters are treated with such extraordinary tenderness by our 
 authorities, and are very seldom disturbed in their little amusements of 
 breaking noses, &c. It explains how it is possible that a prize-fighter 
 could be elected alderman, and another even a representative in Congress. 
 
624 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 These honors, however, are not only due to the profession of these gen- 
 tlemen as prize-fighters. Without money to aid them, they would never 
 have risen so high. The business of a prize-fighter pays very poorly in 
 general, | The only thing that he is sure to keep when he settles down is 
 a broken nose. He does not work, and that is his chief pleasure. The 
 money that comes to him from a successful prize-tight, or from some of 
 those sources which we have already indicated in the chapter on rowdies 
 and loafers, just suffices to satisty the aristocratic demands of his stomach. 
 The prize-fighter, therefore, who has an eye to the future, opens in time 
 a rum-bole, a dance-house, or a gambling hell. John Morrissey, for 
 example, has, both in riches and political honors, far surpassed any of his 
 colleagues of the prize-ring. He advanced from the occupation of prize- 
 fighter and proprietor of one of the lowest groggeries in Troy, to that of 
 the proprietor of one of the most fashionable gambling dens in the country. 
 To-day he is a millionaire, and, having served his term in Congress, he 
 now has the privilege of prefixing " Honorable" to his name. 
 
 Harry Hill, whom we have mentioned already in the chapter on dance- 
 houses, has also come out of the prize-ring, and has known how to open 
 a source of wealth in his dance-house. Joe Coburn, Varley (better 
 known as " Reddy the Blacksmith "), Izzy Lazarus, etc., are all prize 
 fighters, who have retired from the "arduous duties" of the ring to the 
 more easy life of saloon-keeper. It is very natural that these saloons of 
 former prize-fighters should not exactly be frequented by the better classes 
 of society. Such retired members of the ring generally act as " arrangers " 
 of prize-fights, stake-holders, trainers, referees, and at similar " posts of 
 honor." The large mass of rowdies, however, never attain this emi- 
 nence. 
 
 Taken as a class, the prize-fighters are probably even more dangerous 
 than the common rowdies. The savageness of the rowdy repels, while the 
 prize-fighter is regarded by a corrupt taste as a kind of hero, whose deeds 
 are glorified ia the daily papers by minute and sensational descriptions. 
 No daily paper, even the most respectable, would dare to ignore a prize- 
 fight of notorious rowdies. The development and exercise of our physical 
 powers is very well in itself; but we must not forget that it is not the 
 physical powers alone which give man his exalted position among the 
 other living beings. If we look at our prize-fighters, we will not exactly 
 be inclined to consider them noble types of humanity. Their gorilla-like 
 appearance, on the contrary, is only too apt to gain new adherents to 
 Darwin's theory of the descent of man. 
 

 DOG AND COCK FIGHTS. 625 
 
 DOG AND COCK FIGHTS. 
 
 From the prize-ring our wanderings bring us to those dens in which 
 the same company with whom we have become acquainted in the preced- 
 ing chapter, amuse themselves at cock and dog fights. In the prize-ring 
 we saw that the spectators and contestants occupied about the same grade. 
 In the dog and cock fights the contestants are undoubtedly the better part 
 of the crowd. That is the only difference we can find between the prize- 
 ring and cock and dog pits. Fortunately, this barbarous amusement has 
 begun to grow scarcer within the city limits. But these fights are by no 
 means exterminated as yet. They are either held in some country town, 
 with no police at all, or a very sleepy one if any, on some farm in the 
 neighborhood of the city, or in some groggery fitted up for that purpose 
 in the city. 
 
 The sporting and rowdy element of our city never fails to be fully rep- 
 resented on such occasions. It is known in these circles for weeks ahead 
 when such a fight is planned, and it is discussed and bets are made on 
 the different animals. In short, the affair is a sensation of the day ; but, 
 strange to say, the police seem to hear very exceptionally of such fights, 
 and very seldom prevent them. It is still more seldom that the arrange- 
 ments are arrested. The fact that dog and cock fights occur less fre- 
 quently at present than in former years, is not so much to be credited to 
 the police as to the general progress in the tastes of the people, so 
 that it no longer takes an interest in these barbarous exhibitions. 
 
 The cock-fights are more frequent. They are among the more aristo- 
 cratic amusements, while the cocks are expressly trained for these fights 
 by persons who make a business of it. Besides being patronized by 
 loafers and rowdies, they are particularly favored by the sporting men. 
 These sporting men are persons whose chief object in life is to get 
 through with a large fortune which they have very seldom earned them- 
 selves, and to do it as quickly as possible by frequenting horse races, 
 gambling dens, and the company of low women. Dog-fights, however, 
 are amusements in which only the lowest class of our inhabitants take 
 part. The animals, mostly ferocious-looking bulldogs, are generally the 
 property of some rowdies who delight in having their dogs as fierce and 
 as much feared as their masters. Disputes as to the qualities of different 
 dogs are, then, generally the occasion for arranging a dog-fight. Such a 
 contest generally takes place immediately, or with considerable prepara- 
 tion, in the " ring" of some low saloon. A dog who has defeated all his 
 opponents is the pride of his master, who in mental qualities is not far 
 above him. Bonner or Vanderbilt cannot be more proud of their racers 
 than such a rowdy of a fierce dog. Such a dog, like his master, is easily 
 recognized to be a fierce brute. No " Beware of the dog " is necessary 
 to cause a pedestrian to go a few steps out of his way for safety. 
 
 40 
 
626 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 But let us first turn to a cock-fight, as the less beastly exhibition of the 
 two. We have already spoken of the places in which they take place. 
 The audience is generally very much mixed, and varies according to the 
 getters-up of the fight and the quality of the cocks. Very often, when 
 the getters-up live in different cities, and are the proprietors of well-known 
 fighters, an interest attaches to the contest which extends beyond the two 
 cities. The cocks seem to represent the honor of their cities in such 
 cases, and the excitement is proportionately great. Articles of agreement 
 are drawn up in writing, the stakes are deposited, and bets are made 
 amounting to thousands of dollars. From these alone we can judge of 
 the quality of the guests. It is nothing unusual that some one present 
 should bet $500, or even $1,000, on a cock. At the same time, cham- 
 page bottles are opened, whose contents help to raise the enthusiasm 
 which such a bloody spectacle never fails to excite in uncultivated and 
 hardened men. 
 
 At less important occasions, however, the rowdy element predominates* 
 and the bets that are then made are much less in amount. These smaller 
 cock-fights generally take place in the city, while the more aristocratic go 
 somewhere outside, where they are not so liable to be interfered with by 
 the police. We will here give an account of a cock-fight which took 
 place some time ago in the Seventeenth ward, near Avenue A. The place 
 is a gin-mill mostly visited by Irishmen. The proprietor, a former prize- 
 fighter by the name of " Mike," besides his gin-mill has also turned his 
 attention to politics, and has even held an office under the city govern, 
 ment. He is therefore an important personage. The bar-room is the 
 present meeting-place of the very suspicious-looking crowd. The loud 
 and noisy conversation is of course about the coming fight. But we will 
 give the words of the witness who reported it : 
 
 Eight o'clock was the time set for the commencement of the show. 
 A few minutes were still wanting, and curses were uttered here and there 
 on the slowness with which the small clock back of the bar was moving. 
 Suspicious-looking characters continue to pour into the room, if possible 
 still more wretched and soaked with whisky than those present. At last 
 the clock strikes eight. Mike, the proprietor of the saloon, takes a key 
 from a nail and a match from the bar and disappears through the back 
 door. Thereupon the crowd rushes impatiently to this door, but readily 
 gives way as two boys with bundles under their arms enter. Soon the 
 crowing of cocks is heard. But it is not the crowing which greets us 
 every morning in the country ; it is the hard, metallic call of the cock 
 trained to fight. The door then opens, and the impatient crowd pushes 
 forward into the ring. The place where we now find ourselves is the 
 back-yard of the gin-mill, which has been turned into a ring in the cheap- 
 est manner possible. Miserable lithographs of celebrated cocks and bull 
 dogs cover the walls. Benches roughly nailed together surround the 
 
D0(. AM> COCK FIGHTS. 027 
 
 ring, and ascending, serve more as standing-places than as seats when the 
 fight has once begun, and the spectators have arisen and are swaying 
 about in their excitement. 
 
 The "ring" is partitioned off from the audience by a wooden parti- 
 tion. The grouud is thickly covered with tanbark. An impatient stamp- 
 ing among the audience is a sign not to be mistaken. Mike gives a sign 
 to one of the bovs, who opens his bundle, when a small cock, spotted 
 black and white, jumps out and enters the ring. He shakes and then 
 stretches himself to his full height, crowing loudly the while. His red 
 comb has been cut close to his head, and his feathers have been clipped in 
 such a manner that the poor fellow almost seems ashamed of what has 
 been left to him as a tail. On his right foot a sharp spur of polished 
 steel glitters — a murderous little bayonet. His small eyes are glowing 
 with desire to fight. 
 
 Mike takes the " feathered gladiator" into his hands. He then leans 
 and stoops forward, with his elbows on his knees, and motions to the 
 other boy, who releases a perfectly red cock, which immediately shows 
 fight. The boy does not let him enter the ring, however, but holds him 
 opposite to the one in Mike's hands. The two cocks measure each other 
 with eager looks. Their eyes seem to shine like fire. Their necks turn 
 and twist like the body of a snake before it seizes the bird which has been 
 spellbound by its charm. The audience presses forward, and all necks 
 seem to have grown longer. The front row only too willingly gives way 
 to the pressure from behind, and allows itself to be pushed into the ring, 
 from which Mike, in spite of all cursing and pointing to the regulations, 
 cannot push them back. The space limited to the fight is therefore a very 
 small one. The cocks are now let loose. A short fluttering, an almost 
 human cry, and the two contestants have closed with each other ; the 
 duel has begun. The two cocks seem to be pretty equally matched, both 
 with regard to size and strength. They ward off the blows aimed for 
 them, jump at each other, and run around each other, trying to discover 
 their weak points, exactly in the same manner as do their human fellows 
 of the prize-ring. 
 
 But a long deliberation does not seem to be of any use, and the feathers 
 and tanbark begin to fly through the air in a most alarming manner, while 
 the steel spurs can be seen gleaming through the dust. The cocks jump 
 upon each other, and each buries his spurs and beak deep iuto the body of 
 his opponent. Hate towards each other seems to animate them and 
 increase their fierceness, and every minute the fight grows wilder and 
 wilder. The spectacle has now completely absorbed the eutire attention 
 of the rough crowd. They hardly dare breathe, and the cruel blood 
 seems to have stopped in their cold hearts. Their faces are pale, and 
 their eyes, almost starting from their sockets, have a cold, hard glitter in 
 them. It seems as if all the passions in their breasts have been concen- 
 
628 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 trated in one or the other of the contestants. Then a sudden pause 
 occurs. The sharp spur of one of the cocks has struck the heart of his 
 opponent. A short, shrill cry, and the brave animal sinks down dying in 
 the ring. "Was that a cry ? A cry so deep and cold and wild as the 
 sharp steel entered the warm heart ! It must have been felt by every 
 heart, if there were any hearts in that place. It could hardly have been 
 believed that so small a creature could have parted from life with such a 
 cry. But the dead "gladiator" found no compassion in a crowd which 
 let it die for their pleasure. A kick sends its warm body into a corner, 
 while a terrible noise greets the victor. 
 
 But is the crowd satisfied with the laurels won by the victor? By no 
 means ! His work is not yet done, and the bloodthirsty crowd desires 
 still more victims. Soon a new antagonist is brought out and placed 
 against him. The poor animal, so exhausted that he can hardly withstand 
 the attack of his antagonist, makes a suddeu attack, in which he concen- 
 trates all his remaining strength, and again kills his adversary. This 
 victory was quite unexpected for the majority of the audience. It had 
 not been deemed possible that the cock, which had been so exhausted in 
 the first fight, could be able to defeat a fresh enemy. Heavy odds had 
 therefore been taken against him, and the losers gave vent to their feel- 
 ings in loud curses. But soon they united in shouts of admiration for 
 the double victor, who, still ready for a new attack, was standing in a 
 fighting position before his dead enemy. The owner of the victor, in his 
 joy, went so far as to take him to his arms and caress him, while his 
 warm blood flowed on his shirt bosom. But the rough caresses are of no 
 use for the poor bird. The lustre of his eyes begins to grow dim, and 
 his neck gradually falls down on his body. The brave cock will never 
 again fight. He is dead. His tender master hurls him with a curse into 
 the corner where the other two are, and the cruel game is continued with 
 fresh victims. 
 
 Thus it goes on until all the cocks present have been produced. Some- 
 times the fights continue until three and four o'clock in the morning, and 
 are witnessed with undiminished interest by the public. A cock that will 
 not fight, or that tries to escape after a short fight, finds no mercy in the 
 eyes of his judges. Short work is made of him ; he is killed and thrown 
 among the others that have died while fighting. The duration of the 
 many contests varies considerably. Sometimes a cock will be killed in 
 the first onset; such quick terminations are caused by the sharp, steel 
 spurs. At other times, however, such fights will continue ten or fifteen 
 minutes. Such long and bitterly-contested fights especially interest the 
 brutal lookers-on. Then the excitement rises to such a pitch, that it al- 
 most seems as if the fate of all those present depended on the victory of 
 this or that cock. 
 
 The dog-fights, however, are much wilder and much more disgusting. 
 
DOG AND COCK FIGHTS. 029 
 
 If the fight does not take place in the open air, without any further pre- 
 paration, the ring where it does take place is arranged in a similar man- 
 ner as for a cock-fight. In the ring there are, besides the dogs, two 
 persons who are either the owners of the dogs, or persons to whom they 
 have been entrusted for the time being. These persons are called 
 " handlers." They stand behind their respective dogs, and encourage 
 them to fight by cries, stamping of feet, and other means. The rules, 
 however, forbid them to touch either dog. As the fights sometimes con- 
 tinue for hours, these fellows necessarily become tired. They then sit 
 down on the ground and crawl after their beasts on all fours. Sometimes 
 some celebrated dog is brought into the ring. In such cases the sensa- 
 tion is of course very great, and our entire rowdy and prize-fighting 
 aristocracy are in a fever of excitement. 
 
 This was the case, for example, when, a few winters ago, a dog by the 
 name of "Foss" was brought from England to our city. "Foss" had 
 whipped four of the largest dogs in London, and this had gained for him 
 such a name that no one was willing to match his dog against the " king 
 of the ring." "Foss" was therefore the champion of England, and his 
 happy possessor resolved to conquer America also. But this could not 
 be done without a hard fight. Mr. Moore, the proprietor of "Foss," 
 had hardly proclaimed him the dog of all dogs in New York, when he 
 was told by a "highminded" citizen of this republic named Rogers, that 
 his do? " Crib " could whip "Foss" or anv other do? in England, and 
 turn him into mince-pie in ten minutes. Moore immediately took up the 
 gauntlet in the name of " Foss." The preliminaries were soon arranged, 
 and, after the stakes of $500 a side had been deposited in due form, the 
 time and place were designated as the 4th of February in an out-of-the- 
 way shanty in Brooklyn. The question to be settled had an "interna- 
 tional importance," as will readily be seen. The interest taken in it was 
 therefore a correspondingly large one. When the day had arrived for 
 the fight, the amount of all bets made on it exceeded $10,000. The 
 shanty was filled to overflowing with spectators, each one of whom would 
 have been a fit Subject for the " Rogues' gallery." 
 
 At two o'clock the sign was given by the judges, and " Crib " and 
 ""Foss" w r ere let loose by their handlers. Fiercely gnashing their teeth, 
 the two dogs stood opposite to each other. Every one of their muscleg 
 swelled, and every hair seemed to stand on end. A dull dark, and the 
 two caught hold of each other. They fight quietly, more like machines 
 than living creatures. Only now and then a low growl betrays the pain 
 suppressed by the desire to fight. The quieter the dogs were, the noisier 
 were the handlers, who sought to keep up the fighting ardor of the two 
 contestants by all possible means. They acted like lunatics, as did the 
 majority of the spectators, who accompany the fight with cries of joy or 
 curses, as the fortunes of war changes. 
 
630 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 " Crib " seemed in the beginning to be the better dog. But hardly a 
 half hour had passed when the aspects of the case became entirely 
 changed. " Foss " showed that his powers were more enduring than 
 " Crib's." " Crib," however, held his own, and the fight continued una- 
 bated, although both dogs were considerably bruised and wounded. After 
 an hour's hard fighting, it was plain to every one that " Crib's " chances 
 of victory were very slim indeed. He began to whine and moan pite- 
 ously, and his handler had to exert himself to his utmost to keep him 
 from running away. Thus the disgusting scene continued for two and a 
 half hours. " Foss " was completely master of the situation, and seemed 
 to deliberate how he could settle " Crib" most quickly. Then suddenly a 
 peculiar noise was heard outside the shanty. Every one listened. Even 
 " Crib " casts side glances to the door, whence the noise proceeds. Sud- 
 denly a low whistle was heard, which caused the spectators to rush to the 
 doors as if bewitched. Even "Foss" and "Crib," forgetting the ques- 
 tion pending between thein, seemed to be affected by the general panic, 
 and took part in the stampede, which moved over a cemetery to some 
 adjoining bushes. This sudden panic was caused by the arrival of the 
 Brooklyn police. The guardians of the peace just arrived in the shanty 
 in time to see the last stragglers disappearing in the friendly bushes. 
 They therefore returned home in the pleasant consciousness of having 
 done their duty. 
 
 The following day a meeting of the judges was held, at which it was 
 decided that the disturbed fight should be renewed at some future time* 
 For, as " Crib" had not yet given way to "Foss," the fight could not be 
 declared at an end. A day was therefore decided upon when England 
 and America, by their representatives, " Foss " and " Crib," should again 
 meet in the ring. If either one of the combatants should fail to make 
 his appearance, he should be regarded as the vanquished. The important 
 contest has certainly taken place by this time ; but, as we have not paid 
 sufficient attention to this branch of the history of the day, we are una- 
 ble to tell whether or not "Crib" has saved the honor of our glorious 
 republic, and, what is of more importance, the 810,000 bet on him. Bu t 
 this we can and do say, that such dog and cock-fights must be regarded 
 as training-schools for rowdies and loafers, for nothing tends to brutalize 
 a man more than cruelty to animals ; and can there be a greater cruelty 
 than that which lets animals tear themselves to pieces to give pleasure to 
 the eye ? Particularly in the Irish districts in Avenue A, do we find that 
 men and boys assemble in the back-yards of tenement-houses, or in low 
 groggeries, to witness cock and dog-fights. It was in these districts that 
 those scenes occurred in July, 1863, which almost reminded one of the 
 savafieness of Indians. There it was where women killed the negroes 
 jying helpless in the streets, by breaking their heads with stones. There 
 it was where the crowds were formed which set fire to the colored orphan 
 
 
MATRIMONIAL OFFICES. 031 
 
 asylum, ami -were only with the greatest difficulty prevented from throw- 
 ing the affrighted children into the flames. There also this fire is still 
 slumbering, and may break forth at anytime, and there the crowds which 
 are particularly characterized by brutality and savageness, receive their 
 largest contributions. Such cruel spectacles instill into the mind that sav- 
 ageness and bloodthirstiuess which will use the knife or the revolver for 
 the least possible cause, and will kill a man with the same coolness as it 
 would step on a worm. 
 
 Much has been done in forcing such contests into remoteness, so that 
 they no longer exist as a public nuisance. But they must also be sought 
 out in these corners and exterminated altogether. The police, whose 
 duty it is to see to this, have been very backward in this respect. For 
 some years back, however, the " Society for the prevention of cruelty to 
 animals," under the well-known humanitarian, Henry Bergh, has inclu- 
 ded this in its sphere of action, and has done much good. The efforts of 
 this society, because in its commendable work it has sometimes gone into 
 extreme?, have been often ridiculed. But it does not deserve such treat- 
 ment. It has also been said that Mr. Bergh should first use his iufluence 
 to prevent cruelty to men. But not until man will learn that he has no 
 right to be cruel to his most humble servants, and will feel pity at their 
 sufferings — not until then will he learn to treat his fellow-men with 
 charity and kindness. In this sense, then, the society would also become 
 a " Society for the prevention of cruelty to men." 
 
 MATRIMONIAL OFFICES. 
 
 In speaking of "matrimonial" offices, we do not have reference to the 
 office of the county clerk, in which the marriage licenses are made out, 
 and which would therefore not improperly be termed a matrimonial 
 office. There are, however, offices in our city — and their number is not 
 small — whose operations have already done considerable harm, and which 
 have taken the name of " Matrimonial Offices." Their pretended object 
 is to act as mediators between persons of both sexes who are desirous of 
 marrying. This in itself is not bad. But, as we have said before, it is 
 only a pretended object, a covering for a disgusting business, which on 
 the one hand leuds no little aid to swindling, and on the other to prosti- 
 
632 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 tution. These matrimonial offices are an excresence of our so-called civ- 
 ilization. We have imported them from Europe, where they flourish 
 extensively, especially in France. Their French origin is easily noticed? 
 for a majority of these offices are conducted by Frenchmen. It is a 
 noticeable fact that these offices are generally located in those parts of the 
 city which form the headquarters of prostitution. This is by no means 
 accidental, but, as we will see further on, is done with a purpose. The 
 proprietor of a matrimonial office rents, in such a neighborhood, one or 
 two floors in a quiet and respectable looking house. A room on the 
 second floor is then fitted up as the "office," in which the business part of 
 the affair is done. In connection with this office there is a kind of pri- 
 vate post-office — that is, rows of locked boxes, which are rented out at 
 from fifty cents to one dollar per month. The office itself is elegantly 
 fitted up, and has a decided business air about it. The remaining rooms 
 on that floor, or, in larger establishments, on the upper floor, are so-called 
 M reception parlors," in which the couples brought together by the office 
 can enjoy a confidential talk. These parlors are generally fitted up with 
 the greatest luxury, which on the one hand indicates that the business 
 must be a paying one, and on the other distinctly calls to mind the par- 
 lors of houses of assignation. 
 
 The inmates of these houses are generally very strange persons ; they 
 are mostly Frenchmen whose past history is surrounded with a very mys- 
 terious veil, but whose present career, however, is of a nature to place their 
 character in a very unfavorable light. In a word, they are exactly fit for 
 the business which they follow. When we have seen this business in its 
 true light, we shall also have become acquainted with the character of 
 those who have chosen it for their occupation. We begin with a case 
 which will give the reader an insight into the business of such an office. 
 The following advertisement appeared some time ago in one of our most 
 widely-circulated papers : 
 
 The most beautiful young lady, 26 years old, of the highest respectability, and the possessor of 
 $20,000, wishes to marry an elderly gentleman of means. Apply to the Matrimonial Offi ce, No. 29 
 street. 
 
 This advertisement induced a reporter of the New York Sun to visit 
 the agency. Upon arriving at the house, he was astonished to find it so 
 quiet, although " the most beautiful lady," with $20,000 cash, was to be 
 had in it. He thought that at least one-half of the unmarried men of 
 New York over twenty-one years would be assembled in front of the 
 house, and would fight for the preference in entering. As no other sign 
 was to be seen on the house than a small tin plate with " U. S. Agency " 
 on it, he thought that there must be some mistake in the number. To 
 satisfy himself, he hurried up the steps and rang the bell. The door being 
 opened, he asked for the matrimonial office, and was told to enter. It 
 was then indeed the right house ! In a short time he was ushered into 
 
MATRIMONIAL OFFICES. 
 
 6$8 
 
 the office of the agent. The agent, in his appearance and in his deport- 
 ment, a true Frenchman, dressed as if he was going to a ball, sat at his 
 elegant writing-desk, and invited the reporter to take a seat. He did so, 
 and then stated that he had come to see about the advertised " most beau- 
 tiful lady." Prof. Marquet (that was the name of the agent) opened an 
 immense account-book, and looked into it. 
 
 " Ah, here she is !" he cried out ; " the most beautiful lady, twenty-six 
 years old, very well educated, a perfect lady ! She will receive $20,000 
 from her uncle upon her marriage ! She lives with her uacle, as her pa- 
 rents are dead. If you have any serious intentions, I will try and obtain 
 an introduction for you. The lady wishes to marry ; but she is very par- 
 ticular, and I do not know whether you will suit her. But I will describe 
 you to her, and we will then see whether she expresses the wish to see 
 you. She wants an educated man, one of good manners, and he must 
 not be without money. She does not look for great wealth, but expects 
 that her husband shall contribute something towards defraying the house- 
 hold expenses." 
 
 Upou asking for the name of the lady, the Professor seemed to be per- 
 fectly thunderstruck at such an assumption. 
 
 " What do you think of me?" he cried out, pointing to the door, where 
 a sign read, "All communications strictly confidential." " How can you 
 think that I would give you the name of the lady without being author- 
 ized by her? I am the soul of honor, sir, and your name also is under 
 the protection of this honor. What is your name, if you please, so that 
 I may enter it on my book ?" 
 
 The reporter gave some fictitious name and address, which were entered 
 with a flourish on the big book. The same was done with all his great 
 stories about his monetary and family affairs. The proprietor excused 
 his questions with the statement that he had to give the lady full details 
 about him (the reporter). He also said that he would see the lady that 
 day, and would be able to give an answer the day after. The interview 
 thus seemed to be at an end. The reporter rose to leave. The Professor 
 also arose, and said he must ask for two dollars, as the introduction fee, 
 which must invariably be paid in advance. But if this introduction should 
 have no result, an introduction with another lady would be arranged, and 
 so on, until he was married. For he only made his real profit when the 
 marriage was brought about, by a percentage on the bride's money. But 
 even then he charged much less than was customary in France, where 
 b per cent, was the regular tax. 
 
 The reporter paid the two dollars, with the sure promise of seeing the 
 lady the next day. But this was not to be. He did not hear from Prof. 
 Marquet until two days after, when the latter wrote to him, asking him 
 about his property. The letter was of course immediately answered. In 
 his next letter Prof. Marquet was sorry he could arrange no interview 
 
Od4 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 with the twenty-thousand-dollar lady, as she had just gone to Long; 
 Branch. But this was of no account ; and the Professor requested the 
 applicant to call upon him the next morning, when he would introduce 
 him to a beautiful young English lady, twenty years of age, and worth 
 $50,000. The reporter did not fail to be there on time. Prof. Marquet 
 praised the young English lady, who was even more beautiful than " the 
 most beautiful lady." But that was all. The introduction was again 
 put off until the next day, and the hour fixed. The .Professor then began 
 to speak of his commission. Although the property of the young Eng- 
 lish lady was more than twiee as large as that of u the most beautiful," 
 he would not charge more than $500, which was as much as two-and-a- 
 half per cent, of $20,000. Even this sum he would reduce one half, " if 
 Monsieur would be willing to pay it cash down." If the wedding did not 
 take place, the money would of course be returned. 
 
 " Monsieur," however, preferred rather to pay $500 after the wedding 
 had been arranged, than $250 before it. The Professor of course had to 
 be contented with this. He then produced the following document, which 
 he asked the candidate for matrimony to sign : 
 
 " I hereby agree to pay Louis Marquet the sum of two-and-a-half per 
 cent, of the money of such a woman as he may aid me to marry. I make 
 this agreement of my own free will, and with the conviction that the 
 above is only a fair remuneration for services rendered me." 
 
 The reporter signed the document, and the Professor showed him a 
 bundle of papers, and said that they were all similar agreements. One 
 of these documents, he said, was signed by a lady for whom he had pro- 
 cured a husband worth $200,000. 
 
 " They will probably marry," said the Professor, " and that alone will 
 give me a commission of $50,000." 
 
 The reporter started to go, but the Professor again took up the subject 
 of fees. 
 
 " It is customary in France," he said, " to pay one-half the fees be- 
 fore the introduction. I do not demand it, but still the introduction is 
 not possible wiihout some retainer." 
 
 Upon being asked how much this retainer was, the Professor declared that 
 that was immaterial, as he would give a receipt for it, and would after- 
 wards deduct it from the commission. He only insisted upon it to observe 
 an old business custom of his, and he would therefore be satisfied with 
 $25 in this case. 
 
 Who would not gladly pay $25 for $50,000, even supposing that he did 
 not get a young and pretty wife into the bargain? The reporter seemed 
 to be one of these strange beings, for he did not even put his hand into 
 his pocket. Perhaps he did not have the money with him. The Pro- 
 fessor seemed to be of this opinion, for he said to him, after reflecting a 
 minute : 
 
MATRIMONIAL OFFICES. OJi> 
 
 * 
 
 " Well, it makes do difference ; you can bring the few dollars along 
 to-morrow, when I introduce you to the lady." 
 
 This was the end of the whole affair, for the miserly reporter did not 
 come again, and dispelled all hopes the Professor might have had of get- 
 ting $25. But why did the reporter not come? Because he was initiated 
 into the mysteries of the matrimonial agencies, and well knew that the 
 $20,000 and $50,000 ladies of the Professor were only used as bait to 
 swindle the simple-minded out of their money. There are many, how- 
 ever, who do not know this yet. They are so simple-minded as to believe 
 that rich, pretty, and educated young ladies apply by dozens to suspicious 
 agencies to procure husbands for them. 
 
 " It must be so," such simple-minded people say, " for how could it- 
 otherwise be possible that such agencies not only exist, but also do a splendid 
 business?" 
 
 It is very true that these agencies do a splendid business, but not in the 
 manner their name would lead us to suppose. If marriages are brought 
 about by them, they are of a very peculiar character, and even these are 
 cases on which the agencies do not reckon. 
 
 As we have already remarked, such agencies do a considerable busi" 
 ness by publishing matrimonial advertisements, which, like the one we 
 have given above, are very enticing for persons who have learned to read 
 but not to think. Such advertisements, therefore, do not fail to attract to 
 the office a large number of persons of both sexes who are matrimonially 
 inclined. Every such customer is worth at least two dollars, as the intro- 
 duction fees are paid in advance. If possible, the agents try to get more 
 out of their victims. But, even if they do not succeed in this, two dol- 
 lars is a very good price for an introduction to a lady from a neighboring 
 " Ladies' boarding-house," or from a concert-saloon. For these are 
 generally the "ladies" who are selected by the agencies to play the part 
 of young widows or other interesting characters. These women play 
 their parts very well, and, as those who apply to these offices do not pos- 
 sess a large amount of common sense, such a supposed lady sometimes 
 succeeds in making a conquest of the applicant, and an unfortunate mar- 
 riage may be the result. 
 
 Such a case happened some few years ago. A wealthy farmer wished 
 to marry a city lady. An advertisement called his attention to a matri- 
 monial agency, and he decided to apply to it. After he had paid as much 
 as twenty dollars, he was introduced to a young lady, whose beauty 
 modesty, and good manners quickly captivated him. lie was told tha t 
 she was an orphan, without any property at present, but with great expec 
 Rations from relatives living in California. The farmer, who was welL 
 off, considered her beauty and her loving disposition a sufficient dowry > 
 and was determined to marry the young lady immediately. She of course- 
 hesitated, tor the farmer was a perfect stranger to her, and the men can- 
 
636 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 not be trusted in these days. She dropped a few hints about references 
 as to character, property, &c. This the farmer found to be quite natural, 
 and mentioned a large business house, which was acquainted with all his 
 business and family affairs. The simple-minded fellow never thought of 
 asking for references in return, not thinking perhaps that a pretty face 
 and good manners were not sufficient guarantees for the character of a 
 lady whom he had met for the first time in his lfe, and under such pecu- 
 liar circumstances. 
 
 The references must have been satisfactory to the lady, for she concluded 
 to carry out the joke, and to try a marriage for a change by which 
 she could only gain. The farmer was overjoyed when his fair one at 
 last consented to become his wife. In his happiness he readily paid the 
 fifty dollars which the agent demanded as compensation, and a week after 
 their first meeting they were married. 
 
 The farmer installed his pretty young wife in his home, and everything 
 went well for a while. But at last the neighbors began to talk, and even 
 *he farmer was not pleased that his wife, who was an orphan, and whose 
 relatives lived in California, should have so many affectionate cousins, 
 -who came to see her quite often. He now saw more than he cared to. 
 He was still deliberating what to do in this case, when the woman left 
 the house in company with her " cousins,'* while the husband was absent 
 on business. When he returned, he found that his wife had taken with 
 her money and valuables amounting to several thousand dollars. One of 
 his friends, to console him, told him that he had known the woman as an 
 Inmate of a disorderly hous3 in New York, and had been very much 
 astonished to see him married to this person. He had kept this know- 
 ledge to himself, as it was too late then to do any good, and had only told 
 him now to congratulate him upon his happy release from her. The farmer 
 now gave up all idea of pursuing the fugitives, and sued for a divorce. 
 Thi3 of course was granted him, and thus the folly he had committed by 
 visiting a matrimonial agency ended. But he had paid very dearly for 
 his experience. 
 
 It is strange, indeed, how far the thoughtlessness of some persons goes 
 in this respect. The police have cases on record where wealthy men 
 have paid as high as $250 for introductions to ladies in these agencies — . 
 introductions which they could have had for the price of a glass of beer 
 in a Broadway concert-saloon any evening. Of course, in a concert- 
 saloon these " ladies " are simply " pretty waiter-girls." In the parlors 
 of these agencies, however, they are the beautiful widows or daughters 
 of rich Southern planters, who are passing the warm season in the North, 
 or other persons of this kind. 
 
 The least part of the male customers of these agencies are matrimo- 
 nially inclined. Many go there to amuse themselves at the expense of 
 .some female candidate for matrimony. They intend to cheat, but only 
 
 
MATRIMONIAL OFFICES. 637 
 
 too often get cheated themselves. A "joke" of this kind was played by 
 a merchant of New Orleans in 1871, who paid twenty dollars for an 
 introduction to a " rich young widow " from Louisiana, in a Bleecker 
 street agency. 
 
 The lady kindly permitted him to visit her at her residence in Crosby 
 street. The end of the whole affair was that the infatuated Southerner 
 was robbed of §1,G00 by means of the panel game. This was all the 
 money he had with him, and three-fourths of it he had intended to pay 
 away for goods the following day. He made complaint to the police, 
 who, however, were unable to get on the track of either the woman or 
 her " badger." The money was lost, and the merchant from the Cres- 
 cent City will probably not again enter a matrimonial bureau in search 
 of adventures. 
 
 The female sex also contains a large number who know matrimonial agen- 
 cies only by their name, and apply to them full of confidence. For this class 
 of customers the agencies are also well prepared. The proprietor of the 
 agency likes to see such customers, especially if they are young and 
 pretty. The pretty young widow or girl, as it may be, is promised a speedy 
 and rich marriage. The applicant is thus filled with great hopes, and 
 readily pays the introduction fee. In the meantime the proprietor has 
 arranged the matter. Some rich rascal, who has seen the applicant from 
 a hiding-place, pays a high price to have the girl brought to him. The 
 agent then tells the girl that a rich young Englishman has applied to him : 
 that he lives in the Grand Central Hotel, and that he wishes to make the 
 acquaintance of an American lady. The Englishman has read so much 
 of the beauty of American women, that he has come over from England 
 for the express purpose of getting a wife. He promises the the girl that 
 she shall be the first one whom he will introduce to the Englishman, and 
 he actually keeps his word. The girl is of an unsuspecting character, 
 the stranger a rake of the first w r ater, and the end of this story can there- 
 fore be easily imagined. If the girl, however, is not very pretty, the 
 agency has constantly a number of loafers on hand, dresse 1 according to 
 the latest style, who play the part of candidates for matrimony, and thus 
 enable the agency to demand the introduction fee. 
 
 The above gives a fair idea of the manner in which matrimonial agen- 
 cies conduct their business and make their money. From this they could 
 be classed as a branch of prostitution, or classed as a separate branch of 
 swindling. 
 
 One of these agencies has even the impudence to call itself a "Per- 
 sonal Bureau'" It says in its circular : 
 
 11 We do not announce our office as a matrimonial agency, for such are 
 only humbugs. We furnish our patrons with addresses and letters of 
 introduction. It remains with them whether they wish to continue the 
 acquaintance." 
 
638 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 Another part of this circular is still plainer, and more to the point : 
 
 "Gentlemen who wish to have ladies for compar'ons or private friends* 
 will please send the age and mental and bodily qualities of the ladies 
 desired. Single addresses, with letters of introduction, 50 cents. Three 
 addresses, $1.00." 
 
 Only fifty cents for an introduction to a "young, pretty, amiable, and 
 rich lady !" That is certainly very cheap. 
 
 But another establishment, which styles itself " Matrimonial and Cor- 
 responding Bureau," is still cheaper, as it offers two addresses for fifty 
 cents ; that is, only twenty-five cents apiece. But the ladies who apply 
 to this agency are still more favored, as will be seen by the following 
 extract from its circular : 
 
 " Ladies who wish to be registered upon our book will please send 50 
 cents, together with an accurate description of themselves. Ladies reg- 
 istered in such a manner are entitled to as many introductions as they 
 may desire." 
 
 All this speaks so plainly for the character of the agencies, their custo- 
 mers and proprietors, that hardly any further comment is necessary. 
 Even those which call themselves " Matrimonial Agencies," indicate their 
 true character pretty plainly. Thus one says : 
 
 " This circular applies to ladies and gentlemen who desire friends, com- 
 panions, or correspondents of the other sex, either for amusement, social 
 intercourse, mutual improvement, or marriage." 
 
 Marriage, therefore, is not even the chief nor the only object of the 
 agency, as we might be led to believe from its name. 
 
 The most suspicious characters generally make use of these agencies 
 for unhallowed and even criminal purposes. Thoughtless frivolity or 
 good-natured simplicity, which only too often bite at the bait laid for 
 them, are always sure to become victims of these criminal intentions. 
 " Procurers' Bureau " would therefore be a more appropriate name, and 
 would at the same time indicate all the dangers respectable women and 
 girls incur in applying to them. The only proper matrimonial can- 
 didates are those miserable wrecks who will sell themselves to any woman 
 whose money will save them from the terrible predicament of working. 
 The side-pieces are " ladies " who, by sacrificing their characters, have 
 made considerable money, and, after having failed in obtaining respecta- 
 ble husbands, are brougnt in the market as decoys by the matrimonial 
 bureaux. 
 
 Many of these bureaux, which speculate especially on customers from 
 the country, are only swindling concerns. They promise their customers 
 rich husbands or wives by means of correspondence. In answer to their 
 inquiries, they are told that they must pay two dollars in advance. This 
 amount is generally sent. The proprietor of the agency pockets the 
 money, and that generally puts an end to the business so far as he is con- 
 
 
630 THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE 
 
 cerned. The correspondent hears no more of him. If he should ever 
 oomc to the city to interview the agent, it would be a very difficult matter 
 for him to find him. 
 
 We have not vet finished with these agencies. It may be safely said 
 that they have already dissolved more families than they have brought 
 together. For it is a well-known fact that many of them are in connec- 
 tion with agents and runners of divorce lawyers. These agents and run- 
 ners make it their business to dog the footsteps of persons calling in these 
 agencies, and to discover their names, addresses, and the state of their 
 property. As we have already remarked, these agencies are much used 
 to carry on love intrigues, and, strange to say, married men and women 
 are the most frequent visitors to them. If a visitor of this character is 
 rich, and his partner in life only the least bit inclined to jealousy, it may 
 be safely assumed that the runner will bring about a divorce suit for the 
 lawyer employing him. The matrimonial agencies of course receive 
 their share of the profits. 
 
 Very similar to the matrimonial agencies are the matrimonial adver- 
 tisements, as they may still be found in the columns of our papers. They 
 are even more dangerous, because many who do not have the courage to 
 apply to an agency, do not hesitate to answer some harmless-looking ad- 
 vertisement, or to insert one themselves. And yet in so doing they incur 
 all the dangers which we have mentioned in connection with the agencies. 
 Besides the dangers which threaten their characters, they also incur the 
 danger of ridicule. For many of the advertisements, and the answers to 
 them, are only malicious traps set for the simple-minded. The more 
 serious aspect of these advertisements we will notice further on. The 
 criminal aspect we will illustrate by the following example, which is one 
 of many. 
 
 A young man, Charles W., advertised himself in one of our dailies as 
 .a candidate for matrimonial honors. He was quite in earnest, and was 
 happy when he found his advertisement answered by four different per- 
 sons. He decided to answer one which suited him most, and which was 
 dated Toronto, Canada. The correspondence was continued, and Mr. W« 
 found out that his fair unknown's name was Helen Christopher, an or- 
 phan, with large expectations. The correspondence did not last long, for 
 Mr. W. made the acquaintance of a young lady in the city, and thereby 
 lost all interest in her whom he had only known by her letters. He 
 dropped the correspondence, and soon married his new acquaintance. 
 This was an act not quite right, it is true, but very wise. The pretty 
 orphan of Toronto was a lawyer of that city, who had answered the 
 advertisement, and had kept up the correspondence for a joke. This 
 joke, however, was not to end here. "NV.'s father, a minister in Vermont, 
 who had come to his son's wedding, saw "Helen's" letters, and found 
 them so interesting and pleasant, that he immediately fell in love with the 
 
MATRIMONIAL OFFICES. 640 
 
 writer. He was a widower, and desired just such a companion for life 
 as " Helen " seemed to be. Having arrived at home, he proposed to her 
 by letter without any further ado, describing his personal appearance and 
 financial affairs very minutely. 
 
 "Helen" at first seemed angered, and, referring to the fickleness of 
 the son, did not seem to have much confidence in the father. Rev. W.,. 
 however, removed these scruples, and soon seemed to be within reach of 
 the fulfillment of his desires. He sent to his " adored " his photograph, 
 and was overjoyed upon receiving hers in return. It was all that ho 
 could wish. Fortunately he did not know that it was the picture of an 
 actress who was celebrated for her beauty. The sight of so much beauty 
 caused him to bring the matter to a quick termination, and he informed 
 his " Helen " of his determination to call upon her. So far the joker, 
 however, did not wish to carry the matter. He tried to dissuade the 
 minister by having a threatening letter sent to him. The letter was from 
 a supposed rival in " Helen's " affections, who promised him a sound 
 thrashing if he came to Toronto. But it was of no use. The lover sent 
 the letter to his " Helen," and assured her that he would brave even 
 greater dangers than a sound thrashing for her sake. 
 
 " Helen " at last declared herself satisfied. Rev. W. started on his 
 journey, and arrived safely in Toronto. A perfumed letter informed 
 "Helen" of his arrival, and asked for an interview. This was granted, 
 and, at the appointed time, the suitor set out dressed in his best. For a 
 long time he stood on the corner where " Helen " had promised to meet 
 him with a friend. He stared at all ladies that passed him, but the 
 pretty face which he supposed to belong to " Helen " did not appear. But 
 instead, however, he met a large number of young men, who seemed to 
 take a particular interest in him, many of whom even laughed outright 
 in his face. After tarrying at the corner hours after the appointed time, 
 and the laughing and smiling of the persons about him became more em- 
 barrassing, he decided to inquire at the address to which he had sent his 
 letters. That, however, was a boarding-house entirely inhabited by young 
 men. His inquiry for " Helen Christopher " was answered with a roar 
 of laughter. He now began to suspect the trick. He immediately re- 
 turned to his hotel, preparatory to taking the next train for home. As the 
 train slowly moved out of the depot, and the unfortunate reverend looked 
 out of the window for the last time, he saw a crowd of young men, who, 
 upon seeing him, gave three cheers for " Rev. W. and Helen Christo- 
 pher." Fortunately he had not told his friends anything about the real 
 object of his visit to Toronto. He simply told them that pressing private 
 business had called him away for a few days. This 3aved him from the 
 ridicule of his friends. 
 
 The matrimonial agencies, as we have said before, are an importation 
 from France, where the ideas of marriage are looser than with any other 
 
THE DARK MDK OF NF.W YORK LIFE. G-4 1 
 
 civilized nation in the world. That such establishments could be im- 
 ported here, plainly shows that our ideas of marriage do not differ much 
 from those in France. How would it otherwise be possible that over a 
 dozen of these institutions could exist here? Thus it is that to-day mar- 
 riages are looked upon simply as business contracts, in which the mone? 
 tary part is the chief consideration. With such business-like views of 
 marriage, our matrimonial agencies would do very well. The originals 
 of such agencies have existed for centuries in the cabinets of European 
 monarchs, who also trade off their sons, daughters, etc., in marriage 
 with a view to their interest. The uatural fruit of this system, however, 
 were the mistresses, whose influence, emanating from the courts, espe- 
 cially from that of France, was the principal cause of the loosening of 
 family ties. And our matrimonial agencies do not even have the object 
 of bringing about conventional marriages. They are, as we have seeu, 
 more the promoters of unbounded frivolity, in which vice can lay its 
 snares for the unwary. That such establishments, in which swindlers 
 and procuresses so openly join hands, are not suppressed by the police, 
 can only be explained by the same laxity which makes the laws against 
 swindling and prostitution dead letters. We will turn to the customers 
 of these agencies in another chapter. Before closiug this chapter, we 
 would only give this good advice to all, that the man who cannot find & 
 ■wife, and the woman who cannot find a husband, in the usual manner, 
 had better give up the search than to endanger their reputation by an 
 application to a matrimonial agency. 
 
 BLACK-MAIL. 
 
 The highwayman who steps up to an unsuspecting promeuader with a 
 revolver, and demands his money, watch, etc., is an equally dangerous 
 and contemptible person ; but there are robbers who are no less danger- 
 ous, but far more contemptible than the common highwaymen. This one 
 does not hesitate to risk the State Prison, and pretends to be no better 
 than he really is. The robbers whom we have reference to, however, are 
 persons who, by some means, have gained information of a crime com- 
 mitted by some other person, and then make use of their knowledge to 
 extort " hush-money " from their victims. Such extortion of money by 
 
 41 
 
 ■ 
 
642 BLACK-MAIL. 
 
 means of threats is in itself not a whit better than common robbery. The 
 robber uses in this case, as his weapon, the secret in his possession, which 
 is often^nuch more effectual in frightening the victim than the knife or 
 revolver of the robber. For it is nothing unusual that a person attacked 
 by highwaymen resists, and sometimes receives timely aid. Very few, 
 however, have the courage to resist those villains who threaten to reveal 
 some disagreeable secret. 
 
 The highwayman would indeed fare ill if he should attack his victim 
 in broad daylight, in the latter's residence, or in his private office. This, 
 however, is the modus operandi of his more contemptible colleague. The 
 victim even takes pains to conciliate tue robber, and asks him very po- 
 litely into his private office, so that no one shall know of his loss. 
 
 The crime of extortion of money, commonly termed " black-mail," 
 is therefore connected with as little danger as it is mean and cowardly. 
 We can only wonder that it is not carried on more extensively. The 
 reason for this is difficult to find. Maybe the mean and contemptible 
 character which is necessary to carry on black mail, is very seldom found 
 even among the lowest criminals. But we should be very much mistaken 
 if we should look for the black-mailers among the criminals only. Even 
 those who occupy an apparently honorable position in society, but who 
 care very little for the means they employ in making money, do not hesi- 
 tate to make use of black-mail if an opportunity is offered them. 
 
 The victims of black-mail are principally persons of high standing and 
 Wealth, who have committed some act which they do not wish to have 
 known. The wealthier a victim of biack-maii is, and the more the dis- 
 closure of the secret endangers his standing in society, the more cruelly 
 does the black-mailer proceed against him. It is strange indeed to what 
 steps the fear of disclosure may drive any man. To cover the conse- 
 quences of such missteps, the victims of such extortion have often been 
 led into actual crime in order to be able to accede to the demands of their 
 tormentors. Many have been even led to suicide, or to leave their homes 
 forever, so as to rid themselves of these vampires. Rich men have been 
 impoverished, and the prospects in life of many rising young men have 
 been destroyed forever. Iu short, so much misery has been caused by 
 them, that we must regard the black-mailers as among the most danger- 
 ous of our criminals. 
 
 Black-mail, either by personal threats or by letters, is a well-paying 
 business". In one of our aristocratic streets there is a palace, which is 
 exceeded by very few in beauty and elegance. It has been built by 
 money made from black-mail. The proprietress of this house formerly 
 kept a private lying-in asylum for the wealthy class of our inhabitants. 
 The daughters of our most aristocratic families sought this asylum, or 
 rich rascals brought the girls there whom they had seduced, there to 
 await the consequences of forbidden intercourse. The woman gave these 
 
THE DARK 8ID1 ORE LIFB. 
 
 648 
 
 jirls the best care and attention, and did everything to gain their confi- 
 dence. She was of course paid well for these services, hut this was not 
 the cause of her tenderness. She counted upon a further remuneration, 
 burger than the one already paid. For this purpose, after having gained 
 a girl's confidence, the woman tried to obtain the name and position of 
 her seducer. Every statement obtained from the unfortunate girls at such 
 times was carefully noted down. When the child was born, it was given 
 into the hands of another woman, so that it could be produced at any- 
 time. The young woman, after her recovery, would return home, and the 
 facts of her fall would never become known. Months and years pass 
 away, and the seducer hardly remembers the affair, of which he believes 
 nobody knows anything. But his name is on the books of Madame, and 
 she does not forget him. Ooe day an elegant carriage stops in front of 
 his office, from which an elegant lady alights who wishes to see Mr. N. 
 Mr. X. immediately steps up. Madame mentions a woman's name, 
 which causes Mr. N. to ask her into his private office. There he sees 
 into whose hands the disagreeable secret has fallen. He is at last even 
 much relieved when the lady asks him for the loan of $500 or $1,000, 
 which he gives her all the more readily as he wishes to rid himself of his 
 disagreeable visitor. The visitor does leave, but from time to time brief 
 letters arrive, which contain requests for new loans, and always close 
 with the expressed belief of the writer that Mr. N. Avould certainly save 
 her the trouble of calling personally. These requests are always granted. 
 The lady has in this manner obtained a great number of friends, who are 
 always willing to help her out with a loan. 
 
 This woman must certainly be regarded as the queen of black-mailers, 
 and is a disgusting example of how one can live by the most contempti- 
 ble crime, without coming under the ban of the law. The female sex 
 particularly excels in the crime of black-mail. For the male victims are 
 generally caught by love adventures. Many a wealthy stranger who, 
 upon his visit to the city, has tasted of the forbidden fruit, has had some 
 very sad experiences. Upon arriving at home, he would receive some 
 
 _ v-scented letters, asking for larger or smaller amounts of money. 
 These letters resemble anything else than business communications, and 
 are only too apt to arouse suspicions in the heart of the lady of the house. 
 Pater familias, therefore, immediately seuds the money to avoid further 
 dunnin-r letters. He knows that the letter comes from the u lady" in 
 New York, in whose company he spent such pleasant hours. But to 
 make sure, he requests the lady, in the accompanying letter, not to write 
 to him again. But that has only made matters worse, as he has given a 
 well known female sharper written proofs against himself, which she 
 will make use of at some future time. For the business of this lady is 
 nothing else than to draw strangers in the hotels into her meshes, and 
 then extort money from them. 
 
644 BLACK-MAIL. 
 
 It was in all probability such a lady who played the chief part in the 
 following true story : 
 
 A pich widower of fifty had come to New York, and had taken lodg • 
 ings in a fashionable boarding-house. He there made the acquaintanc s 
 of a lady, who was supposed to be a widow from California, and whos^ 
 pleasant manners made a powerful impression on his still youthful heart.. 
 The widow was also very much charmed by him, and they became more 
 intimate every day. To avoid the talk of his fellow-boarders, the tender 
 widower rented an elegant residence, furnished in the richest style, and 
 then moved into it with his " friend." But his happiness was destined 
 to be of short duration. Upon entering his house one day he found, to 
 his astonishment, a rabid-looking man, who seemed to be as much at ease 
 as if he were at home there. He was about to ask an explanation of the 
 stranger, when the latter arose and declared himself to be the husband of 
 the supposed widow. He then began to rave about his dishonor, and de- 
 clared, with a curse, that blood only could wipe out the stain. The wid- 
 ower was not a very courageous man, and the stranger's bloodthirsty con- 
 duct, together with his martial appearance, caused the former to quake 
 with fear. The more he tried to conciliate the angry man, the more did 
 he rave. He begged and begged, and declared himself ready for anj- 
 thing that would settle the matter, even pecuniary consideration, that a 
 scandal might be avoided. At last the outraged husband consented t£> 
 accept a pretty high sum, on condition that the widower would immedi- 
 ately pack his trunks, and never again show himself in the house. The 
 widower reluctantly made out a check, and still more reluctantly packed 
 his trunks, and moved to a hotel as far from his former paradise as poss <* 
 ble. But this was only the beginning of his troubles. He was almosi 
 driven to desperation by regularly repeated extortions. The threat of a 
 public exposure was able to wring from him any amount. The advei - 
 ture with the California widow cost the unfortunate man more than half 
 his entire property. 
 
 An occasion much used by female black-mailers is the wedding of a 
 rich young man, whose former life has been somewhat loose. The prepa- 
 rations for the wedding are all made. Only one day, and the happy pair 
 will be united for life. The bridegroom is full of happiness, and does 
 not dream of any impending danger. And yet there is danger very near. 
 Among his former loose companions there is a young lady who levies 
 black-mail, and who has not lost sight of him since he began to reform. 
 She also knows of his marriage with the daughter of the head of a rich 
 and prominent family, and thinks the time has now arrived to make pro- 
 fitable use of her former acquaintance. She therefore makes her appear- 
 ance at the place of business of the young man, and requests to see him. 
 She must have -an interview, as her business is very important. All his 
 former sins recur to him as he sees her there. He grows pale, and is all 
 
THE DAUK SIDE OF NEW YORK III I. 
 
 the more embarrassed the more familiar she becomes, and the broader 
 her hints re<jardin£ their former connections. What shall he TO? Turn 
 her off, aud risk a public scandal which might destroy all his hopes in a 
 certain quarter? lie dare not do it. He knows what her object is, and 
 asks whether he can do anything for her. That is what she wanted, and 
 she now asks for a loan of §50, $100, or more, according to the circum- 
 stances of her victim. But as high as the price may be, it is very seldom 
 refused. 
 
 Sometimes the woman waits until the night of the wedding. A hard 
 pull at the bell announces that an important visitor is outside. Soon a 
 servant tells the astonished bridegroom that a lady wishes to see him at 
 the door. "Who can the lady be who choses this inopportune hour for her 
 vi:>it? The affair creates a profound sensation among the company, and 
 a shadow settles ou the happy face of the bride. The bridegroom sends 
 his father, brother, or somebody else to see what the lady wishes. But 
 she insists upon seeing him personally, and lays particular stress upon the 
 fact that he is bound to come, and if he does not there will be a row. 
 The result of the interview is reported to the bridegroom, and he at last 
 consents to see her. Then it turns out that it is nothing but a plan to 
 extort money from him, and he has the choice between a row that will 
 set the whole block in an uproar, or paying a considerable sum of money. 
 Whether the bridegroom had actually committed some sin against his 
 visitor in former years, is immaterial. lie can only avoid a scaudal by 
 paying, and he is generally compelled to do so to rid himself of the un- 
 welcome visitor. 
 
 Besides those who make a regular business of black-mail, there are 
 also amateurs in this "Hue art." There are people who carry on a re- 
 spectable business only by chance, but are no better than the lowest crim- 
 inal with regard to want of principle or moral depravity. The following 
 true story may serve as an example of this : 
 
 A young butcher one day noticed, in a disreputable street, an old man 
 who seemed to be waiting for some one. The appearance of the man 
 indicated a person of wealth and high standing, and attracted the atten- 
 tion of the butcher. He would, however, soon have forgotten this man, 
 if he had not seen him again during the following days. This seemed 
 strange to him at first, but it soon occurred to him that the old man was 
 walking in " ways that are dark." The old gentleman must be rich, aud 
 the speculative brain of the butcher soon found that he could make money 
 more easily here than at his business. lie therefore left his business to 
 his employers, and set himself to his work with the paiieuce of a dog. 
 For a few days this was in vain, but at last he met his man again at his 
 usual post. The butcher stepped into the shadow of a neighboring door, 
 and patiently waited. Soon a closely-veiled lady came down the street, 
 and the old man greeted her with great friendliness, and arm-in-arm they 
 
646 BLACK-MAIL. 
 
 passed along. The butcher followed them at a respectable distance, and 
 soon saw them enter a house of assignation. 
 
 When they left it, the butcher was on their track again. After part- 
 ing, he followed the gentleman to his residence, where he discovered his 
 name. In a few days he had also discovered the name and station of 
 the lady, and his supposition that they both belonged to rich and prom- 
 inent families was correct. 
 
 He now wrote a letter to the gentleman, speaking of his meeting with 
 Mrs. N. in a certain street, and demanding an interview. Frightened at 
 the discovery, the gentleman granted the desired interview. The butcher 
 immediately stated his business, and a&ked $1,000 as the price of his 
 silence in the delicate matter. 
 
 The amount was high, but Mr. F. was the head of a family, and a 
 thousand other considerations induced him to pay the money. The ras- 
 cal laughingly pocketed the money, and went to the residence of the lady. 
 He asked to see her on pressing business. She almost fainted as he began 
 to recount the circumstances of her interview with Mr. F. on a certain 
 street. She begged him to keep quiet, and to save her reputation. He 
 asked her whether she considered her reputation worth $500. She now 
 saw that it was simply a black-mailing visit, and paid the desired 
 amount. She was not troubled again. 
 
 Mr. F. did not escape so easily. To him the rascal applied with al- 
 ways greater demands. Mr. F. was weak enough, in consideration of 
 his family and the lady, to submit to these extortions. "With this plia- 
 bility the impudence of the rascal grew, and hardly two years had passed 
 when he had extorted more than $10,000 from the gentleman. Mr. F. 
 felt himself completely in the power of this man, who stuck to him like 
 a leech, and could not be induced to be content with a reasonable 
 sum. To escape his tormentor he at last adopted the desperate expe- 
 dient of selling his business, and building up a new home in the west. 
 The rascally butcher, however, boasted of his success in this case, and 
 openly declared his intention to bring the same method into operation if 
 he had another chance. 
 
 Very often it also happens that black-mailers lead rich and prominent 
 persons, who, by their mode of life, are invulnerable against such attacks, 
 into well-arranged traps. The appearance is then against their victims^ 
 and that suffices for the purpose of the rascals. In this manner the rec- 
 tor of a prominent church on Broadway was completely ruined a few 
 years ago. 
 
 Under the pretence that a sick woman wished to see him, he was one 
 evening called to a house of ill-fame. Everything was arranged in such 
 a manner that he was seen by different parties, both upon entering and 
 leaving the house. Upon arriving at the house, he was coolly informed 
 of the state of affairs, and was told that, as the appearances were against 
 
TI1K DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK III I . 047 
 
 him, it' lie would not pay $1,000 they would sot a grand public scandal 
 into play. The rector saw the trap into which he had fallen, and did not 
 have the courage to resist the attempt at extortion. lie signed a draft, 
 payable at sight, for the amount, and left the house. But with this draft 
 he had by no means bought his liberty. He continually received by letter 
 and personally the most impudent demands. Rich as he was, he clearly 
 saw that these continued extortions would soon ruin him. It also be* 
 came known that rowdies and women of ill-fame commanded his purse 
 to a greater extent than seemed necessary for the purposes of charity. 
 All this drove him to desperatiou. One morning he had disappeared, and 
 a letter, dated a few days later, from Sandy Hook, contained his resigna* 
 tion, and his intention to visit Europe. 
 
 After some time he returned from Europe, and became pastor of a 
 small country community in Massachusetts. But his residence here was 
 discovered by the black-mailers, and he again received threatening letters. 
 He began to suffer intensely under these tortures of the mind, until, too 
 late for him, relief came. At the descent of the police upon a thieves' 
 resort in New York, letters were found showing that he was the victim 
 of the machinations of a black-mailing gang. The rector, who in his 
 time was one of the most popular as well as the richest ministers of the 
 city, is to-day both mentally and bodily prostrated, serving in a remote 
 Canadian settlement, having been driven from his home by the rascality 
 of a black-mailing gang. 
 
 This is sad indeed ! But why, many of our readers will ask, do such, 
 victims submit to these extortions, instead of throwing the black-mailer 
 out of doors, or handing him over to the police? This question is easier 
 put than answered. We fear that the questioner would, in most cases, 
 not act a bit different from the course of action of the victims lie criti- 
 cises. Many have the courage to do a wrong action, or do not blush at 
 some weakness to which they have given way. But very few have the 
 courage to confess a wrong action or a weakness, even if this is neces- 
 sary to save them from becoming the victims of the criminal propensities 
 of others. The simplest and most natural protection against black-mail, 
 to apply to the police, is generally not thought of by the victim, until he 
 is almost ruined. Thus the case of the widower is a prominent example 
 of this fact. For, when he saw that the continued extortions would soon 
 beggar him, he told the police of his weakness, and the consequences re* 
 suiting therefrom. This saved him. The police soon discovered that 
 the supposed California widow was nothing more than a common adven- 
 turess, and that her supposed husband was only an accomplice, and that 
 he had a wife and family living in Boston. The husband was thereupon 
 arrested. He protested that he was married to the California widow, and 
 that he therefore had a perfect right to settle with the man who had 
 dishonored him, according to his own judgment, by an intrigue with his 
 
648 BLACK-MAIL. 
 
 wife. He was then told with reference to his Boston wife, and was in- 
 formed that he had accused himself of bigamy, and that he would be held 
 to answer this grave charge. 
 
 But before the trial came off much more serious charges were made 
 against the rascal, which sent him to the penitentiary for a number of 
 years. The money extorted from the widower, as well as the costly furni" 
 ture, was lost. The latter was never troubled again, and could regard 
 his loss as a penalty for not making use, in the beginning, of the safest 
 means for protection. 
 
 We could mention still more examples in which victims of extortion, 
 to whom suicide seemed the only way out of their troubles, were saved 
 at last by the interference of the police. Besides the police, there is a 
 still more sure and effective protection against black-mailers, and that is 
 — a clear conscience. Cases in which black-mailers have selected really 
 respectable men for their victims, are exceedingly scarce. He who is 
 conscious of always having done right, according to his best knowledge, 
 Will not hesitate to have his character examined, if it should be necessary 
 to do so to stamp any suspicion raised against him as an attempt at 
 extortion. ^ 
 
 Wo cannot close this chapter without referring to a system of official 
 black-mail. This consists of the " voluntary contributions " which are 
 expected from the officers in the various departments of the city, State, 
 and National governments for party purposes. The expression, " party 
 purposes," is a very vague one, and generally reduces itself to mean the 
 advancement of the private interests of some prominent political wire- 
 puller. But, even if the object was a good one, it never could justify so 
 contemptible means as raising forced contributions from public officers, 
 and call it a voluntary one. It is true, nobody compels the different offi- 
 cers to contribute anything, but let one of them refuse, and the conse- 
 quence would be that soon after he would receive notice that his services 
 were no longer required. Probably a trumped-up charge would be 
 brought against him in justification of his dismissal. At all events, the 
 true reason is never given. 
 
 The common black-mail only injures individuals. But it is far differ- 
 ent with the political extortion. This is one of the chief sources of the 
 corruption of our public officers, and therefore reacts very injuriously on 
 society in general. The value and fitness of an officer are measured, 
 under this blackmail system, according to the amount of his contribu- 
 tions, and tae willingness with which he gives them, while their business 
 qualifications do not come at all into consideration. The average sala- 
 ries of officers are generally very low. If, therefore, the political black- 
 mail takes a large part of this every year, it gives the victim the silent per- 
 mission to make good his loss from the public treasury, or in some other 
 way. Whether by direct robbery or neglect of duty, the loss always comes 
 
TIIE DARK SIDE OF NEW TORK LIFE. 1 ) 
 
 from the pocket of the citizen, who has to make good the amount of the 
 political blackmail. All the means which can be effectively used against 
 private black-mail, are of no use with that of the political. To suppress it, 
 a complete revolution in the public feeling would be absolutely necessary 
 one that would apply the ideas of morality and honesty, which we use in 
 private life, to public life also. 
 
 PRIVATE POST-OFFICES. 
 
 Among the establishments which, in spite of their apparently harmless 
 character, develop a very pernicious influence, the private post-offices 
 occupy a prominent place. We have already had occasion, several times 
 before, to refer to them, and the company in which we have seen them. 
 4 4 Swindlers" and " Matrimonial Agencies" did not show them in a very 
 favorable aspect. A little reflection will present them in a very discred- 
 itable light. 
 
 The public mail-service in our city is so well organized, that it suffices 
 for all ordinary purposes. This is a well-known fact. How can the 
 existence, then, of private post-offices be possible or justifiable? We 
 would here remark in the beginning, that no justification is possible, and 
 will therefore only inquire into the causes which have brought the private 
 post-offices into existence, and have made their business a very lucrative 
 one. 
 
 These offices are either devoted exclusively to the delivery or letters, or 
 they are simply parts of other establishments. In the former case they 
 are not very inviting, mostly small offices in a top floor, without any 
 other iurniture than is absolutely necessary to give them the appearance 
 of a post-office. They are generally in one of the principal streets, es- 
 pecially Broadway, as a Broadway address is geuerally a recommenda- 
 tion by itself. For an artless reader iu the country who peruses an ad- 
 vertisement, with the address, No. — Broadway, New York, generally 
 supposes it to be one of those big firms of which he has heard so much. 
 He therefore has confidence iu the advertisement, which would ccrtaiuly 
 not be the case if he could see the den serviug as an office in some corner 
 of a tumbledown house. 
 
 The customers of the private post-offices are either persons for whom 
 
650 PRIVATE POST-OFFICES. 
 
 the United States Mail is not available, or whose business is of such a 
 nature that it would be endangered if carried on by the regular mail. 
 For the reader already knows that postmasters are authorized to keep 
 back the correspondence of notorious swindlers, quacks, and others who 
 use the mails for an illegitimate purpose. A conscientious postmaster 
 can easily discover such persons within range of his post-office, and can 
 then return the letters arriving for them to the writers. Thus the busi- 
 ness of such swindlers is generally nipped in the bud, and to remedy this 
 private post-offices have been organized. The proprietors of these 
 offices are well aware of this object, and are therefore no better than the 
 swindlers who patronize them. These offices also explain the fact how 
 so many swindling concerns can advertise their business at the same 
 address. The house number of each, however, is only that of a private 
 pobt-office, where the different swindlers have boxes, and where their 
 letters are' generally sent. The swindlers themselves live in some out-of- 
 the-way place, and the office where they keep their sawdust is in some 
 remote attic. 
 
 It is of course a very difficult job, in this respect, for the police to reach 
 the swindlers. If a swindler finds that the post-office officials are begin, 
 ning to suspect the nature of his business, and can possibly keep back the 
 letters addressed to him, he immediately advertises under a new name. 
 If the private post-office has become so suspicious that the postmaster has 
 placed it on the list of the swindling-offices, and delivers no more letters 
 to it, it is an easy matter for the proprietor to pack up his things, and 
 to begin again under a new name somewhere else. The different swin- 
 dlers cannot be considered as actual customers of these private post- 
 offices. > The latter are, on the contrary, rather the allies and partners of 
 the swindlers, and receive their share of the gains. This, however, does 
 not present their accepting any profitable business from some other 
 source. They therefore rent boxes to any one who applies to them, with- 
 out troubling their customers with annoying questions. The tax is of 
 course higher than in the regular post-offices, and varies from fifty cents 
 to one dollar per month. These persons are also customers who, for 
 s ome particular reason, wish to avoid the regular post-office. The hus- 
 band or wife who, behind the backs of their partners for life, or the daugh- 
 ter who, behind the backs of her parents, keeps up a secret correspond- 
 ence, can certainly not have their letters sent to the house. Such private 
 post-offices are to them an easy way out of the dilemma, without being 
 compelled to confide in any one. 
 
 Sometimes it occurs that the owner of such a box waits in vain for let- 
 ters, although he knows that such letters have been sent. In such cases 
 the office no longer receives any letters from the post-office, having be- 
 come known as a swindiing-office. The officexloes not tell its customers 
 a word of this, but lets them pay their dues until they get tired of it. But 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW TORS LOT. C5I 
 
 the matter is also not entirely without danger. A sign in the office tells 
 us, "All letter-business strictly confidential. " But this is a very poor 
 guarantee for the inviolability of the letters. A certain gentleman, Mr. 
 D., who had a very jealous wife, kept up a secret correspondence with a 
 tody, also married. For a while all went well. Mr. D.'s letters were 
 written in a manner to show that he had forgotten his marriage 
 vows. This the private postman discovered, in spite of the "strictly con- 
 fidential " notice, and decided to make some money out of his secret. 
 With Mr. D.'s last letter in his hand, he called at that gentleman's office, 
 and, to his terror, asked him whether he would be willing to buy it back 
 for S"200. Mr. D. tried to intimidate the rascal by an appearance of 
 firmness, and said he would not give two cents for it, and threatened to 
 call in the police. But the rascal was not in the least intimidated. On 
 the contrary, he said that he would surprise Mr. D.'s wife by giving her 
 the letter. This had the desired effect. After considerable parleying, 
 Mr. D. saw no escape but to pay the money, and felt relieved upon see_ 
 mg the letter burned. 
 
 These offices, then, if not intended for actual criminal purposes, yet 
 serve such persons as wish, for some reason or other, to avoid broad 
 daylight. These persons should therefore not complain if they are judged 
 by the company in which they are found in such places. These offices 
 are agencies which present to the professional swindler, as well as to the 
 heartless seducer, a wide field in which to set their traps for inexperienced 
 youth. Everything that must avoid a plain, open correspondence applies 
 to them. They bear the same relation to the regular post-office as the 
 private detectives bear to the official secret-service. They are a poison- 
 ous degeneration of one of the most beneficial and most important public 
 institutions, and it is only to be regretted that they are so difficult to 
 reach, if at all, by the police. They are very closely related to the 
 " personals" and swiudling advertisements which many of our dailies 
 admit into prominent places in their columns every day. ^Y^s therefore 
 do not go into the full details of this nefarious business here, as Ave shall 
 treat of it at length in the chapter on t; Personal and Swindling Adver- 
 tisements." 
 
652 OBSCENE LITERATURE. 
 
 OBSCENE LITERATURE. 
 
 Obscene literature has not unjustly been styled moral poison, and pa- 
 rents and guardians might just as well place arsenic, strychnine, or some 
 other dangerous poison into the hands of their children, as allow the low 
 and vulgar productions, in the form of obscene books, papers, etc., to 
 reach them. It is a strange fact that the sale of poisons, as they come 
 from the chemical works, is more strictly watched than the sale and dis- 
 tribution of the moral poisons in the form of obscene productions of the 
 press. The consequences of this inconsistency of the law are of the 
 most serious character. It has caused the business in obscene literature 
 to assume alarming dimensions, and there are firms in this city who do a 
 business in indecent publications that is hardly exceeded by very few of 
 our legitimate publishing houses. It will hardly be believed, but it is a 
 terrible fact, that the total number of obscene books sold annually in our 
 city amounted to over 100,000. The matter becomes still worse when 
 we add to this number the obscene pictures, photographs, and stereosco- 
 pic views, lithographs, the so-called playing-cards, etc. They belong to 
 the same class of moral poisons, and are probably even more dangerous 
 than books, for by a single look they are able to corrupt the youthful 
 mind. The business in these obscene works is also very large, a half 
 million being the number, according to the estimates of the police, that is 
 annually brought into circulation. The demand for these poisons seems 
 to be on the increase, rather than anything else. Until 1846 the import- 
 ations from England and France sufficed to supply the American market 
 with these disgraceful publications. This importation, however, was 
 such a risky thing that the number of obscene books was necessarily very 
 small, and the prices very high. Obscene books and pictures were there- 
 fore until then very rare. But the taste for them had already been de. 
 veloped, and the demand, in spite of the high price, was considerably 
 greater than the supply. This induced an Irishman, who had until then 
 imported obscene books, to try the publication of these works. The 
 name of this man, "NV. Haines, deserves to be held up to public disgrace 
 forevermore, in the annals of our Republic, as the first man who natural- 
 ized obscene literature in our country. He began on a small scale, but 
 he thoroughly understood his business, and was soon a rich man. Up to 
 the year 1871 he had published not less than 320 different works (bound 
 books) of the most obscene character, which have all had an extmsive 
 circulation, and have paid exceedingly well. Besides these books, Haines 
 also manufactures the so-called French or fancy playing-cards, in which 
 branch of business he has, in a certain Geo. Akman, the only competi- 
 tor in the country. This Akman, besides manufacturing the cards, also 
 does a large business in the cheaper class of obscene literature,"in which 
 he is only exceeded by Haines. 
 
TIIE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 
 
 With regard to the photographic part of the business, there are fai 
 more persons who prostitute their art by the manufacture of obscene pic- 
 tures than would be supposed. A certain G. Gompert has the honor ot 
 beiug the most extensive dealer in this class of merchandise. For a 
 time this fellow carried on the business with the greatest boldness. This 
 at last brought him into contact with the authorities. He was arrested, 
 and his publications were confiscated. Fortunately for him, but unfor- 
 tunately for public morality and justice, Gompert had already become 
 rich in his disgraceful business, and money is the best lawyer. Gom- 
 pert, to the astonishment of all respectable citizens, was discharged, and 
 in a short time was again at his old business — more secretly, but on a 
 much larger scale. 
 
 These three men are responsible for the greater part of that moral 
 poison which, in the form of obscene books and pictures, circulates among 
 all classes of the population. There are, of course, in other cities just 
 as depraved persons, who also contribute their share of obscene books, 
 pamphlets, songs, etc. The importation of these works also continues.. 
 and has rather increased than decreased. We have already given an 
 idea of the extensive business of these rascals. It is not too much to- 
 say that the country is perfectly flooded with their productions. Thus a 
 single private citizen, Mr. A. J. Comstock, who plays a similar part in 
 the field of obscene literature to that of Mr. Bergh in cruelty to animals, 
 has succeeded, in the course of a few years, in confiscating and destroying 
 over thirteen tons of this class of publications. That this amount de- 
 stroyed only represents a small fraction of the books is self-evident, and 
 we can only wonder that a business in forbidden articles, which is so com- 
 plicated and requires so many different branches, can be carried on so 
 openly under the very eyes of the authorities. Many of our readers 
 will ask where these works are printed. Some will thiuk of printing- 
 offices hidden in deep cellars, or will let them be manufactured in the same 
 manner as counterfeiters make bank-notes. 
 
 But far from it ! The reader must not forget that the business in ob- 
 scene literature is a very lucrative one. The publisher is therefore able 
 to pay much higher prices for his work than are paid for respectable pro- 
 ductions. We see that the publishers of our rich dailies take the most 
 disgusting advertisements into their papers for no other reason than that 
 they are better paid for than the common advertisements. If the price 
 paid for the work is only higher than usual, there is no book, however 
 disgusting, that cannot be printed in our city. The place of printing is 
 not mentioned on the title page, for if would damage the reputation of 
 the highly respectable firm. That alone does the firm wish to avoid. 
 The consciousness of having aided in giving to the world an obscene 
 book generally disappears in the much more pleasaut consciousness of 
 having made a good trade. As easily as the publishers find priming- 
 
(j,34 OBSCENE LITERATURE. 
 
 offices to do their work, will they find book-binding establishments to do 
 the same, so long as they can satisfy any conscientious scruples with dol- 
 lars' and cents. Aye, even more ! Many of our large publishing houses 
 began their business as dealers in obscene literature. In this manner they 
 laid the foundation of those large fortunes with which they built up their 
 present large establishments, and then forever left their former disgraceful 
 business. 
 
 From these printers and publishers, we turn our attention to the dealers 
 in obscene literature. New York alone has not less than thirty of these, 
 who carry on their disgraceful business under the name of book and sta- 
 tionery stores, newspaper-stands, etc. In general, the outward appear- 
 ance of these stores is so far respectable, that an uninitiated person would 
 not easily suspect their true character. And yet this harmless appear- 
 ance generally covers the most disgusting obscenity. In street 
 
 such a book and picture shop existed some years, and was conducted 
 under the firm name of Evans & Co. For some reason, as some say 
 because the firm had omitted to pay the usual tribute, the police made a 
 descent upon this den, and the consequences were that a whole wagon- 
 load of the most disgusting books and pictures were confiscated. By 
 some means, as some say because the usual tribute was immediately paid, 
 Evans & Co. were free again in a short time. It was said that it was im- 
 possible to obtain any proof against them. The same firm are in busi- 
 ness to-day, in the very same place, only that they are wise enough to 
 carry it on under a new name. 
 
 All these dealers, who very often only use cellars and dirty little stores 
 for their offices, do an excellent business. They obtain their stock from 
 the publishers, and sell their goods very rapidly. One of the worst ol 
 the whole lot was a certain John N. Willis, of the firm of Willis & Co., 
 in which J. H. Reeves, already mentioned in another chapter, played a 
 prominent part. This Willis had cast his eye especially upon youn| 
 girls, and proceeded in the following ingenious way : 
 
 He inserted an advertisement in sensational weeklies, offering to seni 
 to any woman the picture of her future husband for fifty cents. 
 Thousands of letters came in answer to these advertisements, in which 
 the fair writers desired to see their intended husbands, some in earnest, 
 and some only in joke. The swindler might have been satisfied with the 
 business he did in three-cent photographs at fifty cents apiece. But that 
 was only a secondary consideration. To the picture of the future hus- 
 band he added a circular which contained a price-list of obscene books, 
 pictures, instruments, medicines, etc. Thet-e articles thus came to the 
 notice of thousands of young girls who perhaps until then had no idea of 
 their existence. The rascal felt entirely secure. None of the women or 
 girls could complain of the insult of having such obscene stuff sent to 
 them, without acknowledging that they had applied to him for the picture 
 
THE DABS BIDS of HEW YORK LIFE. Oj.: 
 
 of their future husband. On the other hand, he knew full well what a 
 charm forbidden things have on weak characters, however pure they may 
 be ; and he also expected that, however the price-list was received, it 
 would not be destroyed until it had been circulated among and shown to 
 all the friends of the receiver. In these calculations the rascal was 
 not deceived, for the applications for obscene books, which soon began to 
 pour in, far exceeded those for the future husband. 
 
 Besides working with circulars, which are distributed in many different 
 ways, these dealers also act as peddlers, and develop, particularly in the 
 country, an activity very dangerous to our youth. There are even a 
 number of women who make it their busiuess to peddle obscene articles. 
 Their sphere of action is principally amoug the female sex, where they 
 alone are able to obtain sale for such merchandise. These dealers and 
 agents are those who, from time to time, are visited by the police, and 
 who lose their stock by confiscation, which until recently was the only 
 penalty imposed upon them. This penalty, however, is not very severe. 
 Very soon their stock is again completed, and their destructive work con- 
 tinues. To reach the publishers themselves would be a very difficult 
 matter, even supposing an earnest desire on the part of the authorities to 
 do so. In their business offices, where they receive their letters and 
 orders, there is nothing that could bring them in contact with the law. 
 Their stock is generally in some remote quarter of the city, whence the 
 orders are filled, and the goods are sent off in cases and boxes in such a 
 quiet manner, that no one would suspect the true nature of the business. 
 These publishers do not omit to be on good terms with the police. It is 
 well known that there are means to make the sight of the sharpest detec- 
 tive grow dim. These means are possessed by the publishers of obscene 
 books, and are liberally applied by them. Thus the above-mentioned W. 
 Haines is said to have expended over $20,000 in this way in the course 
 of ten years. 
 
 A large part of the business in obscene literature, both by publishers 
 and by dealers, is done by means of advertisements. Here also we see 
 a large part of our periodica 1 press lending a helping hand to criminals 
 of the lowest kind for the sake of gain. Especially before the war, ob- 
 scene weeklies were openly published and sold. They paid exceedingly 
 well, and were forced to stop publication, not on account of the prompt 
 and voluntary action of the police, but on account of the pressure brought 
 to bear on the authorities by an outraged public opinion. But even to- 
 day there are papers which, with regard to reading matter and illustra- 
 tions, fully deserve the epithet of obscene. But they very wisely keep 
 within the Hue which the law has laid down. They coufine themselves 
 to hinting, by pictures and by reading, what they would so very gladly 
 express openly. At the same time, they excite the imagination of their 
 readers, and prepare them for the much spicier reading of the obscene 
 
356 
 
 OBSCENE LITERATURE. 
 
 books. These represent the real concentrated moral poison, while many 
 of our illustrated sensational papers are only weakers forms of the same 
 poisons. 
 
 A special class of dealers in obscene literature are certain doctors, or 
 rather quacks, who very often publish and sell books on certain diseases, 
 whose contents, however, are only the most revolting obscenity. The 
 swindlers have also not forgotten to use the business of obscene litera- 
 ture for their purposes. They advertise books, pictures, etc, under titles 
 which appear very enticing to lovers of obscenities. Such a bait gen- 
 erally has the desired effect. Letters with the price of the book arrive 
 in large numbers. The swindlers pocket the money, but never think of 
 sending the books. If another letter comes, asking for the cause of the 
 delay, the writer is informed that his money has not been received. The 
 money is then in some cases sent a second time, and of course with the 
 same result. 
 
 If we consider how many victims lose faith in the bona fido obscene 
 advertisements by these swindlers, we may almost reconcile ourselves to 
 this class of swindle. For it not only punishes an unclean desire, which 
 seeks forbidden, poisonous fruits, but it also damages the business in 
 obscene literature much more than a thousand warnings could do. Sim- 
 ilar to these swindlers are small second-hand book-stores, which adver- 
 tise old medical works which are read no more, in a manner which leads 
 a person to suppose that their contents are obscene. This low trick also 
 succeeds very well. Numerous orders come in from all sides, and the 
 speculative bookseller does a considerable business in this old trash at 
 prices which often exceed the original value of the articles. His end is 
 attained, and he no longer cares for the fools he has used to accomplish 
 his purpose. That also is a swindle, and, as in the former case, there is 
 no help for the victim. For in the latter case there is no evidence of a 
 swindle, as the buyer has received the book he asked for. The former 
 case is plain and open swindling. But its victims do not dream of prose- 
 cuting the swindlers, as they w r ould therefore represent themselves as 
 buyers of obscene books or pictures. This kind of swindle is therefore 
 very extensively carried on. 
 
 But let us now turn to the customers, who are the real supporters of 
 the trade in obscene literature. They are very numerous, far more so 
 than we can acknowledge without blushing for mankind. They are 
 found in all classes of society, and in both sexes. But the so-called 
 better classes furnish the largest number of buyers of obscene works. 
 Very curious facts in this respect were brought to light some years ago. 
 An obscene weekly paper, of the most disgusting kind, was visited by 
 the police, its office in Nassau street closed, and its books, papers, stock, 
 etc., confiscated. The list of subscribers was also taken by the police* 
 and was the most interesting part of the whole concern. It contained- 
 
T1IK DARK BIDS ui M.W fORK LIFE. 
 
 more than ten thousaud names. And what names? Promiuent mer- 
 chants and bankers, well-known divines of all denominations, women of 
 the most prominent families, girls in the most promiuent educational in- 
 stitutions, were found in large numbers, and particularly were the rich 
 and so-called educated classes represented in this list in large numbers, 
 Great political influence, as well as large sums of money, were brought 
 into play to suppress this list. Aud as it was with this paper, so it is 
 with the books, photographs, stereoscopic and other pictures, etc., of an 
 obscene character. They also circulate chiefly among the rich class, 
 The poorer classes seem to have, in their struggle for their daily bread, 
 an effective protection from this moral poison. 
 
 With regard to the obscene photographic pictures, the delicate question 
 arises, Who are the female models who serve as origiuals? The suppo- 
 sition that they are without exception taken from prostitutes, or that the 
 heads and bodies are taken from two different persons, are declared by 
 detectives, who are considered authorities in this respect, to be simply 
 fables and nothing else. It appears, therefore, that the fact stated some 
 time ago, by the New York Herald, that beautiful, and, to all appear- 
 ances, wealthy women allow themselves to be used as models in the 
 "Academy of Design," may equally well apply to the dens of those pho% 
 tographers who manufacture obscene pictures. 
 
 The ruin caused by such books and pictures, in the hands of boys Q 
 nir Is, some of whom have just entered upon their teens may easily be 
 imagined. The youthful mind, until then pure, receives, in this manner, 
 a pestilential matter which is able to briug to nought the most careful 
 education, and which gives to the youthful imagination a turn which 
 leads it directly to vice and crime. Nothing ruins the strength of mind 
 and body more than a sensually-excited imagination, and nothing does 
 this more than obscene literature or pictures. The evil is all the worse, 
 as it works in the dark. Parents and guardians very seldom have an 
 idea that a fiend in human form has sown such poisonous matter in the 
 minds of their children. They only notice it when it is too late to apply 
 a remedy. 
 
 It w T ill hardly be necessary to give more than a passing notice to any 
 further customers of obscene literature. That houses of prostitution, 
 concert-saloons, and dance-houses are good customers for obscene books, 
 may be easily imagined. In such places this kind of literature is at 
 home, and can do no further injury. It may also be considered perfectly 
 harmless in the hands of old rakes, who are also among the principal 
 customers of obscene literature. 
 
 What has been done until now to limit a business so dangerous to 
 public morality? Very little indeed. But recently it seems as if it was 
 to become better so far as legislation in this respect is concerned, for in 
 Albany and Washington laws have been enacted which take hold of the 
 
 42 
 
g58 OBSCENE LITERATURE. 
 
 evil very seriously. The laws at least make the impression that they 
 are well meant, and have such a decided wording that there is no back 
 door through which the criminal can escape. The new State law has, 
 among other provisions, the following : 
 
 "Any person who shall manufacture, or cause to be manufactured, or 
 have in his possession, or give away, or causes others to manufacture 
 and sell, any obscene books, or pictures, or medicines (or the purpose of 
 bringing about an abortion, or who shall publish advertisements having 
 reference to such articles, shall, if over twenty-one years of age, be sen- 
 tenced to hard labor for a term not less than three months, and not ex- 
 ceeding two years, and a fine ranging from $100 to $5,000, and, if less 
 than twenty-one years of age, to three months' imprisonment, and a fine 
 not exceeding $500. The fines shall, in the city of New York, be divided 
 equally between the Female Protective Union and the Prison Associa- 
 tion. 
 
 A very far-reaching part of the law says that all machines, raw mate- 
 rials, etc., used in the manufacture of obscene articles, shall be confis- 
 cated. This threatens the printers and book-binders who do not hesitate 
 to aid in the publication of these disgusting books, so long as they are 
 well paid for it. 
 
 Congress has also shown an equally praiseworthy spirit. The law 
 passed by it, and signed by the President, says that any one sending 
 obscene articles, publications, or advertisements shall be guilty of a misde- 
 meanor. The penalty fixed for this offense is a tine ranging frcm $100 
 to $5,000, or an imprisonment at hard labor ranging from one to ten 
 years. The law allows the court to use its own discretion in dictating 
 either or both penalties, which is a very wise provision, and further de- 
 clares any one guilty of the same offense, who receives the articles 
 from th3 mail w r ith the intention of giving away, selling, or in any man- 
 ner circulating the same. These laws are very severe, and their partial 
 enforcement even will have a salutary effect. We can see no loop-holes 
 in them for the escape of the rascals engaged in this infamous and de- 
 moralizing business. 
 
 We see that, besides attacking obscene literature, both these laws also 
 contain very plain and significant hints with regard to obscena and so- 
 called medical anvertisements. In the Territories Congress has als 
 strictly forbidden the sale and manufacture of obscene literature under 
 penalties. Thus it seems as if this nefarious business had already 
 reached its cHmax, with some hopes of its being brought to an end. 
 Several cases that were brought into court some time ago, plainly show 
 that, so far as the Federal courts are concerned, the law is not to be a dead- 
 letter. Thus in May, 1873, a certain James Sullivan was found guilty 
 of violating its provisions, and was sentenced to an imprisonment of one 
 year and a fine of $500. Such examples are well calculated to act as a 
 
TH1 DABS BIDE OK NKW TOSS LIFE. 059 
 
 warning for these rascals, and to prevent others from euter-ing upon a 
 career of crime in this direction. 
 
 The laws ,*i e very well adapted to break np this disgusting business. 
 ]>ut what is needed is an unapproachable judiciary to execute the laws. 
 Theu, if these laws were properly brought into execution, obscene books 
 and pictures, if they would not entirely disappear, would still cease to be 
 the serious danger they are to society at present. 
 
 # 
 
 PROFESSIONAL STREET-BEGGARS. 
 
 In the Bible House, the large building opposite to the Cooper Institute, 
 a charitable society has its office, whose object is fully explained by its 
 name, "Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor." For this 
 purpose the society has divided the city into small districts, and has ap- 
 pointed for each district one of its members as a visitor. It is the duty 
 of these visitors to hunt up all cases of poverty and misery in their re- 
 spective districts, and to furnish suitable help. Many of our readers wil* 
 think of the multitude of beggars in our streets, and that these visitors 
 do not properly attend to their duties. These beggars do not even have 
 to be sought out. They show their misery plainly in the open street, and 
 only too often even come into the houses to ask for aid. If, then, the 
 visitors could overlook these poor, how must it be with those who do not 
 show their wretchedness and poverty, but hide it in the back lanes and 
 alleys? 
 
 The reader who reasons in this manner is very much mistaken, how- 
 ever. Iu large cities like ours, where the extremes of wealth and poverty 
 meet, it is nevertheless the case that the real poverty always hides itself, 
 and must actually be sought out, while those who show their poverty on 
 the street, in open daylight, are seldom, if ever, in actual want. They 
 live on the bounty of others, because to them it is the easiest way of 
 living. For them it is only a regular business, with the profits of which 
 they lead an easy life. For them begging is not as it is with other poor, 
 a necessity brought forth by the most abject misery, the last means of 
 saving themselves or some loved ones from starvation. In a word, the 
 Urge majority of the beggars in the streets are not in want of aid. The 
 authorities do not class them among those poor who are in want of aid* 
 
660 PROFESSIONAL STREET-BEGGARS. 
 
 while they themselves never lay claim to that help which our numerous 
 charitable institutions afford to every one who is in actual need. We 
 therefore call them professional beggars, which name is all the more 
 appropriate as it excludes from this class those unfortunates who are 
 occasionally driven, by actual want, to beg for charity from strangers. 
 
 The saddest form of professional begging in the streets is that in which 
 children of both sexes are engaged. These children are either poor 
 homeless creatures, who carry on begging on their own account, and who 
 prefer the roving life connected with it, to a charitable institution where 
 they would be housed and fed, and would learn some useful trade ; or 
 J they are the children of beastly parents, who send them out begging. In 
 both cases these children quickly learn the part they have to play, and to 
 adapt their expression and clothing to it. They also relate their misfor- 
 tunes with a natural expression, which very seldom fails to produce the 
 desired effect. They only fall into the habit of extreme exaggeration, and 
 hurt tffemselves more in that way than they benefit themselves. Thus in 
 the neighborhood of Fourteenth street and Fifth avenue, a little girl has 
 been seen for the past two years, who tells every passer by, with saddest 
 face imaginable, that her mother has just died, and that she and her seven 
 brothers and sisters have nothing to eat. 
 
 The perseverance with which these children defy the weather, particu- 
 larly in winter, is ofteu to be wondered at. They frequently stand half 
 naked, in the most severe cold, to excite the pity of the passers-by. An 
 officer of the Board of Public Charities made the following experience 
 during a past winter : 
 
 On a bitter cold day he saw two girls begging on Broadway, of whom 
 the oldest one particularly attracted his attention. The child seemed the 
 very image of want, as a light, faded dress and a ragged shawl formed 
 her only protection against the cold. What seemed the most terrible of 
 all was that she was without stockings or shoes, but went barefoot on the 
 ice-covered pavement. This last fact particularly aroused the pity of the 
 passers-by, of whom almost all gave the child something. Mr. H., how- 
 ever, suspected that the bare feet were only a rather suspicious exhibi- 
 tion. He therefore determined to find out whether the girls were the 
 tools of heartless parents, or whether they led the lives of vagabonds of 
 their own free will. He asked them where they lived. " In Fifty-third 
 street, near the North River," was the answer of the barefoot girl. That 
 was far, it is true, but Mr. H., determined to solve this riddle, declared 
 he would see what could be done for them, and that they should take him 
 to their home. This unexpected proposition did not seem very pleasant 
 to the two, and they tried all possible means to escape. But Mr. FI. was 
 not to be repulsed so easily, and they were compelled to start with him. 
 They had already gone a considerable distance up town, when the younger 
 girl suddenly burst out with : 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. GOl 
 
 "It is all nonsense for us to go up there. Jenny lives down in 
 Twelfth street. She might as well put on the shoes and stockings now, 
 which she has hid under her shawl !" 
 
 This was enough for Mr. II. Upon his peremptory order, the girl 
 pulled out warm shoes and stockings Irom under her shawl, and put them 
 on. Mr. II. then brought her before a justice, who sent her to the 
 House for Destitute Children. 
 
 It is unnecessary to say that the sweeping of crossiugs in the winter is 
 only another variety of begging. Unfortunately the inexcusable negli- 
 gence of our Street Commissioners furnishes a plausible pretext for this 
 begging, and it cannot be denied that, without these children, these cross- 
 ings would often be in a filthy condiiion, and impassable for pedestrians 
 in winter. 
 
 The grown up beggars are a very mixed crowd. Some are blind, 
 some are lame, and others again are mutilated in some way, or at least 
 seem to be so. For nowhere are appearances more deceptive than with 
 our professional beggar. He not only considers begging a profession, but 
 very often even as an art, and is himself a master in this art. Many 
 persons who are induced to give a few cents to a blind, lame, or one- 
 armed beggar, would hardly recognize the object of their charity if they 
 should see him at home iu an evening. There the blind man sees, the 
 lame one dances, and the wife of the one-armed man loosens the well 
 arm, which has been tightly strapped to his body during the day. The 
 greater the appearance of physical prostration the more easily is the 
 charity of the passers-by excited. No wonder, then, if he brings into 
 play all his powers of acting to simulate such diseases, during his busi. 
 ness hours, as will most readily enlist the charity of pedestrians. This is 
 done to such an extent that, according to the statements of the police, 
 the large majority of the beggars who show some disease are in perfect 
 bodily health. 
 
 Begging women, if they do not have children themselves, do an excel- 
 lent business by borrowing and taking them on their begging expeditions. 
 The mother who lends her children for this purpose receives a share of 
 the profits. Crippled children, or such as present a pitiable appearance 
 from any other reason, are in good demand for the begging business, and 
 are therefore a capital to their parents, who make a business of lending 
 them out. Not un frequently such a begging woman can be seen sitting 
 in a crowded thoroughfare, with a baby on her arm, and two other chil- 
 dren on each side. The face of such a woman presents a really tragic 
 appearance, and the half-naked children lean for hours iu the same effec. 
 tive position. This seems strange, but is quite natural. The children 
 are intended to appear sick, and no well child would remain for teu min- 
 utes iu such a model position. A good dose of laudanum produces that 
 state of insensibility which is necessary for the stability of the group, 
 
662 PROFESSIONAL STREET-BEGGARS. 
 
 while at the same time it gives to the children that morbid and swollen 
 appearance which makes such a favorable impression on the charity of 
 the passers-by. The poor children are of course ruined mentally and 
 bodily by this continual dosing with narcotics ; but that is not takea into 
 consideration by the parents, as they receive so many more charitable 
 gifts, the sicklier the children look. 
 
 Another and the most impudent class of professional beggars are those 
 ■who enter boldly into residences, offices, hotels, etc., and then claim assist- 
 ance by telling some particularly heartrending tale of misery. They are 
 mostly women whose husbands have been ailing for years, or men who 
 would like to work, but are prevented from so doing because they are 
 paralyzed, or from some other reason. More frequently, however, they 
 are young men who are out of work (and perhaps have never seen real 
 work.) A characteristic of this class is the impudence and boldness 
 with which they carry on their begging, and which plainly shows that 
 they are perfectly at home in it. The members of this profession are in 
 constant communication with each other. For it is a strange fact how 
 soon a house will be overrun by them when one of their number has dis- 
 covered a liberal-minded person in it. On the other hand, a positive 
 refusal to the first one of these beggars suffices to keep off all the rest. 
 They keep accurate lists of the houses where a begging visit pays, and, 
 as the city is very large, the visits of one and the same beggar do not 
 occur so very often, although he is on the tramp all the time. There are 
 also persons among them who could justly be styled " beggar brokers/* 
 We had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of one of them. Some 
 time ago a respectable but very poor-looking man entered our office and ' 
 asked for help. .. The story which he told us of misfortune in his family 
 and inability sounded quite natural, and whenever he called after that 
 we always gave him something. A friend, who had seen the man in our 
 office, warned us that he was nothing but a common professional beggar. 
 We did not pay any particular attention to this warning, but found that 
 the visits of beggars became more frequent. One day, in passing through 
 the street, we saw our man on a corner, tho centre of a group of misera- 
 ble looking fellows, to whom he seemed to be giving some advice in a 
 business-like manner. We now remembered our friend's warning, and 
 took a good look at the group. The very same day we were surprised 
 by the visit of two of that group as beggars, and we decided to gain 
 some information as to the character of that corner assembly, and as to 
 its central figure. 
 
 We therefore entered into a conversation with the second beggar, and 
 at last turned it to the group on the corner. That aroused the suspi- 
 cions of the beggar. A twenty-five cent piece, and the assurance that 
 we only cared for information about the chief person, quieted him, and 
 immediately set him to talking again. We learned from him that the 
 
'I'll-. DABS BIDE 0] Mw yoi:k mil. <5fi3 
 
 respectable-looking man did a very good business as beggar, and that his 
 extensive experience enabled him to communicate to " less experienced 
 beggars the addresses of liberal-minded persons, and thus save them 
 many useless tramps. The tax paid him varied according to the number 
 of addresses communicated, but the broker business of this man seemed 
 to be considered a very profitable one among the beggars. We had 
 heard enough, and need hardly remark that the next visit of the respecta* 
 ble-lookiug man was his last one. 
 
 A systematic division of their visits is necessary, so that they shall not 
 hurt their character by overrunning a certain house. For this class of 
 beggars lay claim to character, and always make it appear as if it cost 
 them a great effort to beg. They are particularly insolent in sparsely* 
 settled districts in the upper part of the city. With the impudence with 
 which they demand admittance, and their outward appearance indicating 
 almost anything but a beggar, many a door is opened to them which 
 would remain closed them under other circumstances. In houses which 
 stand aloue, where the husband leaves home for business early in the 
 morning, and where only women and children are in the house, the visits 
 
 are not entirely without danger. The fears which the. use is of great 
 
 advantage to the beggars. The timid housewife generally haa I 
 intruder something to get rid of him as quickly as possible. Many a 
 good-hearted woman, who makes a rule of not refusing a beg?- ;r a piece 
 of bread if he asks for it, has been sadly disappointed by finding the 
 bread where the beggar has thrown it after leaving the house. Other 
 professional beggars, mostly children and women, are more speculative than 
 this. They know very well that only a very few would refuse a hungry 
 beggar something to eat. Therefore, if they do not obtain money, they 
 will take provisions of any kind. For this purpose they carry a basket 
 with them, in which they stow away all the provisions they receive on 
 their tour. This basket a woman either carries herself, or a child waits 
 with it in the neighborhood to receive whatever the woman may get. In 
 the latter case, the woman has the advantage that she can go to every 
 house empty-handed, and can therefore beg more effectively. The best of 
 what has been thus begged together the woman picks out for her own 
 use, while she sells the rest to cheap boarding-houses or similar places. 
 The money thus made, as well as that obtained by begging, then goes 
 into the gin-mills. 
 
 Another favorite form of begging is the following: Avery bashful 
 looking person enters the house or oiHce, and hands you a folded paper 
 with a very impressive silence. Uncertain as to the meaning of all this, 
 you open the paper and find therein the heartrendiug account of some 
 conflagration, shipwreck, or other misfortune, of which the person who 
 hands you tie paper has been the victim. The end of this heartrending 
 story is an urgent appeal to all friends of humanity to assist a deserving 
 
064 PROFESSIONAL STREET-BEGGARS. 
 
 unfortunate by kind gifts. Well-known names, like "Jones, Smith, and 
 Brown guarantee the truth of the story. 
 
 Such papers frequently cause very comical misunderstandings. Many 
 of the be^o-ars who make use of these certificates are unable to read, and 
 very often even do not know the contents. They only know that, by 
 showing them, they will receive presents, and that suffices for them. 
 Thus it once happened that an old beggar bought a certificate from an 
 old woman, who had done a splendid business with it as the widow of a 
 fireman who had perished in a conflagration, and had left her with eight 
 small children, etc. For him of course this paper was a bad investment. 
 Some simply kicked him out of doors, and others threw it back at him, 
 laughing at the comical figure he cut, until at last he offered it to a gen- 
 tleman who called a policeman in, and he was arrested as a swindler. 
 When he arrived at the police station, he was told what he had repre- 
 sented himself to be, according to the certificate, and how he had stamped 
 himself as a swindler. 
 
 This kind of begging is closely related to that which is carried on by 
 letter, in which the beggar contents himself with writing a letter and 
 awaiting the result. Rich persons who are well known for their liber- 
 ality, are generally the victims of such beggars. But the reputation of 
 great riches alone suffices to secure the attention of this class of mendi- 
 cants. Wm. B. Astor, A. T. Stewart, and others rather noted for their 
 wealth than for their liberality, generally find twelve or fifteen letters in 
 their daily mail, from persons who have been forced, "by the most abject 
 misery only," to apply to the well-kuown charity of Mr. Astor, Stewart, 
 or anybody else. All such letters of course go into the waste-basket. 
 And in ninety-nine out of one hundred cases it is not to be regretted, as 
 most of these applicatians originate from swindlers or professional beg- 
 gars. 
 
 We by no means go so far as to class our street musicians among the 
 professional beggars. They work hard in their way, and are a source of 
 considerable amusement to our children, who in the poorer quarters of the 
 city would, without the street musicians, not know the meaning of music. 
 But occasionally especially in .the case of organ-grinders, the music be- 
 comes so much a secondary, and begging the primary, consideration, that 
 the organ must in, such cases, be regarded as a covering for begging. A 
 prominent example of this kind could be seen, day after day, in the Bow- 
 ery. The man, au Italian, used to sit on the pavement, behind an organ. 
 A white rag was wound round his head, and, with his face turned up- 
 ward and his eyes closed, and the most melancholy expression on his 
 countenance, he slowly ground his organ, whose shrill tones attracted the 
 attention of the passers-by. If we should look in the direction from 
 whence these miserable sounds came, we would see the organ-grinder 
 with his organ as the central figure of a very touching group. To the 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIKE. MS 
 
 right of the organ a woman cowered down with a baby in her arms, and 
 on the left a small boy, while in front of the organ another boy, with a 
 tincup in his hand, solicited pennies from the passers-by. As a varia- 
 tion, the man would occasionally take the baby himself, when one of the 
 boys, as if suffering from hunger, would lie in the woman's lap. This 
 fjroup aroused general pity, and five and ten-cent pieces were showerod 
 into the tin box. But still it never showed more than two or three single 
 pennies, as the little cashier was instructed to keep the box as em] 
 possible. The police, who are generally well informed with regard to 
 such street characters, considered them simple vagabonds. A similar 
 group, in which, however, the woman plays the organ, has been seen for 
 some time past in the streets, and we understand meets with the same 
 success. 
 
 In this connection, it is strange to notice how that article which is 
 termed humbug, is no less powerful with respect to charity than in any 
 other respect. A poor widow, for example, who silently bears poverty 
 and destitution, and who does not dare to ask for anything else than 
 work, may succumb to her troubles and wants without fiuding a single 
 hand held out to help her. A false charity, however, gives to the pro- 
 fessional beggar, who only knows actual want and suffering from its imi- 
 tation, with which he surrounds himself, such gifts as would help many 
 actually poor persons. 
 
 For some time during the years preceding the war, a begcrar, neither 
 old nor crippled, could be seen with a slate bearing the inscription, a I 
 am starving," on his breast. In front of him there was a box, into 
 which those who wished to save the starving man, could put their gifts — 
 and their gifts came in pretty liberally. In face and appearance the 
 beggar appeared starving, but it seemed rather strange to those charitably 
 inclined, that the box contained more than enough to pay for a hearty 
 meal, while the starving man did not seem to be in a hurry to make use 
 of jt. Thus this swindler presented himself day after day, and year 
 after year, and actually did a better business with his starving than many 
 people do by hard labor. 
 
 The charity which is deceived by such humbug does all honor to the 
 donor's heart, but not to his common seuse. As long as charity is de- 
 ceived by apparent poverty, and ignores the true poverty which will not 
 come out from its hiding-place, so long will idlers take to professional 
 begging to the detriment of true poverty. Examples are not warning in 
 which professional beggars have scraped together a fortune which could 
 have enabled them to pass the rest of their days in ease, This was an 
 approximate idea of the profits of a methodically conducted begging 
 business. 
 
 Such cases, however, are only exceptional. Generally the beggar 
 thinks neither of saving nor of the future. His chief object is to keep the 
 
666 PROFESSIONAL STREET-BEGGARS. 
 
 necessity of working as far away as possible from him. If he also has 
 his daily whiskey ration, he has reached the height of contentment. He 
 lives in some den which costs him very little rent, or he has settled in 
 some hut as " squatter," and thus pays no rent at all. We have seen 
 how easily food is obtained by begging, and it is well known that the 
 same is the case with clothing. In general, he delights in his filth and in 
 his rags, which for him are only a kind of working material. If he has 
 children, they do not trouble him, for he knows that nothing appeals to 
 charity more than a begging child, or a crying baby in the arms of its 
 begging mother. As he feels quite at ease in his mode of living, the 
 thought that he is bringing his children up to a similar fortune does not 
 trouble his conscience in the least. 
 
 Of such a character, then, are that class which we have termed pro- 
 fessional beggars, and which therefore cannot be taken as representatives 
 of decent -poverty. Hard times, a juncture of unfortunate circumstances, 
 and particularly diseases, may throw persons in good circumstances sud- 
 denly into the greatest poverty, and even put them in danger of starving. 
 Everything that can be spared, and even the most necessary things, are 
 sold only to keep up life until the sickness has passed, or until work has 
 been found. But neither the one nor the other hope is fulfilled. Misery 
 has reached its highest point, and starvation, that most terrible of all 
 guests, makes its appearance. To starve or to beg is a terrible choice. 
 Many prefer the former ; and be it said, to the everlasting disgrace of 
 our society, that cases of starvation do not occur so seldom in our city as 
 is generally supposed by the public, although starvation is not mentioned 
 as the cause of death in the mortality lists. But " general debility," 
 " marasmus," and diseases with similar medical terms, also include those 
 who have died of starvation, although the terrible cause, hunger, has 
 been omitted, and the less objectionable name of a disease resulting 
 therefrom has been given instead. 
 
 But not every one is so strong as to hide his hunger to such an extreme. 
 Hunger is a terrible thing, but it is a still more terrible thing to see loved 
 friends and relatives slowly dying of hunger. They at last extend their 
 hands for help, but very seldom in the proper direction. They could 
 apply to the Commissioners of Public Charity, but for some reason or 
 other they do not do this. They also delay the last extreme measure 
 until they must have immediate help, and official charity employs too 
 much formality in distributing its gifts to our poverty-stricken people. 
 They are thus compelled to take to the street, and are then only what 
 the most bitter want and misery could make them — beggars. But they 
 do not therefore remain beggars. A few cents or a crust of bread has 
 already helped many a poor unfortunate over a momentary crisis. Then 
 he finds what he has been been looking for from the start — work, work 
 of any kind — hard but honest work, and he takes to it with the zest born 
 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOUK LIFE. 667 
 
 of industrious habits. Diligence and perseverance sooner or later raise 
 Lira up, aud when, in after years, he becomes well-off, or even rich, he 
 thinks of that step of dire necessity as the most terrible moment of his 
 life. A professional beggar has probably never starved, although many 
 would perhaps do so rather than take to honest labor as a means 
 of support. 
 
 The professional beggars are mostly foreign born, and, if we except 
 the children of these, who have beeu brought up to beg, there are few 
 that are native born among them. For it is a well-known and lamenta- 
 ble fact that many European governments do not hesitate to smuggle their 
 poor to New York. These governments pay their passage, and of course, 
 when once arrived, they remain here and continue their former life of the 
 beggar and vagabond. From this source also, in spite of all protests, 
 our hordes of beggars constantly receive fresh recruits, and from this 
 cause New York is compelled to support more professional beggars 
 than all the other cities of the Union combined. 
 
 It is very plain, from what has been said, that the children of profes- 
 sional beggars grow up only to swell the rauks of dangerous criminals^ 
 Our laws seem indeed to recognize some relationship between begging in, 
 the streets and crime, as an ordinance of the city makes begging in the 
 streets punishable by light terms of imprisonment. The ordinance stales, 
 as the reason for this policy, that the city provides for the necessities of 
 its poor, and that begging in the streets is only an easy way for vaga- 
 bonds and idlers to gain subsistance, and is an imposition upon honest 
 labor. But it will be seen, from the constantly-increasing number of 
 professional beggars in our streets, that this ordinance, so far as its 
 enforcement is coucerued, is not much better than a dead-letter. In the 
 few cases where any attempt is made to enforce it, it mostly consists of 
 the arrest of children, generally girls, who are found soliciting alms from 
 the visitors to our fashionable theatres. They are brought to the station- 
 house;, and there kjpt among thieves, drunken persons, prostitutes, and 
 similar vicious company until the next day, when they are brought before 
 the judge aud disposed of. 
 
 "Why the authorities execute this ordinance in such a loose manner, it 
 is difficult to say. Profitable as the business of professional beggars may 
 be, it would still be assuming a great deal to say that the influence of 
 money is also at the bottom of this riddle. Occasionally the periodically 
 aroused sense of duty of our police is also felt by these street beggars, 
 and the streets are suddenly cleared of all stationary and wandering 
 members of the corps of beggars. Bat in a very short time everything 
 is as it was before. 
 
 The prevalence of street-beggiug in our city is a plain aud visible evil. 
 It makes a very unfavorable impression on the visitors coming here from 
 all parts of the Union, aud almost teuds to prove the well-known fact a, 
 
6G8 FOUNDLINGS. 
 
 lie, that New York is richer in private and public charitable institutions 
 than any other city in the world. But if our authorities would wage a 
 war against feigned poverty with the energy that our charitable societies 
 display in aiding true poverty, New York would soon be relieved of the 
 shadow which its horde of professional beggars casts upon its fair name. 
 
 FOUNDLINGS. 
 
 Man, who calls himself the King of Creation, enters upon his king- 
 dom weaker and more helpless than the meanest of his fellow-creatures. 
 All the influences surrounding him are inimical to his existence, and he 
 would miserably perish if nature had not provided a friend and protec- 
 tor for him. This friend and protector is the holy instinct of a parent's, 
 and particularly a mother's, love. This instinct is found in the whole 
 animal kingdom, and is that which guarantees their existence. It is this 
 mother's love that tenderly receives the coming citizen upon his arrival 
 |n this world. Thus it is in general, but unfortunately not always. 
 Man, who is able by his will to withdraw himself more or less from the 
 influence of his feeling-, not unfrequently rebels against this most noble 
 impulse, and, deaf against the voice of nature, heartlessly casts off the 
 poor creature to which he has given life, and which therefore has a right 
 to his protection. It is this fact which involuntarily makes us blush for 
 human nature, but which recurs more and more in the so-called higher 
 stages of civilization. 
 
 Such poor creatures cast upon the world at their entrance into life are 
 called " foundlings " — L e., new-born children who are found unprotected 
 and unknown, and whose mothers have evidently deserted them. It has 
 occurred in all ages that new born children, whose parents wished to get 
 rid of them for some particular reason, have been abandoned in some 
 remote localiiy, where they have either perished or have been picked up 
 by strangers. This inhuman custom of casting off new-born children 
 was so common among the ancient Romans, that it was hardly regarded 
 as anything objectionable. There were even certain public places which, 
 by custom, came into fashion, if we may use this expression, for aban- 
 doning infants. 
 
 The fate of these poor innocents was generally a terrible one. Many 
 
THE DABS »il>E OF NEW YORK LIFE. 6C0 
 
 perished miserably, without exciting the pity of any one. For many 
 there was eveo a more terrible fate in store. Beggars picked them up : 
 but for what purpose ? They crippled and mutilated the helpless crea- 
 tures most cruelly, but always took good care to keep the little ones alive. 
 that they might arouse the pity of the public by their crippled condition, 
 and thus receive liberal alms. There were even people who made a bus- 
 iness of cripplinu such children, and were enabled by long practice to 
 briDg about the most terrible mutilations of the human form. "Witches " 
 and "sorcerers" took such children to prepare their mixtures, in which 
 the blood, heart, and other parts of the new-born iufants were used. 
 Strong and healthy-looking boys were received by slave-dealers, and 
 pretty girls by people who brought them up for brothels. Very excep- 
 tionally did it occur that some kind persons took up such children and 
 brought them up in their families. This inhuman custom of abandon- 
 ing infants increased to an alarming extent during the decline of the Ro- 
 man Republic and during the Empire. A reaction began to gain ground 
 only when, after the advent of Christianity, a higher idea of humanity 
 was infused among the people. 
 
 It is a strange fact that, among these foundlings of the ancients, by far 
 the smallest part were illegitimate children. This was plainly shown 
 during the reign of Trajan, when the tirst public institution for the recep- 
 tion of abandoned infants was organized, where it was found that, for 
 every legitimate child, there were at least a hundred illegitimate chil- 
 dren received. 
 
 Christianity, however, was only able to abolish the abandoning of 
 infants as a popular custom, and in having it declared a crime in the eyes 
 of the law. But as a crime we find it in all eyes, and even now it forms a 
 spot of shame on our civilization. It is to the present time an everyday 
 occurrence that new-born infants are found in vacant lots, on door-steps, 
 or in some other place, and even the delivery of a child to a foundlina 
 asylum must be regarded as an abandonment, although in a much milder 
 form. It is a very characteristic fact, in this connection, that since the 
 establishment of the foundling asylum in our city, the abandonment of 
 children has greatly decreased. 
 
 A mother who can separate herself from her child, is either very un- 
 fortunate or very heartless : and this was also the case with those mothers 
 m ancient times, who made use of this terrible means of abandonment. 
 Misfortune and heartlessness then are the agents which cast off the thou- 
 sands of our foundlings every year. Heartlessness, however, comes into 
 play more often than actual misfortune. It is certainly a great misfor- 
 tune if a girl believes the assurances of a heartless seducer more than 
 would seem justified by honor and prudence. It is a misfortune if she 
 is then wronged and stands alone in the world, and. besides the bitter 
 consciousness of the crime committed on her, is also to bear the scorn 
 
670 FOUNDLINGS. 
 
 and contempt which the world only too easily heaps on the faults of others, 
 that it may cover up its own threadbare virtue. But it also requires a 
 large "amount of heartlessness, if such a mother seeks safety from the 
 consequences of her misstep, by casting the unfortunate creature, to whom 
 she has given life, upon the charity of the world. 
 
 The cases in which women, in consequence of a life of shame, or in a 
 weak moment, are forced to leave their children upon the street, or in the 
 foundling asylum, are by far the most frequent. But married mothers 
 also sometimes resort to this means of relieving themselves of the care 
 and responsibility of bringing up their children. Poverty is often given 
 as the reason for such an unnatural course. There may be cases in 
 which the new-born infant is better off in the foundling asylum, or in the 
 hands of strangers, than with its parents. But these are only exceptional 
 cases. Much more frequently the true reason is avarice, which hides 
 itself behind poverty. The mother, for example, who sends her child to 
 the foundling asylum, that she may hire herself out as a wet-nurse, does 
 not, as a rule, belong to the poorest class, and it is only a low desire for 
 gain which will impel her to give her own child to strangers, and trans- 
 fer her maternal duties to a strange one. 
 
 In former years, before the establishment of foundling asylums, the 
 abandoning of children was the easiest method in which unnatural 
 mothers could rid themselves of their offspring. From the manner in 
 which this abandonment was effected, it was easy to form an estimate of 
 the character of those who brought it about. Not unfrequently were 
 these poor children found in vacant lots, covered only by a few rags, so 
 that their discovery was only a matter of chance. The only object which 
 seems to have prompted the perpetrators of this unnatural crime, was to 
 rid themselves of the children without caring much whether they were 
 discovered and taken care of or not. Others again were found carefully 
 packed in boxes or baskets, which were placed where they would soon be 
 discovered. Not unfrequently also they were placed, early in the morn- 
 ing or late at night, on the doorstep of some citizen who was known tor 
 his wealth and his charity. A strong pull at the bell ca'led out the in- 
 mates of the house, when they would fin'l the little stranger present, 
 while the donor had suddenly disappeared in the darkness. This kind 
 of abandonment has in its favor that the mothers at least make an 
 attempt to obtain for their infants a good home. 
 
 The large majority of foundlings, as may be readily imagined, are ille- 
 gitimate children, and their number therefore stands in a certain relation 
 to the illegitimate births. For this reason it wou'd be of interest to take 
 a look at the relation of the legitimate to the illegitimate births in our 
 city. In European countries, where accurate birth-'ists are kept by the 
 authorities, it is an easy matter to determine this relation. In Sardinia, 
 for example, the illegitimate do not form more than 2 per cent, of all the 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YOKE LIFE. 671 
 
 births ; in Sweden, 6£ per cent. ; in England, about 6 J per cent. ; in 
 France, a trifle over 7 ; in Denmark, 9£ ; in Austria, 11 \ ; in Bavaria, 
 20£ per cent., etc. 
 
 In large cities this proportion is of course much more unfavorable, and 
 reaches — in Genoa, 8 per cent, ; in Berlin, 14 ; in St. Petersburg, 18 ; 
 aud in Vienna even 40 per cent. Twelve per cent, is generally assumed 
 as the average for Europe. Owing to the absence of birth-lists, it is im- 
 possible to give a reliable percentage for America. Even for New York 
 it is very difficult even to give an approximate number of these illegiti- 
 mate births. 
 
 Yet it has been assumed that our illegitimate births do not exceed 4 
 per cent. This is a number which certainly places our city in a very 
 favorable light. But it must not be forgotten that of the 7 per cent, of 
 still-born children, the large majority are illegitimate, and that the dan- 
 gerous activity of our abortionists prevents a large number of illegitimate 
 births. But this cannot be taken into account here. We only deal with 
 living children, who are the result of illicit intercourse, and who form 
 the greater portion of the foundlings. Many of these illegitimate chil- 
 dren are kept by their mothers, while, as we have seen above, it occa- 
 sionally happens that legitimate children are abandoned, for some reason 
 or other, by their parents, and then come under the head of foundlings. 
 But, as the number of illegitimate children, so also does the number of found- 
 lings seem comparatively small for a city of such dimensions as ours. And 
 we must further take into consideration that many foundlings are not 
 only brought from the country, but also from other States, to our found- 
 ling asylums, and thus the number of infants abandoned by persons living 
 in the city becomes considerably less. Only the number of infants aban- 
 doned in the streets and public places can, with very few exceptions, be 
 exclusively placed to the account of the city. 
 
 The police reports gave the number of this class of foundlings, from 
 1864 to April, 1872, at 1,004, which were distributed as follows duriug 
 the different years : 
 
 Year, Foundlings. Year. Foundlings, 
 
 1864 48 1869 90 
 
 1865 153 Nov. 1, 1869, to April 5, 1870,* 28 
 
 1866 149 1871 161 
 
 1867 176 . 1872 37 
 
 1868 162 
 
 If we regard the above figures, we see at a glance how much the num- 
 ber of foundlings left in the open air has diminished since the establish- 
 ment of the foundling asylums. Even if this number rose to 161 in the 
 year 1871, a comparison of the three years from 1871, with 226, with 
 the three years preceding 1870, with 428 abandoned children, is so favor" 
 
 •The former annual report* always closed wi h Nov. 1, while those following dose with April i. 
 
672 FOUNDLINGS. 
 
 able that it gives rise to hopes for the future. We thus see in the found- 
 ling asylums a much more effective check to the barbarism of abandon- 
 ing children, a far better friend of the unfortunate foundlings, than in the 
 most stringent legislation. In view of these advantages, it seems incom- 
 prehensible that their existence in the United States does not date back 
 farther than four years. The cause for this was that many of our most 
 prominent men feared that, by opening a foundling asylum, public mo- 
 rality would be completely destroyed. For said they foundling asy- 
 lums are only promoters of licentiousness, and illegitimate children would 
 occur the more frequently, the easier it would be for parents to rid them- 
 selves of these children in a lawful manner. But these gentlemen did 
 not see, or perhaps did not wish to see, what an alarming extent child- 
 murder and abortion had assumed among us, and how hundreds of inno- 
 cent children have ended their short lives in vacant lots or dark alleys, 
 for no other reason than that our legislators saw, in the introduction of 
 foundling asylums, a promoter of this evil. But fortunately the opposi- 
 tion from this side has been overcome, although it still continues to 
 preach against foundling asylums. These latter must now be regarded 
 as permanent institutions in our city, and do not only enjoy the liberal 
 aid of the State, but of all friends of true humanity throughout our large 
 city. 
 
 In October, 1869, the first foundling asylum in the United States was 
 founded by the Sisters of Mercy in No. 3 Washington Square. The 
 name of this institution is " Foundling Asylum of the Sisters of Charity 
 in the City of New York," and in its arrangements it is- an imitation of 
 the celebrated foundling asylum of Paris, also under the control of the 
 Sisters of Charity. It supplies a greatly-felt want in our city. It is the 
 pioneer of a new era, and has paved the way for a similar Protestant 
 foundling asylum, which was founded two years later. The asylum of 
 the Sisters of Charity, however, is not only* the largest and the one en- 
 dowed with the greatest means, but is probably the only one which fully 
 meets all the requirements of a foundling asylum. It has received since 
 its opening over 4,00D foundlings and orphans, and the number of chil- 
 dren received during the period from October 1, 1871, to October 1, 1872, 
 was not less than 1,392. 
 
 The characteristic feature of this institution is the receiving-basket or 
 " crib./" It is in the form of a cradle, and stands at the entrance of the 
 basement. Every one is free to put a child into this crib. The door is 
 never locked, and during the night the hall is lighted by a lamp. No- 
 body watches the unfortunate mother who makes use of this sad privi- 
 lege. She simply puts the child into the crib, rings the door-bell, and 
 departs. A sister then makes her appearance, who takes charge of the 
 little stranger, so that the crib may be always ready for another. Many 
 of these children are thrown into the crib with almost incredible heart- 
 
THE DARE BID! OR Nl-.W rORK int. 
 
 lessoeM With others, again, heartrending scenes oceur before (he mother 
 parts with her child. 
 
 Som< tin* ago a young girl came to the door, late in the evening, with 
 a three weeks' old baby in her arms. Her eyes were red with weeping 
 and her features expressed great agony of mind. She kissed and hugged 
 her child, and at last laid it in the crib. She rang the bell, aud left the 
 hall. In answer to the signal, a sister made her appearance to take 
 charge of the child. But before she could take it, the mother rushed 
 back with a cry of terror, seized her babe and tied into the darkness. In 
 a short time, however, she returned, and stood at the crib with the same 
 hesitation as before. Three times she put the little one into the crib, and 
 three times she seized it and tied upon the appearauce of a sister. She 
 was only at last induced to part with her child upon the kind rep' 
 resentations of the sisters, who had assembled in the hall, and who were 
 witnesses of the mother's agony. 
 
 The foundlings are either brought to the crib by the mothers then> 
 selves, or by a third person. Not unfrequently do the sisters find newv 
 born children in the ci ib, whcee fine and costly embroidered linen plainly 
 speaks for the wealth of those who have given them life. Such children 
 very often have pieces of paper attached to their clothing, with the re* 
 quest that some object left with the child might be kept for its future 
 identification. Single ear-rings, broken rings, torn letters, or even a piece 
 of cloth of a peculiar pattern, are objects generally given with such chil* 
 dren. The mother or parents who may wish to reclaim such a child 
 then have in the other ear-ring, or in the other half of the ring, letter, or 
 cloth the safest and surest means of proving their right to it. Every 
 child arriving in the house receives a name and a number, which, to- 
 gether with the day of its reception and other particulars, are entered in 
 a book. Any object that may lead to future identification by its parents 
 or friends, is carefully put away in a safe for future use. 
 
 Many of the children are put in the crib in a truly pitiable condition^ 
 and it is nothing unusual that all the sisters can do for such children is to 
 give them a decent burial. As a rule, the children, upon their arrival at 
 the foundling asylum, are not in a very healthy condition, the percentage 
 of the healthy ones being about 35, at most 45 per cent, of the whole. 
 This alone explains the great mortality among them. 01 the 1,392 chil- 
 dren received from October 1, 1871, to October 1, 1872, not less than 
 765 died — that is, about 40 per cent. Ouly 548 were found to be healthy 
 upon their arrival, while the rest were either not yet ful'y developed 
 (144), or were diseased in some other way. Sixty-three were received 
 in a dying condition. 
 
 The last annual report of the institution makes the following statement 
 as to the age of the children received : Uuder G hours, 38 ; 6 to 12 
 hours, 58 ; 12 to 24 hours, 178 ; 1 to 7 days, 244 ; 7 to 15 days, 318 ; 
 
 43 
 
674 
 
 FOUNDLINGS. 
 
 15 days to 1 month, 316 ; 1 to 2 months, 106 ; 2 to 6 months, 97 ; G 
 to 12 months, 28 ; over 12 months, 9. 
 
 These figures speak plainly enough. Very few children are brought 
 to the foundling asylum immediately after birth. In the few cases in 
 Which this has been done within twelve hours after birth, everything has 
 been in readiness for it. In general, however, the condition of the mother 
 occupies the attention of her surroundings in such a degree that no 
 thought is given to the disposition of the child. The largest number of 
 the arrivals are over seven days old ; that is, when the mothers are able 
 to bring the children to the foundling asylum themselves. After one 
 month, the number again falls off, probably because, as the mother has 
 had the child for so long a time, she has learnt to love it so much that, if 
 she is not of an exceedingly depraved character, or she is not forced by 
 circumstances, she will very rarely part with it. 
 
 Of the children received during the year 1872, there were 556 still 
 alive on October 1, 1872, while 71 had been reclaimed by parents or 
 friends. As always one nurse is wanted for every two babies, it is per- 
 fectly plain that not all of these 556 children can remain in the asylum. 
 The number of those remaining in the house on October 1, 1872, was 
 not over 57, while the other 499 were put out at board with different 
 parties in the city and country. The foundling asylum pays such persons 
 ior every child taken in board, $10 per month, and has, during the year 
 1872, paid out the sum of 880,000. 
 
 Unfortunately, the foundlings are worse off with such people people 
 than in the institution itself. Although those persons who board found 
 lings must give good reference as to their character, and although only 
 the healthiest children are given out, the mortality among them is fully 
 10 per cent, more than among those in the institution. The wealthier 
 among our farmers do not seem inclined to board foundlings, and it is 
 therefore always the poorer classes, who think more of the ten dollars 
 per month than of the duties which they have taken upon themselves* 
 The institution knows full well that it must not lose sight. of its little 
 ones. For this purpose a detective has been placed at its disposal by the 
 police department, whose sole duty it is to watch over the city as well as 
 country boarders. If he finds that a child is neglected or begins to ail, 
 it is immediately called in by the institution, and, if necessary, a fresh 
 nurse is provided. How strict this supervision is, can be seen from the 
 fact that a certain child changed its home six times during one year, un- 
 til at the seventh house it began at last to improve. 
 
 Wherever it is possible, the sisters try to induce the mothers to enter 
 the institution and nurse their own children. The only additional service 
 demanded for the board and lodging thus afforded, is that they are re- 
 quired to nurse another child besides their own. In such a manner the 
 child keeps its mother, and gets on all the better, while the institution 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK I.TFE. 075 
 
 gains a nurse, and offers to the mother a retreat in which hhc can per- 
 form her maternal duties without laying herself open to the eyes of the 
 world. The majority of these mothers arc girls from fifteen to eighteen 
 years of age, and mostly from highly respectable families. When their 
 children are weaned, the young mothers can return to their families or 
 friends, while their children, who have passed the most difficult period of 
 their lives, remain in the institution. 
 
 Although provided and conducted by a Catholic order, the foundling 
 asylum of the Sisters of Charity does not inquire into the religion of th e 
 mothers who perchance may seek a home in their house, and goes no far- 
 ther in gaining converts than to baptize the foundlings according to the 
 ritual of the Catholic Church. Whether any one can be found who will 
 blame the institution for receiving colored foundlings, we do not know. 
 On New Year's night, 1872, the sisters received, as an interesting New 
 Year's gift, a healthy colored boy, and now the institution can show a 
 perfect " sample card " of babies, from coal-black to the lightest olive- 
 brown. The black babies receive the same care as the white ones. In 
 spite of all care, however, they do not appear to prosper, and appear to 
 miss their mothers' breasts more than the white ones. Even colored 
 nurses do not seem to benefit them, and the mortality among them far 
 exceeds that among the white foundlings. As the institution was only 
 founded in 1869, the sisters have no definite plan as yet as to what they 
 will do with their foundlings after they have grown up. Until now, none 
 of the children received since the fall of 1869, and of whom there are 
 at present 96 in the building, are over four years old. 
 
 It is not the object of this chapter to give a minute description of the 
 arrangement and administration of this truly charitable institution, but 
 we must say that the value of its services has been fully recognized from 
 many sides. The sisters receive from the city for every foundling only 
 SI. 50 per week, while the care of the children costs them just double 
 that sum. It is readily seen from this that there must be a considerable 
 deficit every month. But nevertheless their activity has increased year 
 by year, as will be seen from their annual expenses, which in 1870 
 amounted to $44,848; in 1871,807,798; in 1872, $115,000. These 
 means were raised by large subscriptions from all classes of the people. 
 The State also in 1871 gave to the asylum $100,000 to build a new 
 house, on the condition that the institution raise an equal amount. In 
 the same clause the city was authorized to give to the institution the 
 ground necessary for this purpose. These $100,000 were then raised in 
 the course of a few weeks by a grand bazaar, aud now the principal part 
 of the new building, situated on the grand square between Lexington and 
 Third avenues, and Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth streets, is so far finished 
 that the removal to it will soon take place. It is only to be hoped that 
 the sympathy of the public, which has so liberally aided it until now, will 
 
676 FOUNDLINGS. 
 
 continue to do so. For unfortunately the present financial condition of 
 the institution is said not to be very bright, as the new building has so 
 exhausted its treasury that it is questionable whether the crib can be re- 
 tained. 
 
 And yet this crib has just made the institution a true foundling asy- 
 lum, as all restrictions in the reception, by conditions or previous exam- 
 inations of the mother or child, in their injurious effects always fall back 
 on the latter. The mother who brings her child to the foundling asylum 
 thus clearly indicates her resolution to get rid of it. If her child is re- 
 fused admission, then the chances are ten to one that she will get rid of 
 the poor creature by abandoning it in the streets, if not by murder. Even 
 the fear of an examination is very often sufficient to prevent an unfortu- 
 nate mother from bringing her child to the foundling asylum. As the 
 rapidly-decreasing number of foundlings in the streets since the year 
 1869 shows, the crib of the foundling asylum has received many of those 
 poor creatures, who would otherwise have perished miserably. The fear 
 is therefore not without foundation, that, with the disappearance of the 
 crib, the former prevalence of abandoning children in the streets and 
 other places will again return. 
 
 Since the opening of the foundling hospital of the sisters, the Chil- 
 dren's Hospital, on Randall's Island, has almost entirely ceased to serve 
 as a foundling asylum. The new-born children found in the streets, who 
 were formerly brought to Randall's Island, are now all sent to the asylum 
 of the sisters. No one who is acquainted with the terrible maladminis- 
 tration existing on Randall's Island, until within a few years past, will 
 regret this. For the poor, disowned foundlings are human beings, and 
 our feelings revolt when we read in the report for 1871, that female con- 
 victs from Randall's Island are taken and employed as wet-nurses and 
 waitresses. 
 
 The other institutions existing in the city of New York for the recep- 
 tion of children cannot properly be termed foundling asylums. They 
 are, more properly speaking, orphan asylums, lying-in hospitals, and sin> 
 l lar institutions. 
 
 The New York Infant Asylum, or as it is more briefly called, the 
 "Protestant Asylum," founded in the fall of 1871, and situated at No- 
 24 Clinton Place, is not in the strict sense of the word a foundling asylum, 
 but deserves to be mentioned in the first rank among charitable institu. 
 tions of a similar character. It generally only receives new-born infants, 
 if the mothers engage to become inmates of the house, and to nurse their 
 children. By this means the institution wishes to prevent the mother 
 from ridding herself of the child and then continuing on in her loose 
 ways. Children without mothers, the real foundlings, are only received 
 in exceptional cases, and the institution reserves to itself the right to re. 
 ccive or reject any mother and child. Another peculiarity of this insti- , 
 
tiik puck -^ r r > f: of NEW TORK life. 
 
 anion i? that it reserves to itself the full control of all children red ired 
 until their eighteenth year. Children of a weak constitution, or who arp 
 aillicted with contagions diseases, are not admitted, as the Chi dren's 
 Hospital is, in the ideas of the Infant Asylum, a more fitting place for 
 such cases. Here also no definite plan as to the future of the children 
 has been adopted. But the board of directors think of placing them in 
 respectable families for adoption. Starting with the opinion that the^ 
 fresh country air is far more beneficial for these children than the city 
 air, this institution intends making arrangements to have cottages or 
 branch establishments in Westchester county. If a mother wishes to take 
 her child with her upon leaving the institution, she is permitted to do so 
 only when she furnishes to the board of directors satisfactory evidence 
 that she is able and willing to support and educate the little one properly. 
 
 The "Protestant Half-Orphan Asylum," at No. C7 West Tenth street, 
 which has existed since 1835, receives no children under four years of 
 a^e. and charges fifty cents per week for their board. This institution 
 also has exerted a beneficial influence in its way, and from its formation 
 until December, 1872, it has received and fostered not less than 3,196 
 children. 
 
 The subject of foundlings and foundling asylums naturally brings us to 
 those women who for good pay receive children of any age. They care 
 for these children in such a manner that the poor little ones soon go to 
 their long home. These women are often connected with private lying-in 
 asylums, in which the mothers no longer care for their children, as the 
 asylums undertake to board out any such as may make their appearance- 
 The children are then given to these women, who also know that they 
 receive with them the silent order to get rid of them as soon as possible. 
 The majoritv of the victims of these women are of course illegitimate 
 children. But enough legitimate children also fall into their hands* 
 Many poor mothers or fathers, who must work hard during the 
 day, are forced to board their children out cheaply. Such cheap 
 board they then find with women who make a business of boarding 
 strange children. There are indeed among these women some whose 
 hearts are human, and who give to the little ones entrusted to their care 
 a truly motherly attention. But these never take more children than they 
 are able to attend to properly. The other women, however, are not so 
 particular as to the number, and a dozen is not a very unusual number. 
 Many children, as before mentioned, are given into the hands of these 
 women to get rid of them as soon as possible. But the women treat all 
 their boarders alike. The poor little ones cannot speak, it is true, but 
 their pitiable appearance speaks louder of heartless abuses, hunger, etc., 
 than any words could do. As a case of this kind has recently come up 
 before one of our city courts, we will give it as the best illustration of 
 the subject : 
 
0/0 FOUNDLINGS. 
 
 The name of the prisoner was Ellen Roberts. This woman had, dur- 
 ing the period from June 1 to September 15, besides her own five chil- 
 dren, not less than thirty other babies in board, whom she treated with 
 the most heartless cruelty. Of these thirty children, six died of starva- 
 tion and neglect within the above-named period. One woman testified 
 that this woman Roberts left the house at ten o'clock in the morning, and 
 often did not return until five in the evening. During this period the 
 children lay in their cribs, with a bottle of milk as their food, during the 
 whole day. This was well enough for those who were old enough to 
 help themselves, but for the majority of them the milk-bottle was entirely 
 useless. The prisoner was also addicted to drink, and was at one time 
 seen in a state of intoxication to throw the children like logs on the beds, 
 so that two of them fell upon their faces and would have suffocated if the 
 witness had not stepped in. Two other witnesses stated that over thirty 
 children had died in her house in the course of the year 1872. An un- 
 dertaker used to call for the babies during the night, and until their re- 
 moval to the cemetery, used to keep them in his cellar. 
 
 But cases like these do not stand alone. Some time ago such a woman 
 was sentenced to the penitentiary for six months, because she took her 
 boarders into the yard and let them lie there in the hot July sun, without 
 any protection. 
 
 Of another the following is related: She had twelve children, almos t , 
 all under one year of age. With the advent of summer, diarrhoea be- 
 gan to make its appearance, and much work and care loomed up in the 
 future in consequence, She made it a rule not to clean them more than 
 once a day. The children were then undressed, placed in a big wash- 
 tub, the hydrant opened over them, and then, one after another, they 
 were washed like a piece of clothing. That such a washing sent many 
 of these children to their long rest is easily understood. 
 
 In all our institutions for the care of children, whether they are called 
 foundling asylums or orphan asylums, it is customary to board the chil- 
 dren out, either in the city or country, more frequently in the latter. The 
 different institutions pay a certain sum for board, and, if these people do 
 their duty, the children get along better than they would in an over- 
 crowded instiiution. But, as we have before remarked, very few do their 
 their duty in sueh cases. The sisters have had the sad experience that 
 their little ones who are boarded out, in spite of the country air and all 
 other favorable circumstances, die more rapidly than those in the institu. 
 tion. The cause of this is that the people who board such children, wan 
 to make as much as possible at this business, and carry their saving s<> 
 far that they are not much better than the women we have just described. 
 And all this ill usage can take place under the eyes of a detective, who 
 is supposed to play the part of a guardian angel over these children. 
 Need we wonder then at the crimes committed by the above-described 
 
TH1 DARK SIl>K OF NKW YORK LIFE. G79 
 
 women upon those poor children over whom no detective watches and 
 looks after? 
 
 The above should be sufficient to teach those better who believe that 
 the system of 4k farming out," as above described, conhl entirely replace 
 the fouudling asylums. It is indeed true that the asylum of the sisters 
 has sent most of its children out into the country. But even if this sys- 
 tem were still more used, the foundling asylum could not be dispensed 
 with. It would always be needed as the place of reception for aban- 
 doned children, where they could be cared for until a place could be 
 found to board them, or where they can be recalled to if they are ill, 
 treated in the boarding-place. Where finally could crippled or diseased 
 foundlings be received, if not in a foundling asylum? 
 
 In one respect the opposition to foundling asylums is difficult to under- 
 stand. In all cases it injures the foundlings most, those poor creatures 
 who are more in need of help and pity than any other human being, 
 The time has long passed when a poor girl, for the sin committed in a 
 brief moment of weakness, was compelled to do penance at the church 
 door. It may be true that foundling asylums increase the number of ille- 
 gitimate children. But that gives their opponents no right to say that 
 they lower morality. The larger number of illegitimate children is more 
 than overbalanced by the decreased number of child-murders, which 
 must also be regarded as the fruit of foundling asylums. How many 
 unfortunate girls have been kept from having their unborn children, and 
 even themselves sometimes, murdered in the dens of the abortionists, by 
 the foundling asylum ! There have been, and will be, foundlings in all 
 ages, and their number will not be decreased if they are to be made the 
 scapegoats for the loose morals of our society. This would also be an 
 act of cruelty against which humanity and our moral feeling revolts in an 
 equal degree. Let the number of illegitimate births increase a trifle, 
 the world will nevertheless greet it as the sign of a new era if it sees 
 that the murder and abandonment of children decrease, and the abortion* 
 ists, instead of building palaces, complain of bad times. 
 
 
680 INCENDIARIES. 
 
 INCENDIARIES. 
 
 According to the annual reports of the police, 125 of the 4,156 confla- 
 grations which have occurred in our city since November 1, 1868, have 
 been caused by incendiaries. This fact shows us the existence of an ele- 
 ment in our city which makes use of the torch for the purpose of criminal 
 avarice. We meau by this those incendiaries who, although they do not 
 belong to the professional criminals, must still be classed among the 
 most degraded and dangerous individuals who threaten the life and 
 property of a community. The crime of the thief, the robber, or the 
 murderer is only restricted to one person. But it is quite different with 
 the incendiary. If he has once set his fire going, the consequences of 
 the deed are beyond his control. The flame may be restricted to the 
 house for which it was intended, or it may equally well lay the whole 
 city in ashes. Baltimore, Boston, and especially Chicago, are recent 
 examples of the destructive power of fire, and how it depends upon a 
 thousand little things how and where the flame, once started, can be 
 restricted. In this respect, the incendiary displays a recklessness with 
 regard to the life and property of his fellow-men, like no other criminal. 
 To obtain a small advantage, he does not hesitate to ruin hundreds and 
 thousands forever, and thus pay a price for the fruit of his crime which 
 even the most cold-blooded murderer would consider too high. We have 
 already remarked that incendiaries are not, properly speaking, profes- 
 sional criminals. It very seldom occurs that thieves set fire to a house 
 in order to steal and pillage in the ensuing confusion, although they 
 make good use of conflagrations to ply their trade. But what can induce 
 men who follow an honest profession to commit such a heartless crime as 
 incendiarism? Two motives chiefly come into play here, revenge and 
 desire for gain. Cases in which hate and a desire for revenge make use 
 of the torch are so exceptional that we can omit them here. On the 
 other hand, a low desire for gain is more frequently the cause than is 
 generally supposed. How often incendiarism is made use of to obtain a 
 high insurance for the goods or building, is known to every one. The 
 fire insurance companies also know this full well, and it is only owing to 
 jheir vigilance that cases of incendiarism do not occur more frequently 
 than they actually do. Many who wish to cheat their creditors by means 
 of fraudulent bankruptcy or other means, let a fire destroy their books 
 and goods, thus furnishing at the same time a plausible pretext for going 
 Into bankruptcy. 
 
 In the year ending with April 4, 1872, twenty conflagrations were 
 proven by the Fire Marshal to be the work of incendiaries, and almost 
 all were caused by such attempts at swindling insurance companies o r 
 creditors. This number may not seem very large to some, but it is- 
 
rrrr. DARK BIDE 01 NEW TOKK LIFE. 681 
 
 increased in weight if we remember that the incendiaries have, by theae 
 attempts, twenty times brought the city into danger of suffering the same 
 fate as Chicago. This is by no means exaggerated. For after the ex- 
 amples of Chicago, Boston, and Baltimore, where, in spite of the best fire 
 departments, the finest parts of the city were burned down, we must 
 rather count upon chance than upon the fire departments in subduing the 
 tire king. 
 
 As dangerous as the crime ot incendiarism is, particularly in the ove - 
 crowded tenement-house regions, for the lives and property of the inhabi" 
 tauts of the city, so little dangerous is it for the incendiary himself. In 
 comparatively very few cases can he be legally convicted of his crime. 
 The fire generally destroys all traces which might be used as evidence 'of 
 an intentional incendiarism. In cases where it can be proven as suchi 
 evidence is again wanting to discover and convict the criminal. In the 
 period from January 1, 1864, to April 4, 1872, 301 persons were arrested 
 on the charge of being incendiaries. Of this number only nine were 
 convicted and punished. 
 
 But it must not be supposed that the number of incendiaries men- 
 tioned in the police reports is a complete one. From November, 1868, 
 to April, 1872, only 125 of the 4,156 conflagrations in our city were 
 classed as cases of incendiarism. But the same reports mention over 
 400 conflagrations of which the causes were unknown. Besides there 
 were a large number mentioned as having been caused by accident. Both 
 these classes include those cases where the unknown eause was an incen- 
 diary, or where the accident had been caused by criminal intention. It 
 is pleasant to see, however, that, although the number of conflagrations 
 is continually increasing, the number of causes of incendiarism, and fire* 
 of which the causes were unknown, is decreasing year by year. A 
 glance into the police reports for the years 1870, 1871, and 1872 will 
 plainly show this : 
 
 Incendiarism. Cause unknown. 
 
 55 201 
 
 40 131 
 
 20 33 
 
 The number of arrests made during these three years was about equal 
 to that of cases of incendiarism. In 1870, 53 ; in 1871, 40, and in 1872 
 25 persons were arrested on suspicion of being incendiaries. Unfortu- 
 nately the efforts of the authoritiesto punish the criminals failed in an al- 
 most astonishing manner. Of the number arrested in 1870 only three, and 
 of those arrested in the following two years only one in each, were con. 
 victed. This does not look very hopeful. But it is excused by th e 
 praiseworthy endeavors of the authorities to let ten guilty ones escape 
 rather than have one iunocent person suffer. It is only to be regretted 
 that the law does not inflict heavier penalties on this crime than it ao 
 
 Year. 
 
 Conflagrations. 
 
 1870 
 
 913 
 
 1871 
 
 1041 
 
 1872 
 
 1380 
 
682 THE PUBLIC CONVEYANCES. 
 
 tually does. The highest punishment served out to one of these crimi 
 uals was seven years in the State Prison, while the others escaped with 
 terms down to one year. 
 
 In olden times it was customary to throw the incendiaries into their 
 own fires, and to the present day, in cases where the incendiary is caught 
 in the act, but little mercy is shown them. The law of course canno 1 
 take such lynch law as a sample. But still it is to be hoped that incen- 
 diarism as a crime will be threatened with much more severe penalties 
 than our laws at present afford. 
 
 The incendiary does not take the possible consequences of his deed into 
 consideration ; he fans the flame, not caring whether it lays his store only 
 in ashes, or destroys a whole city ; it is entirely immaterial to him how 
 many lives are lost by his act, or how many are utterly ruined by it* 
 Why then does the law consider it in his favor if no lives have been lost' 
 or very little damage done to property, something that is only to be attri- 
 buted to chance? Incendiarism is a crime which, as is very well known, 
 can but seldom be traced home to its author. This is an encouraging 
 fact to those persons who believe that stealing is excusable, but not the 
 • being caught." It is a disadvantage of our criminal law not to be 
 avoided, but which should be equalized by a corresponding severity in the 
 punishment of those who are convicted. 
 
 THE PUBLIC CONVEYANCES. 
 
 New York is a city of great length, without any real breadth. Situated 
 between a mighty river and a somewhat smaller one, both until now 
 without bridges, it can only expand in the one direction, which removes 
 its increasing population more and more from the business centre. This 
 causes a daily flood of its population, which, with the regularity of a nat- 
 ural phenomenon, flows from up town to down town in the morning, and 
 from down town to up town in the evening. With the distance increas- 
 ing every year, a want of means of conveyance was soon felt. In con- 
 sequence of this the stages were first introduced. Every one knows these 
 conveyances with their antediluvian appearance, rattling along the streets 
 with the portliness of the Knickerbockers. They sufficed as long as 
 Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth streets were up town, and Harlem 
 
•mi DARE BIDI mi HEW FORI LIFE. BBS 
 
 formed a kind of M Far West "' lor New York. But that time has long 
 passed. Then the horse-cars made their appearance, and all trouble 
 as to travel seemed to be at an end forever. But this " forever" did not 
 last long. Our street-cars suffice to-day as little as did the stage-coaches 
 twenty years ago. In spite of their large number, they do not suffice for 
 the transportation of passengers, nor for the di.-tance to be traveled. Be- 
 sides stages and horse-cars, there are also a large number of " hacks " at 
 the service of the public, and vet they all do not supply the general want 
 for means of transportation, either in quality or in quantity. No one 
 will therefore be astonished if we consider our public conveyances a fit 
 theme for our book. 
 
 We will begin with the hacks, which have their stations in various 
 parts of the city, and particularly bring strangers from the docks or de- 
 pots to the hotels and other places. For the wealthier class of strangers 
 stopping at hotels, these hacks are the most common and easiest mode of 
 conveyance. The principal customers of the hacks are therefore partic- 
 ularly strangers, while funerals, weddings, balls, and similar events are 
 the only occasions when they are made use of by the inhabitants of the 
 city. 
 
 The principal sin of the hack-drivers is an inveterate propensity to get 
 the best of their customers. They are bound by law to certain prices, 
 but they care very little for this. The hack-driver is a pretty good judge 
 of character, and knows very well which passenger is " green " and rich 
 enough to pay double or even treble fare without creating trouble or 
 calling on the police. 
 
 This is only regarded among this class as smartness. If there are 
 some who keep their smartness within the bounds of honesty, there are 
 also others with whom it is necessary to be on one's guard. Cases have 
 come to the notice of the police in which hack-drivers have acted as 
 runners for swindling hotels, houses of prostitution, and have even some- 
 times been the confederates of thieves. How dangerous it is for single 
 ladies or girls to trust themselves with hack-drivers, has been shown in a 
 previous chapter. The following case may serve as a warning example 
 to those who are inclined to leave the choice of their hotel to their hack- 
 driver : 
 
 A Mr. 8. did this, as we will shortly see, with not very great success. 
 Upon arriving at the depot, he allowed himself to be taken charge of by 
 the first hack-driver he met, and told him to go to a good but not too dear 
 hotel. He entered the carriage, the door was closed, and the hack rat- 
 tled on through the dark streets. At last it stopped, and upon alighting 
 Mr. S. found himself in a not very fine-looking street (Greenwich), and 
 in front of a house still less inviting. Mr. S. immediately saw that he 
 had acted foolishly. But it was late, he was tired, and he had not so 
 much mouey that he could undertake pleasure-trips in a hack. He 
 
684 THE PDBLIC CONVEYANCES. 
 
 therefore resigned himself to his fate, paid the driver the two dollars 
 he asked for, and entered the hotel with his carpet-bag. 
 
 This house looked still more suspicious inside than it did outside, and 
 the guests whom he saw leaning around the tables drinking and playing 
 caused him to ask for his room immediately. He was shown there. 
 This room was nothing but a little attic, furnished with a rotten bedstead 
 and a washstand, and Mr. S. laid himself down to sleep with the firm 
 conviction that this certainly could not be a dear hotel. His sleep, in 
 spije of his tiredness, was not very sound. He soon found that he had a 
 number of companions, who seemed to have been looking for such a vvs- 
 tor for some time. Therefore, as soon as the first signs of life were 
 noticeable down stairs, he arose from his bed of torture, dressed himself, 
 and demanded his bill at the bar. This was given him, and Mr. 8. 
 hardly believed his eyes when he saw that it amounted to $11.75. 
 
 " There must be some mistake here," said he ; "I only slept in the 
 house." 
 
 " There is no mistake, sir," the man at the bar returned ; " we never 
 make mistakes. There, see for yourself." 
 
 He took a pencil, and before the astonished eyes of Mr. S. put down 
 the following figures : " Hack, $2 ; supper, S3 ; room, $3 ; breakfast, 
 $3.75; total, $11.75." 
 
 " But I have had neither breakfast nor supper, and paid the hack" 
 man myself !" 
 
 " I don't know whether you paid for the hack or not. If you did, al* 
 the worse for you, as we always pay the hack-hire. With regard to sup" 
 per and breakfast, supper was ready for you last night, as breakfast is 
 now. It is not our fault if you don't eat." 
 
 The stranger now saw into the character of the hotel. He saw the 
 dangerous-looking characters assembling around him during the conver- 
 sation. He paid the bill, and considered himself lucky when he was 
 safely away from the hotel. 
 
 Very often the hack-drivers are in connection with " dragsmen." 
 These are thieves who have a horse and wagon, drive about the streets 
 during the day, stealing bundles and packages from other wagons, and in 
 the evening getting behind hacks and cutting the straps which hold the 
 trunks, etc., on the back of the carriage. Of course, when the theft is 
 discovered upon the arrival at the hotel, thj hackman knows nothing 
 about it. Sometimes the hack-driver even tries his hand at picking 
 pockets, although they are exceptional cases in which a hack-driver com- 
 mits a criminal act. But the hack-driver who could solemnly swear that 
 he had never got the best of a passenger, and neVer would, belongs either 
 to some mythical past or some distant future. Our age cannot produce 
 such strange creatures. 
 
 With regard to the stages, their dark sides are the pickpockets, and the 
 
THE r>AKK BU I " f HI H FOBS l.lt'K. 
 
 absolute want of all comfort fer passengers. A person upon entering 
 and leaving them endangers his limbs, and while when they are overcrowded 
 they form a profitable field for pickpockets. The fares are just twice as 
 much as those in the horse-cars, and they are therefore only used for 
 short distances by those who wish to avoid the filth aud the crowding iu 
 the cars. 
 
 And then the street cars ! They must be regarded as the true public 
 conveyances of our city, and are therefore of the greatest importance' 
 Little as they suflice, they are still a necessity for hundreds of thousands. 
 Every one confesses that they are necessary, and every one who is com- 
 pelled to use them also agrees in the fact that they are necessary evils. 
 Not one of the many companies has that number of cars which would 
 seem to be necessary for the convenience of the public. The cars are 
 calculated to afford sitting room for twenty four persons at most, a num- 
 ber which is only exceptional. When these twenty-four seats are occu- 
 pied, the rest of the passengers must be satisfied with standing room. 
 This is the fate of the majority of the passengers, who in winter or iu 
 bad weather consider themselves fortunate if they can find at least a bit 
 of standing room. 
 
 How many persons such a horse-car will contain seems to be beyond 
 all calculation. Eighty or ninety persons is nothing unusual in one car 
 of an evening, just after the close of business hours. And even if the 
 passengers inside are packed together like herrings, and the two platforms 
 are crowded too, the conductor will always be sure to hail you with. 
 4< Plenty of room inside?" It needs no further remarks to couvince our 
 readers that such a trip is no pleasure. The exhalations of so many 
 pressed together in so small a space, many of them filthy in body as well 
 a3 clothing, and often soaked by snow or rain, occasionally a drunken 
 man or a rowdy makes the return home every evening after the day's 
 work a real torture. 
 
 It has not been unjustly remarked that, by the packing together of so 
 many persons, the street cars could be regarded as promoters and con- 
 ductors of all kinds of contagious diseases. We need not be even very 
 prudish to pronounce the packing together of male and female passen- 
 gers, in the manner in which it is sometimes done, highly improper. It 
 is nothing unusual that ladies and girls are insulted by rude fellows, not 
 to speak of the indecent jests and remarks poured out in the hearing of 
 female ears. If we furthermore take into account the occasional visits of 
 pickpockets, who find a very profitable field in overcrowded cars, we have 
 about a fair idea of a ride from City Hall between six and seven o'clock 
 in the evening. Hundreds of women aud children arc compelled to 
 stand on snow and ice covered corners until a car comes into which they 
 can squeeze themselves without very serious danger to their clothing 01 
 persons. 
 
686 THE PUBLIC CONVEYANCES. 
 
 The companies could easily remedy these evils, if they would only 
 double the number of their cars. But this would require larger expenses, 
 without increasing the receipts. They know that, with double the num- 
 ber of cars, they would carry no more passengers than they do at present. 
 It would only afford the public a little more comfort. The comfort of 
 the public, however, is not taken into consideration by these companies, 
 but rather the amount of their dividends, which, with some companies, 
 are as high as 35 per cent. Of most of these companies the shares are 
 not to be bought, and, if by chance they sometimes come into the market, 
 they are rapidly bought up. This alone proves the assertions of the com- 
 panies to be untrue, when they say that their respective lines pay very 
 poorly. The companies always retreat behind these lies when the pa- 
 tience of the long-suffering public becomes a little restive, and shows 
 signs of giving way. 
 
 The companies have as little regard for their employees as they have 
 for their passengers. The conductors are paid on an average, for fifteen 
 hours' work, two dollars, and never more than two and a half. By this 
 means the passengers have to suffer much from rowdies who are occa- 
 sionally engaged as conductors. The well-known case of the " Car-hook 
 Murder " is a prominent example of this. This terrible murder would 
 probably never have been committed if the conductor had done his whole 
 duty. 
 
 During the year 1872 not less than eighteen persons were brought to 
 Bellevue Hospital who were injured while stepping on or off the street 
 cars. The nature of these injuries will be seen from the fact that six of 
 them resulted in death. The majority of these persons were children or 
 intoxicated individuals, and were injured while trying to enter or leave 
 the car by the front platform. The street cars are, however, no place 
 for intoxicated persons, and, although they may be alone to blame for 
 their accident, the responsibility clearly lies with the company, who, in 
 order that it may not lose five or six cents, admits persons into the cars 
 who are barely able to stand on their feet. 
 
 Sometimes it also happens that persons are pushed from the crowded 
 platform, something that is all the more serious if it happens to be the 
 front one. A printed notice, put up in the interior of the car, warns 
 passengers from getting on or off the front platform. But this notice is 
 only an empty form. Every one gets on or off wherever he pleases* 
 The companies think all the less of closing their front platforms by gates 
 or other means, as too much room for passengers woidd be lost in that 
 way. What if a dozen or more persons are injured every year, it costs 
 them nothing. They have doue their duty by warning the public. They 
 are also rich, and do not fear the courts or the law, even if a coroner's 
 jury should, in any case of accident, hold them responsible for the inju- 
 ries received. 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW TORK LIFE. 0*7 
 
 Thus the abuses in this direction continue without any hope for the 
 better than the mythical " Quick transit." Everybody speaks of it 
 . wrvbody hopes for it. Some see it in the "Viaduct Railroad," others 
 in the u Arcade Railroad," still others in the "Pneumatic Tunnel," and 
 similar plans which dazzle us by their splendor, but of which we do not 
 know whether or not this splendor will be an obstacle to their realization. 
 The one-horse elevated railway, also a- product of the desire for rapid 
 transit, has not proceeded any further as yet than Thirtieth street, and 
 has not made very great progress in the favor of the public. The ques- 
 tion of rapid transit, above or below ground, must be solved. That is 
 <lear. In which particular manner, is a question which can be answered 
 rather in the future by the different results of various experiments, than 
 at present by plans. 
 
 In speaking of the dark sides of our public conveyances, we must not 
 omit one which is felt by the pedestrian rather than the pa-sender. It is 
 the blocking up of business streets by conveyances of all kinds, and the 
 difficulty resulting to pedestrians therefrom. The lower part of Broad- 
 way particularly has a bad name in this respect. Stages, trucks, car- 
 riages, and other conveyances of all kinds, moving up on one side and 
 down on the other, form a continual stream, which only shows an occa- 
 sional break here and there. A boatman who attempts to cross a river 
 full of ice in his small rowboat, is in no greater danger than a pedestrian 
 who attempts to squeeze through such a momentary opening. For 
 hardly has he reached the middle of the street, w T hen the vehicles close 
 round him, and he is cut off all sides. Then he must keep cool, and, by 
 diving under horses' heads, climbing over trucks, and various other de- 
 vices, he may extricate himself from this labyrinth. If in addition the 
 street is wet and slippery, this feat becomes still more dangerous, and 
 very often even imperils life and limb. Occasionally somebody loses his 
 presence of mind in this sea of horses and wagons, and then makes some 
 attempts to extricate himself, which only lead him into greater dansrer 
 than before. The sight is very often ludicrous. But in such cases the 
 huge form of a Broadway policeman makes its appearance, who takes 
 hold of such uufortunate pedestriaus and brings them safely to the side- 
 walk. 
 
 "Without the aid of these Broadway policemen, that much-traveled 
 thoroughfare would in fact in many places be impassable, especially for 
 ladies, children, and aged persons. If a group of ladies stand on a 
 corner looking anxiously into the street, a polite officer steps up to them 
 and safely escorts them across. The official blue coat seems to have a 
 magical effect on the drivers, and even the most reckless ones are careful 
 to keep their horses at a safe distance from it. 
 
 The endless stream of wagons on Broadway has often been shown 
 with pride as an evidence of our extensive business. That it is indeed ; 
 
t>O0 THE TAMMANY RING. 
 
 but in the above we have only spoken of the danger for foot-travelers ? 
 considering that it may be appropriately described as one of the dark 
 side/3 of our city. This evil clamors for some kind of relief, and this 
 must be furnished in such a manner that the extensive business of the 
 city shall not be felt, as it is at present, to be a public danger. 
 
 THE TAMMANY RING. 
 
 A look into the annual reports of the Comptroller of the City of New 
 York will show us the following figures : 
 
 Year. County debt. City debt. Total city and county debt, 
 
 Dec. 1, 18G6, $11,816,300 $33,371,475 $45,187,775 
 
 Dec. 1, 1867, 13,551,700 33,525,774 47,077,574 
 
 Dec. 1, 1868, 15,882,800 34,746,030 50,628,830 
 
 Dec. 1, 1869. No report published. 
 Dec. 1, 1870, 32,867,530 61,617,896 94,485,830 
 
 Even the most careless reader will pause when he sees these figures* 
 Our city government had never been famed for honesty, and had alwaye 
 been conducted more in thi interest of the office-holders than of the citi- 
 zens. In spite of the enormous taxes, it had therefore come to be ex. 
 pected that every annual report should show a continual increase of the 
 city and county debts. This increase, however, had always remained 
 within moderate bounds. Thus it continued until 1868, when the city 
 and county debts together amounted to more than $50,000,000. Strange 
 to say, no report was made in 1869. But the report for 1870 contained 
 a very strange surprise. Judging from the former additions to the debt, 
 it was expected that the debt would amount to about $56,000,000. But 
 it came otherwise. The debt had risen, during the short space of two 
 years to almost $95,000,000 — that is, nearly double the amount for the 
 year 1868 ! 
 
 In view of these facts, we are forced to ask ourselves what the cause 
 of this rapid rise could be, and how it could be possible that, even with the 
 most reckless administration, such an enormous debt could be contracted? 
 The answer to this question is found in that political gang of thieves 
 which in 1867 took hold of the reins of government, and which, under 
 the name of the " Tammany Ring," became identical with boundless 
 
ihk dakk BUM ok \h\v rOEK L1KK. «38iJ j 
 
 corruption. It is tlicrefore the corruption prevailing in all parties of 
 which we will treat, as the Tammany Ring is a thing of the past. It 
 was broken by the united efforts of an outraged and iudignant people^ 
 and will not be able to form itself again in the same shape. But the 
 shnpe is of no account. Whether the scum of this or that party forms 
 itself iuto one or another gang of thieves, or whether it assumes this or 
 that name, is immaterial. It is the corruption that must be laid bare ia 
 the Tammany Ring, that a shameful past may serve as a warning for the 
 present and future. 
 
 It is a past full of shame, especially the time from 18G7 till the middle 
 of 1871. For such a degree of corruption as was produced by the Tam- 
 many Ring was not possible without a very low standard of public mo- 
 rality and sense of right of the citizens in geueral. Only a sad want of 
 true public spirit could keep the most important city of this Republic for 
 years in the hands of a gang of thieves. In this respect the citizens of 
 New York are not entirely free from guilt. If there is anything that 
 lets this guilt appear in a milder light, it is the system by which the 
 leaders of the ring not only gathered the lowest and most criminal classes 
 under their flag, but also organized with their aid a despotism which 
 stands alone in the annals of our Republic, and we hope will stand alone 
 forever. 
 
 We by no means intend to undertake the unpleasant task of writing <\ 
 detailed history of the Tammany Ring and the different persons con^ 
 nected with it. This would lead us far beyond the space allotted to this 
 chapter. We will therefore give a short sketch of the disgraceful sys? 
 tem on which the ring supported itself so successfully. The persons 
 whom we mention in its connection will be taken into consideration only so 
 far as is necessary so to do in explaining the workings of this gigantic 
 traud. 
 
 The corruption developed by the ring had for a long time already 
 formed a prominent feature of our party politics. It received fresh fuel 
 during the Rebellion. After the war had come to a close, speculation^ 
 which had come to an end in the way of army contracts, blockade run- 
 ning, etc., was forced to seek fresh fields, and concentrated its whole 
 energies upon politics. New York of course received the liou's share of 
 the swindlers put out of office by the closing of the war. Without any 
 political principles, or in fact any principles at all, they were on'y led by 
 a desire to grow rich as soon as possible, and were ready to join any 
 party that would offer the best chances for letting their thievish propensi* 
 ties have full play. This was the case at that time in that faction of the 
 Democratic party known as Tammany, whose leaders had inaugurated a 
 system of public plunder in which they had shown great euer^y and urn 
 exampled recklessness in the selection of the means of bringing about 
 
 their ends. 
 
 44 
 
m 
 
 THE TAMMANY RING. 
 
 Soon a clique of men was formed who held the whole administration 
 of the city in their hands. A. Oakey Hall, Mayor; Richard B. Con- 
 nolly,' the Comptroller; Peter B. Sweeney, the City Chamberlain ; Wil- 
 liam M. Tweed, State Senator, President of the Bureau of Public 
 Works, etc., were the real heads of this clique, which was known as the 
 14 Tammany Ring." They were by no means persons standiug forth 
 prominently either by their character or personal accomplishments. That 
 they could obtain power at all is only explained by supposing that, after 
 the long war, a political enervation took place, which gave to unclean 
 political elements a wider field for action than was well for the city. But 
 they had obtained influence and power, and did not hesitate to make 
 use of both. Their interests also demanded that they should gaiu more 
 adherents for their further plans. This they did by offering chances to 
 others to enrich themselves at the cost of their own honesty and the 
 public treasury. 
 
 The desire for gain is unfortunately a weakness which had already 
 caused the ruin of many. It was this weakness which caused many men 
 of all parties, who had until then had an unblemished reputation, to 
 prostitute their good name in the service of the ring. Ten thousand dol- 
 lars per year often caused such men to overlook tire conditions under 
 which they received their situations from the ring. For this price they 
 not only became the defenders of these thieves, but lent to the ring by 
 their own names, until then spotless, an appearance of respectability which 
 its true leaders were not able to give it. Thus theft and fraud in office 
 became quite common, and whoever held a public trust was considered 
 to be on the direct road to wealth. The ring was considered the source 
 of all wealth, and therefore found thousands of willing tools for all its 
 plans. And never were tools used more systematically for criminal pur- 
 poses than by the ring. Thus it used over a million dollars in passing 
 its celebrated Charter of 1870, in the State legislature. This charter 
 gave to the ring the power of appointing the heads of departments 
 for terms ranging from four to eight years. It is unnecessary to 
 mention that these chiefs were blind tools of the ring, and in their turn 
 selected for subordinates a class of people who knew only to obey its die" 
 tates. 
 
 But this far-reaching appointing power did not suffice. The charter at 
 the same time gave power to the ring to remove their subordinates at any 
 time, and thus forced them to obey its dictates if they wished to retain 
 their offices. The ring also bribed the legislature to pass such special 
 laws as would throw almost insurmountable obstacles in the way of any 
 one attempting to break up their power. The ring controlled the public 
 finances, distributed the public works, appointed the police, watched over 
 the elections, and even had its creatures on the bench. This particularly 
 secured to the ring the assistance of the rowdy and criminal elements in 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. <*>91 
 
 our city. The ring remembers all services rendered to it, and the crimi- 
 nal who was under the protection of Tammany had little to fear from the 
 courts. 
 
 Thus crime grew to immense proportions under the rule of the ring, 
 because it possessed valuable assistants in the rowdies and criminals for 
 manipulating the elections. With such a well-arranged system of cor- 
 ruption it almost seemed impossible to put a stop to the ruinous proceed- 
 ings of the ring by means of the law. The big thieves laughed at the 
 orcasioual eilbrts of influential and, at the same time, influential men to 
 awaken the public, and to arouse them to throw ofF the hateful yoke* 
 Tiic treasury continued to be plundered with an impudence which was 
 only surpassed by the indifference of the citizens. 
 
 As an example of the impudence with which the ring conducted it s 
 thefts, we will only mention the new court-house in the rear of the City 
 Hall. This building, begun in 1863, and which, according to the orig- 
 inal plans, should not have cost over two millions, is still unfinished, aL 
 though over twelve millions have been spent on it. All work on the 
 building was performed by the creatures of the ring, and their bills were 
 always paid without any questions. The plastering alone cost more 
 than the building should have cost. Similar swindles w r ere committed in 
 ihe repair of the armories for the militia. In some of these armories 
 the repairs of the furniture cost more in the two years, 1869 and 1870, 
 than the entire cost of the buildings. 
 
 It also happened very frequently that, if anybody presented a bill for 
 ■ 0, he was only paid if the amount was charged to $5,000 or $10,- 
 . It was then paid without another word. The balance w T as of 
 course charged to the city. Many of the paid bills were for work that 
 had never been done, and many were even on false names. In such a 
 manner two favorites of the ring were paid in the course of two years 
 over six millious of dollars, and to fourteen different parties in all $15,- 
 457,063. 
 
 From this we can see how the city and county debt could be doubled 
 in the course of two years. We must only wonder that this debt had 
 not become greater still. It would fill a volume in itself to expose all 
 the thefts of Tammany in their whole extent. It will be best illustrated 
 if we give a short sketch of the head of the ring, the " Hon." William 
 M. Tweed, or as he was familiarly termed, "Boss" Tweed, a State Sen- 
 ator of New York : 
 
 Although a chairmaker by trade, he had never worked at the business 
 after serving his apprenticeship and had outgrown the control of his 
 parents. He understood the art of living without work, and belonged to 
 the hangers-on of the old Fire Department, and had been fireman of the 
 most disreputable company, the " Big Six," also known as the " Old 
 Tiger." He entered vigorously into polities as the easiest way to make 
 
692 THE TAMMANY RING. 
 
 money. lie was favored by fortune, and worked his way up, atep after 
 step, to be State Senator and President of the Department of Public 
 Works. When he entered into politics he was head over ears in debt. 
 Even in 18G1 it did not seem very profitable for him, for he saw fit to 
 become a bankrupt. But siuce then his star has been in the ascendant, 
 as in 1871 his property was estimated at fifteen or twenty millions. How 
 much of this immeuse fortune came from the court-house it is impossible 
 to tell. It was certainly a pretty large amount, as he was interested in 
 the marble furnished for the building. As the public schools, the differ- 
 ent department offices, the charitable and other institutions needed furni- 
 ture, he founded, together with James H. Ingersoll, a furniture factory y 
 for which he obtained the cusom of the city. He also bought an obscure 
 paper, the Transcript, and had it declared by the legislature to be the 
 official organ of the city of New York. By this means the paper had a 
 revenue of over a miliiou from the city treasury, with comparatively very 
 few expenses. The next thing iu order was the incorporation of the 
 " New York Printing Company." In 1870 this company received from 
 the city for printing of receipts, etc., the euormous sum of $2,800,000. 
 Besides it had the printing of almost all insurauce companies, steamship 
 companies, and other simi'ar rich corporations, who paid higher prices 
 there than they did in other printing offices. They were forced to do this, 
 or the "Boss" would have some of their valuable privileges revoked by 
 the legislature. As an accompaniment to the " Printing Company," 
 Tweed also started a "Manufacturing Stationery Company," to furnish 
 the public schools and the different departments wi.h all kinds of paper 
 and other writing materials. This company received over $3,000,000 
 per annum from the city during the rule of the ring. 
 
 The following incident may serve as an example of the manner in 
 which these companies plundered the city: In 1871 the office of the 
 couuty clerk received from the Stationery Company fifteen reams of writ- 
 ing paper, several dozen penholders, four bottles of ink, together with 
 some other trifles. The whole lot would not have cost over fifty dollars* 
 if bought in any ordinary stationery store in the city. The bill which 
 was handed in for it, however, and which was paid without a murmur 
 by the Mayor and Comptroller, amounted to $10,000. Tweed at last 
 founded a compauy for the manufacture of breech-loading rifles. This 
 company, however, only existed in name. Tweed bought a number of 
 breech-loaders which had been condemned by the United States Govern* 
 ment. He then smuggled a bill through the legislature of the State, 
 which ordered that all the militiamen of the State of New York should 
 be armed with these rifles. 
 
 It is well known what a suspicious part the Teuth National Bank 
 played on the well-remembered " B'.ack Friday," as also that the bank 
 acted as the agent of Tweed and hij companions, and that the money 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW TOKK LIFE. C03 
 
 which was used by the bank in its operations belonged to the city treas- 
 ury. But this will suffice to show the terrible state of affairs which existed 
 in New York. No wonder then that the people at last became dissatis- 
 fied. But the ring, which had ruled in the legislature as well as on the 
 bench, was invulnerable from without, and would probably have been 
 still in power it its leaders had not quarrelled among themselves. This 
 quarrel took place in July, 1871, and was caused by the division of the 
 spoils. One of the principal thieves thought that Tweed had cheated 
 him out of the nice little sum of 6300,000. This affected him so 
 strongly that he determined to become honest in revenge, and published 
 copies of certain bi ! ls from the books of tnc Comptroller. These copi s 
 for the first time furnished satisfactory proof that millions of dollars had 
 been expended for imaginary work. The respectable part of the press, 
 as well as the citizens, urged an immediate iuves igation on the basis of 
 these proofs. The general disgust was all the greater as the glaring 
 frauds committed were found to be even larger than had ever been ex- 
 pected. 
 
 These disagreeable disclosures had a most disastrous effect on the 
 members of the ring. In spite of the feigned ca!muess of the leaders, 
 the rank and file became demoralized, and when it appeared at last that 
 the popular indignation was p^rmaneut, a general stampede ensued. It 
 is within the range of our work to give the history of the war of the cit- 
 izens against these thieves. It was a long and bitter tight. The mil- 
 lions stolen from the city treasury were a powerlul weapon in the hands 
 of tl>e thieves. Nor did they shrink from any means, however low, to 
 further their bad cause. This was clearly proven, when one fine morn- 
 ing the vouchers for more than $10,000,000 had been stolen from the 
 office of the Comptroller, and upon looking for them their burnt remains 
 were found in the attic of the new court-house. This theft, be ides in- 
 tending to remove powerlul proofs of the fraud-, also had the object of 
 letting Comptroller Connolly appear as the priucipal offender. Connolly, 
 however, saw through this smart trick, and, without any regard for the 
 others, he did all he could to aid the Ciizens' Investigating Committee in 
 their labors. Mayor Hall aud Sweeney also looked to their safety when 
 they saw that the ring was coming to an end, so that at last Tweed only 
 remained of the leaders, who, aided by his immense wealth and political 
 connections, still continued to defy public opinion. But he was also the 
 only one of the leaders who was punished for his crime. While 
 Mayor Hall was acquitted, and the rest took themselves of! to foreign 
 countries, Tweed was, toward the end of 1873, sentenced to twelve 
 years' imprisonment. 
 
 A though the Tammany Ring has been broken since the people gave 
 in their verdict in the fall elections of 1871, the corruption still remains, 
 ready to form a similar ring at any time. The breaking of the ring will 
 
694 PERSONALS AND NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS. 
 
 be of no use as long as political corruption has not been exterminated. 
 This, however, has not been the case as yet, and it happens every day 
 that the hungry beggar who steals a loaf of bread is imprisoned and 
 branded as a thief, while we would risk a libel suit if we should call the offi- 
 cer a thief who used hundreds of thousands of dollars " for his own pur- 
 poses." As long as this state of affairs continues, reform is nothing but 
 empty talk, and only the political password of those who talk against 
 stealing in office, because they cannot play the part of the thief them- 
 selves. 
 
 The Tammany Ring has shown to what weight and with what danger 
 corruption can develop itself. It is a danger which threatens not 
 only the material interest of every individual, but also the liberty of all. 
 The loss of respect for those persons who act as the representatives and 
 executors of the law, is only too frequently accompanied by the loss of 
 respect for the law itself, and for that morality which is the sure basis ot 
 every law. We have in former chapters frequently referred to political 
 corruption as the source and promoter of many of the evils of which we 
 have spoken. Under the rule of Tammany, the police reports showed a 
 terrible increase of all those immoralities which either emanate from 
 political corruption or find in it a kind protector. That the crimes agaiust 
 property did not increase in the same ratio during the rule of the ring, is 
 a very doubtful merit. It is explained by the fact that a large part of 
 the thieves and criminals at that time found politics a very profitable em- 
 ployment, in which they could enrich themselves rapidly without risking 
 the State Prison* 
 
 PERSONALS AND NEWSPAPER ADVER- 
 TISEMENTS. 
 
 The press is the true promoter of civilization and of general progress. 
 This is the unanimous verdict of all sensible persons, and, in spite of th& 
 opposition of a few birds of darkness, it continues to develop itself mor 
 and more every year. But here, where, under the influence of liberty ? 
 it has developed more powerfully than anywhere, it needs a praise muck 
 less than anywhere else. 
 
 But while we gladly acknowledge the benefits of the press, we inuJt 
 
THE DAKK SIDE O* NEW YORK LIFE. 60 J 
 
 not forget that its power is not always used for good. But the press it- 
 self can be held no more responsible for this than the steel which is used 
 for a burglar's tool or a murderer's instrument. This supposed dark side 
 of the press has been wrought for it by its above-mentioned opponents. 
 This, however, docs not make us opponents of the press, but opponents 
 of those who would make the power of the press subservient to low pur* 
 poses. We only speak against those who do not hesitate to prostitute 
 themselves by an abuse of the press, and have done so already in the 
 chapter on obscene literature, and in mauy other chapters. In the pres* 
 ent chapter we have only to do with the daily press, which, with very 
 few exceptions, has a spot of shame on it, which, both in the iuterest of 
 the public as well as the public welfare, should have long ago disap, 
 peared. 
 
 The whole legion of our public press is divided, according to its con* 
 tents, into an "editorial" and an "advertising" or "business" part, 
 lu the editorial part the editor expresses his own convictions, or those 
 of others, in articles, notices, etc. For this editorial part the pub- 
 lisher considers himself responsible, and will therefore not admit any- 
 thing that would conflict with his ideas of right and wrong. Iu the 
 advertising part the reader finds those advertisements and notices for 
 which the parties who have them inserted pay a certain price. For this 
 part the publisher, according to a very strange custom, does not hold 
 himself responsible, or rather he limits his responsibility so far that he 
 takes good care not to come in contact with the laws by the admission of 
 some particular advertisement. This strange peculiarity of our periodi- 
 cal press often brings about strange contradictions betweeu the editorial 
 and the business parts of the papers, so that the latter often gives the 
 respectability of the former some very hard knocks. 
 
 But it is certainly very strange if a publisher can refuse that responsi- 
 bility in his advertising part which he so willingly assumes iu the edito- 
 rial part. But thus it is, and the publisher, respected iu life, who bitterly 
 denounces swindling, corruption, immorality, etc., in the editorial part ol 
 his paper, admits into his columns, for a certain number of dollars, the 
 advertisements of swindlers, quacks, abortionists, etc. The respectable 
 publisher can of course not be blamed for this, as it is only business to 
 publish those advertisements, and everything is allowed in business that 
 is not directly forbidden by law. 
 
 The reader of our large dailies will probably have seen a column in 
 some of them which is distinguished from the other advertisements by 
 the heading " Personal." In some of them this column occupies the 
 most prominent place. What they really are is easily seen. Occasion, 
 ally we find a call for persons, whose domicile is unknown, to correspond 
 with their friends. But these are only exceptional cases. The large 
 majority are of a very suspicious, and in many cases even dangerous 
 
C96 PERSONALS AND NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS. 
 
 and criminal, character. In a few harmless sounding words, seduc- 
 'tfon lays its snares for its victim, conjugal infidelity makes its appoint- 
 ments, and the thief communicates with his companions ; in short, there 
 is no undertaking that is forced to shun the light that does not make use 
 of this " Personal" column. 
 
 These advertisements are very often interesting readiug matter. The 
 following are fair samples of this class of advertisements, as seen in our 
 principal dailies : 
 
 "Green Eyes. Come ! "Will be there on Thursday. J. P." 
 
 " Richard the Third. Dick has just arrived. Come !" 
 
 "At Moonshine, Taylor's, 10." 
 
 11 D's. Monday at two o'clock." 
 
 " Personals " of this class are not very difficult to understand. They 
 are notices to meet somebody, which are only understood, however, by 
 those for whom they are intended. The object of the meeting must, 
 however, in all cases be very suspicious, as the advertisers choose the 
 personal advertisements in preference to the much cheaper and more 
 rapid way by mail. 
 
 "Third avenue car, goin:r down town yesterday morning. The young 
 lady in black, who answered the bow of the gentleman opposite, on leav- 
 ing the car, will confer a great favor by addressing "B.," Box 1,300, in 
 the office of this paper." 
 
 " Monday, March 15,5 p. m. Fifth avenue stage. Will the lady who 
 left the stage at Twenty-third street, and to whom the gentleman oppo- 
 site whispered " Personal," appoint a time and place of meeting with 
 'him? If so, she will please address B. M. Q." 
 
 " The yoir^g lady in ' lue silk dress and white hat, who smiled at the 
 gentleman opposite, in the Bleecker street car, will confer a favor by ad- 
 dressing K. Z., Hote'." 
 
 These are a common iorm of " Personals," and can be seen every day. 
 They contain nothiug but low insults against respectable ladies, whom 
 some rowdy saw in the street, in a car, or in a stage, and whom he did 
 not have the courage to address personally. The impudent fellow bowed 
 to her when she left the car, aud she, thinking that he knew her, returned 
 the bow ; or her smiling look accidentally passed over some fop sitting 
 opposite, and he thinks he has already made a conquest, which he intends 
 to complete by means of " Personals." At all events, any favors asked 
 of ladies by these "Personals" are insults to them, and the papers de 
 grade themselves by conveying these insults for the sake of the few dol. 
 tars gained thereby. 
 
 "Miss Amanda L., formerly of Bond street, will be happy to receive 
 her friends in No. — Lexington avenue." 
 
 "Charlie, come to Lizzie B. in No. — Amity street. Have left Mary 
 T$. : since Saturday." 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW TOItK LIFE. ftt7 
 
 These " Personals'* have nothing objectionable in ihcmsclvcs. Cut all 
 those who can read between the lines, can sec that one of the largest 
 aud most influential papers announces to its readers that two prostitutes 
 have changed their residence, aud that in future their fricuds must look 
 for them at their new address. 
 
 If the publisher of a paper will degrade himself so far as to becoi.. 
 the errand-boy of brothels and houses of assignation, he will go a step 
 farther. The following will give an idea of this step: 
 
 "Murderer's Block. Jordan is dead. Matsell and Gardiner live. 
 
 Patrolmen and Shooflies will please meet. Crowe. Van B ■ and 
 
 (A. R. Gus, Jr.)" 
 
 What respectable man would convey a message with such an air of 
 murder aud prison about it? Yet one of our largest dailies looked at it 
 only in the light of business, and unhesitatingly gave it a place in its 
 44 Personal" column. 
 
 " Billy, crack nuts to-night at 12 o'clock in street." 
 
 For the general reader it would be difficult to get at the meaning of 
 these lines, but a detective would immediately furnish the following inter- 
 pretation : 
 
 " Billy, be ready. We intend to commit that burglary in street 
 
 to-night at 12 o'clock." 
 
 He only sees in this the announcement of a large crime, and the only 
 difficulty is to find out where it is to be committed. Tlie dash may either 
 mean Fifth avenue, Fifth street, or any street the name of which is of 
 the same length. 
 
 The newspaper, how r ever, which gave the notice, the next day appears 
 with thundering articles against the increasing frequency of crime, the 
 carelessness of the police, etc. 
 
 The cases in which thieves and all kinds of criminals arriving from 
 prison, give notice of their return to the city by means of " Personals," 
 occur not unfrequently. The police therefore keep a watchful eye on 
 this newspaper correspondence, and that with pcrtect justice. For, in 
 nine cases out of ten, the objects of the "Personals" are very suspicious 
 if not criminal. Some years ago a divorce suit created great excitemeut 
 among all classses of the population. The priucipal actors in these scenes 
 belonged to the richest and most prominent families. The divorce was 
 sought by the husband, because his wife had committed adultery. In 
 the eourse of the suit it was shown that the guilty wifo and her para- 
 mour had appointed their meetings in houses of assignation by means of 
 " Personals." 
 
 But the beauties of our advertising system are by no means exhausted 
 with the "Personals." If we look through the real advertisements with 
 'a half way critical eye, we will discover very mauy which would servo 
 as fitting accompaniments to " Personals." Examples of these have al- 
 
698 PERSONL8 AND NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS. 
 
 ready been given in the chapters on Swindling, Abortionists, Quacks, 
 Fortune-tellers and Mediums, Lotteries, and Matrimonial Agencies, and 
 to them we refer the reader. 
 
 Wherever immorality and obscenity can be hidden in the advertise- 
 ments in such a manner that their true meaning can be easily understood, 
 publishers do not hesitate to admit them to their columns. A newspaper* 
 for example, would hesitate to publish the advertisement of some aban- 
 doned woman, who seeks a partner for keeping a disorderly house. But 
 the moral feeling of a newspaper can easily help itself out of such a di- 
 lemma, as the following advertisement, which appeared in one of our 
 dailies a short time ago, will show : 
 
 "A widowed lady, who is about renting a house to let out furnished 
 rooms, is looking for a gentleman who would advance part of the rent for 
 a room in the house. Address ." 
 
 Or is ah explanation necessary to understand the shameless offer* 
 which a so-called respectable daily paper published some time ago ia the 
 following advertisements : 
 
 "A young widow, twenty-five years of age, and of a pretty appear- 
 ance, wishes to make the acquaintance of an honorable and wealthy 
 man, who would be willing to assist her pecuniarily. Address Lucy, 
 office of ." 
 
 " A young, handsome, and pleasant lady can find good and pleasant 
 board under very favorable conditions by addressing ." 
 
 44 A young and pretty girl, not over eighteen years of age, who wishes- 
 an educated, rich, and liberal friend, can find out particulars by applying 
 to ." 
 
 Yet what else than depravity and fraud can be expected of matrimo- 
 nial advertisements? Unfortunately it is not any better with the nomi- 
 nally legitimate advertisements, and in fact the danger is even much 
 greater with the latter. He who answers one of the above advertise, 
 meats knows what he is doing, and is therefore not much better than the* 
 advertiser. But the numerous trap3 which speak of employment, etc., very 
 frequently bring even those to grief who never thought of anything 
 wrong. Swindling and fraud are exhibited to such a degree in these 
 advertisements, that they greatly diminish the confidence in advertise- 
 ments in general. 
 
 In another chapter we have already spoken of the danger connected 
 with looking for "board or houses by means of advertisements. But it if 
 much worse with the advertisements looking for partners, offering em- 
 ployment, and the often repeated so-called " good chances to make money/* 
 In general, such oilers are the more suspicious the more tempting they 
 are, while in others the swindle is so well marked that it is very difficult 
 to detect it. Particularly young men in the country, who wish to better 
 their situations, are taken in by such swindling advertisements. We 
 
THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFE. G9£ 
 
 will give the experience of a victim or such swindling advertisements aa 
 a warning. Several years back the following advertisement was to be 
 found in one of the city papers : 
 
 U A splendid chance for a young man : A young man is sought for a 
 valuable art collection, shortly to be put on exhibition, to wait at the 
 entrance and show visitors around. A person with a capital of $300, 
 which could be invested in the business, under his direction, would be 
 preferable. As a surety, he not only has control of the entire collection, 
 valued at $8,000, but has charge of all the money received. Salary, 
 $100 per month and expenses; or, if desirable, a part in the business. 
 Address Smith & Co." 
 
 Certainly a very desirable chance ! $100 per month and expenses, to- 
 gether with a good security for the capital invested ! How many young 
 men, with or without the $300, aspired to the position, cannot be named. 
 The advertisement was kept standing a long time, as if Smith & Co. 
 could not succeed in finding a desirable person. AVe would here relate, 
 however, the story of Charles E., who was determined to offer his ser- 
 vices, inclusive of $300 in cash. Mr. E. was brought to this city from 
 Connecticut by the advertisement, and applied at the address. He there 
 found a very benignant looking gentleman, who spoke to him with a 
 fatherly air, and examined him as to his capacities. The close of the 
 examination was very satisfactory to the young man. For, as Smith 
 told him, he was just the man for the situation, and should have it in 
 preference to anybody else. Upon inquiring for particulars, he only re. 
 ceived evasive answers, and was referred to a printed circular, which 
 contained a programme of tne exhibition. Mr. E., however, was not 
 greeu enough to rid himself of his money until he had seen the valuable 
 objects which should secure his investment. Smith had half a dozen 
 excuses for not complying with the wish immediately, but he had still 
 more reasons to prove how desirable it would be for the young man to 
 invest his $300 at once. But when all this was in vain, he declared 
 himself willing to show at least part of the articles. He brought the 
 possessor of the much coveted $300 to a large art gallery, and showed 
 him about a dozen of the pictures, which he said were the property of 
 the firm. The hall had not yet been completely finished, he said, and he 
 and his partners had therefore preferred to leave these valuable works of 
 art in the gallery. Upon the mention of the hall, Mr. E. expressed the 
 wish of seeing it, and the articles already brought there/ Smith at first 
 thought he had not so much time to spare at present, but noticing the 
 bad impression this made on his $300 man, he found he did have time* 
 and requested him to follow. They passed through different streets, and 
 stopped at last in front of a house that appeared to be uninhabited. That, 
 says Smith, is the house rented for the exhibition. He knocks at the 
 door, knocks again and again, but nobody answers the summons ; thet 
 
*I00 PERSONALS AND NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS. 
 
 house seems to be empty. Smith thinks this rather strange, but at last 
 finds an exp'anation. He remembers that all the workmen have gone to 
 a pic-nic to-day, and he has left the keys at home. He gives, however, a 
 splendid description of the objects left there. During this description 
 they have come to a restaurant, and Smith asked his companion in to 
 dinner, but fouud that he had forgotten his pocketbook when it came to 
 paying, and asked Mr. E. to pay for him. The latter, who feared a dis- 
 agreeable scene, paid the rather high bill, but said that he did not care 
 any more for the situation. This, however, rouses Smith's temper. He 
 said he had now lost a whole day, which was worth $100 to him, and E. 
 cou'd not leave him until he had at least paid him $25 as a remuneration 
 for the time. An apparent stranger now stepped up and said that he 
 could swear to having heard E. bind himself to enter Smith's business 
 as partner with $300. Mr. Smith was perfectly right in demanding a 
 remuneration for his time. After the $25 had been put down to $10, 
 and E. still refused to pay, Smith's companion, the apparent stranger, 
 ran out of the saloon to get a warrant for E.'s arrest. E., however, in 
 spite ot all the threats of Smith, left the restaurant, and only got rid of 
 him when a policeman made his appearance, and he threatened to call 
 upon him for assistance. He was glad that he still had his $3J0, and 
 considered his traveling expenses and the money paid for the rascal's 
 dinner a warning for the future. 
 
 E.'s case was a very fortunate one. But it very often happens that 
 people are swindled out of their last cent by means of such advertise- 
 ments, and lrom sheer despair have become drunkards and even crimi- 
 nals. It is true, uo paper in the world can tell at a glance whether a 
 customer intenls to do an honest or a swindling business by an advertise- 
 ment. But that is not the poin f . We should like to ask our publishers 
 whether they can make it agree with their positions as the " moulders of 
 public opinion," the instructors of the people, to continue to publish for 
 years the advertisements of notorious quacks, abortionists, fortune-tellers, 
 and swindlers ot all classes, and thus consciously to become the agents of 
 these people. Not only their agents, but even their accomplices ! For, 
 as the thief could not exL-t wi.hout the receiver, this class of criminals 
 would prosper very poorly if the papers would not receive their adver- 
 tisements, and thus help them in obtaining victims from all parts of the 
 country. 
 
 It is well known that abortionists, swindlers, and quacks pay hundreds 
 of thousands of dollars annually for advertisements, which sum they get 
 back teulohl from the custom these papers bring them. But the papers 
 also know how indispensable they are for this class of customers. They 
 therclore charge for their advertisements higher prices than they do for 
 legitimate advertisements. The rates of advertising are even graded 
 -according to the more or less oflensive matter which they contain. Thia 
 
T1TE DARK 8IDE OF NEW YORK LIPB. 701 
 
 plainly shows that they know the disgusting character of the advertise 
 ments they are asked to publish. 
 
 These higher rates also do away with that thin wall behind which 
 the " moral non-responsibility " for advertisements likes to hide itself. 
 This, if such a thought could be entertained, could only then be possible 
 if the prices of all advertisements were the same without regard to their 
 character. The higher prices for objectionable advertisements are the 
 best proof that a small portion of the " editorial honor " also extends to 
 the business part of the paper, but that this honor is of such a kind that 
 it can easily be done away with for a few paltry dollars. 
 
 It is strange, indeed, that the " representatives of public opinion" have 
 established the paradoxical maxim, that in one part of their business the 
 principles of right, morality, and honor cannot be taken into account. 
 "Whatever danger may arise from it for the individual or for the state* 
 the publishers do not hold themselves responsible for it. Dishonorable 
 and filthy as the swindles and crimes may be which they promote by the 
 advertisements, and very often even make possible, they are not to be 
 blamed, for they are paid, and their advertisements are only business 
 matters. Most certainly a very strange course of reasoning. With 
 equal justice, the prostitutes, the abortionists, etc., could claim respecta- 
 bility, as they are "paid" for their services, and these services arc for 
 them nothing more nor less than "business." 
 
 But there are other advertisements also, of which the following is a 
 fair sample : 
 
 " I herewith request my wife (or husband) to return to me within 
 three days, otherwise I shall consider myself divorced." 
 
 Such advertisements are generally inserted by some poor persons who 
 are uot acquainted w T ith the laws. They do not know that the phrase, 
 11 otherwise I shall consider myself divorced," is the greatest nonsense 
 imaginable. They may consider themselves divorced ; nobody will hin- 
 der them. But the law still considers them as much married as before. 
 The newspapers are well aware of this fact. It would therefore be a 
 matter of honor with them to inform the advertiser of it, and thus in- 
 duce he or she to save their money, or from possibly becoming criminals. 
 For suppose the husband did not return within three days, and the wife 
 considered herself free. She acts upon this supposition, and when the 
 faithless husband does not even turn up for months, she in the meanwhile 
 marries another. The first husband then makes his appearance, and 
 claims his wife. She now discovers, to her terror, that she is guilty of 
 bigamy, for which the penalty is imprisonment for a number of years. 
 She furthermore discovers that she cannot divorce herself by a mere ad- 
 vertisement, and that ignorance of the law is no excuse. The newspa- 
 per could have saved her from all this trouble, and was even morally 
 bound to do so. But, according to a very useful theorv, a publisher is 
 
702 PERSONALS AND NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS. 
 
 not morally bound to anything in his advertising of a business. Ho sim- 
 ply smiles upon reading the foolish advertisement, and publishes it at the 
 risk, of not only depriving the woman of her money, but also of her fu- 
 ture happiness. 
 
 It would be sad indeed if we were to transfer the ideas of respecta- 
 bility prevailing in the publishing business to the transactions in every- 
 day life. The consequences of such a transfer can easily be imag- 
 ined by any thinking person, as right and morality would end where 
 monetary transactions begin. 
 
 It is strange, and very often even highly ludicrous, to notice how the 
 editorial respectability of our press does not seem to know anything of 
 the filth which they admit to their advertising columns. In the summer 
 of 1873, /for example, one of our leading dailies brought a long editorial 
 on the "Sin of the Age." It contained a terrible tirade against the 
 constantly-increasing crime of abortion. This was all very well in the 
 editorial department, but presented a strange contrast to the advertising 
 columns of the same paper, which for years had contained numerous 
 advertisements of both male and female abortionists. It must seem still 
 more strange that it is not much better with a number of religious papers- 
 Advertisements of all classes of swindlers, aye, even of the most dis- 
 gusting quacks, have been received iuto the columns of these papers, and 
 show that the business morality of their publishers is not above the 
 standard of their more worldly colleagues. 
 
 It is a pleasant fact that the signs of a beginning reaction are not 
 wanting. The American Agriculturist must be honorably mentioned in 
 this respect as preparing the way for a better era. It not only refuses 
 all objectionable and swindling advertisements, but has also waged a 
 bitter war on all advertising swindlers, quacks, abortionists, etc., for sev- 
 eral years back. It has as yet fouud no imitators. Some of the larger 
 papers, it is true, have banished the advertisements of the abortionists 
 and more dangerous quacks from their columns, but are by no means 
 strict enough with the many forms of swindling advertisements. But it 
 is certainly a step made in the right direction, and the good example thus 
 given may yet exert a beneficial influence on those publishers who, in 
 spite of their great wealth, have not a bit of respectability to spare for 
 their advertising columns. And even this respectability is rather thread- 
 bare, according to the views held in everyday life, as it shows, even in 
 the editorial department, many shameful gaps. 
 
 We by no means refer here to the well-known secret that many of our 
 papers are the bought and paid-for organs of powerful parties and corpo- 
 rations, and that many even deny the existence of a truly independent 
 paper. How many of the editorials are nothing but advertisements of 
 certain corporations, advertisements that bring higher prices than ever 
 was dreamt of asking from others ! It is well known that the Tammany 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 703 
 
 Ring spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on newspapers, to buy 
 either their aid or their silence. 
 
 This editorial venality very often does not refuse even the smallest 
 amount, as can be seen by the frequent puffs of different businesses* 
 Somebody advertises in a paper, and wishes the editor to call attention to 
 his card. If the editor does not know the man, this is a very risky 
 thing, for he may equally well be a swindler as an honest man. Truly 
 respectable newspapers, therefore, always refuse any recommendation, 
 and at most only call attention to the advertising columns. Others* 
 however, act differently. How this is done is told in a truly comical 
 manner by a V paper : 
 
 "A gentleman asked us what we charged for a good notice of his bus- 
 iness. We gave bim this answer: A woman whose husband had died, 
 sent to the priest and asked him what he would charge for a funeral 
 sermon. ' My good woman, for two dollars I will give you a good ser- 
 mon, for three dollars a better one, but I should advise you to have one 
 for four dollars.' We do not wish to compare our editorial notices with 
 funeral sermons, but whoever pays the highest price, gets therein the 
 best notice." 
 
 Is it possible that editorial venality could show itself more plainly 
 than in these few lines? It may not be quite as bad with all papers, but 
 it > t i 1 1 remains a fact that many papers will not even notice the most use- 
 ful undertakings if they are not advertised in their columns. The ardor 
 with which they are then recommended varies according to the length of 
 the advertisement and the extra fees. Swindlers sometimes pay very 
 large sums to receive favorable notices in the editorial columus of a 
 paper. They carry on their business with circulars, which they send to 
 irt3 of the country. One-half of these circulars are usually covered 
 with notices of the pre3S. 
 
 Many readers even consider it a favorable circumstance if the adver- 
 tisement is published in a well-known paper. Our honest countrymen 
 very often cannot believe that a paper which occasionally has flaming edito- 
 rials against swindlers can receive the advertisements of such persons. 
 In this respect the publication of advertisements of swindlers is a crime 
 against all the readers of the paper. The reader supposes the name of 
 the publisher to warrant the respectability of the advertisers. In their 
 advertisements the papers very often commit grave offenses against the 
 confidence of their readers. He cannot consult the advertisements with- 
 out being in danger of falling into the toils of a swindler. He cannot 
 let his family read them without the risk that the disgusting advertise- 
 ments of quacks, abortionists, fortune-tellers, and others of the same 
 kind will leave their pernicious influences. 
 
 The newspaper-reading part of the community has been too lenient in 
 this respect from the beginning, aud thus it has been that this advertising 
 
704 PERSONALS AND NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS. 
 
 dnsiness, with its "Personal" and other filthy advertisements, has come; 
 to be regarded as an evil not to be separated from the newspaper busir 
 ness. But this leuicney should soon take an end, and the patience stop* 
 before it be misused. 
 
 It is of course impossible to keep all objectionable and suspicious ad- 
 vertisements out of a paper. The rascals will always lind a way iuto the 
 advertising columns of the most respectable papers. But because we 
 cannot perform impossibilities, we should try everything in our power to 
 do what is within the range of possibilities. Is ihe fact that a paper 
 has in one instance become the uuconscious accomplice of some criminals 
 — is that an excuse that it should, every day of its existence, become the 
 willing accomplice of notorious criminals, whose actions have been a dis- 
 grace to our ci;y for years back? 
 
 It is indeed time that the strange difference between the respectability 
 in the editoiial, and the total want of principle in the advertising, col- 
 umns of ccrtaiu papers disappeared. The respectability of the former is 
 not one iota better tlian the want of principle of the latter ; the latter 
 even makes the former appear to us in a very ambiguous light. As long 
 as a large part of our newspapers publish the advertisements of notorious 
 quacks, abortionists, cic, so long do they knowingly, and of their own 
 free will, further the di-graceful business of the former. As long as they 
 do this, their editorial respectability amounts to nothing more than cow- 
 ardly hypocrisy. It they really meant anything by those phrases with 
 which they occasionally thunder against rascals, they could do this in a 
 much more practical aud effecive manner. They could do what no law 
 is able to do, aud that is — reduce the dangerous activity of these crimi- 
 nals to a minimum. This would be done if all of our respectable papers 
 would follow the example set by some of their colleagues, and refuse all 
 advertisements of a criiniual or immoral character. It is asking no more 
 of the papers than what any respectable business man does when he re- 
 fuses to buy of a well-known thief. The same sense of honor which 
 forbids a business man to become the accomplice of such a person by 
 buying of him, should forbid the publishers of papers to become the 
 accomplices of quacks, etc., by publishing their advertisements. 
 
 But to the present day this is not the case. The evil will in all prob- 
 ability continue until the pubic refuses to patronize papers which do not 
 hesitate to become the distributors of criminal and immoral business 
 cards. For it is the pecuuiary interest which keeps the columns of our 
 respectable papers open to this class of advertisements. They bring to. 
 the papers thousands of dollars annually, and it may be that the pub- 
 lishers cannot sec how the " respectability " of their papers, or even, 
 themselves, could suffer by receiving such "respectable" sums. Only 
 when they see that their sales are becoming smaller, and the respectable 
 business man docs not care to see his advertisement side by side with - 
 
 
THE DAJUS BID! 01 NKW FORK LI 705 
 
 those of the notorious swindler, only then is it to be hoped that these 
 gentlemen will accept the prevailing ideas of respectability. Then also 
 will the " Personal " and other immoral advertisements be forced to seek 
 other papers than those which lay claim to respectability, and their hurt- 
 ful influences will be confined to such circles in which the ruin they cause 
 will be a comparatively small one. 
 
 With regard to enterprise, the press of our city stands forth without an 
 equal in the world. What a pity, then, that paltry considerations of 
 money should be able, by the above-mentioned advertisements, to throw 
 a shadow on their repute. 
 
 THE POLICE COURTS. 
 
 The best laws lose their value if they are not executed in the sense in 
 which they were made. This sentence cannot be illustrated any better 
 than by the police courts of our city, at least as they have existed uutil 
 very recently. There are five of these courts in operation, of which four 
 have two judges apiece, who change off every week. These nine men 
 are the true guardians of the safety of person, morality, and property. 
 It therefore depends on the character of these judges, and on their know- 
 ledge of the laws, whether every person brought before them receives his 
 dues or not. They must decide whether the prisoner is actually a crimiv 
 nal, or simply the victim of momentary recklessness, or of the accidental 
 coincidence of unfortunate circumstances. The large majority of offenses 
 also come under their jurisdiction — for example, drunkenness, disorderly 
 conduct, fighting, vagabondage, etc., which in the year ending with April, 
 1872, amounted to over 40,000. These are cases in which the judge, 
 according to circumstances, should exercise either severity or mildness, 
 according to his best knowledge, and by the first to keep habitual sinners 
 from the paths of vice, and by the second lead back the victim of a mo- 
 mentary error to the path of duty. 
 
 We therefore see that the functions of our police courts are very im- 
 portant ones. To properly fill these offices and administer them for the 
 best interests of the people, requires men who are actuated by the purest 
 motives, and who have, by their previous lives, given such proofs of their 
 ability and integrity as will offer a certain security for their fitness for 
 
 45 
 
706 
 
 THE POLICE COURTS. 
 
 the position. But those men were not of this character who until re- 
 cently were elected by the popular choice. Their mode of election alone 
 was such that not much good could be expected from them. The police 
 judges were elected by the people in the different districts. Of course 
 those voters who came most frequently into contact with the judges took 
 the greatest interest in their election. A strict and impartial judge must 
 naturally appear to this class of the population as a kind of national ca- 
 lamity. For all the criminals in a district, the thieves, rowdies, loafers, 
 swindlers, and drunkards, the election of a police judge was of the great- 
 est importance the respectable part of the voters generally overlooked the 
 fact that, in not taking an active part in the election of police judges, 
 they endangered their lives and property. They saw no importance 
 attached to' these elections, and therefore took no very active part in 
 them. 
 
 On the other hand, he who was a candidate for the office of police 
 judge must have no qualities which could fill the class of voters mostly 
 interested with fear or distrust. If he looked forward to a re-election, 
 he must not wield the sword of justice too severely against those of his 
 constituents who were his regular customers. He must, wherever it was 
 possible, close an eye and handle the criminal as gently as possible. This 
 the police judges did as much as possible. But on the other hand they 
 were all the stricter against those whom some accident has brought within 
 their jurisdiction. It was nothing unusual that hardened criminals were 
 dismissed for want of evidence, while children and young men who had 
 committed some minor offense in a moment of thoughtlessness, were 
 made to feel the full severity of the law. 
 
 Thus not only were the criminal classes encouraged, but many have 
 been led into the paths of crime, who would otherwise have become use- 
 ful members of society, if the judges had treated them humanely at their 
 first offense. This was the natural consequence of the modei of election, 
 or rather of the negligence of the citizens in the use of the elective fran- 
 chise. This negligence enabled the lawless elements in our city to elect 
 their own judges as they might desire. 
 
 Now let us take, a little closer look at the doings of our police justices. 
 In the year ending with April, 1872, 84,574 arrests were made in this 
 city, and the offenders brought before the police justices. What was 
 done with the prisoners can be seen from the reports. 27,781 were held 
 for examination, 25,814 were dismissed, 10,290 were put under bail, aud 
 only 82 were held without bail ; 725 were turned over to higher courts 
 for trial, 2,316 to the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections, 1,014 
 paid fines, about 300 were sent to the different public institutions ; 4,541 
 are not mentioned in the reports at all ; of 3,345 the reports speak so in- 
 distinctly that it is impossible to tell what has become of them, and 564 
 were disposed of in an unknown manner. That is, our police judges are 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 707 
 
 unable to give any account whatever of 8,.>70 arrests. Surely a nice 
 state of affairs ! The true " field for examination," which was the fate 
 of over 27,000 prisoners, is also a very indefinite expression, and is very 
 often nothing but a hole through which the prisoner may escape. The 
 witness may be present, for example, when the judge orders the prisoner 
 to be held for examination, but it is a question whether he will ever come 
 again, and very few witnesses can be found who have the time and pa- 
 tience to hang around police courts until the justice sees fit to call up a 
 particular case. But if the case is called up in a week or so, and the 
 witnesses are not present, the prisoner is simply discharged. It is also 
 very plain that the discretion of the justice has a large field of action in 
 disposing of the 20,000 immediate dismissals. 
 
 The turning over to the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections is 
 also connected with peculiar circumstances. Fifty and sixty per day are 
 generally sent over in a lot. Xo trial takes place, either by the police 
 justice or the officers of the institution. An agent of the institution re- 
 ceives the lot in court, sorts them, and gives each one of them, according 
 to his discretion, from three to ten days, and sometimes even six: months, 
 in one of the different institutions. This action looks rather arbitrary, 
 although it happens every day in the metropolis of our great Republic. 
 How many hardened and dangerous criminals escape in this manner, and 
 how many innocent persons are thus brought into bad company, and 
 made criminals against their will, it is of course impossible to tell. But 
 the number must be large. 
 
 How this system works can be seen from the fact that some persons 
 have already been sent over a hundred times in this manner to the Island. 
 Thousands of the most desperate characters are well-known guests there. 
 They remain there a few days, and leave the institution with a suit of 
 new clothes. They then take up their former life as vagabonds or crimi- 
 nals, until they again fall into the hands of a policeman, or until when 
 their clothes are worn out or pawned they let themselves be sent to the 
 Island again. Such persons are great friends of the police justices, and 
 the justice also knows that he is sure of their votes at the next election. 
 No wonder, then, that, if he sees them befcre his bar, he never fails to 
 do his best for them. 
 
 A strange story can also be told of the fines. It is a well-known fact 
 that every police justice, wherever it is possible, fines a drunken man ten 
 dollars. During the year ending April 1, 1872, the arrests for drunken- 
 ness amounted to over 25,000. Of course not every one was able to pay 
 this fine ; many could not perhaps pay anything at all. But it can safely 
 be assumed that over half were able to pay fines ranging up to the teu 
 dollars. According to law, no drunken man shall be fined over this 
 amount. It is also self-evident that every one who was able to do so, 
 would prefer to pay a fine to however short a term of imprisonment. In 
 
708 THE POLICE COUKTS. 
 
 view of these facts, it seems rather strange that, in the course of the- 
 above-mentioned year, not more than $3,624 were collected as the fines 
 of 25,000 persons arrested for drunkenness. 
 
 If we now turn to the justices themselves, we find them just the kind 
 of men from whom such an administration of affairs could be expected. 
 They are almost entirely without any legal knowledge, and know no 
 other rule in their administration of justice than their own discretion, or 
 rather their sovereign will. They are as independent as Turkish pashas, 
 and a police court is therefore a spectacle which is not calculated to in- 
 spire any one with admiration for the administration of justice in our 
 Republic. They are no great friends of punctuality, and witnesses, pris- 
 oners, and officers are often compelled to wait for hours until his honor 
 pleases to make his appearance. When the justice has taken his seat, 
 matters are pushed with great speed. He generally does not use on an 
 average more than a minute to settle a case. Hardly an hour has passed, 
 when each one of the crowd of forty or fifty sinners, who were brought 
 before him, has received his sentence. But how such a rapidity can be 
 harmonized with the demands of justice, or even of humanity, is a diffr 
 cult question to answer. 
 
 The attendance on such a court also explains the strange fact that five 
 courts could settle over 80,000 cases in one year, and that in no great 
 hurry eilher. The salary of a police justice is $10,000 per annum. But 
 his salary by no means constitutes the sum total of his receipts, and there 
 are certain revenues connected with such an office which swell the income 
 of a police justice to the former salary of the President of the United 
 States, if not more. The office, as we see, pays very well for the 
 troubles and expenses connected with it, and it certainly would not be dif- 
 ficult to find men for it who possessed, not only the capacity, but also the 
 independence of character necessary for it. The fact, however, that the 
 better class of citizens take almost no interest at all in the election of 
 these officers, has brought it about that our city is no better off for police 
 justices than a prison would be whose inmates elected their own superin. 
 tendents and jailors. And in view of the recent mode of electing our 
 police justices, it is not too much to say that the lawless part of our com- 
 munity controlled these elections. The persons elected were therefore 
 professional politicians of the most suspicious kind, who in their past life 
 had been associated with those men whom they were to judge now. To 
 gain the nomination they were forced to obtain the assistance of all the 
 proprietors of gambling hells, disorderly houses, rum-holes, dance-houses, 
 concert- saloons, etc., in their district, and the votes controlled by the 
 above-named individuals elected the judges to their offices. If they then 
 speculated on a re-election, they were compelled to try to retain the politi- 
 cal influence thus obtained by their acts as judges. The consequences 
 were that the most dangerous criminals were enabled to escape the 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 70$ 
 
 clutches of the law, while a great parade was made of occasional convic- 
 tions of subordinate rascals. Thus were the eyes of the not over keen- 
 sighted public blinded. 
 
 We have already shown how easy it is for the police justice to permit 
 a criminal to escape the clutches of the law. He holds him for exami" 
 nation, for example, and calls up his case when there are no witnesses 
 present. Or he puts him under bail till the examination ; but when the 
 day of examination comes, neither the prisoner nor his bondsman are to 
 be found. Or he turns over a prisoner who deserves several years' im- 
 prisonment to the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections, and the 
 rascal is set loose again upon society after a few days spent in one of the 
 institutions on the Island. If all this is not possible, and it is necessary 
 to bring the prisoner before another court, a slight error is made in the 
 order, which suffices to procure the release of the rascal. That such 
 favors are rewarded by something more substantial than political influ- 
 ence is shown us by the general supposition that the office of police justice 
 is the shortest road to wealth. 
 
 What the police justices omitted in the case of rich criminals, they 
 fully made up with such unfortunates who had neither money nor influ- 
 ence to aid them. Who has not noticed how often, in our police courts, 
 ragged, friendless poverty was sent to prison, while gamblers with heavy 
 gold watch chains, or the proprietresses of disorderly houses clad in silks 
 and satins, were treated with the greatest consideration? Not nnfre- 
 quently does it happen that such rich sinners quite confidentially address 
 " his honor" by his first name. Female beauty has also considerable 
 advantages over others in a police court. It is nothing unusual that a 
 charge against a pretty woman was dropped after an interview in the 
 judge's private office. 
 
 In the chapter on Lunatic Asylums we have given an instance show- 
 ing now a police justice sent a man, without ever having seen him, upon 
 the request of a perfect stranger, to the luuatic asylum, that most terri- 
 ble of all prisons. Some time ago a habeas corpus was taken out in the 
 Supreme Court of New York for a young woman, Anna R., who had 
 been sent by a police judge to an institution Blackwell's Island for correc- 
 tion. The order for her commitment stated that Anna R. had applied 
 voluntarily before the judge, and had declared herself to be a prostitute 
 under fifteen years of age. But, as her friends stated before the Su_ 
 preme Court, not a word of this was true, but it was simply a plan laid 
 for the ruin of the young woman. She was not a prostitute, nor had 
 she ever declared herself to be such before the justice. She wa3 a mar- 
 ried woman seventeen years old, and of irreproachable character, whom 
 several villains had chosen for their victim, and to attain their object had 
 sent her to the House of Correction. The judge in this case played a 
 similar part to the one played by the justice iu the above-mentioned com- 
 
710 THE POLICE COURTS. 
 
 mitment to the lunatic asylum. Thus it will be seen that a police justice- 
 will lend his aid to a very base purpose. 
 
 A similar case happened in November, 1871. A police judge had a 
 Mrs. Cecilia K. arrested and brought to his private office. There she 
 gave her right name, but received no answer when she asked the cause 
 of her arrest. Her demand to be put under bail for any amount what- 
 ever, ar at least to be allowed a counsellor, was fruitless, and in fifteen 
 minutes after she was on her way to Blackwell's Island, where her name 
 was given as Elizabeth French. Only six days after her friends suc- 
 ceeded in releasing the half-crazed woman by means of a writ of habeas 
 corpus. The reason for this act of brute force against a respectable wo- 
 could never be ascertained. 
 
 Cases have also not unfrequently happened in which police justices 
 have degraded themselves so far as to put dangerous political opponents, 
 during the : progress of important local elections, out of harm's way 
 by arresting them. 
 
 In a word, our police courts were a disagreeable farce, and everybody 
 knew it. But then they stood as the excresence of a corrupt system, of 
 whose machinery they formed an important part, and in whose interest 
 they worked. It was their duty to hold the lawless element of our city 
 bound to the interest of certain local politicians, and in this respect they 
 were invaluable. The destruction of the Tammany Ring also proved 
 disastrous to the police justices, and reform turned its eye upon this dark 
 side in our community. If change is equivalent to reform, then a reform 
 has actually taken place in our police courts. For in the last legislature 
 a law was passed of which the following are the most important and in- 
 vulnerable points : 
 
 1. The elections for police judges in the city of New York. The po- 
 lice judges, ten in number, shall henceforth be nominated by the Mayor, 
 and must be confirmed by the aldermen. 
 
 2. The candidates shall not have passed their sixtieth year. 
 
 3. The term of the police judges shall be for the first two, ten, and for 
 each succeeding two, nine, eight, seven, and six years respectively. 
 
 4. The salary of a police judge shall be $8,000 per annum. 
 
 5. A clerk shall be appointed for each of the five courts with a salary 
 of $4,000 per annum, who shall be appointed by the Board of Police 
 Judges. 
 
 After numerous nominations by the Mayor, and rejections by the 
 Board of Aldermen, all the ten judges have been appointed and have en- 
 tered upon their duties. 
 
 We now have ten police justices instead of nine. Every court must 
 hereafter have two judges, while up to the present time there was only 
 one justice in the fifth district court. The salaries have been reduced 
 from $10,000 to $8,000, and each court shall have only one clerk in ftr 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 711 
 
 turc. The most important change, however, which the law provides, is 
 that the justices are no longer to be elected by the people, but are to be 
 appointed by the Mayor. Our legislators, in so doing, proceeded upon a 
 supposition that the election of justices should be taken from the hands 
 of the lawless characters in which it had until then rested. This cer- 
 tainlv is an improvement. But the right of confirmation by the alderv 
 men is a provision which unfortunately puts the appointment of justices 
 again into the hands of corrupt politicians. As is well-known, the 
 ward politicians are supported by those masses in whose hands the elec- 
 tion of police justices lay until very recently. As, however, the respect- 
 able part of the citizens d d not take a proper interest in the election of 
 police justices, it was only wise in the legislature that it relieved those 
 lawless classes of a suffrage which they had abused in such a ruinous 
 manner. 
 
 But the law has one very great fault. This is that it mentions no other 
 qualification than one requiring that the judge to be appointed shall not 
 be more than sixty years of age. It is true indeed that thus the choice 
 of candidates is facilitated more than if the law had restricted it to a 
 certain profession. But goodwill and character alone do not suffice to make 
 a good judge. Even the word "judge," derived from "justice," denotes 
 the necessity of a knowledge of the law. Our laws, however, are so 
 complicated that a man who has made a knowledge of them his profes- 
 sion, would run the risk of making serious and frequent mistakes in auy 
 position as judge. He must not judge according to what is right or 
 wrong, but to that which is denoted as wrong according to the wording 
 of the law. There are, besides, a number of legal technicalities, the 
 knowledge of which is absolutely necessary, because the least non-observ- 
 ance of one of them would enable the most dangerous criminal to escape 
 the law. 
 
 How, therefore, a clause of the new law providing that the police just % 
 ices shall be lawyers could be struck out, is difficult to understand. Can 
 it have been done in order to keep a door open for some politicians? This 
 is frequently the case in the most important departments, at the heads of 
 which there are frequently men who know little more than nothing of the 
 business. The chief simply lends his name and draws the big pay, while 
 a clerk is the real head of the department, and manipulates it according 
 fc> his pleasure. 
 
 Our former police courts were conducted in a similar manner, in which 
 a clerk played the part of a prompter to the judge, who was sadly in need 
 of such an aid. 
 
 This fear, however, may be groundless with regard to the newly* 
 appointed judges. But every law should have a wording which would 
 prevent its possible abuse. But the law is in force, and, in spite of its 
 defects, has made a change for the better possible. Whether this change 
 
712 THE CRIMINAL COURTS. 
 
 will really take place depends very much upon the public opinion, as it 
 will express itself in the future elections, If the people henceforth will 
 condemn at the polls every form of official corruption, and will teach its 
 servants that in office, as well as in private life, honesty is the best policy* 
 then the law will, in spite of its defects, have a beneficial influence upon 
 our administration of justice and the public safety. But if the people, 
 in their indolence, permit official corruption and political trading to con" 
 tinue, then it will make little difference whether the police justices are 
 elected by the scum of the police districts as formerly, or are appointed 
 according to the present law by corrupt official rings. 
 
 THE CRIMINAL COURTS. 
 
 In the police courts we have become acquainted with tribunals which 
 are not able to inspire the lawless elements of our city with much respect 
 for the law, or rather have not been able to do so until very recently. 
 We will now look a little closer at the higher courts, the " Criminal 
 Courts," and see whether we can find food with them for more pleasant 
 reflections. We confess in the beginning, however, that this is not the 
 case. With them also there is much room for improvement, and the 
 fabric of the law resting in their hands shows many holes through which 
 a criminal could easily escape. 
 
 As in the case of the police courts, so in the case of the criminal 
 courts, we shall judge them by their own reports. We take the following 
 from a report before us of the year 1868. In the course of that year the 
 following convictions were effected in the different criminal courts : 
 
 Arson, 3 ; bigamy, 1 ; burglary, 154 ; forgery, 24 ; grand larceny, 
 347 ; petty larceny, 2,837 ; receiving stolen goods, 3 ; robbery, 11. 
 
 These numbers in themselves do not say very much, it is true, but 
 they gain in importance when compared with the number of arrests dur- 
 ing the same time for the same crimes. We then receive the following 
 startling exhibit : 
 
 Arsons — arrests 65, convictions 3 ; bigamy — arrests 13, convictions 1 ; 
 burglary — arrests 630, convictions 154 ; forgery — arrests 113, convictions 
 24 ; grand larceny — arrests 2,413, convictions 347 ; petty larceny — ar- 
 rests 3,927, convictions 2,834; robbery — arrests 130, convictions 11. 
 
THE DAKK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 713 
 
 Judging from these numbers, either our police arrest more innocent 
 than guilty persons, or our criminal courts allow the majority of crimi- 
 nals to go free. Judging, however, from the fact that the prevalence of 
 crime is very great, and that our criminal courts, io spite of their con- 
 tinued activity, send comparatively very few of the rascals to prison, we 
 should rather incline to the supposition that something is out of gear in 
 the criminal, as well as in the police courts. 
 
 The fault of the glaring abuses in the police courts we have found to 
 rest almost entirely with the judges, whose corruption and arbitrariness 
 were to be regarded as the source of all these abuses. Iu the criminal 
 courts, however, it would be unjust to put the whole blame on the judges 
 or the officers of the court iu general. They are certainly not free from 
 blame, but there are other shoulders to help in carrying the responsi- 
 bility. The lawyers, and the juries who must decide in all cases, for ex- 
 ample, very frequently have a large part of the blame. Nor can the 
 laws themselves be entirely acquitted, whose indistinct wording, very fre- 
 quently contrary to all common sense, opens the door to the worst abuses 
 and evils. 
 
 All the above-mentioned facts tend to divest the criminal law of that 
 wholesome awe which it should possess for all transgressors. Crime 
 therefore is wanting in the sense of running any risk, and it is perfectly 
 aware of the many means by which it can escape, even if brought in 
 contact with the law. The chances of avoiding punishment are all the 
 greater, the stronger the pecuuiary and political influences are which the 
 criminal has at his command. A poor woman in rags hardly covering 
 her body, stole on a bitter cold day a shawl. She was found guilty of 
 grand larceny, and sentenced to several years' imprisonment. An indus- 
 trious man, but who had been out of work for a considerable time, who 
 had a sick wife at home, and could neither procure medicine for her, nor 
 bread for his starving children, in his despair took another's property. 
 He was caught in the act, and the "unrelenting justice" sent him to 
 prison for years. Cases like these, in which the criminals without any 
 influence are quickly and severely punished, are of frequent occurrence. 
 Then our justice puffs itself up, and in every conviction pretends to have 
 performed a wonderful act. 
 
 But those are all small thieves against which our criminal law pro- 
 ceeds so unmercifully. The greater the thief is, the tamer and more 
 powerless does justice become towards him. The cases in which officers 
 of banks or similar institutions steal hundreds of thousands of dollars, 
 have become daily occurrences at which we no longer wonder. But 
 when do we ever hear that one of these rascals, sustained by money and 
 political influence, had ever received the punishment so richly merited? 
 Thus it is in all kinds of crime up to murder. A drunken bill-poster be- 
 gins to quarrel with another man in the street. Excited by whisky, he 
 
714 THE CRIMINAL COURTS. 
 
 draws his revolver and shoots the man whom he has never seen before 
 He is arrested, tried, convicted, and executed, all in rapid succession. 
 A rich rascal, on the other hand, has been animated for a long time by a 
 bitter hatred towards a personal enemy. He tries to subdue him by all 
 lawful means, but without success. At last he determines to murder 
 him, and executes this intention in a manner worthy of an Italian bandit. 
 It is a cold-blooded, predetermined murder, and one which caused more 
 excitement in the city than any other murder has for years back. The 
 murderer receives three trials. In the second he is found guilty of murder 
 in the first degree, is sentenced only to escape in the third trial with four 
 years' imprisoment. 
 
 Where is justice in these two cases? Or can we speak of justice at 
 all, where what is justice in one case becomes manifest injustice in ano- 
 ther? And how is it possible for our criminal courts to execute the law 
 in such a manner that it becomes such a bitter mockery of the simplest 
 ideas of right and wrong? The cause of this is the same as that which 
 has made our police courts simply a satire on their name. 
 
 It is the corruption which is found in all the departments of our adminis- 
 tration, and from which even the bench has not been able to preserve it- 
 self, since the office of judge has become elective, and? has thus been 
 brought into the range of party- politics. The guilt of the judges in this 
 case cannot be denied, but an impartial view of the matter will show 
 that the real source of the evil is to be sought in the rotten ideas of mo- 
 rality prevailing among the people in general. 
 
 The most important function in criminal law is vested in the jury, 
 which is to decide as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant. 
 This jury system, however, is so rotten that its abolition has been fre- 
 quently demanded. To serve as a juror not only robs a person of much 
 valuable time, but is also connected with many inconveniences. It is for 
 this reason that those citizens who are best fitted, by their intelligence 
 and independence of character, for this service, try their best to escape it 
 as much as possible. There are others again who seek this service for 
 the sake of the fees, and in the true sense of the word monopolize the 
 jurors' bench. 
 
 In the most important cases, as trials for murder, the law does every- 
 thing to keep the intelligent citizen away. For it has the rather strange 
 provision that nobody can serve as a juror iD a case on which he has al- 
 ready formed an opinion. A man therefore who, in our era of newspa- 
 pers, has not formed some opinion on some subject agitating the public 
 mind, evinces a singular want of intelligence, which is certainly a very 
 poor recommendation for him as a juror. In cases like that of Stokes, 
 it is indeed a wonder that a dozen such ignorant men could be found, 
 after the case had been spoken of in all the newspapers for several years. 
 To such a jury, then, in whose selection intelligence has been excluded 
 
THE DARK 81 DE OF NEW YORK LI IE. 715 
 
 as much as possible, it is left to put together all the evidence offered, and 
 to decide upon the guilt or iunocence, the life or death, of the prisoner. 
 Such jurors can be easily misled, and the oratorical powers of the law- 
 yers for the defense and the prosecution are of much more influence on 
 their decision, than the simple fact which they are very frequently unable 
 to sift out from the mass of evidence. 
 
 If the defendant is rich, or has influential friends, everything is done 
 to corrupt the jury in his favor. Even if only one is gained, the danger 
 is averted from the prisoner for the time beiug. His trial is resumed 
 with another jury, and in trials for murder such delays are invaluable* 
 In the Stokes trial everything seems to point to the fact that the jury was 
 tampered with. Examples are not wanting in which the panels of jurors 
 for a certain trial are drawn in such a manner as to exclude beyond a 
 doubt the possibility of an unfavorable sentence. 
 
 In the trial against " Boss " Tweed this is said to have been the case in 
 a most startling manner. The drawing of panels was left to an officer 
 styled " Commissioner of Jurors." This office was filled at that time by 
 Douglas Taylor, who had been appointed to it under the Tweed charter. 
 Mr. Tremaine, the District Attorney, accused this officer of having put 
 only the names of those persons on the lists of jurors for the Tweed trial 
 from whom a favorable verdict was to be expected. Direct proof for 
 this charge could of course not be brought. But the suspicion seemed 
 well founded upon reading the names of the twelve persons who served as . 
 jurors in this trial. One had served a term in the State Prison for coun- 
 terfeiting, anotheF was a well-known swindling auctioneer, another was a 
 loafer hanging about the landing-places without any visible profession 
 three others were proprietors of gin-mills, and one was even a member 
 of the Tweed Club. Those officers, whose duty it is to see that the ju- 
 rors have no intercourse with the outside world, are also very negligent 
 in the performance of their duties. This seems to have been the case in 
 the Stokes trial. One of the jurors received permission from the judge 
 to attend to some very important business under the care of a deputy 
 sheriff. But this pressing business, led the conscientious juror and his 
 guardian to the most disreputable concert-saloons and dance-houses, where 
 a little more was imbibed than was good for the juror. In this condition 
 he entered upon a conversation about the trial, and said that he, for his 
 part, would not let Stokes hang. It has also been alleged that the same 
 juror was seen alone in a theatre. 
 
 If we remember how important it is to keep the jury out of the way 
 of corrupt influences, and particularly in cases where friends of the pris- 
 oner make use of every means in his behalf which can be employed by 
 money and influence, we can easily estimate the guilt of the deputy sheriff 
 in this case. 
 
 Not only subordinate officers lose sight of the interests of justice in 
 
716 THE CRIMINAL COURTS. 
 
 criminal cases, when corrupt influences are brought to bear upon them. 
 Under the Tweed rule it was nothing unusual for a judge to belong to a 
 certain party, and conduct the trials in such a manner as would suit his 
 party. If a sentence had been pronounced in any case, or an arrest had 
 taken place, the party always had some judge on hand who would issue 
 an injunction or a habeas corpus in favor of the prisoner. Thus the law 
 is effectively crippled, and degraded to a miserable farce. Several judges 
 have earned a pretty hard reputation in this manner. Judges Cardoza, 
 Barnard, and McCunn were impeached for malfeasance in office. Ano- 
 ther, Judge Carter, just by the merest chance escaped receiving the same 
 sentence. 
 
 The desire of many judges to please a powerful party induced them, 
 when they were nominated for re-election, to actions which, although 
 they were not prompted by considerations of money, were nevertheless 
 not a bit less contemptible than if they had been caused by direct bribery- 
 Only recently a case occurred in which an otherwise respected judge 
 placed himself in a very suspicious light by one of his sentences. This 
 was Judge Brady, who sentenced an Irish rowdy, Larkin, to ten days' 
 imprisonment for having killed a German barber, HaberWoh, without 
 any cause. Larkin pleaded guilty of manslaughter in the fourth degree, 
 and Judge Brady accepted the plea. The deed was an unjustifiable mur- 
 der, and it was therefore an unjustifiable leniency in the judge to ac- 
 cept this confession as a basis for his sentence. But it would have been 
 no more than right to inflict the highest penalty allowed by the law, which 
 was imprisonment for two years. Why the judge selected the lowest 
 penalty allowed by the law in this case, where the criminal was a well" 
 known rowdy, and his victim a person who had never done anybody any 
 harm, is explained by the fact that Larkin possessed influential family 
 connections. 
 
 This leads us to an evil in our criminal law which gives to the judge 
 a discretion which is abused in many cases. A man is accused of murder 
 or highway robbery. The evidence against the. prisoner, however, is of 
 such a kind as to insure his conviction. In such cases the law allows 
 the judge to dismiss the charge if the criminal pleads guilty of a lower 
 grade of crime. The murderer, for example, pleads guilty of man- 
 slaughter in the first, second, or a lower degree ; or the highway robber of 
 assault and battery. The judge then dismisses the charge of murder or 
 highway robbery, and convicts the prisoner of the crimes of which he 
 has pleaded guilty. The judge, however, only accepts such a confession 
 in cases where it is uncertain that the criminal can be convicted of the 
 greater crime of which he is accused. The advantage in such a case is 
 always on the side of the prisoner, who escapes with an easier punish- 
 ment. It is expected, however, that, under the circumstances, the judge 
 sentence the prisoner to the lightest punishment provided by law for the 
 
THE DABS BIDE OF MW FOBS LIFE. 717 
 
 particular crime which he acknowledges, and means are often used to 
 iufluence him to do so. 
 
 Generally professional criminals make use of this privilege, and, 
 wherever it is possible, plead guilty of a lighter crime to avoid the pen- 
 alty placed on the greater. If we view the practice in its true light, it 
 is simply a compromise which justice makes with the prisoner, and which 
 does much to lower. our justice in the eyes of the criminals. 
 
 It is true many criminals would escape if their guilt could not be 
 proven as plainly as is required by law. But what is gained by such 
 dealings with criminals? Does it injure justice more if a guilty person 
 escapes for want of proof, or if a murderer is sentenced to ten days' 
 imprisonment because he preferred to plead guilty of manslaughter in th e 
 fourth degree ? In the former case justice has been done, even if the 
 ends of justice have not been attained. The latter case, however, is a 
 mockery of justice, and an open encouragement to criminals. 
 
 On the same day on which the rowdy Larkin was sentenced to ten 
 days' imprisonment for the murder of Haberstroh, a sailor named Mc. 
 Kenna, who had stabbed a man with a knife in a fight, in consequence of 
 which the latter died, was sentenced to imprisonment for life. This un- 
 fortunate fellow then published a letter in which he described his deed as 
 an act of self-defense, and his sentence as a consequence of his poverty 
 and want of influence. At the close he compared his sentence with that 
 of Larkin, and asked the question, " Is that justice?" 
 
 Thus many thousands ask besides him, and this question would be well 
 calculated to embarrass the judges who passed these sentences. The 
 e\il is in the law, and the law which makes such contradictions and ex- 
 tremes possible is indeed of a very questionable value. 
 
 Another weak point is the rather queer clause that no one shall be 
 punished for an act committed while his mind was deranged. This is 
 very right and just, only unfortunately the law says nothing of what 
 shalll be done with those deranged persons whose insanity exhibits itself 
 in a desire for crime. This insane theory therefore plays a prominent 
 part in all murder trials. Scarcely no " respectable " murderer can be 
 brought before the bar without being represented by his lawyers as suf- 
 fering from temporary insanity. A poor criminal, who has murdered his 
 victim for a few dollars, very seldom suffers from temporary insanity 
 But if the murderer had been brought up in luxury and wealth, if h e 
 had received a good education, if he had high family connections, it was 
 quite a different thing. It is nothing unnatural that a common murderer 
 should kill a person to obtain his Avatch and pocketbook. But that a 
 wealthy and well-educated man should kill his enemy on account of some 
 little fancied wrong, is something so unnatural in the ideas of our mod- 
 ern lawyers, that it can only be explained by temporary insanity. The- 
 respectable murderer appears to be of just as sound a mind before as after 
 
718 THE CRIMINAL COURTS. 
 
 the murder ; but his learned lawyer proves to an intelligent jury that, 
 just at the moment of the deed, the terrible insanity showed itself, and 
 disappeared immediately after the deed had been committed. 
 
 This theory is sometimes pressed iu the courts in a manner which 
 makes us almost suppose that the lawyer is more insane than the client. 
 It nevertheless plays a dangerous part in our courts, and has already 
 saved many a criminal from the gallows, if not from all punishment. 
 Examples of this kind are not wanting, and we here present one of a 
 glaring character : 
 
 Iu 1870 a certain Chambers had killed a man by the name of Voor- 
 hees under circumstances which made the deed appear as a premeditated 
 murder. The circumstances connected with the deed were of such a 
 kind that the authorities had all tbey could do to save the prisoner from 
 the popular indignation. Nobody, therefore, thought it possible that 
 Chambers could escape the gallows, or that even a defense of his crime 
 would be attempted. The defense, however, was undertaken, and it was 
 u temporary insanity." Chambers was then examined by two well-known 
 physicians, and was found to be perfectly sane. This, however, did not- 
 trouble his lawyer in the least. He was one of the smartest of his kind, 
 whose particular forte was to confuse and ridicule witnesses by cross- 
 examinations. This he did with the two physicians, from whom he a. 
 last obtained the statement that it might have been possible that the pris_ 
 oner was deranged at the time of the commission of the crime. This 
 statement in itself was of no great importance, for "no physician in the 
 world, even if he were the greatest, could swear that a certain man 
 could have been entirely sane at a certain time. What he can do is to 
 declare, after a careful examination, that there are no visible reasons 
 why he should have been otherwise than sane at any previous time. 
 
 The lawyer, however, understood how to make a good use of this ad- 
 mission of a possibility, and demonstrated to the intelligent jury that 
 it was their duty to let every doubt speak in favor of the prisoner. So 
 Chambers was declared ' s Not guilty." He had sat, during the entire 
 proceedings, with a bandaged head, and his fixed look and suffering ap. 
 pearance seemed to confirm the insanity theory of his lawyer. But 
 hardly had the jurors spoken their verdict when he hurried full of joy to 
 his lawyers, and thanked him for his- services. Then, as he no longer 
 needed to appear insane, he quietly removed the plasters and bandages 
 from his head, and left the court-room in triumph with his friends. 
 
 If a limit is not put to the insanity theory, it is feared that our entire 
 criminal proceedings will be made ineffective by it. For, in its logical 
 consequences, it leads to the conclusion that no sane man can commit a 
 crime, and that the commission of a crime is in itself proof of a deranged 
 mind. The beginning to this has already been made. We have examples 
 of rich and respectable ladies who " appropriate to themselves " (or steal) 
 
THE DARK SIDE OE NEW YORK LIFE. 719 
 
 any articles of value, even the smallest and most insignificant obi 
 If they are caught, the matter is hushed up by restoring the articles. For 
 the "ladies" are uo "thieves," localise they are too rich and respecta- 
 ble. Why should they steal, when they can easily buy the articles? 
 They simply have the misfortune to sutler from " kleptomania," a form 
 of insanity which manifests itself in a desire to appropriate the property 
 of other people. 
 
 This kleptomania seems also to come into use for meu, as may be seen 
 from the care with which rich bank defaulters are guarded from the legal 
 penalty. If there is indeed such a disease as kleptomania, common sense 
 tells us that it cannot be restricted to one class ot persons ouly, and must. 
 therefore be sought wherever its symptom (stealing) shows itself, with 
 the ragged thiol, as well as with the lady walking about in silks and 
 satins. Then, it' there is an iusauity which shows itself in the desire to 
 steal or murder, what can prevent us from supposing that variations of 
 this insanity will show itself in counterfeiting, swindling, rape, and all 
 the crimes provided for by our laws? Would the insane person who mur- 
 ders, steals, swindles, etc., be less dangerous than the criminal is at pres- 
 ent? "Would not society be forced to protect itself in the same manuer 
 against the former, as it does against the latter ? 
 
 In Indiana this view of the matter seems to have been taken by the 
 people. A law has been introduced in the legislature, which provides 
 that, in cases in which the prisoner is acquitted on account of insanity, 
 he shall be sent to the lunatic asylum for the same length of time as he 
 would have had to go to prison if convicted. The murderer would have 
 that advantage from this law of escaping the gallows, bat would have to 
 pass the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum. , 
 
 Such a law would greatly injure the insanity theory in our courts, as 
 the criminals would certainly not gain anything either way, by choosing 
 between the lunatic asylum and State Prison. The method in mode uu- 
 til recently of simply dismissing murderers who had been acquitted on 
 account of insanity, was a crime agaiust society, even if they had beeu 
 insane at the time. A man who has once had an attack of insanity in 
 which he has killed some other man, cannot be released without danger 
 of a relapse. That it is nevertheless done proves very clearly how little 
 the law believes in the theory by which it allows its prisoners to escape 
 and go free. 4 
 
 Another evil which very frequently shows itself in our courts must be 
 laid to the court itself. The court should preserve its dignity more effec- 
 tually than to allow any touching scenes, intended for effect, to be enacted 
 before it. The prisoners' beuch, as its name denotes, is intended for the 
 prisoners. There is his place in the court, and there let him meet his 
 judges. Whether he has relatives, or who they are, has nothing to do 
 with the court, and least of all do these relatives belong on the prisoners' 
 
720 THE CRIMINAL COURTS. 
 
 bench, next to the prisoner. But if the court allows such relatives to- 
 take their place beside the prisoner, it encourages abuses which may in- 
 fluence, in an improper manner, its proceedings. If a weeping wife, with 
 a babe at her breast, afflicted parents, or a long string of male and female 
 friends, take their seat by the side of the prisoner, this in all probability 
 has no other object than to work on the feelings of the jurymen, and thus 
 to bring other considerations to bear upon their decision, than those of 
 the strictest justice. 
 
 Such mute exhibitions are very frequently not all. These friends 
 sometimes seem drilled for such occasions, and know how to assist the 
 pathetic appeals of the lawyer by bursts of tears, continual weeping, and 
 and even fainting. We can sympathize with those who innocently suffer 
 through the criminal acts of a relative. Their pface, however, is not in 
 the court-room, much less by the side of the prisoner. They interfere 
 with the proceedings of the court by drawing only too easily the atten- 
 tion of the jurors from the case before them. Not pity for the family, 
 relatives, or friends of the prisoner should influence the jury and judge in 
 their decision. They should be guided by much higher considerations of 
 justice and safety. The more this is done, the more will criminals see 
 the necessity of taking pity themselves on their friends, by not commit- 
 ting unlawful acts. Such scenes are particularly enacted by " distin- 
 guished " criminals to an extent which considerably injures the dignity of 
 the court. The sooner a stop is put to these proceedings, the better will 
 it be for all concerned. 
 
 Another and more serious evil in connection with our criminal courts 
 is that a large number of trials are never brought up. The indictments, 
 for some reason, remain in the District Attorney's office until they 
 are forgotten, and the criminals of course are not punished. Such a 
 thing is no recommendation of our criminal process. When the District 
 Attorney, A. Oakey Hall, entered upon his new office as Mayor, he left 
 not less than 18,000 indictments for one particular offense unfinished in 
 his office. Many very serious indictments are postponed from one term 
 to another, until at last, when public attention has been withdrawn from 
 them, they are handed over to oblivion in some dark corner It is cer- 
 tainly understood that impure influences are brought to bear in such cases, 
 and that it is not always chance which forgets these indictments, and allows* 
 the criminal to escape. * 
 
 This is a foul spot on our criminal process, which clearly points to ele- 
 ments that are corrupt, even among the judges. In cases that are 
 brought before the courts, and in which, as in Larkin's case, where the 
 judge is not guided by any corrupt motives, it is very frequently shown, 
 to the disadvantage of justice, that the judge does not possess that degree 
 of impartiality which seems to be required by his position. It is he who 
 must summarize the results of the trial in his charge to the jury. The 
 
THE DARE SIDE OF NEW YORK l.I I i . 721 
 
 manner in which this is done is very frequently of great influence on the 
 verdict. In the trial of Stokes, for example, Judge Davis completely 
 mi^uuderstood his position when he mentioned, in his instructions, the 
 "highly respectable relatives" of the prisoner, and the disagreeable effect 
 a death sentence would have on them. These are phrases which are en- 
 tirely out of place in the mouth of a judge. Their place is with the 
 counsel for the defense. For the jury must only take into consideration 
 the circumstances brought to light by the trial. The relatives, whether 
 "highly respectable" or not, should not exist for the judge or the jury. 
 It was therefore a great mistake of the judge when, just before the de- 
 cision, he brought up such sentimental considerations, which, as experi- 
 ence has shown, are able to embarrass the most conscientious of jurymen, 
 especially in trials for murder. 
 
 This example also shows the power which a judge possesses on the 
 result of a trial, if he takes it into his head to take part, either pro or con. 
 And that there are judges who have a price for taking the part of the 
 prisoner, can hardly be doubted. The filth of party politics has also left 
 its mark on the judicial bench, and there have already been judges in New 
 York who were worse than the worst criminal ever brought before them. 
 Mr. Fowler, Judge of the Third District Court, is a prominent example 
 of this. Before his election to this place, he was assistant to Judge (x# 
 J. Tucker, of the Probate Court, and in this position he not only robbed 
 widows and orphans to the amount of $58,000, but, after the robbery had 
 been discovered and he had been kicked out of the office, he also stole all 
 the deposit and cash books he could lay his hands on. 
 
 This Fowler is only a civil judge, but the case clearly shows to what 
 elements the bench is opened by the elections. The system of elections 
 for judges of the higher courts has shown itself to be no better than it is 
 for the police courts. But not much is gained by the appointment of the 
 higher judges, as long as this appointment is made for a certain time. 
 All the judges are more or less dependent upon the favor of parties, 
 Emancipation from party strife is the chief necessity for a pure judiciary. 
 The appointment of judges for so long a time as they properly perform 
 their duties is the safest means to remove corruption from the bench, and 
 to keep it away forever. 
 
 Much as we may be w r anting in our courts, it cannot be denied that 
 our criminal courts keep much more aloof from corruption than the civil 
 courts, and that, even in the darkest hours of the Tammany rule, they 
 showed their independence by several examples of severity which were 
 of the most beneficial effect on the public safety. 
 
 The lawyers defending the prisoners are, as is well known, of great 
 influence on the proceedings of criminal trials. It is no more than just 
 that every one, even if accused of the most terrible crime, should be 
 afforded every opportunity to defend himself, to prove his innocence, or 
 
 46 
 
722 THE CRIMINAL COURTS. 
 
 to alleviate his guilt. This is the duty of the counsellor for the defense. 
 No prisoner is refused one. If the prisoner is poor, the court furnishes 
 him with one. To what extent, and how frequently, these lawyers cross 
 the ways of justice, we will see in the next chapter. 
 
 With regard to the courts in general, we must not forget the evils 
 arising from the unjust system of detaining witnesses, as well as the de- 
 grading and coarse treatment of witnesses on the stand by the bullying 
 lawyers. These are two points which have caused a not unjust desire 
 with many of avoiding, by all means, the possibility of becoming wit- 
 nesses. It is therefore difficult, in almost all cases, to procure the evi- 
 dence for a conviction, and very frequently even for an indictment. A 
 large number of criminals must for this reason be discharged. It should 
 be the duty of the victim of a crime to proceed against the criminal. 
 This is very seldom done. Of course everybody runs to the police if he 
 has been robbed, and the police, if it can, arrests the thief. The priso- 
 ner, however, offers to restore the plunder if the victim will not appear 
 against him. This satisfies the victim, for he only made the charge to 
 get back his property. He receives it, and then refuses to proceed any 
 further. For what does he care for the higher demand of justice and 
 public safety ? The thief is let loose by him, and can continue his crim- 
 inal career. This method has particularly gained ground in large bond 
 robberies, and the banks, in almost all cases, are willing to leave the 
 thief unmolested if he returns a part of the papers. 
 
 A large part of the faults in our criminal process lies with the desire 
 of the public for sensations, which is too apt to transform criminals into 
 heroes. From the moment that some obscure person has committed 
 some horrid crime, he becomes a kind of public character, and attracts 
 the curiosity of the populace. For it is interest, and not disgust, with 
 which the perpetrator of a crime is treated, particularly if he belongs to 
 the so-called better classes. When the trial of such a criminal at last 
 begins, this interest receives fresh food. The court-room is filled to 
 overflowing with a dense mass of human beings, and anybody who has 
 been so fortunate as to catch a glimpse of the prisoner, can read in the 
 next morning's papers how he dressed, how he conducted himself, and 
 what he said. The trial is for the mass of the spectators nothing more 
 than a prize-fight between the prosecuting attorney and the attorney for 
 | the defense. The public sympathy is generally with crime, which can be 
 seen from the enthusiasm with which the defense is greeted if it has suc- 
 ceeded in cheating the gallows of its dues. 
 
 This disgusting desire to surround criminals and crime with a kind of 
 halo of glory is the chief cause that sensational crimes become more 
 frequent every year. It rests on a confusion of moral ideas, which is 
 felt more or less in all our courts, and which has enabled the lawyers tq 
 gain such triumphs as in the Sickles, Richardson, and Stokes cases. 
 
THE DARE BIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 723 
 
 When this mixing up shall have disappeared, when furthermore our crim- 
 inal courts shall look more to the crime than to the person of the crimi- 
 nal, when judges and juries shall be conscious of standing under the 
 jurisdiction of a refined public opinion — then, and only then, can we ex- 
 pect an improvement in the administration of our laws. Then also will 
 justice mete out to the guilty ones the full measure of their punishment, 
 and fill that place which it should always occupy as the protector of the 
 righteous and the terror of the wicked. This position it by no means 
 fills to-day. The merciless goddess of antiquity, " Justitia," has become 
 a kind of machine which can just as easily be used against the righteous as 
 against the wicked. 
 
 THE LAWYERS. 
 
 Many of our readers will perhaps disdainfully turn up their noses that 
 we dare to place the lawyers among the dark sides of our city. But we 
 believe they will fully agree with us in the sense in which we regard 
 them thus. We admit that in no other country in the world would the 
 lawyers be missed more as a class than with us, where the legislation is 
 divided into National and State, and the three dozen States again possess 
 different, and very often even conflicting, laws. Nowhere in the world 
 are legal formalities necessary for more actions of daily life than with us, 
 and even in those cases in which it is possible to supply them without the 
 aid of a lawyer, it is very difficult to do so. No country, therefore, sus- 
 tains a larger number of lawyers than our Republic. In our city alone 
 over three thousand lawyers carry on their business under various names, 
 as lawyers, advocates, attorneys, solicitors, proctors, counsellors, etc. 
 They are among the most influential classes, and from their ranks are 
 chosen the vast majority of the State officers, as well as members of 
 State legislatures and of Congress. Their influence as a class, therefore, 
 is very great. 
 
 But as everything has its two sides, this also is the case with our law- 
 yers. They have their bright and dark sides. Many lawyers (those on 
 account of whom we give a place to the lawyers in the dark sides) do not 
 in the least deserve to be classed among the others of their profession, as 
 they are rather breakers than expounders of the law. For one class, the 
 
724 THE LAWYERS. 
 
 so-called " Shysters," this is the plain and naked truth. They are a curse- 
 to our legal institutions, and pitiless leeches to those who, being in wan* 
 of legal advice, fall into their clutches. 
 
 On the other hand, there are among our lawyers very few exceptions 
 who always take the part of the right, and do not prostitute their learn- 
 ing in helping a criminal to escape, or in aiding a manifestly wrong cause. 
 In this respect we find among the lawyers* certain ideas of right and 
 honor, which form fitting accompaniments to the respectability of the 
 editorial and advertising columns of certain newspapers. With them, 
 also the principle has full force that they give their services to those par- 
 ties who are able and willing to pay for them. They generally do not 
 care much for right or wrong. This is for the lawyers, as certain adver- 
 tisements are for certain publishers, a " matter of business " only. In 
 fact, it is considered not in the least degrading if a lawyer takes hold of 
 a bad case, and attempts to secure for his client all those advantages 
 which the law allows. A lawyer would do a very poor business, indeed, 
 if he should take charge of only such cases as had the right in their 
 favor. Even the criminal is a human being, and his deed, bad as it may 
 be, may have something in its favor which will tend to mitigate the se- 
 verity of the law. 
 
 Why should any lawyer be blamed for representing some guilty person 
 in court, and trying to secure for him all the favors which the law allows 
 him. Perhaps no one would think of blaming a lawyer for this. But 
 unfortunately even very highly respected lawyers do not confine them- 
 selves to such a defense. Several of the recent sensational murder trials 
 furnish plain proof of this. There it could be seen how little the defense 
 thought of simply refuting an unjust accusation, or of bringing forth 
 mitigating circumstances for an undeniable guilt. The defense went far 
 beyond this limit. They undertook to make heartless, cold-blooded mur- 
 derers appear in the light of childlike innocence, and their deed, the pre- 
 meditated murder, as an act of self-defence, and even to deny their re- 
 sponsibility for the act upon the plea of temporary insanity. And all 
 this while they were as much convinced of the guilt of their clients, as 
 the District Attorney and the large majority of the public. 
 
 In such a manner the humane act of defending a criminal turns into a 
 a defense of the crime itself. It thus becomes a crime against public 
 safety, and against the law which acts as the guardian of this safety. 
 The defense of a criminal should not lead a lawyer so far as to try and 
 defeat the ends of justice by numerous twistings of the law. The privi- 
 leges of a lawyer go no further than the privileges accorded to the crim- 
 inal by the law. Every high-handed act in favor of the criminal at the 
 expense of the public, must be regarded as unworthy of any true man. 
 The tricks which many lawyers make use of to confuse witnesses are, 
 according to public opinion, also unworthy of honorable legal practice. 
 
TIIK DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LITE, 725 
 
 They are nevertheless so common that they are almost regarded as in- 
 separable from trials. 
 
 The lawyer who acts as the attorney of a criminal generally thinks that 
 he displays his legal knowledge in the same degree in which he succeeds 
 in representing wrong as right, or in protecting a guilty person from a 
 well-deserved punishment. He does not in the least consider how much 
 he sins against society, which it should always be his duty to protect at 
 the bar. Upon congratulating his lawyer, Stokes cried out, " Yes, that 
 was a great victory !" These words stamp upon the success of the law- 
 yer its true value. If it was a victory, we are forced to ask ourselves, 
 Who was the victor, and who the vanquished, in this case? Was Stokes, 
 in the opinion of his lawyer, no murderer? or did he simply act in self- 
 defense, or during an attack of temporary insanity ? Then the penalty 
 of four years' imprisonment was still a very severe one, and there was no 
 cause for congratulation on a victory gained. But if it was a victory in 
 the opinion of the lawyer for the defense, then it was a victory of crime 
 over justice, and a triumph of an enemy of the laws over society. 
 Whether that was anything to congratulate a man on, who declares him- 
 self to be a representative of the law, is a question 'which can properly 
 be answered only in the negative. 
 
 Such victories of lawyers probably do justice more injury than the 
 crimes in whose interest they are gained. And as it is in the criminal 
 courts, so it is also in the civil courts, where the end of a trial also de- 
 pends less on the merits of a case, but rather on the question which party 
 has the smartest lawyer, or, as lawyers do not work for nothing, which 
 party can hold out longest with good lawyers? 
 
 The murderer Nixon was poor. The lawyer appointed by the court to 
 defend him did all in his power, but he was convicted, and, not being 
 able to obtain a second trial, was huug. Foster had rich relatives, who 
 did all in their power to avert the disgrace of having a member of their 
 family hung. The attempt, it is said, cost over 870,000. The murderer 
 received two trials, but, after his case had taken up over two years, he 
 was hung. Stokes, sustained by still greater wealth and influence, had 
 even three trials, and was then sentenced to four years' imprisonment in 
 the third. 
 
 These are examples of the way the influence of the lawyers makes 
 itself felt in our courts. The antipathy with which the lawyers are re- 
 garded among the masses of the people is therefore not entirely without 
 foundation. The party which is in the right must first pay dearly before 
 justice is done to it, while a sense of right by no means warrants a vic- 
 tory in a lawsuit. The opposite party, without the least bit of justice on 
 its side, can step up to the bar as long as it has money enough to con- 
 tinue its suit, with the aid of smart lawyers. The supposition that 
 money, and money only, is necessary to secure success in a lawsuit, is 
 
726 THE LAWYERS. 
 
 found, more than anywhere else, here with us, where civilization has ad- 
 vanced so far, that common sense no longer alone suffices to distinguish 
 between right and wrong. And this is the case with lawsuits in general, 
 and with regard to respectable lawyers. 
 
 A celebrated lawyer once criticized his profession in the following man- 
 ner : " If any one demanded my coat, on the penalty of suing me, I 
 would immediately pull off my coat and give it to the man. It would of 
 course be disagreeable, but I would avoid incurring the risk of losing 
 the shirt besides/' These were certainly very significant words in the 
 mouth of a highly respected lawyer. They confirm the popular supposi- 
 tion that the tricks of lawyers in a court are able to bring the greatest 
 confusion in the ideas of right and wrong, This prevailing distrust in 
 the profession is also increased by the fact that often respectable lawyers 
 take just the opposite grounds in one trial from that which they have held 
 in some preceding one. They thus come in contact with themselves, and 
 arouse the suspicion that it is immaterial to themselves whether they 
 serve the one or the other party. 
 
 A singular example of this kind was furnished in the Stokes trial. In 
 the first trial the lawyer Beach defended the prisoner. It was owing 
 chiefly to his exertions that Stokes was saved for a short time by the dis- 
 agreement of the jury, and that a second trial thus became necessary. 
 The second trial came on, and the same Mr. Beach acted as an assistant 
 for the prosecution. That may be perfectly in accordance with the usage 
 of lawyers, but it by no means tends to raise them in the estimation of 
 the public. Mr. Beach most certainly occupied a peculiar position in the 
 second trial, as he who saved the prisoner in the first trial, now did every- 
 thing in his power to convict him. In the second trial Stokes, as is well 
 known, was sentenced to death. If Mr. Beach was satisfied of Stokes' 
 innocence, how could he act for the prosecution in the second case ? But 
 if he thought him guilty, how could he have defended him so well in 
 the first instance ? ^ 
 
 Such abnormities have been sanctioned by custom, so that lawyers no 
 longer think that they injure their character by changing sides. It is to 
 be regretted that it is so, for, as we have seen, those who ought to be our 
 guides in the labyrinth of law, lose the confidence of the public, and give 
 to the law the appearance of a dangerous trap. Our laws cannot be ex- 
 ecuted without the aid of lawyers- Good and just as they may be in them- 
 selves, they are judged among the people by their practical results only ; 
 and if it is found that the clearest right can be turned into wrong by 
 lawyers' tricks, and that the same lawyer to-day defends the right, and 
 to-morrow the wrong, with equal energy, we need not wonder that laws 
 and lawyers, and through them right and justice, lose in respect even 
 among the people. 
 
 To this is added another circumstance, which, at the simple mention of a 
 
TH1 DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 727 
 
 lawyer, many feel a terror creeping over them. This is the existence of 
 a class of persons who bear the name of lawyers, but who use their 
 knowledge of the law only to swindle inexperienced clients. It is noth« 
 iug unusual for one of this class, commonly designated by the name of 
 11 Shysters," to receive pay from both parties, and in the end swindle 
 them both. They make make it a business to induce people to enter into 
 suits, representing to them bright visions of immediate success. Woe to 
 the artless person who lets himself be drawn into the meshes of one of 
 these vampires ! He is squeezed and then thrown aside like a lemon. 
 Many a property has been lost, and many a family ruined forever, by 
 lawsuits which have been begun upon the false representations of some 
 " Shyster." Even a consultation with one of tnem has its dangers. 
 Many of them advise their clients to try illegal means, and if such cli- 
 ents are weak enough to follow this advice, they fall helplessly into the 
 hands of merciless rascals. The least they will have to suffer will be 
 extraordinary high fees, and they may count themselves happy if their 
 misstep is not attended by any more serious consequences than a depleted 
 pocketbook. 
 
 Mr. N., a business man in this city, who was on the verge of bank-* 
 ruptcy, applied to a " Shyster " for advice. The latter advised him to 
 transfer as much of 'his property as possible iuto other hands, and thus 
 to provide for himself to the detriment of his creditors. Mr. N., ah 
 though he saw that the step was not an honest one, did not think that he 
 would commit a criminal action by taking this advice. He listened to 
 the tempter, followed his recommendation, and cheated his creditors, 
 But he was destined to suffer for it. He cheated his creditors only to 
 have the money thus gained pass into the hands of the rascally lawyer. 
 To begin with, the latter sent him a bill for $400 for consultation fees, 
 Mr. N. at first refused this extortionate demand, whereupon the lawyer 
 threatened to sue him. This threat caused Mr. Ts T ., who did not have a 
 very clear conscience, to come to terms, and he paid the rascally attorney 
 the amount demanded. 
 
 But that did not end the matter. The legal swindler caused one of 
 his colleagues to call upon Mr. N., and to threaten him with an investi* 
 gation into his bankruptcy, which he declared to be a fraudulent one. 
 Several hints which the stranger threw out caused the frightened mer* 
 chant to seek advice from the " Shyster " from whom he had received it 
 once before. The latter found that it was a very bad business indeed, 
 and advised his client to settle with the man by all means, as he other- 
 wise ran the risk of going to the State Prison. This settlement was 
 made by the aid of the " Shyster," and cost Mr. N. the nice little sum 
 of $1,200, of which $200 were for the lawyer's services, and $1,000 for 
 the stranger. It is of course unnecessary to mention that the $1,000 
 were equally divided between the two. 
 
728 THE LAWYERS. 
 
 Every one knows what misery is caused by the divorce lawyers, these 
 most contemptible of lawyers. Such fellows make divorces their sole 
 business, and understand it so well that the husband or wife only finds out 
 that a suit is pending against him or her, as it may be, when the divorce 
 has already been obtained, and further steps are therefore useless. Others 
 have their business exclusively with thieves, robbers, abortionists, and in 
 general with criminals of such a kind that a respectable lawyer would 
 have nothing to do with their defense. 
 
 These are the true guardians and protectors of the criminals, and do 
 the same for them that respectable physicians occasionally do for crimi- 
 nals, who are no less depraved, but who occupy a better position in so- 
 ciety through their wealth and family connections. One of this class has 
 has already gained a prominent name in criminal practice, and his sharp- 
 ness, together with judicial corruption and the well-known intelligence of 
 juries, has already snatched numerous victims from the gallows and State 
 Prison. 
 
 We can easily see that this filthy kind of practice pays very well from 
 the class of men that take to it. Their practice is simply an assistance 
 to crime. To aid a criminal in escaping from the clutches of the law, 
 this class of lawyers will make use of every means that offer. They 
 have men at hand who will swear any oath for a pecuniary considera- 
 tion. They are always ready to buy up important witnesses, and, if ne- 
 cessary, to remove them by force, or to do any other not less disreputable 
 acts to weaken the hands of justice. 
 
 Another disreputable class of lawyers are .he " Shysters " of the po- 
 lice courts. It is a disgrace to these courts that they allow such a robber 
 band to stay in their halls. They are as leeches to those who have the 
 misfortune to fall into the hands of the police. In many cases their pro- 
 ceedings are not much better than plain robbery. 
 
 In October, 1873, a case happened which shows this system of robbery 
 of the " Shysters " in its true light. A prostitute had been arrested in 
 the streets, and had been conveyed to the Tombs. As three days had 
 elapsed, and she had not been brought before the justice of the police 
 court, she gave to one of the keepers all her money, three dollars, to in- 
 form her friends of her situation. This fellow pocketed the money, but) 
 instead of apprising her friends of her whereabouts, he sent for a " Shys- 
 ter.'* This rascal had the poor woman brought to his office, and there 
 offered to procure her release. This was just what the prisoner desired, 
 but, as she was entirely destitute of money, the " Shyster" refused to do 
 anything for her. In deep despair, she then gave the rascal her gold watch, 
 which he accepted, and then troubled himself no further about his poor 
 client. When her friends accidentally heard of her situation some time 
 afterwards, she was at last released by another lawyer for twenty-five 
 dollars. 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 729 
 
 Similar robberies on other prisoners are everyday occurrences, and in 
 most cases go unpunished, because the swindling lawyers generally ar- 
 range the matters in such a manner that their victims cannot touch them 
 afterwards. 
 
 Many " Shysters," as may be seea from the foregoing, are not much 
 better than the accomplices of thieves. The following is a good example 
 of this : 
 
 In October, 1873, the house of an actor, in Bleecker street, was entered 
 by burglars, and valuable papers to the amount of $3,000 were taken. 
 Four weeks afterwards a lawyer came to the actor to ask him whether a 
 reward had been offered for their recovery. This was not the case. The 
 latter, however, said that he would gladly sacrifice $250 if he could thus 
 recover his property. The lawyer now began to bargain, and at last 
 said that for $600 he would be able to restore the papers. The actor 
 asked for time to think over the matter, but had the lawyer arrested af- 
 terwards. It was then found that this lawyer had acted the part of an 
 agent or " go-between " for bond-thieves, and had done a good busiuess 
 by it. 
 
 It is a shame that " Shysters " are at all allowed to practice in our 
 courts. They have, up to the present time, monopolized our police 
 courts, as respectable lawyers consider it beneath their dignity to mix 
 with them. But unfortunately they are not restricted to the police courts, 
 but are met with in the higher courts also. Their manners are also oc- 
 casionally imitated by lawyers who lay claim to respectability. This is 
 especially the case in their treatment of witnesses on the stand. Law- 
 yers seem to have the privilege of treating the most respectable witnesses 
 in the most insulting manner. The style has come so in vogue in all our 
 courts, that it is diilicult to discern between the respectable lawyer and 
 the " Shyster." 
 
 The evils mentioned here could be decreased considerably if the judges 
 would see to it that the dignity of the court was not only respected by 
 the public, but also by the lawyers. The regulations governing the pro- 
 ceedings of our courts would have to be considerably modified. But the 
 evils are still so promiuent that an energetic application of reform would 
 be in every way of great good. The " Shysters n could be easily exter- 
 minated if a standard of strict honor were required as the first condition 
 of admission to the bar, and if every lawyer were excluded who had 
 committed an act unworthy of his profession. We have more than |( 
 enough lawyers, and could easily spare the " Shysters," who are a prey 
 upon society. 
 
 A uniform code of laws for all the States, and the statement of the 
 »aws in plain language intelligible to every one, instead of in technical 
 terms understood by lawyers only, would be of great use in simplifying 
 the process of the courts. This, however, is only a wish the fulfillment 
 
730 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 of which is yet in the dim distance. For it is from the confusion and 
 obscurity of our laws that the lawyers derive their ^greatest benefit, and 
 as long as lawyers have the preference at elections in such a degree as 
 they do at present, by means of which they are able to form the majority 
 in the legislatures, as well as in Congress, just so long we cannot count 
 upon such a reform, much as it is needed by the people. 
 
 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 It can be easily imagined that a city having a population of over a 
 million, and under circumstances which favor the development and in- 
 crease of crime, should also be sufficiently provided with prisons. They 
 are a sad necessity, and it is all the more sad that they do not in the 
 least conform to the demands of humanity, neither in their number nor 
 in their administration. 
 
 Our prisons therefore form a sad contrast to our charitable institutions, 
 of which ours possesses more than any other city in the world. Of 
 course the prisons in our city are only intended to serve as places of de- 
 tention for prisoners awaiting trial, or of such persons as have only to 
 serve short terms of imprisonment. Greater criminals, who are sen- 
 tenced to several years' imprisonment, are sent to the State Prisons in 
 Sing Sing and Auburn. 
 
 Every one of the five police districts has its separate prison. The best 
 known of these is the prison of the First district, commonly called the 
 <' Tombs." This is also the City Prison, of which the prisons of the po- 
 lice districts are simply branches. It is also the safest of all, and in it 
 the most dangerous criminals are confined pending and during their trial, 
 or until the execution of their sentence. It is a massive granite building 
 of the Egyptian style of architecture, of so gloomy and forbidding appear- 
 ance that it fully deserves its popular name, the Tombs. 
 
 As this name has gained a sad reputation in all parts of our Republic, 
 we will give our readers a more explicit description of this, the " Bastile 
 of New York." The building occupies a full square, bounded by Centre, 
 Elm, Leonard, and Franklin streets, and is situated on the site of what 
 was formerly a pond, which in its time supplied New York with drinking 
 water. The building was commenced in 1835, and completed in 1838, 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 731 
 
 that is, at a time when the population of the city was scarcely twice as 
 large as the number of persons confined during a year within its 
 gloomy walla at the present. It was built for two hundred persons, a 
 calculation which has given rise to the greatests evils, the consequence of 
 overcrowding. 
 
 From without, the building is only one story high, with high and nar- 
 row windows resembliug port-holes. The chief entrance, on Centre 
 street, is formed by a broad stairway, which leads, through a massive 
 colonade of pillars, into the interior, which seems to be lost in darkness. 
 One look up this stairway is sufficient to fill the spectator with a feeling 
 akin to horror, and we should not wonder if we should see Dante's in- 
 scription on the entrance to the infernal regions, " lie who enters here 
 leaves hope behind." The daylight seems to draw back timidly as soon 
 as we have entered. The air becomes moist and damp, as if we were 
 in the actual tombs. 
 
 When we have entered into the dark hall, and we again see daylight, 
 we find that the building visible from the street only encloses a large 
 court, in the inside of which there is another large building, also of gran- 
 ite. This is 142 feet long, 45 feet deep, and contains, in three stories in 
 all, one hundred and forty-eight cells for the reception of prisoners. It 
 is intended for male prisoners only, and is connected by a bridge with the 
 exterior building, which contains the cells for boys and females, as well 
 as the different offices of the prison and the police court. 
 
 The above-mentioned bridge is called " The Bridge of Sighs," and it 
 fully deserves this name. For over it those sentenced to death pass in 
 their last walk from the cells to the place of execution, which is in the 
 immediate vicinity of this bridge. The terrible gallows, however, are 
 not there permanently, but are erected for every execution. 
 
 In the interior of the prison, in the court, is a high and narrow hall- 
 way, on which three rows of prison-cells are placed, one above the other. 
 The lowest row, as the safest, is used for prisoners awaiting their execu- 
 tion or their transportation to State Prison. The cells on the second 
 floor contain those charged with murder or other similar crimes, and is 
 therefore called " Murderers' Row." The third floor serves as the resi- 
 dence of swindlers, forgers, and other so-called "genteel" criminals. 
 Iron stairways lead to the upper row, along which there are iron gal- 
 leries. 
 
 The cells are small, and have, towards the gangway, an iron wire" 
 door, and towards the court a small window protected by heavy iron 
 bars. The gangways receive their light from a window in the roof, and. 
 in the night-time are lit up by gas. Two keepers are on guard day and 
 night in each gallery. 
 
 Besides the usual cells, there are eleven others of much greater 
 strength, destined for those condemned to death, or for those dangerous 
 
732 THE TOMBS AND TIIE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 criminals from whom an attempt at escape is expected. Six cells, pro- 
 vided with better air and ventilation, are reserved as a sort of hospital 
 for sick prisoners. 
 
 A characteristic feature of this prison is that six well-furnished cells 
 in the exterior building are reserved for the use of such prisoners as are 
 able and willing to pay for them. The cells for the female prisoners are 
 in general not so gloomy, and contain a few more conveniences than 
 those for male prisoners. A large hall on the ground-floor of the build- 
 ino\ in the court, is called the " Bummers' Hall." In this hall all those 
 are put who are arrested for minor offenses, as drunkenness, disorderly 
 conduct, etc. The company to be found there is generally very mixed. 
 Among low drunkards and ragged vagabonds there are many who have 
 never thought that they would ever be found among such associates. 
 Respectable and wealthy citizens, who have passed a night in jolly com- 
 pany, and have imbibed a little more than they could stand, and for 
 whom therefore the sidewalk was too small ; strangers who were stop- 
 ping at the best hotels, and who had gone out for an evening to " see the 
 elephant" in the metropolis of America, and then have fallen into the 
 hands of the police — these form, particularly on Saturday night, a prom- 
 inent feature of the " Bummers' Hall." The more wretched of these 
 bummers are employed in many small services, as scrubbing and sweep- 
 ing the halls, etc. 
 
 According to the regulations, the day in prison begins at seven o'clock 
 in the morning. The waiters then open the cells, and the prisoners come 
 out into the gangways. A number of bummers then bring pails of wa- 
 ter, brooms, rags, whitewash, and brushes to the different cells. Poor 
 prisoners know the meaning of this very well. They immediately go to 
 w r ork, sweep and scrub the floors, and whitewash any dirty places in their 
 cells. Rich prisoners, however, walk about in the gangways, while some 
 bummer does the work for them for a consideration. When the cleaning 
 is at an end, brooms and water-pails disappear, and the bummers bring 
 the breakfast in large trays. This is not very luxurious. The thin bar- 
 ley coffee, with condensed milk, and large pieces of generally very stale 
 bread, is the usual breakfast ration, to which are also sometimes added a 
 few cuts of cold meat, and two or three fried potatoes. 
 
 When breakfast is done, another more pleasant form makes its appear- 
 ance. This is the newsboy, who does a good business among the priso- 
 ners, although he charges considerably more than in the street. The 
 boy does the prisoners many other small favors, and is therefore always 
 welcome. Those who have money to buy a paper now retire to their 
 cells or some other quiet place, and enjoy the news. 
 
 At nine o'clock all the prisoners, even the favoren ones, must return to 
 their cells, as then the women come round to scrub the gangways. These 
 are the counterparts of the male bummers, who have been arrested for 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 733 
 
 drunkenness, fights, and similar offenses. In general, they are as ugly 
 as they are depraved, although occasionally a pretty face may be seen 
 among them, when flirting is carried on from behind the bars with as 
 much ardor almost as in the parquet of one of the fashionable theatres o( 
 our city. 
 
 At ten o'clock a new and important epoch begins, which is expected by 
 many with aching hearts. It is the time when visitors are admitted to 
 the Tombs. For many visitors the prison is simply a menagerie, and 
 fhey look upon the prisoners with the same interest as they would look 
 upon wild animals in their dens. For others, however, the visit has a 
 far more important meaning, as can be guessed from the crying and weep' 
 ing which is caused by the appearance of an imprisoned husband or father 
 to his relatives. At two o'clock a gong is sounded, and those of the vis" 
 itors who do not understand these sounds, are informed by the keeper 
 that they must now leave the prison. 
 
 When the last visitor has disappeared, the cells are again opened, and 
 the bummers make their appearance with the dinner rations. These con- 
 sist of several pieces of meat in a fatty and red liquid, which is here 
 called vegetable soup. Nevertheless the poor prisoners are compelled by 
 hunger to eat this fare. Only on Fridays the stomach revolts, and even 
 hunger gives way when codfish soup, ordered for that day by the regula- 
 tions, begins to announce itself by its smell. 
 
 Rich prisoners are exempt from this fare. For them the Tombs res* 
 taurant furnishes good meals at prices ranging from 815 to $25, while 
 wine and other luxuries also find their way behind the bars if they are 
 paid for. 
 
 In the evening no lights are allowed in the cells, and the nights must 
 therefore seem to the prisoners of an interminable length. But Sunday 
 is the saddest day in the week for the poor prisoners, as on this day the 
 monotony is not relieved by any visitors. 
 
 But we are very much mistaken if we suppose that the grim shadow 
 hovering over the building also hangs on the minds of the prisoners. Far 
 from it"! There are times in the Tombs when the observer would not 
 believe himself to be in a prison, if the bars and cells were not there to 
 remind him of this fact, so lively are its inmates, of whom a large num- 
 ber have a chance for the gallows, while others are sure of a long term 
 of years in the State Prison. We take the following picture of the life 
 in the Tombs from the description of a newspaper reporter, written in 
 the summer of 1872 : 
 
 " There is Stokes," the reporter says among other things, " arm-iD- 
 arm with Dr. Rosenwieg, promenading in the gallery, laughing loud and 
 joking, as if the gallows or State Prison were not waiting fjpr one or the 
 other. Sharkey and Scannell, both candidates for the gallows, lean on 
 the railing in the gallery, and from their conversation do not seem to be 
 
734 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 troubled in the least by sad thoughts. Scannell's face is ugly, and is now 
 distorted by a grin, and if he is really insane as his lawyers say, it must 
 be a very happy insanity, so that we can only wonder how it can mani- 
 fest itself in a desire for murder. Sharkey also, who has a very elegant 
 appearance in his fine clothes and jewelry, is very full of exuberance and 
 activity. 
 
 " There comes a stately-looking man, with Victor Emmanuel beard, 
 who is on crutches. He steps up to the two, offers them cigars, and joins 
 in their jokes and laughter. This is the great lottery dealer, Simmons, 
 awaiting trial for murder — a millionaire, who has the privilege of having 
 one of his clerks to wait upon him. 
 
 " Here an old gentleman climbs up the stairs. This is Dr. Brown, 
 charged with attempted murder. (He has died since then in Sing Sing.) 
 He has returned from the court, where his trial has just been brought to 
 an end. All the prisoners of the gallery surround him, and assail him 
 with questions. 
 
 " ' Well, Doctor, how did it come off? Have you been convicted, or 
 are you free ?' 
 
 " * They have declared me guilty/ he answered with a forced laugh, 
 as if the whole matter were very comical. 
 " i How many years did you get?' 
 " ' I cannot say as yet. The sentence is postponed.' 
 " Saying this, he crawled up the stairs to the gallery above, where he 
 falls into the hands of another group of questioners. One of them, an 
 old but well-built man, with a grey morning-gown and a red smoking-cap 
 calls out to him in a joking manner — 
 
 " * Well, Doctor, this time you'll get twenty years sure !' 
 " ' I hope not, General,' Brown answers laughingly ; c but a snuff oi 
 tobacco would be good on this fright.' 
 
 " The ' General ' pulls out his snuff-box, from which the old doctor 
 fills his nose, and thanks him. 
 
 " This man is a German Jew, who is widely known as ' General 
 Greenthal,' and is a well-known guest in all the prisons of the Republic. 
 His free-and-easy manner and entire deportment also show that he is 
 perfectly at home here. 
 
 " Suddenly loud laughter is heard from the other end of the gallery. A 
 group of prisoners produce a parody on a court, and a boy is tried for 
 forgery, although it has been proved that he can neither read nor write. 
 The prisoner who plays the part of judge sits snoring on his chair, and 
 everybody is trying to wake him. He continues to snore while the coun- 
 sel for the defense shows that his client cannot read, which the prosecu- 
 ting officer admits, but attempts to show that the boy can write. When 
 the judge is at last awakened, he cries out, i Five years in State Prison,' 
 and falls back again into his sleep. 
 
TIIF DARK BID! OF NEW YORK LIFE. 784 
 
 " This scene of pleasure is interrupted by a bell. The prisoners un- 
 derstand this, and all, even the snoring judge, crowd to the railing to 
 look anxiously down into the court below. The signal announces the 
 return of the ' Black Maria,' the wagon which conveys the prisoners to 
 and from the jail, particularly to the court. A particularly interesting 
 L '.al has been before the court. 
 
 " Mart. Allen, a young burglar, had gone to receive his sentence that 
 morning, and everybody is waiting impatiently to hear what it is. The 
 door of the wagon opens, and a half-dozen prisoners step out, bound to- 
 gether two and two by handcuffs. Their looks show that Mart, must 
 have fared badly that day. Mart, himself seems to be completely broken 
 down, while his older brother was sobbing. It soon appears that Mart, i 
 is sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. The sentenced man leans 
 against the wall completely prostrated, and, as soon as he is unchained, 
 he drags himself wearily to one of the cells for the condemned, and 
 throws himself on the bed. His brother, however, rushes upstairs, and 
 with curses relates Mart.'s sentence. This event has completely damp- 
 ened the former exuberant spirits among the prisoners. Scarcely a loud 
 word is heard, and one prisoner disappears after another." 
 
 This terrible feeling of the seriousness of their position is seen more 
 than ever when the day of execution of a prisoner arrives. At such 
 times even the eyes of the most hardened criminal become moist, and in 
 spite of the hundreds of prisoners, the Tombs are as quiet as a house in 
 which a dead body awaits burial. During the year 1873 three prisoners 
 were in the Tombs who awaited their execution — Foster, Nixon, and 
 Stokes. It can be easily imagined how the two latter felt when Foster 
 took his last walk over the "Bridge of Sighs." Even Stokes, who had 
 from the beginning preserved his calmness, showed some signs of emo- 
 lion when Nixon's day also arrived, and he was the next on the death- 
 !ist. 
 
 Having thus given a brief sketch of our city prison, and of the life 
 within its walls, we will now look a little closer at its dark sides as a 
 prison. In doing so, we proceed w T ith the assumption that this building 
 is rather a place of detention for persons accused of various crimes, than 
 a penal institution. A person accused of a crime is not necessarily a 
 criminal. He must be proved to be one, and this is not done until the 
 court has decided upon his guilt. The liberal views, therefore, which 
 have been brought forth by our age with regard to prisons in general, 
 would be particularly in place in relation to a prison of this kind. Un- 
 fortunately they have not been followed here. The ground on which the 
 Tombs stands was formerly covered by a pond, and the prison is there- 
 fore to this day pervaded by damp air. This evil is considerably increased 
 by the thick, massive walls and the narrow windows, through which air 
 and light find it very difficult to intrude. The entire building is so damp 
 
736 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 in fact, that even in summer a large fire is kept burning in the hall dur- 
 ing the night. 
 
 The building in itself does not contain those conditions of safety and 
 health which our present age has learned so well to combine. Ventila- 
 tion, this first requirement of a building inhabited by many people, is 
 wanting sadly, and as, instead of 150 to 200 persons, for which number 
 the building was originally intended, over 500 persons are generally 
 crowded into it, we need not wonder that our city prison has, on several 
 occasions, already been the subject of severe censure by the grand juries. 
 This want of ventilation is felt as soon as a person enters the hall of the 
 prison. It is still worse in the cells, in which an almost overpowering 
 smell is well calculated to drive back every one not accustomed to this 
 prison air. The cells are 11 feet high, 6 feet deep wide, and 11 feet long. 
 Near the ceiling they have a window 20 inches broad, by 5 inches high. 
 This window, and an opening in the floor covered by wire-work, which 
 communicates with the outer air by means of a tube, are the only means 
 of ventilation. 
 
 On very cold days in winter, the window and opening in the floor are 
 closed for the sake of greater warmth. If we furthermore remember 
 that every cell contains its water-closet, which is connected with the sewer 
 2 n the lower floor by means of pipes, we can imagine what kind of air 
 pervades these cells. We must also not forget that in one of these cells, 
 containing 726 cubic feet of air, very frequently as many as four prison- 
 ers are crowded together. Drunken persons are treated even worse than 
 this. They are packed like herrings into the " Bummers' Hall," which 
 contains no window or opening whatever except the door. In 1854 the 
 terrible event happened that, on a certain morning, fourteen such unfor- 
 tunates were found dead in this hall, poisoned by the foul air pervading 
 it. What happened so rapidly with those fourteen, in all probability hap- 
 pens with others slowly and gradually. Even the most robust health 
 must be seriously endangered by a continuous stay in one of these nar- 
 row cells. 
 
 Insufficient as the ventilation is, particularly in summer, the accommo- 
 dations for heating, particularly in winter, are equally poor. The heat- 
 ing is done by stoves in the hall, and has this fault, that, in the neighbor- 
 hood the heat is almost unhearable, while further oflf it is scarcely felt at 
 all. And if the prison is to be heated, it requires a closing of the venti- 
 lating tubes and windows, whereby heat is gained at the expense of the 
 no less important change of air. 
 
 A short time ago a medical inspection of the Tombs took place, and, 
 in the report, all these sanitary evils were mentioned. This report ex- 
 presses the astonishment of the inspectors that, under such unfavorable 
 circumstances, the health of the prisoners could be so good. It also 
 states that the influences of poisoned air are not of such a kind that their 
 
nn DARK BIDE 01 si:w FORK Ul 78? 
 
 consequences are seen immediately. But they introduce poisonous teedi 
 
 into the constitution, which are sure to bear their fruit, even if not till 
 after a long while. Mauy a dangerous disease, which slowly but surely 
 brings i!s victim to the grave, can be the result of even the shortest stay 
 in such cells as are contained in the Tombs. 
 
 T*he official report of the Tombs warden mentions only twenty-three 
 deaths during the year, which would let us suppose a favorable condition 
 of health in such an overcrowded and in many respects poorly furnished 
 prison. But this report in all probability conceals a good deal, and we 
 can judge as little by it of the health of the prison, as by the statements 
 of prisoners who say that there is not a day that passes but sees a corpse 
 carried out to its last rest. 
 
 But the evils of the building aud overcrowding are not the only dark 
 sides of the Tombs. Those confined in it suffer also from a want of 
 exercise, by reason of foolish regulations. No one will believe that four 
 persons can find much room to promenade in a cell 11 feet long by C 
 teet wide, containing an equal number of bedsteads. And what they 
 cannot find in their cells is but very meagerly accorded to them outside. 
 The time in which the prisoners are allowed to walk about the hall and 
 gangway of the prison very seldom exceeds two hours. Only a few 
 tavored ones, for whom this privilege is very expensive, can remain out 
 of their cells a little longer. The prison regulations seem to have for- 
 gotteu entirely to provide for motion in the air — that is, in the prison 
 yard-. The permission, it seems, can easily be obtained on the certifi- 
 cate of a physician. Thus it is that these unfortunate prisoners very 
 frequently can catch but a few breaths of fresh air during their entire 
 stay in the Tombs — that is, in some cases for one or two years. 
 
 We have already given a few hints as to the fare of the prisoners. 
 Official inspections, which are in no public institutions " surprise par- 
 ties,"' have found nothing to say against the prisoners' fare, either with 
 regard to quality or quantity. The prisoners, however, generally com- 
 plain of both. Proceeding from the supposition that defendants are not 
 always criminals, no objection can be made if wealthy persons provide 
 themselves with such luxuries in their prison as they can obtain for their 
 money. On the other hand, common justice demands, for the same 
 reason, that poor prisoners should receive, in a sufficient quantity, such 
 food as would not need hunger to make it palatable. 
 
 It is a serious injustice, however, if rich prisoners purchase luxuries 
 in prison, which involve privations to their poorer fellow sufferers. The 
 favor by which a prisoner, for example, can secure a cell exclusively for 
 himself, belongs to this class. For it is the cause that other cells are 
 again overcrowded ; and, while three, four, or even live prisoners have 
 barely room to stretch themselves in one cell, a number of rich prisoners 
 take it all the more easy in a cell apiece. 
 
738 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHKK PRISTS. 
 
 It is also a serious injustice that mouej cau purchase a louger stay in 
 the prison-yard than the customary two hours. This time is certaiuiy 
 short enough, but, as a favor in this respect does not include, as with the 
 food, an extra expense, it should, in all fairness, be extended to all the 
 prisoners or to none of them. 
 
 The regulations of the prison seem to be of a very pliable character. 
 At the entrance into the hall the sign meets our eyes, " No smoking 
 allowed here." This notice appears to us rather strange, when directly 
 under it we s-ce the doorkeeper sitting with a cigar in his mouth. The 
 prisoners also seem to know nothing of it, and whoever can obtain the 
 luxury of a pipe or cigar, a very costly one in prison, tries his best to 
 " improve" the air, 
 
 Intoxicating liquors are also among the forbidden fruits of the prison. 
 The regulations threaten any one caught smuggling them into the prem- 
 ises, with one year's imprisonment and a fine of $250. But it is w r ell 
 known that rich prisoners are supplied with the finest w r ines, and even 
 whiskey, if well paid for, is not classed by prison officials among intoxi- 
 cating liquors. Whoever has plenty of money at his command will, 
 with the exception of his loss of freedom, feel very little the terrors of 
 prison life, But money, and much money besides, is necessary to make 
 this life endurable. The prisoner cannot obtain a cup of coffee if he is 
 not able to pay the boy who goes for it. Money secures to the prisoners 
 every attention, while without it the most absolute wants are supplied, if 
 at all, when it is too late. 
 
 With the exception of this desire, however, to make as much money 
 as possible out of the prisoners, the treatment of the latter can by no 
 means be called a hard one, while the prison officials are rather inclined 
 to give the prisoner the benefit of the slightest doubt in construing the 
 regulations, rather than otherwise. No one would find fault with this 
 indulgence if it did not occasionally turn into inexcusable negligence, 
 which might easily cause some terrible misfortune. 
 
 A sad case of this kind happened in 1864, when a drunken man in 
 the " Bummers' Hall" began a quarrel with his fellow prisoners, and at 
 last attacked them with an iron crow-bar, killing three and wounding 
 several others. The fellow was in such a state of excitement that it 
 was found necessary to shoot him to prevent further mischief. 
 
 The question which arises here is, Where did the liquor come from 
 which caused the intoxication, and how a crow-bar could come into a 
 prison cell? 
 
 In August, 1875, the strange case happened that a keeper allowed a 
 prisoner to help him clean his revolver. That was in itself bad enough, 
 but it was also the cause of the death of this prisoner, as the weapon, 
 by an unfortunate chance, discharged itself, and injured him so seriously 
 that he died the next morning. 
 
THE DARK BIDE 01 NEW STORK I. [J . '-V3 
 
 Ii is do more than right that visitors be allowed to call upon the pris- 
 oners. Bat it would be well it that class of visitors could be kept 
 away, who, as wc said before, see nothing in the Tombs but a mena- 
 gerie of human beings, and who visit this place only to Batisfy a morbid 
 curiosity. Ave, cells of well-known murderers arc, literally speaking, 
 besieged by this class of visitors, chiefly of the female sex. Stokes, 
 who was greatly troubled by these gapers, kept the inner door of his cell 
 closed, and thus disappointed a great many who had come a long way 
 to see him. " Isn't this too bad," such a disappointed woman cried out 
 to one of her companions, a we have come all the way from Newark to 
 jee Stokes, and now he closes his door?" 
 
 The demi-monde forms a large part of the female visitors, and their 
 actions are absolutely shameful. For this class of visitors the Tombs 
 should never be open. 
 
 Recently the regulations with regard to visitors to the Tombs have 
 been made much more severe. But unfortunately this was done in the 
 wrong way. For while the crowds of curious visitors have not been de- 
 creased, the relatives of prisoners fiud it very difficult to obtain access to 
 them if they do not have influence. 
 
 A serious charge against the administration of the Tombs is the fact 
 that prisoners can be kept there against whom there is no charge what- 
 ever. At the time of the former police judges it was nothing unusual 
 for them to abuse their powers to avenge themselves on disagreeable per- 
 sons by imprisonment. They seem also to have used the Tombs for this 
 purpose. This, however, could not have been possible if the criminal 
 negligence of the Tombs officials had not aided them. 
 
 As late as the spring of 1873 two such cases became known. A cer- 
 tain Bernstein had been arrested in September, 1872, when nothing fur- 
 ther became known of him. His friends put his case into the hands of a 
 lawyer, who traced him to the Tombs. In the lists of this prison, how- 
 ever, the name of Bernstein could not be found. ' The lawyer did not 
 cease his exertions, however, and at last discovered that Bernstein was 
 actually in the Tombs, in a cell on an upper floor, where he had, in the 
 true sense of the word, been forgotten. Upon being brought into court 
 nothing could be found that would have justified his arrest, or further 
 detention, and, after having peen confined for over half a year, he was 
 dismissed. How long the unfortunate fellow would have remained for- 
 gotten in this terrible place without the exertions of his friends, it is dif- 
 ficult to say. 
 
 The other case was as follows: In April, 1872. a man by the name 
 of F. Martin shot his wife in a lit of jealousy. He was arrested to 
 await the consequences of her wound, and was placed in the Tombs. 
 But his name could neither be found in the books of the District Attor- 
 ney nor in the list of prisoners in the Tombs. No one cared about the 
 
 
740 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 poor fellow, who never beard that his wife was slowly recovering. He 
 was only discovered by a Sun reporter, who, in February, 1873, visited 
 the Tombs, and called attention to the evils existing there, and who also 
 brought Martin's case to the notice of the public. Without this fortu- 
 nate chance the poor fellow would have waited for months in his cell for 
 his trial, which of course would never have taken place, because there 
 was no indictment against him. 
 
 The prisoners of the Tombs give very little cause for complaint with 
 regard to discipline. They are generally sensible enough to see that 
 they would only make matters worse by obstinacy. Every resistance od 
 the part of a prisoner is punished by confinement in a dark cell on bread 
 and water. But it happens very seldom indeed that this measure be- 
 comes necessary. 
 
 The number of prisoners contained in the Tombs since its erection is 
 a very considerable one. But, as the complete lists do not reach further 
 back than 1849, the exact number cannot be given. From 1849 to 1872 
 the number of prisoners amounted to more than 700,000. What amount 
 of shame and misery was probably collected together in these people, 
 who passed a part of their existence within the dreary walls of this 
 building ! 
 
 During the past live years the number of prisoners confined in the 
 Tombs amounted on an average to 40,000 per annum, and in 1871, ac- 
 cording to the last official report, there were 51,466 persons confined 
 there, of whom 18,803 were females. 
 
 It seems rather strange that the number of executions which took 
 place in the Tombs since its erection has not been more than twenty- 
 four, and particularly so when we remember that during 1872 not less 
 than sixty-seven murders occurred. 
 
 The same evils w T ith which we have met in the Tombs, the real city 
 prison, are also felt more or less in the prisons of the different police 
 districts. The worst in this respect is the prison of the Second district, 
 the so-called Jefferson Market Police Prison. This is situated on the 
 corner of Greenwich avenue and Tenth street, and is an old, weather- 
 beaten, brick building, which in no way possesses the requirements of a 
 prison. The thirty-one cells, without windows, are small, narrow, dark, 
 damp, and poorly ventilated. The floor consists of stones, and the doors 
 of the lower cells are hardly four feet high, so that the prisoners are al- 
 most forced to creep in and out. Fortunately those who have received 
 their sentences are not expected to pass their nights in these dens, as 
 there are separate sleeping apartments to which the prisoners are brought 
 at four o'clock in the afternoon. These sleeping apartments contain a 
 long row of smoothly-planed hoards, running along the wall, at one end 
 of which an inclined board, running crossways, represents the pillow. 
 Coverings are luxuries which not every prisoner can enjoy, aud it is in* 
 
Tin: DARK side OK NEW TOBX Lir;:. 711 
 
 deed fortunate that only those prisoners are kept here whose sentence is 
 not for a longer term than ten days. 
 
 As the hall is heated by stoves, whose heat, although it is felt very 
 mucl] in the immediate neighborhood, cannot be noticed at all at a little 
 distance, the condition of the prisoners in winter is an exceedingly mis- 
 erable one. In the winter of 1871 and '72 it happened that a man, ar- 
 rested for drunkenness, a former judge from Indiana, was fouud frozen 
 to death in his cell the following morning. 
 
 The number of persons confined in this prison amounts on an average 
 to fifty per day, of whom about one-third are women. The best cells, if 
 any distinction can be made at all, are reserved for these female prisoners. 
 The sleeping apartments, although they are much better than the cells, 
 still have one serious disadvantage. The prisoners are all thrown to- 
 gether in them, the youthful victim of excusable indiscretion with the 
 old guest of the prison, a mixture which has already laid the seed for 
 crime in many a youthful mind. 
 
 In spite of all precautions for cleanliness and disinfection, the prison 
 of the Second district is the worst in the city, and should, for the honor 
 of the city, be torn down immediately. In 1870 the Legislature appro- 
 priated $150,000 for a new prison for this district, and the work was be- 
 gun with commendable energy. Commissioners were appointed, a site 
 for the building was selected, and the whole area was immediately en- 
 closed with a fence. Then there was a pause of more than a year, when 
 a fresh start was made, and a part of the foundation walls were erected. 
 This exertion, however, seems to have exhausted the appropriation, for 
 since that time all work has been suspended, and the unfinished building 
 and surroundings are a favorite playing ground for the youth of that part 
 of the city. 
 
 The prison of the Third Police District is in Essex street, near Grand. 
 The building was erected in 1856, but in its plan of construction is not 
 a whit better than the much older prison of the Jefferson Market. It 
 contains fifty-four cells, which are situated back to back on three floors, 
 so that they only obtain light from the window of the door leading into 
 the hall. The ventilation is facilitated by a system of tubes, and is ne- 
 cessarily very poor. The cells are very low and narrow, and, although 
 they hardly suffice for one prisoner, it is nothing unusual to see two or 
 three in each cell. The heat produced by the stoves is as indifferent as 
 in the Jefferson Market prison. The daily average of persons confined 
 in this prison is forty. 
 
 The prison of the Fourth District is situated in Fifty-seventh street, 
 between Lexiugton and Third avenues. It was built eight years ago, 
 and its cells, thirty-six in number, although not much better, are still not 
 quite as forbidding as those of the other prisons. They are covered 
 with boards, pretty well ventilated, at least at a time when the cold of 
 
742 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 "winter does not make it necessary to close the small window at the back 
 of the cells. In a sanitary view, it is the best among the police prisons 
 of New York. 
 
 The prison of the Fifth District is at present in Fourth avenue, be- 
 tween One Hundred and Twenty-eighth and One Hundred and Twenty- 
 ninth streets. It is situated in the basement of the Court-house, and its 
 cells, fourteen in number, are made of wood and covered with thick tin* 
 A narrow opening, through the rear wall into the yard, facilitates the 
 ventilation without giving much light. When these openings are closed, 
 as is usual on cold days, the cells are of course very poorly ventilated, 
 while the darkness that pervades them, even in broad daylight, is almost 
 impenetrable. 
 
 The principal evil of this prison is its low situation in the basement. 
 It will not, however, remain much longer in use, as the court and prison 
 are soon to be removed to the market in One Hundred and Twenty-fifth 
 street, between Third and Fourth avenues. It contains on an average 
 from eight to ten persons per day. 
 
 In all these prisons the greatest care is exercised with regard to clean- 
 liness. The fault that is to be found with them lies more with the maD- 
 ner in which they are built, or in the temporary overcrowding of the 
 cells. But, as the prisoners only remain in them at most ten days, the 
 evils are not felt in them so much as in the Tombs, where the prisoners 
 remain for an indefinite period. But a stay of a night only in the Jef- 
 ferson Market or Essex prisons is sufficient to implant in the body the 
 seeds of disease, while common justice demands that prisons should be 
 built in such a manner as, while it provides for the security of those 
 confined in them, should omit nothing that would endanger the health 
 of the prisoners. 
 
 We now turn to the real penal institutions of the city, those institu- 
 tions to which those persons are sent who have been sentenced in the 
 different police courts. They are situated on Black well's and Randall's 
 Islands, in the East River, on which islands, as well as on Ward's Is- 
 land, a large number of the public buildings of the city for charities and 
 correction are situated. 
 
 Blackwell's Island, with an area of one hundred and twenty acre3, is 
 the most southern of these three islands. It received its name from the 
 Blackwell family, to which it formerly belonged, and from which the city 
 bought it for $30,000 in 1828. The old house of the family, over a 
 century old, can still be seen on the island, and serves as a residence for 
 the superintendent of the Poor-house. The island is so far closed to 
 the outside world that no one can visit it without the permission of the 
 Commissioners of Charity, and the steamer of this board only is per- 
 mitted to land here. 
 
 On this island, which is supplied wifh Croton water by means of a 
 
THK DARK BIDE OF ni W *ORB LIFE. 743 
 
 large main laid through the East River, arc the Small-pox Hospital, the 
 Charity Hospital, the Almshouse, the Lunatic Asylum, the Penitentiary, 
 
 and the Workhouse. However, we will only take a look at the two lat- 
 ter institutions. 
 
 The Penitentiary is an immense building of hewn stone, four stories 
 high. The principal building is 65 feet long hy 75 feet deep. Bight 
 and left two wings are added, each 200 feet long by 50 icet deep. In its 
 entire construction more regard lias been shown for security than for 
 architectural beauty. It contains 510 cells for males, and 256 for fe- 
 males. This number no longer suffices for the accommodation of the 
 prisoners. The convict8 confined in this institution have their special 
 clothes of striped woolen cloth. 
 
 The Workhouse is a much more handsome building, and one of 
 the finest on the island. It is built of hewn stone, and consists of 
 a central building four stories high, and of two wings. Its length is 
 680 feet. The stone of which it is built was taken from the now ex- 
 hausted quarries on the island. In the central building are the kitchen 
 and the storeroom, the apartments for the officers and a pretty large 
 chapel. The wings consist each of a large hall, from which cells open 
 on either side in three stories. Along these cells are iron galleries con- 
 nected by steps. The number of cells is 300, or 150 in each wing. 
 They arc separated from each other by thick brick walls, and contain 
 each four single berths. 
 
 In the workshops adjoining the two wings, the convicts have an op- 
 portunity of following their several trades, if they have any. 
 
 These convicts are rather vagabonds, drunkards, etc., than actual 
 criminals, although many dangerous criminals, who more properly be- 
 longed to the State Prison, have found their way there by the common 
 practice of the police judges of handing such prisoners over to the Com- 
 missioners of Charities and Corrections. The average duration of a 
 term of imprisonment for convicts sent to the Workhouse is generally 
 not more than ten days, but it may also, in extreme cases, amount to 
 several months. 
 
 Not only guards are posted along the banks to prevent an escape from 
 either of these institutions, but four boats are stationed in the river to 
 prevent suspicious-looking boats from landing, and to pursue escaped 
 convicts. But we shall see further on of how little use all these precau- 
 tions are. 
 
 There are generally from five hundred to six hundred prisoners in the 
 Penitentiary, whose terms vary from one month to five years. Accord- 
 ing to the last official report, of the 2,3G8 (1,968 males and 400 fe- 
 males) convicts confined during the year 1871, there were, at the end of 
 the year, &G$ (493 males and 73 females) still remaining in the institu- 
 tion. The large majority of the 2,368 convicts were coufiued for a less 
 
744 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 term thau six months (254 for one month, 466 for six months, 69 for 
 one year, 7 for two, 7 for three, and only 2 for five years). Of this 
 number, 1,800 left during the year, 1,757 on account of the expiration 
 of their term, 2 were pardoned, 3 were tsansferred to other institutions, 
 10 died, and 28 (among these one female) escaped. Twelve hundred 
 convicts were natives of the United States, 500 of u Ould Ireland," and 
 300 from Germany. 
 
 The cost of sustaining the prison amounted, during the year ending 
 December 31, 1871, to $85,621, or a little over thirty-eight cents per day 
 for every convict. 
 
 The order of the day in the penitentiary is as follows : At six o'clock 
 in the morning the cells are opened. The prisoners then go to the so- 
 called wash-room to cleanse themselves. After that they go to break- 
 fast, which consists of a cup of coffee and a quarter of a loaf of bread. 
 After breakfast, which occupies about fifteen minutes, the convicts are 
 arranged in gangs, and at seven o'clock go to work. Tiie men are put 
 to work at regulating the banks, building roads, working in the gardens, 
 in the quarries, or in the different workshops, while the women are em- 
 ployed at cooking, sewing, washing, etc. Ten minutes alter twelve all 
 work ceases, and the convicts are brought back to the dining-room of 
 the prison. Upon entering every convict receives, in summer one-half, 
 and in winter one-third, of a loaf of bread, and goes to the place as- 
 signed to him at one of the tables, each one of which contains the dinner 
 for five men. This dinner consists, according to the regulations, five 
 times a week, of one quart of vegetable soup, and one pound of beef, 
 and twice a week of an equal quantity of bean soup, with only three- 
 quarters of a pound of meat. Three-quarters of an hour is allowed for 
 dinner, when work is resumed. Work ceases at a quarter to seven in 
 summer, and at five or six o'clock in winter. Supper closes the day's 
 work. The supper consists of bread and tea, to which Indian meal and 
 molasses are added three times a week. Immediately after supper the 
 convicts are locked up in their cells. 
 
 Good behavior insures to the prisoners commutation, and, in some 
 cases, even pardon, by the Governor. A pardon, however, occurs in 
 very few cases only. In 1871 it was only awarded to two convicts, while 
 during the same year forty-eight male and ten female prisoners had their 
 sentences commuted. 
 
 On December 31, 1871, there were 1,638 (865 males and 173 fe- 
 males) convicts on the lists of the Workhouse, of whom 1,013 were 
 transferred to other institutions for work, so that only 625 (388 males 
 and 234 females) convicts were actually in the Workhouse at that time. 
 The number of convicts in the house during the year was 21,882 (of 
 these 12,725 males). Of this number 19,026 were dismissed at the end 
 of their terms> 522 (of theso 264 women) had escaped, and 110 had 
 
rilK DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 745 
 
 died. \Viih regard to the age, 914 (of these 51 3 women) were under 
 twenty years of age, and 3,050 (of these 2,155 women) were from 
 twenty to twenty-five years of age. 
 
 The regulations of the Workhouse are similar to those of the Peniten- 
 tiary, and the discipline is very strict. Every convict must work, either 
 in the Workhouse itself or at the public buildiug to which he may be 
 appointed. Most of the carpentering, shoemakiug, tailoring, and pann- 
 ing of the public institutions of charity and correction, as well as the 
 sewing, is done by the male and female convicts. 
 
 With regard to the administration of the Penitentiary, as well as of 
 the Workhouse, public opinion is pretty well divided. The official an- 
 nual reports of course represent everything in the most easy light. It 
 would, in fact, be excellent if the convicts were treated and received 
 everything according to the regulations. This, however, it is commonly 
 believed is not the case. There seems to be, or at least seemed to be 
 until very receutly, certain abuses existing on the island which, in spite 
 of all attempts of the officers at hushing them up, found their way into 
 the papers. If the words of discharged convicts are to be believed, the 
 fare, although sufficient in quantity, is still so miserable with regard to 
 quality, that hunger only could make it palatable. The keepers, many 
 of whom are said to be former convicts, proceed in many cases in an 
 equally brutal and arbitrary manner, while the officers show a partiality 
 ior certain prisoners, which is an injustice to their companions. While 
 other convicts have been set at hard work in the quarries, for instance, 
 such favorites have been allowed to loaf around the offices and make 
 some money out of the visitors. They not only receive presents from 
 them, but also know how to open other sources of gain. 
 
 According to the regulations, everything that is sent to prisoners by 
 relatives or friends must be closely examined to see that no contraband 
 articles are smuggled in. This examination is generally left to 3uch fa- 
 vorite convicts in the office. They, however, are very well acquainted 
 with all tricks of smuggling, and if they allow some articles to pass 
 through, this is not the case with greenbacks, which, however unsuspi- 
 ciously they may have been concealed in some seam of an article of 
 clothing, or in any other manner, are still sure to be found by these ex- 
 aminers, who apply them to their own use. Thus not unfrequently do 
 five and ten dollar bills come into their hands. 
 
 Some years ago a whipping-post could still be seen near the Peniten- 
 tiary, to which convicts were tied and whipped. Loss of a meal, con- 
 finement in a dark cell on bread and water, etc., are penalties for the 
 least offense. One of these offenses was the refusal to go to church. 
 This case happened frequently. Until recently the service in the morn- 
 ing was conducted by a Methodist, and in the evening by a Protestant 
 Episcopal clergyman, but all convicts, of whatever religious belief, were 
 
746 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 forced to attend the services in the mornings as well as in the evenings* 
 
 Whether the statements of these convicts are true or not, we cannot 
 stop to discuss here. Whenever reporters of independent newspapers 
 visited the island, and attempted to obtain some further information from 
 the officers or convicts as to the condition of things there, the adminis- 
 tration put so many obstacles in their way, that this alone seemed to 
 point to some sore spot which could not bear scrutiny. 
 
 The many attempts at escape made by convicts, of whom not less 
 than thirteen left the Penitentiary in one day, and of which the annual 
 reports of the Penitentiary and Workhouse show not less than 550 for 
 the year 1871, plainly prove that a screw must be loose somewhere on 
 the island. 
 
 This state of affairs, therefore, could not be ignored any longer even 
 by the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections. They therefore 
 appointed an investigating committee, which in a short time made its re- 
 port, which unfortunately hardly spoke at all of the causes of the many 
 attempts at escape, and did not go very much into details as to the 
 means of preventing them. The result was that the number of keepers 
 was declared insufficient in proportion to the number of prisoners, of 
 whom there were about fifty to every keeper, and that it was recom- 
 mended to increase the number of keepers. The report also recom- 
 mended a stricter supervision of visitors, who not unfrequently gave to 
 prisoners advice and aid to escape. 
 
 Two new vice-presidents were then appointed, with a salary of $1,200 
 each per annum, who should live on the island, and also two more keep- 
 ers. This then was a change. But whether it was a change for the 
 better is another question. It is not how many keepers there are to su- 
 perintend the prisoners, but how conscientiously they perform their duty, 
 on which the question depends. As long as such appointments are 
 simply rewards for political services, and every negligence of the ser- 
 vice is not punished unmercifully w r ith instant dismissal, the addition of 
 new officers to those already not performing their duties, will be of no 
 use whatever, neither on Blackwell's Island, or anywhere else — that is 
 certain. 
 
 It is true the prisoners on Blackwell's Island are either vagabonds or 
 criminals, but still they are human beings, and should be bettered by 
 their punishment, and be made useful members of society. Of course 
 no prisoner will ever reach that point of perfection, that he would not 
 grasp at the first opportunity for escape, and attempts at escape will 
 therefore occur in every prison. But the administration of a prison 
 should never be so brutal, that the impossibility of bearing their condi- 
 tion any longer would force prisoners to attempt an escape. But it also 
 should not be so blind and sleepy that prisoners succeed in escaping in 
 such large numbers, as is the case on Blackwell's Island. 
 
Ml DARK BIDE OK NF.W fOBK LIPE. 
 
 74' 
 
 A womao who always succeeded id getting away within twu of thrw 
 days whenever she was sent to the island, surprised the judge, who could 
 uot understand it, by the following exclamation: "Why, that's easy 
 enough ! All it costs me is a two-cent postage-stamp. As soon as 1 
 arrive ou the island, I write to New York, and the "boye" come in a 
 boat and take me oil!" 
 
 Randall's Island, situated north of Blackwell's Island, and separated 
 from it by Ward's Islaud, derives its name from Jonathan Randall, to 
 whom it formerly belonged. Here are the House of Refuge, the Nur- 
 sery, and the Infant Hospital. Of these three the House of Refuge only 
 comes within our limits, which is under the control of the Society for 
 the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents, while the other institutions 
 belong to the Department of the Commissioners of Public Charities and 
 Corrections. The House of Refuge is rather a private charitable, than 
 a public penal institution. But it also belongs to the latter class, as it 
 receives from the State $40,000 annually, and the police judges send to 
 it all those criminals who are not yet considered responsible on account 
 of their youth. Those children also whom their parents find unmanage- 
 able are not unfrequently sent here. 
 
 The buildings of this society are among the finest of our public insti- 
 tutions. They are built of brick, in the Italian style of architecture, 
 and their front 1,000 feet long, with their high cupolas, forms one of the 
 most imposing views on the East River. A description of the extensive 
 buildings would lead us too far, and we will therefore confine ourselves 
 to calling attention to that which w r ill give an idea of the object, and the 
 method made use of to attain this object. 
 
 There are on an average 700 boys and 150 girls continually in this 
 bouse. The age of the boys is, in the majority of cases, between twelve 
 and fourteen, and of the girls between seventeen and eighteen, although 
 there are occasionally women of twenty in the house. 
 
 The boys' department is the largest. It contains two divisions, which 
 are separated in such a manner that the inmates of one have no inter- 
 course with the inmates of the other. In the first division are such boys 
 as are naturally of not a bad disposition. Such as are ill-disposed are 
 placed in the second division. But a boy who has been placed in the 
 second division can obtain his promotion to the first by good couduct_ 
 Both of these divisions have four grades. When first received, the boy 
 enters the fourth grade. One week of good behavior advances him to 
 the third, and if he behaves well there for one month he is promoted to 
 the second. Good behavior in the second for six months raises him to 
 the first grade, or "Grade of Honor." The members of this "Grade 
 of Honor " are distinguished from the others by a badge they wear on 
 the breast. A boy of the first division who has attained the " Grade of 
 Honor" cau enter immediately as apprentice into any business he may 
 
748 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS. 
 
 like, outside of the institution. Boys of the second division, however, 
 only obtain this privilege after they have been in the first grade, one 
 whole year without incurring censure. 
 
 The house has a large chapel, which is capable of holding about one 
 thousand persons. School-rooms are also not wanting. The different 
 workshops are a gratifying sight, and it is really interesting to see the 
 boys employed in the manufacture of hoop-skirts, rat-traps, flower- 
 baskets, etc., of wire. 
 
 The principal work of the larger boys, however, is boot and shoe 
 making. Two thousand five hundred pairs of boots and shoes are made 
 per day by about six hundred boys. All these works are conducted by 
 contractors, who furnish the material for work, superintend the boys, 
 and who have men there to instruct them. Every boy must work at 
 some trade, and has a certain task to accomplish each day. Whoever 
 finishes this task before four o'clock in the afternoon, can use the rest of 
 the time as he pleases. 
 
 The discipline of the institution is in general very prison-like. Every 
 boy has a cell in which he is locked in the evening. These cells are sit- 
 uated in long halls, and have only wire doors, in the first place for better 
 ventilation, and also to have the boys always under the eyes of the offi- 
 cers. At six o'clock in the morning the cells are opened. The boys 
 report to the Superintendent, and after being mustered they go into the 
 school-room, where there is half an hour's service. Then, after receiv- 
 ing their breakfast, they march to the workshops, where they begin to 
 work at eight o'clock. At twelve o'clock, after a parade, they go to 
 dinner, which consists of soup, meat, and a small loaf of bread. After 
 this meal, for which the regulations allow one hour, the boys return to 
 work, which lasts till four o'clock. Those, however, who get through 
 with their work sooner, can use the balance of the time as they please. 
 At four o'clock the boys take their supper, for which half an hour is 
 allowed. After that there is a short school exercise, when with half an 
 hour's services the day is closed. 
 
 The day is similarly divided for the girls in the institution, who, how- 
 ever, strange to say, are less pliable than the boys. Their work con- 
 sists chiefly of cooking, washing, and sewing for themselves and the 
 other inmates of the institution. 
 
 The length of time which boys and girls stay in the House of Refuge 
 depends entirely on the question whether their conduct shows an improve- 
 ment of their character. If this is the case, they are given out to farm- 
 ers or business men to serve as apprentices. This is annually done 
 with about 500 to 600 boys, and with 100 to 150 girls. Such boys aud 
 girls given out as apprentices continue to remain under the control of 
 the institution until they are twenty-one years of age, and if they 
 become unruly or rebellious, and refuse to obey those with whom they 
 
TIIK DABS BID! OF M w FORK LIFE. 748 
 
 are apprenticed, or in any way show symptoms of a relapse, they are 
 immediately reclaimed by it. 
 
 Thus the institution appears to us, if we judge it by its regulations. 
 One fault of these regulations is that no time is set apart for recreation, 
 a point which, in all reformatory attempts, and particularly with the 
 young, should never be lost sight of. The discipline has certainly by far 
 too much of the severity of prison discipline, aud is therefore well litted 
 to call forth opposition on the part of the boys. 
 
 The religious exercises are also of very little use, if they are imposed 
 by iorce, and, as is the case in this institution, Jews and Catholics only 
 have the choice between corporeal punishment or attending the Pro- 
 testant worship. 
 
 The inmates of the house also have too much work to do, so that even 
 the best workmen find no time for recreation. The change from work 
 to three and a half hours' school, after an intermission of half an hour 
 for supper, is certainly not a very pleasant one, even if something more 
 pleasant be in view than being locked up in a cell by themselves for the 
 night. 
 
 Such an order of things, which completely ignores the nature of 
 youth, is apt to bring forth a spirit of opposition aud dissatisfaction on the 
 part of the inmates of such a house. The system resulted, in the House 
 of Refuge, in very sad scenes during the past year. Revolts occurred, 
 in one of which a keeper was even stabbed. The official investigation 
 following this sad event brought forth facts which throw a very unfavor- 
 able light on the administration of the institution. Cruel punishments 
 without any reasonable cause, insufficient and poor fare, aye, even swind- 
 ling the poor boys out of their small wages ; keeping good workmen 
 over their twenty-first year, only because the contractors found it in 
 their interest, and similar charges of unjust treatment, were made 
 against the institution. 
 
 But let the matter be as it will, the fact alone that such things can 
 happen in such an institution, shows beyond a doubt that the administra- 
 tion is not equal to its task. This task, the reform of youth, is purely 
 humanitarian, and is only retarded if any considerations of an intolerant 
 sectarian spirit, or of a pecuniary interest, are mixed up with it. By 
 the assistance which this institution receives from the State, it becomes 
 a public institution. It is responsible to the public for its actions, and it 
 is only to be hoped that the public opinion aroused by the events of last 
 year will fore the heads of the institution into the true path of reform. 
 It would be unjust, however, not to acknowledge that the institution has 
 already done a great deal of good, and has already turned many children 
 from the paths of crime. But this only &hows what the institution 
 would be able to do, if those evils were done away with which only hin- 
 der it in its work, the reform of children. 
 
750 THE TOMBS AND THE OTHER PRISONS 
 
 In connection with our prisons, we caunot overlook the " Houses of 
 Detention of Witnesses." According to their names, they are not pris- 
 ons, although in reality they are no better. For the law requires that a 
 witness in any important trial must give bail for his appearance at court. 
 The law excuses this unjust provision by saying that the witness is neces- 
 sary to attain the ends of justice. Nobody denies this, and even demand- 
 ing baii would not be so bad ; but that the law goes into extremes, and 
 robs the witness, who is poor aud without friends, of his liberty, is an 
 act of the greatest barbarity, which nothing can justify. The law by 
 this act takes upon itself to send a man to prison for an indefinite period, 
 for the simple reason that he is poor and friendless. It robs him of that 
 privilege guaranteed by the Constitution, personal liberty, and thus com- 
 mits the greatest injustice upon an innocent person, under the pretext of 
 securing the ends of justice. Aye, even more ! The guilty party may 
 move about as he pleases under bail, while the witness, whose testimony 
 is to condemn him, is " detained" for weeks and months. 
 
 The present Houses of Detention, the one in Ludlow street, near 
 Grand, and the other in Mulberry street, between Broome and Grand, 
 are for witnesses in the State courts. The House of Detention in Lud- 
 low street is also used for witnesses in the United States courts. The 
 Houses of Detention do not look much like prisons. The witnesses de- 
 tained are supplied with the most necessary articles of life. They are 
 allowed to move about those parts of the house assigned to them, and re- 
 ceive their meais free, which are just sufficient to keep them from starv- 
 ing. If they have any money, they can easily rid themselves of it by 
 sending for more palatable food. 
 
 Their situation, however, is much better than in former years, when 
 the old Ludlow and Eldridge street jails served as houses of detention. 
 But even to the present day it must be regarded as a great calamity if 
 any friendless person should accidentally be a witness to a crime, aud 
 "justice" should find it necessary to detain him for evidence. But what 
 right has he to be poor and friendless ? If he were not so, he could find 
 bail, and attend to his business just as well as the criminal for whose 
 conviction his testimony is needed. It is just as bad for such poor fel- 
 lows to be a witness of a crime, or in any way be able to aid in the con- 
 viction of a criminal, as to commit the crime themselves. This is plainly 
 seen, if we look over the lists of witnesses who were detained in the 
 Mulberry street house during the year ending April 5, 1873. 
 
 This list contains 282 names — 227 men and 55 women. A residence 
 of thirty or forty days in one of these houses is nothing unusual on this 
 list. Three had 83 days, one had 89, another 92, two 98, one 116, ano- 
 ther 119, two 171, and oue 188 days, as the penalty for not being able 
 to furnish bail. Three, who were marked with SQ days, together with 
 seven others, were in the house at the date of the report (April 5, 1872). 
 
THE DARK BIDE OF NEW YOKK LIFE. 
 
 ',31 
 
 These L y >:L' persons were witnesses in all kinds of crime, from mi 
 down to petty larceny. 
 
 What particularly condemns ibe system of detaining witn - that 
 
 it allows more criminals to escape than it convicts. A newly-ai 
 
 emigrant, lor example, is swindled out of all of his property. He ki 
 the rascal who has done it, but if lie wishes to proceed against him in 
 law be must give bail for his appearance. As he will hardly be able to 
 do that, being a perfect Btranger, he must be detained as a witness until 
 
 the trial of the swindler comes on. 
 
 And thus it is in many similar cases. The fear alone of being de- 
 tained as witnesses keep- many from making statements which would be 
 ot the greatest importance for the ends of justice. The detention of 
 witnesses could only be justified in cases where the intention of defeating 
 justice by absence is known to exist ; and even in such cases the punish- 
 ment would be more appropriate after the deed had been committed, as 
 in no other cases does the law assume to punish an intended crime. The 
 so-called " Houses of Detention of Witnesses" are therefore the worst 
 kind of prisons, because only innocent persons are detained within their 
 walls, without aiding the end in the least for which this- injustice is the 
 supposed means. 
 
 Our prisons are in every respect in a miserable condition. As penal 
 establishments they are cruel, because they ruin the health of the prison- 
 ers only too easily, while at the same time they are conducted i:i a man- 
 ner by which the real object of the punishment, the reform ot the prison- 
 ers, is seldom attained. On the contrary, our prisons are rather the 
 schools of crime, where the apprentice, brought in contact with the old 
 masters in crime, receives his education. 
 
 Very much is said nowadays of prison reform, and the reform of juve- 
 nile criminals. But unfortunately our courts of justice have not yet 
 been able to completely emancipate themselves from the prejudices of 
 former times. They profess, even at the present day, the theory of in- 
 timidation, which can be plainly seen in all of our city prison-. They 
 should be houses of reform, from which the prisoners should be given 
 back to society as useful members. In our prisons, however, just the 
 contrary is the case. Youthful thoughtlessness, a momentary passion, 
 etc., can make persons appear as criminals before the law, who iu reality 
 are anything but such. It they are then mixed together in prison with 
 hardened criminals, it may be safely assumed that, in nine cases out of 
 ten, they will in a short time be just as bi'd as the majority of their 
 companions in prison. 
 
 This is one of the darkest evil? of our prison system. Through them 
 the law, so to say, educates its criminals, and, in the true sense of the 
 word, turns its prisons into high schools of crime. It is all the more to 
 be regretted that these evils occur chiefly in our city prisons* as it is just 
 
752 
 
 MURDERS AND SUICIDES. 
 
 in them that the large majority of prisoners belong to that class of per- 
 sons who should not be brought together with the criminals. Many have 
 become criminals from no other reason than that they were treated as 
 criminals. It is certainly not saying too much to assert that our prisons, 
 as they now exist, have already made many criminals, but have reformed 
 very few. The latter cannot be expected until our prisons themselves 
 are reformed in such a manner that they are brought up to a condition 
 more in accordance with the demands of justice and humanity, than is 
 the case at present. 
 
 MURDERS AND SUICIDES. 
 
 We have already learnt, in the chapters on our prisons and courts, 
 many of the causes which tend to favor the increase of crime. We 
 have furthermore seen that the most serious crime, murder, most fre- 
 quently, and generally most easily, escapes the deserved punishment. 
 This is the case to such a degree that it has come to be said that the 
 murderer is in less danger of the law than the thief or burglar. In 
 view of all this, we need not be astonished to hear that the number of 
 murders committed in 1872 was sixty-seven. 
 
 Bat this is not all ( The number of murders would be largely in- 
 creased, if the history of all those became known whose bodies were 
 found in the waters surrounding the city, or those who figure as lost and 
 missed on the police reports. Dead men tell no tales, and the coroner's 
 jury which sits on the corpse found floating in a half decomposed state 
 in the Hudson or East River, seldom gives any other verdict than 
 " drowned." But how this drowning took place — whether the person 
 accidentally fell into the river, or was pushed into it with a criminal 
 intention — is in the majority of cases an unfathomable mystery. Who 
 can furthermore answer the question of what has been the fate of those 
 who are put down in the police reports as lost? Many may have disap- 
 peared on their own account for reasous best known to themselves, as on 
 account of some fraud, or for some other crime which they either have 
 committed or intend to commit, and probably live at some other place 
 under an assumed name. 
 • Some missed persons may also occur on the list of drowned persons, , 
 
THE DARK BIDS OF NEW YOUK ,f[ i; 
 
 when their features and bodies have become so disfigured that an identi- 
 fication is impossible. But who will deny that a large number of these 
 missed persons are the victims of murderers? Their bodies may have 
 been put underground in some remote corner, and when, in later year-, 
 their remains are dug up, the finder will wonder how they came iu such 
 a place. 
 
 Those eases, and their number is also not inconsiderable, must not be 
 overlooked here, in which murder was not committed, for the simple 
 reasou that the bullet or the knife did not accomplish its mission. All 
 this taken together shows us a truly appalling picture of regardlessuess 
 of human life which has gained ground in our society, and which, as our 
 experience has taught us, the laws are impoteut to check. This impo- 
 tency of the laws is caused by the mode of their execution. II the 
 courts show such a disregard for human life that, of a hundred murder- 
 ers brought before them, hardly one receives his merited punishment, 
 while at the same time crimes against property are punished much more 
 severely than crimes against life, we need not wonder that a human life 
 is valued so lightly by the criminal classes of our population. Theft, 
 burglary, and highway robbery seldom fail to give the crimiual impris- 
 onment for a number of years and even for life. 
 
 Besides, those persons are considered crimiual who do not produce 
 sensation, and in whom the public therefore takes very little interest. 
 A murder, however, especially if the particulars are of a disgusting 
 character, never fails to gain for the murderer a certain notoriety. 
 Prominent lawyers take hold of such cases with particular fondness, and 
 consider it a good opportunity to show their legal ability by obtaining a 
 verdict for the defendant, which is at the same time a sa;ire on justice 
 and on the intelligence of the jurors who rendered it, Wc have given 
 examples of this iu former chapters. 
 
 From Jauuary 1, 1870, to January 1, 187u, not less than one hundred 
 and fifty murders were commuted in the city. During this same period, 
 however, only three executions took place, while seven murderers were 
 sent to Siug Siug for life. But death or imprisonment for life are the 
 only proper penalties for murder. What was doue with the remaining 
 one huudred aud forty murderer.-? How many are unknown to the au- 
 thorities to the present day? How many escaped with an easier sen- 
 tence than they would probably have received for picking pockets? How 
 many escaped punishment without even a trial? 
 
 Examples of this latter kind, strange as it may seem, are not scarce. 
 John Phillips, in 18G9, shot Thomas O'Kcefe. He was arrested 
 and put under $2,000 bail. Since that, lime his name has not been 
 heard again iu court. Iu the same year S epheu II. Maloney killed a 
 man named Edward Cappens. All that was ever heard of him was that 
 he bad been arretted. Bui he was never tried. A. Johnson stabbed 
 
 48 
 
754 sriiftDEKS and si ic.de.s. 
 
 Isabella Chase with iut .it to kill, J. Ray killed John Wagner, Peter 
 Johnson stabbed the captain of a vessel, and the reporcs of the papers 
 was all that was ever tTeard of these murders and attempts at murder. 
 AU these cases date from the year 18G9, and examples from other years 
 show that 18G0 was not. an exceptional year. 
 
 District-Attorney Phelps took the trouble, in the fall of 1872, to hunt, 
 up all the old and forgo: ten criminal cases in his office. It was found 
 that for many the papers had been lost, and that therefore nothing could 
 be done in them. Unfortunately the matter ended there without a fur- 
 ther investigation as to the causes or persons who had brought about the 
 disappearance of such valuable documents. 
 
 If we then look at those cases which were actually punished, we find 
 that the punishment was so small that they almost seem like a satire on 
 the law which makes the intentional killing of a man punishable by 
 death. In the same year, 1861), from which we have taken the above- 
 mentioned cases, we also find the following : 
 
 Thomas Edwards shot Thomas Mitchell — sentence, two years in State 
 Prison ; William Nicholson murdered Pat. McCormick — sentence, three 
 years imprisonment ; Margaret Walsh, a prostitute, murdered Police- 
 man McChesney, and was senienced to State Prison for life. She re- 
 ceived, however, a new trial, and escaped with a sentence of one year 
 and a half. 
 
 Mitigating circumstances may have existed in some of these cases, 
 but, according to our present ideas of justice, the object of the punish- 
 ment is not so much the punishment of the criminal himself, but to deter 
 others from the same crime. Iu cases of murder, no punishment, how 
 ever severe, will bring the murdered man back to life, but the law wishes 
 it to serve as a warning, and thus afford a guarantee for the security to 
 human life. 
 
 Punishments, howaver, like those mentioned above, are not calculated 
 to afford any guarantee of security in this particular. They fulfill the 
 object of frightening others as little as they punish the criminal, this last 
 object being the only justifiable one in the eyes of humanity. Further- 
 more, it is known that no criminal is hung before he is caught. Un- 
 fortunately a trail cannot always be fouud which will lead to the discov- 
 ery of a murderer. Since the year 1856, 81o murders have been com- 
 mitted in the city, and of these 180 have remained undiscovered to the 
 present day. They are gloomy secrets which have in vain tried the 
 smartness of the most famous detectives. We will here recall to the 
 minds of our readers >ome of the most famous and mysterious of these 
 murders : 
 
 In No. 378 Broadway, on the second floor, was the clothiug store of 
 Samuel Joyce. The porter of the establishment, Bartholomew Burke, 
 a sober and punctual man, had slept in the place for years, and had 
 
THE DARK SIDE YORK LI1 ■•"> 
 
 opened the store punctually every mom in 
 
 one of the clerks ibund the door still locked upon h 1. This 
 
 beemed rather strange to him, and uj ; the door-knob once more, 
 
 he th saw blood-marks on it. II ■ rushed into the street and re- 
 
 lated his . his suspicions to a policeman. The latter followed 
 
 him, and, as there was no Bigo of life after repeated knockings, the door 
 >rcibly opened. A terrible scene presented itself to those 
 entering. The entire floor was com red with blood, and the whole ap- 
 pearance of the room showed the signs of a terrible struggle. Burke, 
 the porter, lay near the window opening on Broadway, stiff' and dead, 
 with not less than thirty-six wounds on his body. Beside him there lay 
 a large pair of shears, which, to all appearances, had served him as a 
 weapon of defense, while near the door there was a short, sharp rapier, 
 which undoubtedly had been the instrument of murder in the hands of 
 the unknown assassin. Everything in the room, as before mentioned, 
 indicated that there had been a terrible affray, which must have lasted 
 ten minutes at bast. 
 
 The strangest part of the whole affair was that, in spite of the half- 
 opened window, the noise of the fight had neither been heard by any one 
 on Broadway, which, even in the night, is at no time entirely deserted, 
 nor by a family sleeping on the next floor above. The only clue to the 
 murder, therefore, was the rapier, and all the more hopes were set on it 
 as it was of a very peculiar shape. It was furthermore evident that the 
 murderer was not a green hand at this kind of business, for, before leav- 
 ing, the murderer carefully washed his hands at the washstand standing 
 iu the corner, and then left the store, after having first carefully locked 
 the door. 
 
 He must have received a wound in the hand, as could be seen by the 
 blood-marks on the door, and a number of drops of blood which marked 
 the stairs. At the foot of the stairs he must have tied up his hand, for 
 no further marks of blood were to be seen. 
 
 A circumstance that seemed to have some bearing on the case was the 
 evidence of a gentleman who had passed a man about midnight, near the 
 place of murder, whose face he did not take notice of, but whose right 
 hand was tied up. 
 
 Ivobbcry did not seem to have been the object for this crime, for no 
 article of value was missing, either in the store or iu the trunk of the 
 murdered mau, which had been broken open and to all appearances 
 searched through. Burke had led a very solitary life, and had very few 
 intimate friends, so that no information could be gained from these. 
 Everything preceding the murder that became known was that Burke 
 had been drinking with an unknown mr.u the night before in a beer sa- 
 loon in t'ie basement of the house, and had then gone up stairs in his 
 company. At teu o'clock the two had s; 111 been secu at the openwiudow, 
 
756 
 
 MURDEUS AND SUICIDES. 
 
 with two empty beer-glasses before them. Nothing further could be 
 ferreted out. 
 
 The coroner's inquest lasted three days, and did not produce anything 
 calculated to throw the least shadow of suspicion on any of Burke's 
 friends, or by which any personal enemies of his could be discovered, 
 who perhaps might have committed the crime from motives of revenge 
 or hate. The inquest was as fruitless with regard to the causes of the 
 murder as it was with regard to the person of the murderer, and the ver- 
 dict of the jury was that Burke had come to his death by wounds in- 
 flicted by some unknown person or persons. The continued researches 
 of the detectives were equally fruitless, and the murder is to-day clothed 
 in as much mystery as it was seventeen years ago. 
 
 The murder of Dr. William Lautener, on January 10, 1854, seems 
 almost still more strange. This gentleman had arrived, on the morning 
 of this day, at his office, No. 458 Broadway, where he had an extensive 
 practice as aurist. He seemed to be in a happy frame of mind, and 
 spoke with the woman who took care of the room. The woman left 
 the room and went on an errand to the east side of the city. When she 
 left it was half-past nine Upon her return, about an hour afterwards, 
 she went to see whether the doctor was in need of anything. She had 
 hardly opened the office-door, however, when she started back with 
 a cry of terror which alarmed the whole household. There lay the doc- 
 tor upon the floor, face downward, the rich carpet covered with blood. 
 One hand still grasped the paper which he had been reading. Death 
 had already ensued when he was discovered. He had been shot in the 
 back of the head, and the nature of the wound, together with the fact 
 that no pistol was found in the room, did not leave a doubt that a murder 
 bad been committed. 
 
 But who was the murderer, and how had he committed the devilish 
 deed? All that became known w r as that, at about ten o'clock, several 
 persons had seen a closely-veiled lady enter the office, and immediately 
 leave it again. A gentleman who had passed the building at the same 
 time remembered having heard an explosion like a pistol shot. All this 
 put together tended to point to the unknown veiled lady as the one who 
 committed the deed. 
 
 Who was this lady? To discover this was the immediate task of the 
 police authorities. Upon further researches it was ascertained that a 
 
 bitter enmity had existed between the doctor and a family named W , 
 
 living in the neighborhood. As the appearance of the veiled lady, as 
 described, resembled that of Mrs. W , the latter, as well as her hus- 
 band, were arrested. 
 
 The suspicion, however, was very soon dispelled, when Mrs. W ■ 
 
 proved, by a number of respectable citizens, that, at the time of the 
 murder, she had been in a lawyer's office in Wall street. The prisoners 
 
 
in I. DARK BIDK <»i m.W lOIlX I. UK. >•>> 
 
 were immediately discharged, aud the authorities did not succeed in dis- 
 covering any clues for further researches. Thus this case stands to-day, 
 and will probably remain a mystery forever. 
 
 These were cases in which the murderers were guided by other mo* 
 tives than that of robbery. But even the common highwayman not un- 
 frequeutly succeeds in eluding the ever-watchtul eyes of the detectives. 
 A case of this kind was the murder of Charles M. Rogers, in No. 43 
 East Twelfth street. 
 
 It was on the last day of the year lb'G8, at seven o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, when Mr. Rogers was ensured in cleaning the snow from his door- 
 step. He had been out about ten minutes when his family found him 
 lying before the door swimming in his blood. The murder would have 
 been clothed in mystery forever if the dying man had not had sufficient 
 strength to make a few short statements. While Mr. Rogers was clean- 
 ing the stoop, two men, apparently laborers, came along the opposite 
 side of the street. They stopped when they arrived opposite the house, 
 when one of them took off' his overcoat, and, throwing it to his com- 
 panion, walked up to Rogers. His companion called after him, "Don't 
 do it, Jim!" Jim, however, ran up the steps, snatched Rogers' watch 
 and pocketbook, and was about leaving without any further ado, when 
 Mr. R. caught him by the coat-collar. The thief attempted to get loose, 
 when half his coat was torn off. But Mr. R. had not yet lost his grip, 
 when the robber drew a long knife and stabbed him in the breast. When 
 the dying man was found the murderer^was nowhere to be seen. The 
 struggle must have been a very short one, for neither in the house nor in 
 the neighborhood had the least sound or cry for help been heard. The 
 sight of the dying man alone gave to the family the first knowledge of 
 the terrible deed, which had been committed in broad daylight in one of 
 our principal thoroughfares. 
 
 Besides those mentioned above, the dying man made no further state- 
 ments. These statements, aud the half of the coat of the murderer, 
 were the only clues by which the police could be guided in their search 
 for the murderer. In this coat the watch and wallet were found for 
 which the murder had been committed, and besides an empty euvelope 
 with the address, " James Logan, New York Cytty." 
 
 This name, together with the fact that the companion of the murderer 
 had called him Jim, led the police to suppose that the murderer's name 
 was James Logan. They now thought they would have easy work, and 
 supposed the murderer to be a certain James Logan who a short time 
 since had been dismissed from the Penitentiary. An active search was 
 therefore made for the former prison-bird, when the latter, to everybody's 
 astonishment, delivered himself into the bauds of the police, and gave 
 such satisfactory evidence as to his whereabouts on that fatal morning, 
 that all suspicious against him fell to the ground. 
 
758 MURDERS AND SUICIDES. 
 
 The murderer of the imfortuuate gentleman has not been discovered 
 to the present day, a fact which must seem doubly strange when the 
 impudence and boldness with which he committed his crime is taken into 
 account. 
 
 The murder of the banker Nathan, in his house, No. 12 West Twenty- 
 third street, on the night of July 29, 1870, is perhaps a still more strik- 
 ing example of this kind. Benjamin Nathan was a prominent Jewish 
 banker, whose riches were counted by millions. As the day happened 
 to be a Jewish holiday, Mr. Nathan had come to the city from his ele- 
 gant country-seat the day before. Besides him there were in the house 
 his sons Washington and Frederic, the housekeeper Mrs. Kelly, and her 
 grown-up son. During the night there was a terrible storm, a fitting 
 accompaniment to the horrible tragedy which was enacted in the rooms 
 of the old millionaire. Nobody had noticed anything unusual during 
 the night. But when, on the morning of the 29th, one of the sons en- 
 tered the bedroom of his father to wake him, he found him so mutilated 
 by many terrible wounds as to be almost unrecognizable. The police, 
 who had been immediately summoned, began their examination on the 
 spot. 4 
 
 At first it seemed improbable that a murder should have been com- 
 mitted so noiselessly that none of the other inmates of the house should 
 have been awakened. These inmates were therefore, first of all, sub- 
 jected to a very rigid examination, but without strengthening the suspi- 
 cions entertained against them. %was therefore necessary to look for 
 other traces. The unknown murderer had left nothing that could be 
 used as a clue against him but a so-called " dog," a large iron bent like 
 a hook, such as shipbuilders use. This was all, and the case, after the 
 suspicions against the inmates of the house had been dismissed, was 
 lairly calculated to try the sharpness of even the smartest detectives. 
 Besides framing a theory of the manner in which the crime had been 
 committed, no progress whatever was made. 
 
 According to this theory, the murderer, who had probably only in- 
 tended to steal, had entered the house in the evening and hid himself. 
 Nothing in the house tended to indicate a forcible opening of a door or 
 window. ,Once in the house, it was an easy thing for him to sneak into 
 the bedroom of the old gentleman, where he took from a shirt three dia- 
 mond studs, and from the pockets a valuable gold watch, and the key to 
 the safe in the library. This library was connected with the bedroom 
 by a door. As the thief was searching the safe, he probably must have 
 made some noise by dropping something, as was suggested by finding a 
 box with valuable papers lying on the floor. This noise probably awa- 
 kened Mr. Nathan, and caused him to look for the cause of it. The 
 lamp in the bedroom was burning brightly, and Mr. Nathan may have 
 arrived at the open door of the library at the same time the thief was 
 
UN DARK SIDE 01 :-• A I QBK LI f09 
 
 about 1 j leave by U. The thief must have acted quickly, aud befor< 
 
 n, who was Bhort-sighted, Baw who was before him, the thief be- 
 came a m 'V striking the fatal blows upon his head with the fatal 
 l" Be kept the, " dog " until lie had safely arrived at the house 
 door, and then led it in the hall. This door he opened, and then left 
 the scene of his crimes with his not inconsiderable booty, unse:n by any 
 eyes than those which were now forever closed. 
 
 The whole house, from the attic to the cellar, and the sewers to a con- 
 siderable distance from the house, were searched for the stolen articles. 
 As nothing could be found of them, the attention of the police was di- 
 rected to all the pawnbrokers' shops, jewelry stores, etc., in the city, in 
 order that they might be on hand immediately if the watch or the dia- 
 mond studs should make their appearance. But all without success. 
 Large rewards, of which the New York Stock Exchange alone offered 
 SI 0,000, were offered for the discovery of the murderer, in the hopes 
 that some of his accomplices might be induced to betray him. But even 
 the usual power of money was without a result in this case. All thieves 
 known in the city, discharged convicts, aud suspicious characters gener- 
 ally, who were supposed to be capable of such a deed, were forced to 
 give an accouut of their whereabouts on that night. So strictly were 
 these persons watched that they left the city in crowds, where they were 
 unable to ply their trade. 
 
 During the two or three weeks following the Nathan murder, a secu- 
 rity of life aud property was felt all 'hrough the city as never before, 
 which plainly show r ed what the police could accomplish if they only felt 
 inclined to do their duty. The " dog," on which so many hopes were 
 set in the beginning, proved to be pretty worthless as a clue. After it 
 had gone the rounds of all the shipbuilding establishments, without be- 
 ing recognized anywhere, it was found to be used in so many other 
 branches of business, that further researches based on it had a wide field 
 before them. 
 
 The interest taken in this mysterious murder, and the desire to unravel 
 it, were not confined to the police. The public took a great part in it, 
 and, from all parts of the Republic, letters arrived with kind advices and 
 hints, which the writers thought would lead to the discovery of the mur- 
 derer. The ludicrous was also not wanting in this otherwise so serious 
 matter. Clairvoyants communicated their visions to the police "gratis," 
 in which they described the murder and the persons connected with it 
 as much iu, detail as if they had been eye-witnesses. But all was in 
 vain. 
 
 Jourdau, one of the keenest detectives in America, made it a point of 
 honor to deliver the murderer into the hands of justice. The failure of 
 all his attempts in this direction is said to have been the cause of his 
 early death two months afterwards. All attempts of the police remained 
 
760 MURDERS AND SUICIDES. 
 
 futile. But, in the spring of 1873, a well-known New York burglar 
 named Irving, who had been arrested in San Francisco for some crime, de- 
 clared that he would give the details connected with the Nathan murder 
 if he were promised immunity from punishment. But upon being 
 brought to New York his story, like those of many others before him, 
 proved only to be a transparent trick by which he hoped to escape from 
 justice. 
 
 But cases in which a murder is shrouded in mystery are comparatively 
 few. We must give our police the credit of doing their duty much bet- 
 ter in hunting up criminals, than the courts do theirs in punishing them. 
 If every murderer who is caught were sure of the gallows, the crime of 
 murder would not be of such terrible frequency as it is at present. But 
 the majority of murderers do not think it worth while to escape. For 
 such an escape would rob murder of its " noble " aspect, and the mur- 
 derers are sure that, by lawyers' tricks and other means at their com- 
 mand, they can much more easily cheat the gallows of its dues and go 
 free. 
 
 Walworth who shot his father, Stokes who waited for his enemy in 
 one of our most crowded hotels, are two examples of this kind which 
 are yet fresh to the memory. Only a short time ago a sixteen-year-old 
 boy, McMahon, shot his eighteen-year-old companion, Scannon, during a 
 quarrel about fifty cents. Many will perhaps think the poor boy did not 
 know what he was doing. But when the police captain asked the young 
 murderer as to the details of the crime, he answered coolly, " I will say 
 nothing in the matter until I have spoken with my lawyer." This hope- 
 ful representative of Young America therefore knew quite well what he 
 was doing, and knew equally well that not the deed, but the manner in 
 which it was represented in court, would decide his fate. The young 
 murderer had the excusable opinion that lawyers could do anything in 
 court. If he had been taught that in exceptional cases only did a mur- 
 derer escape the gallows, he would not have drawn his revolver on his 
 companion so hastily. 
 
 To this lameness of the laws is added a sad confounding of terms, 
 which seems to have invaded all classes of society. A murder not com- 
 mitted for the purpose of robbery no longer seems to dishonor the perpe- 
 trator. Where personal enmity, jealousy, etc., have been the causes, ihe 
 murderer has the sympathies of the masses on his side, and these sympa- 
 thies only too frequently have their representatives in the jury. The 
 idea also that in certain cases, such as matrimonial infidelity, murder is 
 not only allowed, but even required by the " honor" of the injured party, 
 has done much to swell the number of murderers. Dozens of murder 
 trials have proven by their end that this idea is even sanctioned by the 
 courts. 
 
 It is true tho law offers for such offenses very little or no redress. A 
 
nil-, dark SEDK <h M-:\v youk LIFE. 7 ( '»1 
 
 broken heart or a riiiued life cannot be computed in dollars and cents, 
 tor which reason the law takes very little notice of them, and leayefl 
 these criminals to their consciences. This is a great mistake of our Leg- 
 islature, which however it would be extremely diiRcult to do away with. 
 But from the fact that the law does not give such injured persons suffi- 
 cient satisfaction, it by no means makes them accuser, judge, and execu- 
 tioner. If the law allowed such an encroachment upon its authority i 
 one respect only, what would be the consequence? The principle wou'.«. 
 be established that every person had the right to decide whether the law 
 gives him sufficient satisfaction, and, if he is of the opinion that it does 
 uot, to take the law into his own hands. But that would produce the 
 wildest anarchy, which we need not describe here. If matrimonial infi- 
 delity, treachery of some loved one, seduction, etc., were sufficient rea- 
 sons to justify attacking the guilty persons with poison, the dagger, or 
 the pistol, what should hinder any one from openly murdering some ob- 
 jectionable person, and then claimiug immunity from punishmeut on ac- 
 count of some real or pretended injury ? 
 
 There may, in this respect, be cases for which many excuses and miti- 
 gating circumstances could be found ; for example, when a father shoots 
 the seducer of his daughter, because the latter refuses to give the only 
 possible satisfaction. Regarded from a moral and individual standpoint, 
 the murdered person may have only received his dues, and the public is 
 only too easily inclined to give its sympathies to the murderer. But the 
 law judges from a higher than a merely individual standpoint. To pro- 
 tect the lives of all, it forbids the individual, except in cases of self- 
 defense, to take the life of any person for any reason whatever. It has 
 declared an intentional, premeditated killing to be murder, and, in the 
 interest of all, it can have no regard for the motives by which persons 
 become murderers. 
 
 A sad case of this kind occurred in the summer of 1872. A certain 
 K. Bleakley had a niece, for whom, as she was an orphan, he acted as 
 guardian. The girl went astray, and at last gave herself up to a life of 
 shame. Bleakley, who loved his niece dearly, tried remonstrances and 
 prayers and threats, to save the girl from the life of shame into which 
 she seemed to be falling. She, however, remained deaf to all his en- 
 treaties, and declared that she would do as she pleased, and that in fu- 
 ture he should keep his sermons to himself. Bleakley, almost driven to 
 insanity at the thought of his niece's dishonor, determined to make a 
 last attempt to save her. He therefore went to the house where she 
 stayed and again tried nis whole powers of persuasion. But in vain. 
 The girl found so much pleasure in her life of vice, that nothing would 
 induce her to turn back. Then Bleakley drew a revolver and shot her. 
 Thus he had saved her from her shame in the manner in which, in his 
 opinion, was the only possible one. But the courts took another view of 
 
7G2 BTOKDEBS AND SUICIDES. 
 
 the matter. The unfortunate man was tried, found guilty, and sentenced 
 to twenty years in the State Prison. 
 
 Much as we may be inclined to pity the man, the sentence was cer- 
 tainly a just one, and only becomes hard from the fact that other mur- 
 derers, who were led by much less excusable motives, have escaped en- 
 tirely from deserved punishment, or at most with merely nominal sen- 
 tences. 
 
 A large number of murders are committed on the impulse of moment, 
 in consequence of a quarrel, or of drunkenness. Such murderers, it is 
 true, are not on the same grade as the highwaymen who commit mur- 
 der, but they are therefore no less dangerous to society. To the victims 
 it does not make much difference whether they were killed for this or 
 that reason. Very many of these murders would not have been com- 
 mitted, and great misery would have been saved, if it had not become a 
 kind of mania to carry deadly weapons. Bowie knives, daggers, and 
 revolvers, we might say, are among the toilet articles of the day, and 
 the revolver particularly seems to have become as indispensable to some 
 as a watch. 
 
 It has been attempted to justify the carrying of weapons by the exist- 
 ing insecurity of life and property. This attempt, however, is probably 
 successful in a few cases only, while in general the carrying of weapons 
 has undoubtedly caused more murders than it has prevented. The cases 
 in which a person attacked by highwaymen has put them to flight by his 
 revolver, are so rare that they are hardly worth mentioning. Dozens of 
 persons, however, have been killed because persons quarrelling with 
 them have made use of weapons simply because they had them with, 
 them. It is unnecessary to say how quickly a knife or revolver is drawr 
 by a person under the influence of liquor. Many again believe that they 
 can visit places with the revolver in their pocket, from which they had 
 better stayed away in the interest of their character and their safety. 
 They thus bring themselves into a position to be forced to use their 
 weapons against others, or to have those of others used against them- 
 selves. Looked at from this point of view, it is only to be regretted that 
 the laws against carrying concealed weapons are not much better than a 
 dead letter. They should even be much more strict. The carrying of 
 weapons by such persons as have already gained a notoriety as thieves, 
 burglars, etc., should alone suffice to send them for years to prison. The 
 present laws affect these rascals so little that it seems as if honest people 
 only had been forbidden to carry weapons. 
 
 Thus we see that the faults of our legislation are not without blame 
 in the frequeucy of crimes against life in our city. This goes so far that 
 the death penalty exerts a demoralizing influence on rude characters. 
 For it is nothing but a legalized murder. The spirit of our time pro- 
 tests against it with justice, and it could be abolished without any danger 
 
li:. LK LIFE. 
 
 w 
 to Bociety. 1 is m v l of our I'uiou it has already been 
 
 with suits. 
 
 Ltfc penalty is one 
 reasons that it is so difficult to convict a person o! 
 
 many hive escaped with light or no punishment at all, who would have 
 been» convicted of murder if the aversion against the death penalty had 
 not had some influence on the jurors. Without the death penalty, mur- 
 der would undoubtedly be punished more frequently and rapidly, and in a 
 more suitable manner, than it is at present. Its abolition would cer- 
 tainly have to be preceded by a limitation ot the pardoning power and a 
 better administration of the prisons. Fjr until recently it seemed to be 
 the rule to let favorite murderers loose on society by means of the clem- 
 ency of the Executive, as soon as the attention of the publie was with- 
 drawn from them, while the lack of watchfulness of the prison officials 
 offered very little security for the safekeeping of prisoners. The prison 
 should be as inexorable as the grave. If this were the ease, the gallows 
 could be put aside without the least hesitation. The number of murders 
 committed every year would be sure to decrease, if the legalized murder 
 — the execution — were abolished. 
 
 Murder has a no less terrible companion, suicide, which turns the mur- 
 derous weapon against one's own life. If we view the statistics of sui- 
 eides, we are forced to incline to the belief that the regardlessness of 
 one's own life is much greater in our city than that of the lives of others. 
 For the sixty-seven murders committed in the year 1872. there were more 
 than twice as many suicides. Among these 50 were Germans, 36 Amer- 
 icans, 19 Irishmen, while the other nationalities are represented on the 
 list by single cases. Nine were under 20 years of age, 36 bet wetl- 
 and 30 years, 40 between 30 and 40 years, 29 between 40 and 50 years,. 
 20 between 50 and 60 ye^rs, and 6 between 60 and 70 years. 
 
 "We see from these figures that at and below twenty years, when life is 
 just opening, very few think of suicide. Otherwise it is in the spau 
 from twenty to forty years, when life's storms have already done much 
 to destroy the blossoms of hope, which promised to become such tine 
 fruit. The pleasant dreams of youth are past, and the serious reality, 
 comes with its demands on life. The inclination for suicide increases 
 gradually during this time, and the number of those weak persons who, 
 in the full strength of life, had nothing better to do than to kill them- 
 selves, was in 1872 not less than 76. 
 
 At forty years the inclination for suicide again begins to decrease. At 
 that time man has begun to take life as it is. He has attained a certain 
 end, even if it is not the one he strove for. Only exceptionally hard 
 strokes of fortune, long sickness, etc., seem to be able to rob him of all 
 love of life, so that he is willing to destroy it. The number of suicides 
 in the above list, therefore, sunk from 29 between 40 and 50 years, to 20 
 
764 MURDERS AND SUICIDES. 
 
 between 50 and 60 years. Thos^ 6 between 60 and 70 years, who were 
 not able to await their natural end, belong to the same class of pyscho- 
 logical riddle as those 9 who sought death at the very opening of their 
 lives. 
 
 With regard to the means usel by the suicides to end their lives, we 
 see that poison seems to have been the most popular in the year 1872, 
 not less than 50 suicides making use of it. Of the poisons, Paris green 
 with 25 cases was the favorite, being followed by the narcotics with 18 
 cases, while prussic acid and arsenic were used by others. After the 
 poisons, powder and ball came next with 34 cases ; 22 chose the rope, 
 16 the knife, with- which they either cut their throats or stabbed them- 
 selves in the breast, while 13 — a comparatively small number — sought 
 death by drowning." 
 
 This latter number is certainly much too small. It only contains those 
 of whom it is known that they sought death in the water of their own 
 free will. But the 219 persons must not be forgotten who were recorded 
 in the police lists as " found drowned." Many of these were undoubt- 
 edly the victims of criminals, or fell into tho water by some accident ; 
 but by farthe larger number are probably suicides, who by a leap into 
 the water accomplished their criminal object. 
 
 In order to recognize the suicidal mania in its fullest extent, we must 
 not forget here the hundreds of attempts at suicide. How many cases 
 are annually reported by the papers in which suicide was attempted, but 
 the persons were pulled out of the water in time, or in which the skill of 
 a physician saved them from the effects of poison or the ball. How 
 many other such cases may have occurred which never came to the no- 
 tice of the public? 
 
 Thus one year can serve as a fair sample of all others. If there is a 
 change noticeable at all, it is in the wrong direction, for it seems as if 
 the suicides were on the increase. The reason of this increase is rather 
 in the unnatural relations of our social life, than in the inclinations or 
 casualties happening to individual persons. For it would be a great 
 error to suppose that even a majority of suicides had been caused by 
 really great misfortunes, or extreme poverty. 
 
 The principal causes of suicide are betrayed love, the death of some 
 loved one, misfortune in business, quarrels at home, want, fear of public 
 exposure, incurable diseases, etc. The latter, which has at least a 
 shadow of excuse in its favor, is probably the most rare case, as such 
 patients generaUy cling to life with a greater tenacity, the less desirable 
 this life may seem. The fear of exposure and shame are, at least among 
 the higher classes, a very exceptionable reason for suicide. It is a no- 
 ticeable fact that none of the Tammany Ring swindlers have committed 
 suicide, and our cashiers and treasurers caught stealing hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars, bear thoir dishonor, if they recognize it at all, like 
 
TIIK DA1U BIDK OF N'KW YOliK LIFE. 
 
 7G6 
 
 philosophers, Hie President of the Brooklyn Trust Company, who 
 sought his death in the ocean at Coney Island, is the only example in 
 which a delinquent officer did not have the courage to survive his repu- 
 tation. 
 
 We do not by any moans wish to be understood as if we considered 
 suicide a reparation for any dishonorable deed. But in such cases it in- 
 dicates the presence of at least a little sense of honor, although it mani- 
 fests itself in the wrong direction. It would be much more mauly and 
 honorable to take the coasequenccs of a wrong action upon himself, and, 
 by the future life, atone as much as possible for the misstep, than not 
 only to let the innocent family bear the consequences alone, but also add 
 to their shame and grief by a cowardly suicide. Unfortunately this view 
 of the matter is not the reason that suicides among our defaulters are so 
 scarce. They wisely keep alive, not to restore their plunder, but, when 
 the storm has subsided aud the public becomes forgetful, to be able to 
 live off the fruits of their crime. 
 
 Scarce as suicides for fear of shame arc among the higher classes of 
 society, it often happens that persous in the humble walks of life quickly 
 take to suicide when they are caught in an act which threatens to dis- 
 grace them. A recent example of this was the seducer of the unfortu- 
 nate Alice Bowlesby, who shot himself when he found his name brought 
 in connection with the Iiozenwieg trial. 
 
 Misfortune in business and want have already driven many to commit 
 suicide, and not a year passes which does not contribute examples of this 
 kind. The most frequent motive of suicide has its root in the inner life 
 of man. Betrayed love, misfortunes at home, the death of some loved 
 one, only too frequently produce such a state of mind that every interest 
 in life is lost. The majority of suicides can be easily traced back tc 
 this source. 
 
 But there are also suicides, and they are not few in number, which are 
 with difficulty traced back to one of the above-memioned causes. The 
 suicides possessed everything that could make life appear desirable, aud 
 had nothing to mourn for and nothing to fear. Iff such case3 it was a 
 satiety with the frivolous pleasures of t.iis world, which can never be a 
 satisfactory object of lile. Life ueeds a more stable end, and nothing 
 destroys the love of it more than a constant grasping alter pleasures, 
 which end iu their enjoyment, without satisfying either the mind or 
 heart. This emptiness of the mind is a leading feature of our fashiona- 
 ble circles, aud the not unfrequeut suicides among them probably arise 
 from the same. 
 
 It is a uoticeable fact that a large number of prostitutes annually end 
 their lives by suicide. Aud if it could be excused anywhere it would be 
 with these unfortunate creatures, who upon awaking to a sense of their 
 condition, and losing faith in the world and in themselves, full of despair 
 
766 lost and .v -:::> PERSONS, 
 
 leap into the water or poisoa themselves, as the shortest- way out of their 
 earthly troubles. With very few exceptions, suicide is such an unnatural 
 deed that we are almost forced to suppose that it is caused by temporary 
 insanity. This is a point upon which much could be said pro and con. 
 The insanity theory is much more applicable to suicides "than to mur- 
 derers. For it is well known that certain diseases incline a person to 
 suicide, and even an hereditary disposition to suicide in some families 
 cannot be denied. 
 
 But even admitting all that has been said, it cannot be denied but that 
 education and mode of life contribute much to produce that state of mind 
 which ends' in suicide. In this respect the suicide cannot be regarded as 
 morally irresponsible for his deed, even if he withdraws himself from 
 legal responsibility by it. Morality and law both declare suicide to be a 
 crime, and, while the ancients regarded it as a sort of heroic deed, our 
 more refined modern view stamps it as an act of cowardice. Unfortu- 
 nately our social organization is such that it requires for thousands much 
 more courage to live than it does to exchange this life for the life to 
 come. As long as our social conditions in this respect are not reformed, 
 and do not assume a more natural state, all reasons of philosophy, mo- 
 rality, and religion will not be able to decrease the annual number of 
 our suicides. 
 
 LOST AND MISSED PERSONS. 
 
 Perhaps every one has at some time read in the papers of persons who 
 had left their residences or stores for a short walk, and who had never 
 returned, and of whom nothing was ever again heard. They "were 
 u lost," and their fate continued to remain a source of anxiety to their 
 friends, as well as to the public in general. The police put such "lost" 
 persons on their list of " missed'' persons, a list which averages over 700 
 names annually. This is a terribly large number, which, however, ap- 
 pears much larger than it actually is. For these 700 include all that are 
 reported to the police during the year, whether they make their appear 
 ance again or not. Fortunately the latter case happens more frequently 
 than the former. 
 
 In the Police Headquarters, in Mulberry street, there is an office, 
 
Ti;. SIDE OF NEW rOBK LIFE. 7G7 
 
 who; " i by the name over its door, " Bureau fur 
 
 the H sons." [f anybo ly La misa -<\ by his frii d Is for 
 
 Buch a length of lime i to arise od his account, the 
 
 fad is report id to thid bureau. A clerk enters into a book a correct de- 
 
 rson, as well as the nrhen he has b jeo mi 
 
 together with other facts which may aid in his recovery, and the police 
 take the matter in hand. The description is first compared with all 
 those received from the % * Morgue," that part of the Headquarters in 
 which ner&ons found dead in the city are placed for identification. A 
 look iuto the Morgue reports frequently enables the officers to recognize 
 some of the missed persons, and the mystery has its equally sad and 
 rapid termination. 
 
 If this is not the case, all facts which might aid in the discovery arc 
 printed aud sent to all the police stations in the city. It very frequently 
 happens that persons who were reported to the police as " missed," soon 
 make their appearauce again in a maimer in which is anything but tra- 
 gical or romantic. In such cases very few care to report the fact to the 
 police, and the person remains on the list of missed persons, although he 
 has long since got over the effects of the spree which caused him to be 
 iuvisible to his friends for a day or two. 
 
 On the other hand, cases are not wanting in which lost persons have 
 unexpectedly made their appearance again after a short time, and tried 
 to explain their absence by some romantic story, while in reality they 
 had committed some foolish or even criminal act, from the consequences 
 of which they had intended to escape by a protracted absence, and after 
 their return tried to place their absence in the best possible' light. A 
 strange case of this kind happened in Brooklyn during the year 1872, 
 where the disappearance of two girls of eleven and thirteen years re- 
 spectively, created much anxiety. After three days they returned to 
 their homes, and told the following story in explanation of their short 
 absence : 
 
 They said they had been seized in the streets, and forcibly placed iu a 
 wagon, which had taken them to New York. There they had been 
 taken into a house, where indecent proposals had been made to them, 
 which however they had stoutly resisted. They had then been tied to- 
 gether and left alone in the house, from which they had at last succeeded 
 in escaping. 
 
 This story, however, showed the lie too plainly on its face to be be- 
 lieved. A short examination sufficed to bring out the truth. The eldest 
 girl w^as possessed of a great desire to become an actress, and succeeded 
 also in gaining her eleven-year-old friend for this project. The girls 
 therefore decided to leave the prosaic houses of their parents, and to turn 
 to the stage, where they would have nothing to do but to fly about in sil- 
 ver and golden dresses, and receive bouquets and wreaths. This young 
 
768 LOST AND MISSED PERSONS. 
 
 art enthusiast had also the means at her command to execute her plans. 
 Sbe had a friend in New York, who was an apprentice in some shop 
 during the day, and in the evening occupied the influential position of 
 supernumerary in Wallack's Theatre. This friend had promised her to 
 exert his whole influence to procure for her a position in this theatre. 
 Thereupon the romantic flight to New York had been undertaken, as 
 both the girls feared, aud not without reason, that their parents would 
 never allow them to bring into execution this wild plan. 
 
 But in New York a sad disappointment awaited them. The influence 
 of their friend did not reach any further than to gain for them the privi- 
 lege of spending a few days around the theatre, and after three days 
 nothing remained for them but to return home. But once there punish- 
 ment awaited them, and so this little abduction story was invented. 
 
 What was done by these two young children is not unfrequently done 
 by older girls, only in these cases the stories are a little more plausible. 
 Thus in the summer of 1872 a young and pretty factory girl had disap- 
 peared. After a short time she returned again. But where had she 
 been? About this she told the following story : 
 
 When she was on her way to the factory, a carriage drove rapidly up, 
 and, before she was aware of it, she was lifted into it by strong arms. 
 A cloth around her mouth had prevented her from crying out, and they 
 rapidly drove out of the city until the carriage stopped in front of a 
 brown house. Then she had been kindly received by a lady, with a five- 
 year-old child. She was given nice new dresses, and she was ill-treated 
 by nobody ; yet she made use of the second night to escape. 
 
 This story is not at all improbable, but it was rather strange that the 
 police knew of no brown house in that neighborhood, nor of a lady with 
 a five-year-old child who in the least answered the description given by 
 the girl. The police, therefore, had its own opinion in this case, and be- 
 lieved that there was not much in this story. In most cases, in fact, the 
 police are rather inclined to explain cases of absence in the most unro- 
 maatic and matter-of-fact way possible, and to begin their researches on 
 ihat basis. 
 
 If any business man has disappeared, the first thing the police look 
 after is whether somebody's money or wife is missing. In many cases 
 the supposition is found to be correct. Girls who have disappeared they 
 took for in houses of prostitution, in spite of all the protestations of pa- 
 rents, and in nine cases out of ten the girl is found in one of these dens 
 as a voluntary inmate. 
 
 A prominent example of this kind is found in the chapter on prostitu- 
 tion. The police in making their researches act upon some preconceived 
 theory, which has taught them to consider this method the safest one. 
 That which suggests itself first to the friends of the missed persons — 
 murder or some other terrible crime — the police think of last. 
 
TIIK DAKK B1D1 Of NKW YORK UFK. 
 
 '69 
 
 Several years ago a lady disappeared from Staten Island. All efforts 
 to discover her were in vain. Her frieuds at last were forced to believe 
 that she had fallen a victim to some terrible crime. Thus two months 
 passed, wheu suddenly a letter arrived from her from Italy, which ex- 
 plained her disappearance in the most natural manner. She loved a 
 young Italian, and, fearing the objections of her parents, she had secretly 
 embarked with him for his native country. This love affair had not 
 been suspected even by the lady's most intimate friends, and no one had 
 supposed it possible that matters would take such a turu. 
 
 Different from this was the fate of a gentleman, who was known as an 
 ardent temperance apostle. One fine day he disappeared. Nobody 
 could explain his disappearance, and terrible rumors of murder were 
 whispered about. Everybody but the police believed these rumors. The 
 reputation of the man did not prevent them from searching for him in 
 all the suspicious establishments, from the most aristocratic brothel down 
 to the lowest dance-house. And at last he was found ! He had caused 
 himself to disappear that he might go on a spree in an obscure gin-mill, 
 where he was sure that no one would recognize in him the great temper- 
 ance lecturer. This spree lasted a full week, curing which time every 
 trace of him seemed to have been lost. Even the police would probably 
 not have found him if he had not used up all his money, wheu the pro- 
 prietor of the gin-mill had put him out of doors in a beastly state of in- 
 toxication. There he remained until he was picked up by an officer, and 
 was brought to the station-house, where, to everybody's astonishment, he 
 was recognized as the celebrated temperance apostle. 
 
 After such and similar experiences, we need not wonder that the 
 police do not hasten to look upon the disappearance of persons in a tra- 
 gic or romantic light. Many persons of a previously untarnished repu- 
 tation had already disappeared, and, according to prevailing ideas, had 
 been supposed to have been murdered. After some time, however, it 
 was found that these persoifc had committed some fraud, and, fearing 
 their discovery, had taken to their heels. 
 
 In November, 1872, such a case caused not a little excitement in the 
 city. A merchant from Louisville, who was stopping at the Broadway 
 House, had left that place one afternoon on the pretence of going away 
 on business. He did not return, and all that was heard of him after 
 that was that he had been seen on Canal and Mercer streets, in the com- 
 pany of two other gentleman. No other trace of him could be fouud, 
 and, as usual, the public spoke of some terrible murder as the cause of 
 the disappearance. The fact that he had collected, shortly before his 
 disappearance, $5,000 for some Louisville house, only gave some further 
 color to these reports, as it was supposed that it had come to the ears of 
 some scoundrels, who had murdered and robbed him. But further in- 
 vestigations brought out some facts which completelv upset this murder 
 
 49 
 
770 LOST AND MISSED PERSONS. 
 
 theory. He had been considered wealthy, as, according to his- state- 
 ments, he had deposited a casket, with valuable papers, to the amouut 
 of $25,000, in a Louisville bank. In the supposition that some papers 
 could be found in this box which would furnish some clues for further 
 investigations, it was opened. Instead of important documents, obliga- 
 tions, and other valuables, the box contained nothing but useless paper. 
 This discovery, taken together with the fact of his disappearance imme- 
 diately after the collection of moneys not belonging to him, put a stop to 
 all the talk in the papers about murder. Similar reasons might be found 
 for the disappearance of many others who cannot be found, and a large 
 number of " missed " persons in our city had better therefore be put 
 among the defaulters. 
 
 The case is also possible that somebody may be kept from home by 
 sudden sickness, without being able to communicate with his friends. 
 Thus in August, 1872, a woman was sunstruck and taken into a house 
 where she was cared for. Her friends thought all the time that she had 
 been the victim of some crime. 
 
 But unfortunately not all missed persons are found again. Many are 
 only found as corpses ; others, and these are the saddest cases for their 
 friends, are not found at all. It very often happens also that a corpse is 
 found, but in a condition that makes its identification impossible. This 
 not unfrequently happens in midsummer, when strangers are liable to be 
 sunstruck. The features of those who have died of this disease are dis- 
 torted and discolored in such a manner that the best friends of the victim 
 would not recognize him again. If the dead man, therefore, cannot be 
 recognized by his clothing, or some other article on his person, an iden- 
 tification is all the more out of the question as rapid decay necessitates a 
 quick burial. It is equally difficult to recognize a corpse which has been 
 for some time in the water. < 
 
 In strange contrast to those in which no identification is poSsibley are 
 those in which the corpse is recognized evefc in the smallest details, atfd 
 the dead person soon makes his appearance again. 
 
 Only in June, 1873, the corpse of a young man waS found in the East 
 River, who to all appearances had committed suicide. A carpet-bag 
 containing four flat-irons was fastened to his left wrist The face of the 
 corpse was disfigured as if by blows with a dull instrument, and a pistol 
 wound was seen on his temple. The corpse was completely dressed. Af- 
 ter examination the coroner declared it to be a case of suicide, and said, 
 in confirmation of this supposition, that the dead man had tied the 
 carpet-bag to his hand and had stepped into the water, shot himself, and, 
 having dropped beneath the surface, was drowned. 
 
 The corpse was brought to the Morgue, and a number of women 
 whose husbands had disappeared, visited the body. Three of them were 
 pretty sure that it was the body of their husband. A Mr. Diehl, of 
 
THE DARK SIDK OP NEW YORK LIKE. 771 
 
 Williamsburgh, thought it to be the body of his brother, Charles Diehl, 
 •who had not been heard from since October, 1872. He identified the 
 body by several marks ; for example, a scar on the upper lip, a wound 
 on lhe leg, and a scar which was the result of a surgical operation. Af- 
 ter the mother-in-law of Charles Diehl, as well as a friend of the family, 
 had also recognized the corpse by the same marks, as well as by its gen- 
 eral appearauce, the coroner certified that the body was that of Charles 
 Diehl, of Williamsburgh. The friends took charge of the body, which 
 was temporarily placed in the vaults in the Cypress Hill Cemetery. As 
 the corpse had been identified as that of Charles Diehl, the next thing to 
 determine was, where the latter had been shortly before his death. Upon 
 inquiry it was found that his family had last heard from him in a letter 
 from Key West, dated October 18, 1872, where he had been on board 
 the revenue-cutter Northerner. 
 
 A letter was therefore written to the Treasury Department, the answer 
 from which, dated June 26, stated that he was still on board the North- 
 erner in the last days of May. Thereupon further inquiries were insti- 
 tuted in Key West, the result of which was that a letter from Charles 
 Diehl himself arrived, stating that he was alive and well, and had neither 
 committed or contemplated suicide. It was now pretty clear that the 
 body was not that of Charles Diehl, but whose it was has never been as- 
 certained. 
 
 A still stranger case, in which an innocent man was nearly hung by 
 false identification, occurred in 1851. The case only concerns our city 
 in so far as the suspected murderer had been arrested here. The case 
 was as follows : 
 
 In Seakonk, a town on the coast of Rhode Island, a Captain John 
 Buckson, owner of a fine sloop, had lived for many years. He traded 
 in his sloop between Providence and Norfolk, Virginia. He was fifty 
 years old, well off, and was known as a good-hearted old man, loved by 
 all who knew him. He was at peace wiih all the world, excepting his 
 wife Nancy. She was young, nervous, and irritable, and, in spite of 
 her many good qualities, she was little fitted for him, and the quiet sea- 
 man very frequently served as a kind of conductor for her nervous at- 
 tacks, which generally manifested themselves in unjust reproaches. On 
 such occasions he generally bore his part with quiet resignation, yet the 
 state of affairs in the family was pretty well known among the neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 One evening in July, 1851, Nancy's tongue was heard still louder than 
 usual. This caused one of the neighbors, who happened to be passing 
 by, to look in. What he saw there plainly showed that Captain John 
 had for once lost his equanimity; for, as he stood before his wife, he 
 was the picture of a man barely restraining his rage. The accidental 
 witness of this scene did not hear what Buckson said, but, judging from 
 
772 LOST AND MISSED PERSONS. 
 
 his features, it must necessarily have been something very serious and 
 severe. His hands also, which were nervously twitching a whip-rope , 
 plainly showed his great excitement. This scene, although it did not 
 remain a secret, caused no wonder in the town. No one thought of any- 
 thing wrong when the house of Buckson remained closed the following 
 morning. All thought that the captain had gone to Providence, and his 
 wife as usual to some of her friends in the neighborhood. 
 
 Back of the town there was a beautiful forest, with small plots of 
 open ground here and there. In these plots the children of the town 
 were wont to gather blackberries. One day a party of children had 
 ventured further than usual into the woods, and were about to retrace 
 their steps, when a little dog which they had with them suddenly stopped, 
 and, with much barking and howling, began to tear up the ground. The 
 children tried in vain to get the dog away, but he would always run 
 back to that spot. When the children, whose curiosity was now fully 
 aroused, came to look at the spot more closely, they saw, to their horror, 
 a human hand and a pale face protruding from the ground. With a cry 
 of terror they threw down their baskets and ran home. There they 
 created the greatest excitement by relating their story. 
 
 After considerable discussion as to what should be done in the matter* 
 all the men in the town, headed by the squire with a lantern, went out 
 to the scene of the horrible discovery. Some of the more courageous 
 children served as guides. The howling of the dog could be heard 
 through the stillness of the night long before the spot was reached, and 
 served to guide them there. At last they arrived. The squire knelt 
 down, wiped the damp earth from the face of the corpse, and allowed 
 the full flare of his lantern to fall upon it. 
 
 " It is Nancy Buckson !" he cried out, starting back with a cry of 
 horror ; and very little more and his words would have caused a general 
 stampede among his companions. 
 
 But they soon rallied, and, removing a few shovelsfull of earth, ex- 
 posed the corpse. All now looked at it, and all were of the opinion that 
 it could be no one but Nancy Buckson. A blue, swollen mark was seen 
 around her neck, which plainly showed that she had died by strangula- 
 tion. Another strange circumstance was that the body was covered with 
 chloride of lime, which could have had no other object than to hasten 
 decay, and thus destroy every vestige of the crime. 
 
 Now the above-mentioned quarrel suddenly assumed a very serious 
 meaning, and it seemed clear to everyone that the whip-cord had become 
 a murderous weapon in the hands of the enraged captain. The body 
 was placed on a litter made of branches of trees, and was carried to the 
 village. Upon its arrival, the female portion of the community also 
 crowded around it, and not only recognized it as Nancy herself, but also 
 identified her earrings. When furthermore a cord was found in Buck- 
 
TUK DA UK «U1>K OF NEW YORK LIKK. 
 
 77.) 
 
 son's house, and a large quantity of chloride of lime in the cellar, there 
 was probably not a single person in all of Seakonk who doubted Captain 
 John's guilt. 
 
 A requisition for his arrest was obtained, and an officer sent with it to 
 New York, where it was thought that Captain John might have just 
 arrived. Upon the arrival of the officer in the city, he found that the 
 sloop had arrived before him, and the police, to whom he had applied, 
 immediately proceeded to arrest the captain. The latter was sitting in- 
 dolently on board his sloop, and hardly took any notice of Police-Captaiu 
 Leonard, who had been entrusted with this work. Only when the latter 
 declared that he had come to arrest him, he said in a tone expressing 
 more wonder than fear : 
 
 "Arrest ! For what?" 
 
 The answer to this question was short and to the point : " For the 
 murder of your wife." 
 
 " What ! Murder of my wife ! Squire, that can't be ; my wife isn't 
 dead !" 
 
 " Yes, she is — strangled with a cord." 
 
 Upon this Buckson arose, and, looking the officer steadily in the face, 
 said, in a slow and solemn tone : 
 
 " Squire, if Nancy's dead, I don't know it. I quarrelled with her the 
 night I left, and gave her a piece of my mind ; but God is my witness 
 that I didn't put a hand on her !" 
 
 After these words, he quietly went with the officer to the police head- 
 quarters. From there he was taken to Seakonk. Upon arriving there 
 & bitter feeling was manifested against the prisoner on the part of his 
 townspeople. An excited mob followed him on his way to prison with 
 threats and insults, and seemed inclined to tear him to pieces. Buckson 
 bore all this quietly. But this calmness was, in the eyes of the mob, 
 only a sign of his total depravity, and all said that they had never seen 
 .such a hardened criminal. 
 
 The grand jury, which considered his case in due time, indicted him 
 for the murder of Nancy Buckson. When told of this he only said : 
 " God's will be done !" 
 
 His perfect resignation had in the meantime had some effect on the 
 jailor's heart, and he asked him whether he did not wish to engage coun- 
 sel to defend him at his coming trial. 
 
 This first sign of sympathy caused Buckson* s face to brighten up a 
 little, but he simply answered : " I thank you, my friend ; but I don't 
 need a lawyer. God knows I am innocent of this crime, and He will 
 prove it in His own good time." 
 
 The day of trial was rapidly approaching, when the village was again 
 surprised by some news which filled the inhabitants with terror. One 
 morning when the mail-coach arrived, a figure stepped out of it which 
 
774 LOST AND MISSED PERSONS. 
 
 the people standing around took to be the ghost of the murdered Nancy ~ 
 This figure went up the street which led to the former place of abode of 
 the Bucksons, and on its way nodded to several persons, and even tried 
 to pat a child on the head. But her words were not returned, and the 
 child ran off crying. It was a persistent ghost, for it walked on until it 
 reached the gate of the Buckson property, which had in the meantime 
 been nailed up. And when the figure, which until now had been mute,, 
 found that the pigs were rooting up the garden, it also found its tongue? 
 and burst out with — 
 
 u That John Buckson will be the death of me ! Just see how he lets 
 these pesky pigs root up things !" 
 
 It was Nancy Buckson herself. A more convincing proof of Captain 
 John's innocence could not be demanded, and he was immediately dis- 
 charged. But how was this mystery explained, in consequence of which 
 Buckson was to have been tried, and for which he probably would have 
 been hung? 
 
 On the evening when he had the quarrel with his wife, he left the 
 house to go in his sloop to Providence, while his wife, angry at his first 
 cross words, also left the house on the same night, and had gone on 
 foot to the next station, and thence had went by railroad to some of her 
 relatives in Maine. Her absence was not noticed until the corpse was 
 found in the woods, and which was recognized by all her friends as her 
 own ; while she heard nothing in Maine of the murder, nor of the terri- 
 ble position in which her husband had been placed by her absence, and 
 the discovery of that corpse. 
 
 But who was the murdered woman, whose body had been mistaken 
 for that of Nancy Buckson? The cord with which she had been 
 strangled was the same which Captain John had had in his hand on the 
 night of the quarrel with his wife ; the clothes which the woman had on 
 were those of Mrs. Buckson ; the chloride of lime was out of Buckson's 
 cellar — and yet the murdered woman was not Mrs. Buckson, who was 
 alive and well. Who then was the murdered woman ? 
 
 This mystery has never been solved. Only suppositions can be made 
 with regard to it. Everything in the house seemed to prove that, on the 
 night of the murder, some thieves had entered the house, and, having 
 found it empty, plundered it at their leisure. Some female clothing, af- 
 terwards found in an old well, made it probable that there was a woman 
 among the thieves. This one had probably improved the opportunity to 
 supply herself from Mrs. Buckson's wardrobe, and to make use of Mrs. 
 Buckson's jewelry. They may have then quarrelled over the spoils, and 
 the woman was put out of the way. But who this woman was, and 
 who were her companions on that fatal night, has never beea discovered 
 to this day. 
 
 The following case is still stranger : 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 775 
 
 v 
 
 On a beautiful spring morning in the year 18G1, a barrel of tar which 
 had lain on one of the Jersey City docks was found missing, and the 
 watchman, who had the care of the goods stowed away there, supposed 
 that it had been stolen by river thieves. The day before, a certain Ada 
 Ricard, a woman of questionable morals, but of great beauty, who led 
 an unsteady life, and stopped in a New York hotel, had left it without 
 saying where she was going, or even that she was going away at all. 
 A few days after these two simultaneous events, the same watchman was 
 standing on the end of the dock during low tide, and was looking on the 
 Hudson, when his attention was caught by a human foot, which protru- 
 ded above the water. As the corpses of drowned persons never float in 
 this manner, this seemed doubly strange to him. He went for help, and 
 then the body was pulled out of the water. But it seemed very heavy, 
 and, being hauled on shore, it was found that the missing barrel of tar 
 was fastened to the waist ; its mouth was gagged ; — and both these facts 
 were positive proof that this was a case of murder. When the 
 corpse was inspected on the dock, it was found that, although it must 
 have been in the water for some time, it was still very well preserved. 
 It was the body of a woman only covered by a fine linen shirt, 
 and with only one stocking, which, although it exactly fitted the very 
 largely developed leg, was still two sizes too large for the foot. The fea- 
 tures and whole body were very beautiful. On one leg there was a scar 
 from an old wound, but otherwise there was not a trace of a crime to be 
 seen. 
 
 After the coroner's inquest, the body was buried, the head having first 
 been severed from it. The head was placed in alcohol, and preserved in 
 the office of the city physician, in the hopes that the identity of the dead 
 woman might thus be ascertained at some future time, and that her mur- 
 derer might receive his merited punishment. 
 
 Both the New York and New Jersey police took great interest in this 
 case, but it remained completely in the dark, for it seemed as if no one 
 had ever seen this woman. Nothing remained, therefore, for them but 
 to wait for something to turn up. 
 
 At last chance brought about the identification. A gentleman who 
 accidentally saw the head, immediately declared it to be that of a certain 
 Ada Ricard, with whom he had been intimately acquainted for over two 
 years. The detectives took hold of the matter, and ascertained that the 
 disappearance of Ada Ricard and the barrel of tar were simultane- 
 ous events. It w^s furthermore found that since that time Ada 
 Ricard had not been seen in New York, while all researches of the police 
 for this woman in other cities were also failures. So the only clues in 
 the research were a woman bad disappeared, and a dead body had heeu 
 found, and it was to be hoped that the matter would soon be brought to 
 an end now. The next step to be taken now was to establish the iden- 
 
776 LOST AND MISSED PERSONS. 
 
 tity of (he dead body by the persons who had known her well, and the 
 detectives at last succeeded in discovering the supposed husband of the 
 dead woman, a certain Charles Ricard. He had not lived with her for 
 some time, and had neither seen nor heard anything of her for several 
 months ; but his recollection of her person was still perfect, and he gave 
 a minute description of her whole body. He remembered that she had 
 insisted upon weariDg a very heavy pair of earrings until one ear had 
 been slit completely, and the other partially so, and that therefore new 
 holes had to be pierced in both ears, and that too very high up. He had 
 always regretted that her very fine set of teeth had been marred by the 
 loss of a tooth on the left side, and described how she had come by a 
 wound on her left leg, of which the scar could still be seen ; and he also 
 described the exact position of the wound. He spoke with considerable 
 pride of the extraordinary development of her limb, and that she had to 
 wear stockings too large for her feet. He gave a general description of 
 her person with regard to hair, features, height, and weight. All these 
 statements were considered especially valuable, because they were so 
 very minute. 
 
 The statements he had givon were carefully compared with those noted 
 down at the coroners inquest, and they were found to correspond exactly 
 with the exception of the one about the tooth, for in the head of the 
 woman there were two teeth missing, one on each side of the mouth. 
 But as this may have been caused by a struggle, the physician examined 
 the head, and found the tooth still hanging to the gum, and, having 
 pushed the tooth back into its place, the head of Ada Ricard was per- 
 fect there before them, as described by her husband. When he had 
 given the description of his wife, he had had no idea that her dead body 
 had been found, nor even that she was no longer among the living. He 
 was taken to Jersey City, and there suddenly confronted with the head. 
 He sunk into a chair as if struck by palsy. 
 
 The detectives also succeeded in producing other persons who had 
 known Ada Ricard ; among them her hair-dresser, who had waited upon 
 her for several months previous to her disappearance, and he, as well as 
 others, confirmed the statement that it was the head of Ada Ricard. 
 Thus the identity of the murdered woman seemed to be established be- 
 yond a doubt. 
 
 The next thing was to clear up the mystery of her death. The detec- 
 tives collected every fact they could obtain of the life of Ada Ricard, 
 to glean from it some clue that would lead to the detection of her mur- 
 derder, when they were suddenly baffled again. Ada Ricard arrived 
 alive and well at a New York hotel. 
 
 The explanation was very simple. When she had left the hotel on 
 that memorable day, she had suddenly taken a fancy to go to New Or- 
 leans. But on her arrival she found the city occupied by Gen. Sutler's 
 
THE DAKK 91 DB OF NEW YORK LIFE. 777 
 
 troops, and had therefore returned. The head of the dead woman now 
 became a still greater mystery. The astonished detectives looked at it 
 in wouder, and 6ent descriptions of it throughout the entire length and 
 breadth of the United States. 
 
 It was at last seen by a Mrs. Callahan, who lived in Boston, and who 
 was searching for her fallen daughter. The identification was as specific 
 as before, and the authorities, glad to get rid of the matter, gave her 
 permission to bury the body in Boston. But before all the arrange- 
 ments had been made to transport the body, Mrs. Callahan received a 
 letter from her daughter in Bellevue Hospital ; and thus the head was 
 again surrounded by deep mystery. 
 
 And this mystery has remained unsolved to the present day. The 
 body found showed that a murder had been committed upon an extremely 
 beautiful woman in the bloom of youth, and belonging to the better 
 classes. That is all that is known. Her name, her station, and her his- 
 tory will in all probability remain shrouded in mystery forever. 
 
 In the chapter on prostitution we have given several cases in which 
 innocent girls have been dragged to houses of prostitution. These cases 
 very frequently furnish the means of solving these riddles. For houses 
 who do not hesitate to commit such an act of kidnapping, would also 
 unhesitatingly employ murder if necessary. Such eveuts do not belong 
 to romance, although they sound very much like it. 
 
 In the year 1871, the New York Tribune, a pnper not addicted to 
 sensationalism, published the following : 
 
 Miss N., the seventeen-year-old daughter of a highly respectable fa- 
 mily, had been out on a visit, on the night of the 2d of August, to some 
 friends in Lexington avenue. While returning home, two well-dressed 
 ladies stepped up to her and asked her for the address of a family in the 
 .neighborhood. While speaking to these women, she felt a cloth put 
 to her face, the sweet scent of which immediately stupefied her. When 
 she recovered her senses, she fouud herself in an elegantly fitted up 
 room, the doors and windows of which were tightly closed. All cries of 
 the poor girl were in vain, and her excitement soon rose to such a pitch 
 that her strength gave out and she fainted away. Awaking from her 
 swoon, she found herself in bed with one of these ladies. 
 
 All questions as to how she had come there, and all her demands to 
 be released, were in vain. The unknown seemed only to try and quiet 
 her with the assurance that no harm would come to her if she kept still. 
 The girl passed the night in a terrible state of fear. In the morning a 
 negress entered the room, and brought her some breakfast. The con- 
 duct of this negress showed that she felt pity for the poor girl. Miss N. 
 therefore tried to persuade her to help her to escape from the house. 
 She succeeded in this very easily, as the colored woman promised to get 
 .her out of the house at the first opportunity. 
 
778 O.OST AND MISSED PERSONS. 
 
 Having been calmed down a little by this assurance, she began to look 
 about a little. The discovery she made during this search tended to fill 
 her anew with terror and alarm. In a drawer she found the following 
 letter,' all crumpled up : 
 
 " Mrs. R : I have paid you the $4,000 ; when will you bring me 
 
 the blondine ? Do not think that I will te cheated by you ! 
 
 (Signed) " Sixty-second Street." 
 
 She had hardly time to collect herself when the unknown lady again 
 entered the room. She was very friendly, and in a kind tone reproached 
 the girl for feeling any fear, and thus destroying her beauty. She also 
 asked her to dress herself, as she was to receive the company of a gen- 
 tleman that evening, who would feel overjoyed to contribute to her hap- 
 piness. 
 
 The unfortunate girl did her utmost to deceive the woman. She suc- 
 ceeded in this, and in consequence was allowed greater freedom than she 
 had enjoyed until then. This, together with the assistance of the ne- 
 gress, enabled her to get into the street, where she ran about wildly. 
 She at last met a policeman, who told her where she was, after which 
 she soon reached her parents' home. 
 
 The "missed" girl had in this case been found again by her parents. 
 But what if chance had not come to her assistance, and she had given her- 
 self up to a life of shame ? A sick bed probably would have been her 
 fate, from which she would never again have arisen. In that event it 
 is probable that her name would probably have figured on the list of 
 " Lost and Missed Persons." 
 
 Such cases in which women and girls are brought to dens of infamy 
 are by no means among the exceptions. The business of procuresses is 
 a very paying one in our city, and women engaged in it do not even hes- 
 itate to use force. The authorities find it extremely difficult to hunt up 
 such women as go into houses of prostitution of their own free will. 
 This becomes still more difficult when the proprietress of one of these 
 houses has a reason for keeping the presence of one of its inmates a se- 
 cret. But, in spite of all this, such abductions are of very rare occur- 
 rence, even in the face of the readiness of many to assume a story of 
 the kind when a young and handsome woman has disappeared. 
 
 Nothing has given our city a worse reputation than the annual disap- 
 pearance of a large number of persons. Particularly during the year 
 1872 the number of missed persons assumed such an alarming height, 
 that it produced a much greater feeling of insecurity than the frequency 
 of murders. The police were of course held responsible for these dis- 
 appearanc es, and were forced to hear strong censure passed on them on 
 this account. But, judging from what has gone before, and not suppos- 
 ing the police to be endowed with omnipotence, we see that it is an im- 
 possibility to prevent the disappearance of persons altogether, or to dis- 
 
THE DAUK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 779 
 
 t 
 
 cover the fate of every person who has disappeared. But the police are 
 by do means entirely free from blame. They could do much to decrease 
 the number of these terrible occurrences, by exercising a sharper control 
 over gambling dens, houses of prostitution, and other similar establish- 
 ments, than they have done up to the present time. For it is undeniable 
 that ihe number of those unfortunates who are annually murdered, com- 
 mit suicide, or hide their shame in distant countries, must be put down 
 to the credit of these and similar establishments. The more strictly 
 these institutions are controlled, the smaller will their number become, 
 and also the number of those who excite the city by their strange and. 
 sudden disappearance. 
 
 THE MORGUE. 
 
 Nowhere are people more strange to ea^h other than in the busy life- 
 of a great city. Every one thinks and acts for himself alone, or for his 
 immediate relatives. With the exception of these and a number of 
 friends, even one who has grown gray in the city is no less a stranger 
 to hundreds of thousands of his fellow-citizens, than if he had just landed 
 in Castle Garden. This is a feature of all large cities, and it is literally 
 true, that nowhere is loneliness felt more than in the busy life of a great 
 metropolis. Any one, even if he be extremely popular in his surround- 
 ings, if he goes beyond these, he will find himself as much a stranger as 
 if he had gone to the Antipodes. He may go the whole length of the 
 city, from the Battery to Westchester County, and among all the thous- 
 ands whom he meets hardly one will accidentally recognize him, while he 
 also will recognize but few. 
 
 In so far every one of us is a stranger in a city like New York, out- 
 side of his immediate surroundings, and supposing that a man accident- 
 ally lost his life, the question, "Who is the man?" will very rarely be 
 answered upon the first inquiry. Such cases of sudden death in the 
 streets are not of unfrequent occurrence. In former cases the body of 
 the " Unknown " was simply brought to the nearest station-house or hos- 
 pital, and there an investigation was made whether anything on his per- 
 sou would throw some light on his name or residence. If this was not 
 the case, he was kept until somebody was reported as " missed," andthenv 
 
780 THB MORGUE. 
 
 it was easily seen from the description whether the unknown corpse was 
 the person sought or not. If no one was found who recognized the 
 corpse, it was buried in Potter's Field, on Hart's Island. 
 
 Thus it was in the year 1866. In this year it was resolved to remove 
 the defects in connection with the identification of corpses, by entrusting 
 it to a separate department, to be subordinate to the Commissioners of 
 Charities and Corrections. A similar institution in Paris, which had 
 gained a sad reputation under the name of " The Morgue," served as a 
 model. Not only the system, but also the name, was adopted, and it 
 took its place among our public institutions under the name of " The 
 Morgue." 
 
 The Morgue is situated in Bellevue Hospital, that large public institu- 
 tion on Avenue B, between 26th and 28th streets. Its building, erected 
 in 1866, lies back of Bellevue Hospital, towards East River, and fronts 
 on Twenty-sixth street. In its construction the too common mistake 
 was made of only making provision for the present, and the consequence 
 was that rooms were obtained which soon proved entirely inadequate. 
 In this respect our Morgue has only the name of its Parisian model. 
 It is a low and gloomy-looking brick building, in which the first thing 
 that attracts our attention is the apartment known as " Exhibition Hall," 
 where the bodies of the unknown dead are kopt. 
 
 This hall, however, is nothing but a room on the ground floor, about 
 twenty feet square. The air in it is damp and mouldy, and filled with 
 the smell of corpses. Through the middle of the room there is a long 
 glass window, similar to a large show window of a business house. This 
 glass wall separates life from death, the latter exhibiting itself behind it. 
 In the space partitioned oft' by this glass wall, sparsely lighted by three 
 windows, there are five tables with marble slabs, which are inclined in 
 such a manner that the head of a body resting on one of them, is higher 
 than the feet. Over every body there is a hydrant and a gas-jet. The 
 object of the hydrant is to let ice-cold water fall on the bodies in sum- 
 mer, to delay decomposition as long as possible. On cloudy days, and 
 in the evening, the gas-jets throw a bright light on the bodies, which are 
 turned towards the wall, and are covered, with the exception of the 
 head, with black oil-cloth. Along the wall, at the upper end of the 
 tables, there is a row of iron hooks, on which clothes and other objects 
 found on persons are kept for identification. 
 
 The public is only admitted to the space before the glass window. In 
 it are photographs of all bodies which have not yet been identified, truly 
 eloquent pictures of death in its most horrible form. But, in spite of 
 their repulsive appearance, they are of great value for future identifica- 
 tion, as they preserve the true appearance of the bodies long after decay 
 has set in. It is therefore to be regretted that the administration saw 
 itself forced to give up the the photographing of unidentified bodies for 
 
t 
 THE DARK SIDE OP NEW YORK LIFK. 781 
 
 considerations of a pecuniary character, and that this clue to identity is 
 for the time being lost. 
 
 This is the condition of the place to which all persons arc brought 
 who have come to their death in the streets by some accident, or who 
 have been fished out of the waters, and whose name and residence are 
 unknown to the police, or who are not recognized by those who may 
 casually see the body. 
 
 Immediately upon the arrival of such a corpse at the Morgue, the 
 city coroner is notified of the fact, and he then proceeds to hold an inquesU 
 If there are any signs of a crime having been committed, or any suspi- 
 cious circumstances connected with the discovery of the body, the police 
 are notified, who then continue the investigation of the cause of death* 
 In every case, however, a minute description of the persons, the circum- 
 stances of their death, and how they were found, are sent, in the daily 
 report of the warden of the Morgue, to the " Bureau for the Recovery 
 of Lost Persons," at the police headquarters. If the bodies are not al- 
 ready in such a state of decomposition that an identification is impossi- 
 ble, they remain in the Morgue for three days. If, duriug this time, no 
 oue is found who recognizes and reclaims them, they are buried at tke 
 public expense in a special part of the city cemetery, on Hart's Island,, 
 which is intended exclusively for unknown corpses. This burial is of 
 course very plain, but great care is taken that, even after interment, the 
 body shall not be lost to its friends. A minute description of the person,, 
 the clothing, and all articles found on the body, is kept in a book in 
 Belle vue Hospital. Every corpse is denoted by a number in this book. 
 The grave and coffin are then also marked with this number. This book 
 is always open for inspection in the office of the hospital, for those who 
 wish to ascertain the fate of some relative or friend. This happens in 
 many cases, and even when a body has been buried for a long time. This 
 is particularly the case if the dead person was a stranger in the city, and 
 his family or friends, who live at a distance, have not heard from him 
 for a long time. 
 
 The case of Alice Bowlesby, the victim of Rozenwieg, however, is a 
 proof that even persons living near the city may be in ignorance for a 
 long time of some misfortune that has befallen one of their friends. All 
 the papers at the time were full of the details of the horrible affair, and 
 yet the relatives of the unfortunate young woman were all the time sup- 
 posing that she was stopping with some friends. It was only by acci- 
 dent that her remains were identified, and that too a long time after she 
 would have been buried, had hers been an ordinary case, unattended with 
 public excitement. 
 
 Those persons, then, who miss their friends when it is too late, may 
 have some clue to their fate in the books of the Morgue. If one of the 
 descriptions answers to the person, the body is placed at their disposal. 
 
782 THE MORGUE. 
 
 But this is not done without formalities. And, it may be supposed, it 
 does not suffice that anybody recognize a corpse as that of some partic- 
 ular person, to receive a certificate of his death. If this were the case, 
 a wide field would be opened to swindling in life insurance and legacy 
 matters. As we have seen in the preceding chapter, chance very fre- 
 quently plays tricks in this respect, by which a false identification will 
 happen in spite of the best intentions. How much more, then, would 
 this be the case if swindlers were enabled to use the unknown dead of 
 our city for their criminal purposes. Very few of the bodies exposed in 
 the Morgue would then remain without being identified. Any swindler 
 who had insured his life for a high amount, would claim a body which 
 could pass for his own. He would always find friends to identify the 
 body for good pay, to help to gain possession of the money, under a 
 strange name. 
 
 Whether such swindles do not occur in spite of all preventives, it is 
 difficult to tell. They are certainly possible, and it would be giving our 
 swindlers credit for very little enterprise to suppose that it had not al- 
 ready been attempted. 
 
 We may suppose that one-half of the bodies are identified in the 
 Morgue. The identification of persons already buried is also not unfre- 
 quent. The research of those looking for friends is soon directed to the 
 Morgue, and the graves on Hart's Island. The person looked for is 
 then very frequently found in one of these graves, and the friends hasten 
 to transfer the body to their own cemetery. This is the case with a 
 large number every year, although the majority of those buried remain 
 there until the mystery surrounding them disappears with their graves. 
 From the opening of the Morgue in 1866, until November 25, 1873, 
 1,173 corpses were exposed in tne Exhibition Hall. The average num- 
 ber sent there during the year probably amounts to 130 or 140. With 
 rogard to the causes of death, over one-half were drowned. It is cer- 
 tainly difficult to say whether this was the result of accident, murder, or 
 suicide. Injuries, such as broken heads, guoshot wounds, etc., are com- 
 paratively very few. 
 
 The year 1872 is a sad exception to this rule. For, while in the 
 other years the average number found with injuries on their bodies was 
 between 3 and 10, in this year it was as high as 31. This was caused 
 by the Orange riot in July of that year, whea>the militia fired upon the 
 mob. This, however, was a fatal year in other respects also, as the 
 Westfield disaster, on July 31st, sent no less than sixty-four victims to 
 the Morgue. 
 
 Then it was especially that the narrowness of the space in the Morgue 
 was felt, as it was hardly able to hold the dead, much less the living who 
 -came there to look lor their friends. 
 
 Of the other unknown causes, those in which death resulted frombeins: 
 
THE DARK 9IDE OF NEW YORK LIYK. 783 
 
 run over, from heart di3ea9e, and from sunstroke, must be particularly 
 mentioned, of which latter there were eleven cases in 1872, and ten in 
 1871. The proportion of the male to the female bodies is about 7 to 1. 
 Children are very seldom found in the Morgue, and their average num- 
 ber does not exceed two or three per year. 
 
 Below we give a tabular view of the above, comprising the time from 
 January 1, 1869, to November 25, 1873 : 
 Year. Bodies. Men. Women. Identified. Not Idenfied. Drowned. 
 
 18G9 
 
 149 
 
 134 
 
 15 
 
 70 
 
 79 
 
 99 
 
 1870 
 
 174 
 
 149 
 
 25 
 
 89 
 
 85 
 
 107 
 
 1871 
 
 214 
 
 180 
 
 34 
 
 127 
 
 87 
 
 108 
 
 1872 
 
 185 
 
 1G2 
 
 13 
 
 81 
 
 104 
 
 112 
 
 1873 
 
 123 
 
 109 
 
 14 
 
 52 
 
 71 
 
 74 
 
 Total, 845 734 111 419 426 500 
 
 Murder and suicide play a very subordinate part in the causes of 
 death enumerated in the reports of the Morgue. During the five years 
 above-mentioned, there were only 11 bodies of suicides, and not one of 
 a murdered person. 
 
 The cause of this is chiefly to be sought in the difficulty attending the 
 investigation as to how the bodies came into the water, or came to their 
 wounds. But it cannot be denied that in many cases the coroner pro- 
 ceeds too hastily, and ends the matter with a verdict of " Found 
 drowned," where a little care would easily show traces of foul play. 
 Thi9 carelessness on the part of our coroners is also the cause that our 
 water-froDts have such an unsafe reputation. The criminals need only 
 bring their victims there, and they have an easy prey. They rob them, 
 throw them into the water, and the next morning the coroner renders his 
 verdict of " Found drowned." The body goes to the Morgue for identi- 
 fication, and there the matter ends. 
 
 With regard to the administration of the Morgue, it has always been 
 of such a character that no such reports as circulate about its sister in- 
 stitution in Philadelphia, have ever been brought against this one. It 
 we have therefore classed it among our dark sides, this has only been 
 done because so much in it reminds one of crime and misfortune, which, 
 in their various forms, we have shown to our readers. 
 
 There, for instance, lies a young man. He was found in the water ; 
 but the numerous wounds on his head show that he came to his end by 
 murderous hands. His features are so defaced by wounds and uecay, 
 that his own mother would not be able to identify him. His clothes 
 also, which have become torn and soiled, can hardly serve as clues. 
 "Who he i3, and whence he came, are mysteries which will probably 
 never be solved. A loving mother or wife perhaps anxiously awaits his 
 return in some distant town, and does not in the least suppose his body is 
 
784 THE MORGUE. 
 
 rotting away in a nameless grave. He went to New York, and did not 
 return. That is all she knows of him. If she could raise the veil that 
 covers his absence, she would see the mourned one in happy company, 
 whence he allows himself to be brought to a gambling den in a state of in- 
 toxication. There he is drugged, and is brought home by some unprin- 
 cipled rascals. But to what a home ! They bring him to the East 
 River ; a few terrible blows on the head, a moaning cry, a splash, and 
 all is over with the poor fellow. A week afterwards his half-decomposed 
 body is brought to the Morgue. 
 
 On another table is the body of a woman. She also was taken from 
 the river. Her features are beautiful, but they wear the stamp of vice. 
 At one time perhaps she was the pride of her parents, and life seemed 
 only to have happiness in store for her. But temptation came and led 
 her away from the path of duty, and she entered upon a life of shame. 
 She sank lower and lower, until at last she was seized by desperation, 
 and by a leap into the water ended her life and her shame b3neath its 
 calm surface. 
 
 There again we see the shrivelled body of an old man. He looks as 
 if he were sleeping calmly. He was found dead in an empty building 
 lot. Debility, in consequence of hunger and exposure, had put an end 
 to his life, which must have been a burden to him already. Poor and 
 friendless 1 That is the reason why he is not missed in this large city.. 
 He is forgotten in an unknown grave. 
 
 This body here, bloated, and with veins so swollen that they almost 
 resemble stripes, is easily recognized as that of a confirmed drunkard* 
 He was found where he had iallen in a beastly state of intoxication. 
 Had it not been for the bottle, he would probably have lived honored and 
 respected by all who knew him, instead of lying on the marble slab,, 
 missed by nobody. 
 
 In this and similar manners the observer will always find some link to 
 connect the dead in the Morgue with one of the dark sides of New 
 York. Not unfrequently heartrending scenes occur in the Morgue, when 
 some one, looking for a relative or friend, finds him on one of the marble 
 slabs. This was particularly the case when the victims of the Orange 
 riots, on the 12th, and of the Westfield explosion, on the 30th, of July, 
 1871, brought thousands of anxious people there. 
 
 On the 30th of July not less than sixty-four bodies, scalded and burned 
 in the most terrible manner, lay on the marble slabs. Within and with- 
 out a large crowd of persons were trying to obtain a view of the dead. 
 From time to time a heartrending cry or moan could be heard, when one 
 of the victims was recognized by a relative or friend. Women fainted 
 when their turn came to enter the fatal hall, where their worst fears were 
 perhaps to be realized. Many others, overpowered by grief, had to be 
 carried out. Before that day New York hardly knew that it had a 
 
THK IiAKK BIDK OK NKW TORI LIFB. 
 
 785 
 
 Morgue. Bat the events of the 12th and 30th of July drew to this 
 building over seventy thousand persons. 
 
 Except on such unusual occasions, or when, as in the case of Alice 
 Bowlesby, some terrible crime is at the bottom of the affair, the Morgue 
 is very quiet. The plashing of the water on the bodies forms a kind of 
 monotonous music, which is hardly interrupted by the whispers of a few 
 loungers who are never wanting there. 
 
 It is to be hoped that such events as the Westfield explosion and the 
 Orange riot will never occur again, and interrupt the quiet of the Morgue 
 in such a tragic manner. The Morgue is a necessity arising from the 
 dark sides of our city. The more these dark sides are caused to disap- 
 pear, the less will the Morgue intrude itself upon the attention of the 
 public. It can certainly never he dispensed with entirely in a city like 
 New York, but it is a sad sign that one hundred and fifty u missed " 
 persons, dead and disfigured, can be found in no other place than the 
 Morgue. 
 
 LIST OF SWINDLING FIRMS. 
 
 In the article on Swindling, we have given a list of the u sawdust 
 swindlers," which contains two hundred and sixty-one names of such 
 firms, and we promised, at that time, that at the end of the work we 
 would give a complete list of all the other swindling firms. This we 
 now present to our readers. 
 
 It contains in all 648 names, of whom 466 are in New York, while 
 182 send their circulars and advertisements from other cities aud States, 
 and comprises swindlers of the various classes, as we have described 
 them in the chapter devoted to them. It is to be remarked that almost 
 all these names are false, as the swindlers take good care not to endanger 
 themselves by giving their real names. 
 
 Upon looking through the list, we see in it a large number of well- 
 sounding names, and these are most eagerly chosen by swindlers, as they 
 give an appearance of respectability to their fraudulent enterprises. We 
 have endeavored to make the list as complete as possible, but do not in- 
 tend by any means to guarantee it to be entirely so, as new swindling 
 firms make their appearance almost every day. The object we had in 
 
 50 
 
786 LIST OF SWINDLING FIRMS. 
 
 view, in giving the list in the chapter on Swindlers, aud the one below, 
 is not to satisfy an idle curiosity, but to benefit our readers. And this 
 object will be attained if they consult this list whenever they receive let- 
 ters or circulars from strangers, just as we used to look into " Bank-Note 
 Reporters " before accepting an unknown bank-note. Then, if the name 
 looked for is not found, let it be by no means forgotten that new swind- 
 ling firms are making, their appearance, and that a suspicion against all 
 offers that promise large gains for very little money, is the safest protec- 
 tion against fraud. 
 
 We hope that what we havo said in this work on swindlers will open 
 the eyes of many unsuspecting persons, save them from losses, and con- 
 siderably increase the difficulties with which the swindlers meet in prose- 
 cuting their work. 
 
 We would request those of our readers who may receive names of 
 other swindlers than those mentioned in our two lists, to send them to 
 us. By so doing they will greatly oblige us, and also serve the com- 
 munity. 
 
 J. W. Adams, R. Adams, Buffalo, Adams & Co. ; S. Y. Adams & 
 Co. ; Prof. Agazoui & Co., Ashland, Mass. ; Alexis Perfume Company ; 
 E. C. Allen & Co., Augusta, Maine ; F. Allen, alias Book Agency, alias 
 Prof. Allen, alias Price & Co., East Fairfield, Ohio ; R. F. Allen, Vic 
 toria, Texas ; T. G. Allison, W. E. Almey, C. W. Alter, alias D. B. 
 White, alias C. M. Payne ; American Coast Wrecking Union ; Amer- 
 ican Dispatch Company ; American Dispatch Express ; American 
 Prize Association ; American Publishing Company, Rutland, Vermont ; 
 American Tea, Coffee, and Spice Company ; American and Transat- 
 lantic Receiving and Forwarding Company ; B. A. Amos & Co. ; J. H. 
 Anderson & Co., Salem, Mass. ; E. Andrews, Albany, New York; F. 
 E. Andrews, L. Andrews, Marion County, Ohio ; R. D. Anson, Anson, 
 Carey & Co. ; Apex Sewing Machine Company ; J. D. Armond, Bu- 
 chanan, Michigan ; Arrandale & Co. ; O. Arogon & Co. ; Asylum for 
 Sick aud Wounded Soldiers ; Athol Medical Bureau of Massachusetts, 
 Boston ; J. F. Ayres, Boston ; R. Ayres, Boston. 
 
 J. P. Baker & Co., alias H. Cotter & Co., alias Bell & Son, alias 
 King & Co., alias Owen Brothers, alias J. Fisher & Co., alias Williams 
 & Co. ; M. Baker ; Merchants* and Bankers' Association ; Banning, 
 Beatson & Co. ; Barber, Walter & Co. ; Barclay & Co., alias H. Bar- 
 clay & Co. ; J. Barker & Co. ; James P. Barker & Co., alias B. B. 
 Walker & Co. ; P. Barker, Albany, New York ; C. P. Barkis ; H. S. 
 Barnard, alias K. P. Douglass, alias George Savory, alias, L. F. Har- 
 ness, alias S, M. Kelley, alias N. L. Werner, alias F. H. Park, alias L. 
 P, Benchley, alias H. J. Keene, alias Charles W. Young, alias K. G. 
 Pott, alias H. W. Elston, alias E. S. Hale, alias L. F. Stark, alias Eib. 
 Putnam, alias C. E. Sturtevant, alias T. P. Walters, alias G. S. Derney, 
 
TH1 DARK BID! OK NSW YORK I. IKK. 7H7 
 
 alias B. S. Crowe ; Edward Barnes ; Barkley & Co. ; Barnes, Warer & 
 Co ; T. J. Barton, alias T. J. Barton & Co., alias Barton & Co. ; Batey 
 & Co., alias Th. Pierce ; B. B. Manufacturing Company, Republic, 
 Ohio ; George W. Beach, alias D. M. Palmer, alias J. P. Sargent ; A. 
 D. Beatty, J. D. Beck, Beck & Howe, Philadelphia ; C. C. Bell, St. 
 Louis ; J. Bell, Bell & Son, alias King & Co, alias Owen Brothers, alias 
 Williams & Co. ; G. C. Bennett, alias Bennett & Co., Wadsworth, Ohio, 
 Kansas City, Missouri, Sharon Centre, Ohio ; C. E. Benson & Co., J. 
 A. Benson, S. D. Benson ; Bertine & Co. ; J. Birch & Co., Williams- 
 burgh ; A. P. Russell, Philadelphia ; J. M. Blake & Co. ; C. Blaker & 
 Co. ; E. A. Blanchard, alias E. A. Blanchard & Co. ; L. A. Boley, 
 Hamilton, Ohio ; C. Boughton, St. Joseph, Missouri ; Thomas Boult & 
 Co. ; J. F. Boyd, B. C. Bradford, L. S. Bradford, Bradford, Van Delp 
 & Co. ; Thomas Bret ; A. Bridges ; Bright, Prentice & Co. ; M. F. 
 Brittell & Co. ; Broadway Safe Deposit Company ; E. M. Brooks & 
 Co. ; Brooks Sewing Machine Company ; E. M. Brown, alias J. B. 
 Thomas ; L. A. Brown, R. Brown, alias E. Pardee ; Brown & Fay, 
 Chicago; R. A. Browning; S. Bryan, alias Clinton Medical and Surgi- 
 cal Institute, New York — the same in Philadelphia, alias Dr. John Har- 
 vey, alias Dr. Bell, alias Prof. Draper, alias Lucille Delraar, alias Edgar 
 Tremaine, alias Mart Dutton & Co., alias Marc. L. Bryan, alias W. T. 
 Mason & Co. ; J. L. Budd ; A. Buck & Co., Washington, D. C. ; E. 
 Burnett, Albany, N. Y. ; G. Burroughs, Albany, N. Y. ; T. F. Burt, 
 J. S. Butler, Byron & Co. 
 
 Carey & Co., J. Carter & Co., Cary & Co., Carey, Bonner & Co., 
 Philadelphia ; Rev. Dr. Chambers, Williamsburgh ; Thomas F. Chap- 
 man, Chapman & Co., G. B Chappell & Co., M. W. Cheney, Ashland, 
 Mass. ; Chichester & Co., W. H. Chichester, J. Clark, Clark & Co., 
 Newark, New Jersey ; Clark, Webster & Co., C. H. Clement, alias 
 Clement & Co. ; D. M. Clinton, A. Cohen, A. C. Cole & Co., D. W. 
 Coles, H. H. Colfax, G. H. Collins & Co., Omaha ; S. W. Cohen, A. 
 C. Cole & Co., E. Connors & Co., Continental Tea Company, E. Con- 
 way & Co., W. Cook, George A. Cooke & Co., William Cooper & Co., 
 Cordon & Co., Cory & Co., Cosmopolitan Benevolent Society of Cali- 
 fornia, Cosmopolitan Benevolent Society of Nevada, Cosmopolitan Art 
 Association, Crispino & Co., Boslon ; G. Crofford, Burr Oak, Michigan ; 
 A. P. Crowell, West Yarmouth, Mass. ; J. M. Cruze & Sons. 
 
 W. H. Dailey & Co., A. H. Dalton, G. W. Daton, Williamsburgh ; 
 S. Davis & Co., J. S. Davis & Co., Ithaca; L. Davison, Elsie, Michi- 
 gan ; L. V. De Forest & Co., De Lamere & Co., De Lay & Co., Deley 
 & Co., J. W. Delliker & Co., C. Delsen, M. Depan, alias M. Depan 
 & Co., Hoboken, New Jersey ; George Derrick, Devlin, Hopkins & Co., 
 N. B. Dewitt, Dewry & Co., Diamoud Gift Lottery, Washington, D. C. ; 
 E. F. Dickinson, Simeon Dinncford, Dobb3, Gilsey & Co., W. E. Doty, 
 
788 LIST OF SWINDLING FIRMS. 
 
 Douglass & Company, Druids' Legacy, Dunbar & Reed, J. H. Duncan*. 
 D. Dunne, alias G. C. Peck; Duplex Family Sewing Machine Com- 
 pany, Dupins, Raymond & Co, Brooklyn, New York ; Durvin, Elliot 
 & Co. ' 
 
 Eagle Watch Company, J. Q. Edson, N. R. Edwards, Ejerton Bros., 
 Flectro Maguetie Comb Company, Garrettsville, Ohio ; G. T. Eliasi, 
 alias G. T. Harris ; E. H. Elias, W. M. Elias, M. Ellenwood, R. S. 
 Ellerton, Williamsburgn, N. Y. ; H. E. Ellis, J. N. Ellis, Biddeford, 
 Maine ; Dr. Elliot, W. J. Elliot & Co., F. A. Ells, alias F. A. Ells & 
 Co., Charlotte, Michigan ; Charles Elmer & Co., Williamsburgn, N. Y. ; 
 O. Elmore & Co., Elmore, Oliver & Co., G. S. Elvoee, Greenpoint, N, 
 Y. ; C. Emerson, Emigrant Protection Society, Empire Tea Company, 
 Chicago ; Empire Watch Company, D. W. Engle, Enterprise Publishing 
 Company, Erie Sewing Machine Company, Eureka Novelty Company, 
 Parkville, N. Y. ; G. M. Evaus, Miss Jennie Everett. 
 
 Family Gem Sewing Machine Company, Prof. J. C. Faraday, Farm- 
 ers* Union Market Organization, St. Louis ; Felch & Co., D. A. Fenton, 
 W. J. Ferguson, Wm. J. Ferguson, F. Fielding, First Grand Gift En- 
 terprise of the State of Nevada, Fisher & Co., alias J. Fisher & Co. ; 
 Fletcher Brothers, S. Fletcher, alias S. Fletcher & Co. ; E, Foster & 
 Co., Owasso, Michigan ; H. B. Foster, alias Foster & Co. ; R. H. Fos- 
 ter & Co., Williamsburgn ; M. B. Forbes, J. B. Forrest, B. Fox & Co., 
 Frank, Mass & Co., Franklin Benefit Association, Chicago ; Franklin 
 Sewing Machine Company, Dr. Freeman, J. Fuller, Jr., Fuller & Co., 
 Chicago ; Fuller & Raymond, J. T. Furniss. 
 
 Gamage & Co., T. U. Gangham & Co., B. F. Gardiner & Co., Port- 
 land, Maine ; S. Gardner & Co., Garland & Co., Brooklyn, N. Y, ; G» 
 A. Gaskell, Manchester, N. H. ; R. S. Godfrey, W. Godfrey & Co., 
 Gold Pen Company, Gordon & Co., R. Graham, Williamsburgh ; Grand 
 Gift and Musical Enterprise, Keene, N. H. ; Grand National Gift En- 
 terprise, Grand Opera Company, Grand Opera House Company, M. 
 Grandin, Danville, N. Y. ; J. D. Granger, N. H. Graves, Sam. Graves, 
 Brooklyn ; Thomas B. Gray, Great American Watch Company, Great 
 Geneva Watch Company, H. L. Grover & Co., G. Gunshyne, Williams- 
 burg, J. P. Gurney, alias J. P. Strange, alias A. Chipman, alias Dr. W. 
 S. Cody, alias M. A. Doane. 
 
 H. D. Hakim, Hallett, Moore & Co., F. W. Hamilton, John F. Ham- 
 ilton, alias W. J. Ferguson, alias A. H. Holland, alias Thomas W. 
 Price, alias W. B. Logan ; Hamilton & Co., J. J. Hammond, Holiday's 
 Cove, Virginia ; W. Hammond, D. W. Hammond & Co., Brooklyn, N„ 
 Y. ; Hammond Medical Association, Yaphauk, N. Y. ; Harper, Wilson 
 & Co., E. Harris, Harris & Co.. alias G. W. Harris & Co., alias J. H. 
 Harris & Co. ; Ch. Harrison, G. W. Harrison, W. B. Hartman, Harvey 
 & Co., Prof. Harvey, Garrettsville ; Hayward & Co., C. E. Havens & 
 
TI1K DARK SI1>E OK NEW YOKK LIKK. 
 
 89 
 
 Co., Kazan & Moore, Amir. Heath & Co., W. E. Heath, Henry & Co., 
 G. A. Herrick, Springfield, Vermont; J. Hickling & Co., II. Hicki 
 Co., James Hippie, alias B. S. Care/, alias F. Benton ; Hitchcock & 
 Co.,G. Y. Hoffman, P. Hoffman & Co., Washington, D. C. ; M. Hagao, 
 & H. Holland, Holliday, Lewis & Co., Joseph A. Holt, alias James A. 
 Holt, alias Holt & Co. ; R. H. Iloman, Astoria; Homer, Flint & Co., 
 J. Hood, Jr., Wilmington, Delaware ; alias A. Wainwright, in New York 
 and Trenton ; P. D. Hopkins & Co., Garrettsvillc, Ohio ; Robert Hop- 
 kins & Co., W. II. Horner, Baxter Springs, Kansas ; E. G. Hortou, 
 Danville, N. J., alias California Manufacturing Jewelry Association ; 
 J. W. Horton, B. W. Howara, Williamsburgh, New York ; Howard 
 Association of Philadelphia ; Howard & Co., William E. Howard & 
 Co., Hay & Co., Hubbard & Todd, W. F. Hubbell & Co., J. B. Hudson 
 & Co., Charles Harable, S. Hunt, Hunt, Anthony & Co., Huntington & 
 Bro., J. Hutchins & Co. 
 
 G. W. Jackson, Jackson, Moore & Co., A. N. Jameson, J. T. In- 
 man, J. E. Johnson, Johnson, Morris & Co., C. M. Jones, Wilmingtou, 
 Del. ; James Jones, J. Jones, West Yarmouth, Mass. ; P. H. Jones & 
 Co., N. Judson & Co., alias F. Drake & Co. 
 
 Kelley & Co., Kent, Maxwell & Co., Kentucky Whiskey Company, 
 King & Co., alius J. King & Co. ; J. K. Kingsley, Kingston Gold Watch 
 Company, Kohl & Co., H. Koonz, E. B. Kune. 
 
 Ladies' Health Association, Lafayette & Co., J. W. Laidlaw, Wil- 
 liamsburgh ; Lakata Tobacco Company, Garrettsvillc, Ohio ; C. Lam- 
 bert, Unionville, South Carolina ; S. B. Lambert, Grcenpoint, New 
 York ; G. W. Lancaster, Louisville, Kentucky ; S. M. Landis, Philadel- 
 phia ; J. II. Lansley, Rutland, Vermont; Eward Lawrence, J. Lawson, 
 Jr., A. C. Lee, Jon. R. Lee, alias II. Madden, alias G. Sommers, alias 
 E. F. Dickinson, alias J. B. Forest ; Legal City Hospital Lottery, Lin- 
 coln, Nebraska ; Prof. Leon (Mesmeric Essence), Lester ; R. II. Lewis, 
 E. G. Lindsay, Holston, Virginia ; Linten & Son, Buchanan, Michigan ; 
 Conrad Long, Loan Brokers' Union, J. E. Charlotte, Lockwood, Michi- 
 gan ; J. E. Loomis & Co., Warren, New Jersey ; Lu'.z & Co.» George 
 W. Lucas, alias W. M. Jacobs, alias F. A. Newton ; S. T. V. Ludlow, 
 alias J. Spencer ; R. S. Lyford, Jersey City, N. J. ; Lyford & Co., alias 
 J. Lyford, Omaha, Nebraska. 
 
 Macey & Co., II. Madden, Magnetic Curling-Comb Company, Gar- 
 rettsvillc, Ohio ; Magnolia, Iowa, Gift Enterprise, C. Mackav & Co., 
 Philadelphia; W. II. Malcolm, C. A. Mallis & Co., Manhattan Hos- 
 pital, Mackay, Puff & Co., New York and Philadelphia ; Manhattan 
 Medical Company, O. J. Mackin & Co., Manufacturers' Association, 
 Manufacturing Jewelers' Association, J. Marcus, Mariani j J. E. Ma- 
 rion & Co., J. B. Marlett, Saugerties, New York ; Masley & Co.> Goo. 
 D. Marshall, alias W. O. Page, alias Col. M. A. Eunover, alias II. L. 
 
790 LIST OF SWINDLING FIRMS. 
 
 Felio, alias A. Wainwright ; O. F. Martin, Hoboken, New Jersey ; P. 
 Martin & Co., D. A. Mason, A. S. Mason, William T. Mason & Co , 
 Mason Publishing Association, Mason, Michigan ; Masonic Gift Enter- 
 prise, Omaha, Nebraska ; P. Mayborn & Co., Jersey City ; N. Mayfair, 
 Brooklyn, New York ; F. B. Maynard, McNally & Co., New York ; A. 
 Menager, alias George E. Ward, alias Samuel Parker & Co., alias Wal- 
 ter Lane, alias Dr. Appleton, alias J. Ward Emerson ; Mercantile Prize 
 Association, Merea Life Prize Association, Meredith, Halstead & Co., 
 Merchants' and Manufacturers' Co-operative Distribution, Merchants' 
 and Manufacturers' United Stock Company, J. Mesler, W. B. Messier, 
 Metropolitan Cash Prize Company, Metropolitan Gift Company, Metro- 
 politan Jewelry Association, Metropolitan Prize Company, H. M. Metz- 
 ger, Hanover, Pa. ; Mitchelin & Co., Michigan Art Association, Michi- 
 gan Medical Agency, Marshall, Michigan ; W. D. Miller & Co., Phila- 
 delphia ; Miller, Strong & Co., Milton Gold Jewelry, Miners' Hospital 
 Lottery, Shenandoah, Penna. ; Mock Turtle Oil Stock Company, Monro, 
 Atkins & Co., B. F. Moody, H. T. Moore, E. E. Morgan, H. Morgan, 
 Thomas Morgan, alias William Hardy & Co., alias Bates & Co., alias 
 Thomas Morgan & Co. ; Morgan Brothers, Morgan & Co., Morgan, 
 Wade & Co., E. Morrell, J. E. Morrell, William Morris, A. D. Morri- 
 son, alias A. D. Morrison & Co. ; J. E. Morse, alias J. E. Morse & 
 Co. ; E. M. Mott, Mount Florence Gift Company, Charles Murrat, Wil- 
 ]iamsburgh, N. Y. ; Murphey & Co. ; Mutual Benefit Association, 
 Quincy, Indiana ; Mutual Joint Stock and Gift Association, Milford 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 National Exchange Company t National Gift Company, National Gift 
 Enterprise, Hamilton, Ohio ; National Photograph Company, Detroit, 
 Michigan ; B. S. Seal, Sharon, Penna ; William T. Neal, Neai & Char- 
 tier, Nelson & Co., Harlem, Missouri ; L. C. Nelson, Medina, Illinois ; 
 Dr. Nelson, alias R. C Nelson, alias A. H. Nelson ; G. W. Nelson, St. 
 Louis, Mo. ; New England Carpet Company, Boston ; New York Cash 
 Prize Company, New York Gift Company, New York Loan Brokers* 
 Union, New York Medical University, Niles, Todd & Co., Norman, 
 Adderson & Co., A. B. Norton, alias J. Winchell, alias N. A. Personia, 
 alias J. Allen ; H. A. Norton & Sons, Saco, Maine ; Wm. H. Norton, 
 Novelty Publishing Company, Albany, New York ; J. M. North, Park, 
 man, Ohio. 
 
 W. A. O'Brian & Co., Charlotte, Michigan ; J. B. Ogden, Orphans' 
 Institute, W. & A. Osgood, P. B. Ottarson, Owen, Bros. 
 
 E. Page & Co., Packard & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio ; J. S. Pardee & 
 Co., alias S. P. Pardee & Co., Binghamton, New York ; G. W. Parish, 
 San Francisco, California ; Parisian Watch Company, Chas. K. Park & 
 Co., George Parker, alias S. S. Plint, alias J. T. Wildman, alias Dr. 
 Thomas Walkins, alias G. W. Bates, alias E. D. Robinson, alias E. 
 
THE DARK SIDE OF NEW YORK LIFE. 701 
 
 Carter, Thomas Parker, S. E. Parks & Co., Parkiuson & Co., Pashall 
 House Lottery, J. M. Pattce, Omaha; J. Peudergast & Co., S. Perkey, 
 Charlotte, Michigan ; C. Perry, J. B. Peters & Son, L. A. Peters, Pet 
 Sewing Maebiae Company, J. Phass, alias AV. G. Barrows ; Phillips & 
 Co., F. AV. Pierce, Pallock & Co., J. A. Pomeroy, Porter & Co., Mart. 
 Potter, P. P. Compaq, Pawtueket, R. I. ; C. J. Price, C. T. Price, T. 
 AV. Price, Price & Co., East Fairfield, Ohio. 
 
 A. Quervelo. 
 
 F. II. Randall, Read & Co., J. II. Reeves, alias Reeves & Co. ; Reed, 
 M»vo & Co., Wm. Reich, alias W. U. Reichert ; B. II. Rob, Parkman 
 and Garrettsville, Ohio, alias Prof. Robb, alias Prof. Byrom, alias 
 Prof. Harvey, alias Robb, Byron & Co., alias Robb, Hopkins & Co., 
 alias American Ilair-Curliug Company, alias P. D. Hopkins & Co. ; A. 
 Roberts, J. L. Robertson & Co., Diamond Lottery ; A. Robinson & Co., 
 Jackson, Michigan ; E. T. Rogers, alias II. J. AVortu ; B. Rogers, S. 
 Rollins, Wheeling, Va. ; C. Rosbora, Albany, N. Y. ; L. P. Rose, alias 
 AVarner Ely ; J. Rood, G. Bast & Co., Lapier, Michigan ; Rowley & 
 Son, J. 8. Roxamore, II. M. Rnggles & Co. 
 
 Sage & Co., alias AY. Sage & Co. ; Sailors' and Soldiers' Home, 
 Sampson & Co., Sanborn & Co., Sandy Run Petroleum Company, T. H. 
 Sause, J. \V. Scott, AVm. Scott, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Scott & Co., alias 
 W. L. Scott & Co. ; AW Scott and Paul, G. A. Seacord & Co., Garretts- 
 ville, Ohio ; F. S. Seadan & Co., AA^illiamsburg, N. Y. ; Secret Order 
 of Money-Finders, Sharon, Penna., (B. L. Neal, High Priest) ; Seeley 
 Bros. & Co., Greenville, Michigan : G. S. Seymour, T. Seymour & Co., 
 C. A. Shaffer, C. Sheldon & Co., Iloboken, N. J. ; J. B. Sherman, C. 
 F. Sherwood, Providence, R. I., and Batavia, N. Y., and Huron, N. 
 Y. ; Simmons & Co., L. D. Sine, Cincinnati, Ohio ; Sloan & Graves, 
 J. H. Smith, Pittsburg, Penna. ; J. AV. Smith & Co., G. Somnurs, J. 
 Sortman, Hamilton, Ohio ; South Carolina Land and Immigration As- 
 sociation Lottery, Spaulding, Claurence & Co., Ceresco, Michigan ; J. 
 T. Spencer & Co., Philadelphia ; R. J. Sprang, alias AVm. Layton, alias 
 E. M. AVentz ; B. Stanwood & Co., Portland, Me. ; D. S. Staples & 
 Co., Allen, Mich. ; Star Sewing Machine Company, B. G. Staulfer, 
 Campbellstown, Pa. ; J. AV. Stephens, Newark, N. J. ; Stevens & Co., 
 John H. Stevenson, E. Stewart, J. Stewart, AVest Chester, Pa. ; J. T. 
 Stewart, Stewart, Graham & Co., Stewart, Hall & Co., Stewart, Morris 
 & Co., Stinson & Co., J. P. Strang, alias J. D. AValston ; II. M. Sut- 
 ton, John Swallow, Swan & Co., B. Sweet & Co., Marshall, Michigan ; 
 Symonds & Co. 
 
 Tabor & Co., A. R. Taylor & Co., Cincinnati and St. Louis ; C. A. 
 Taylor & Co., C. L. Taylor, Brooklyn ; E. F. Taylor, G. A. Taylor, J. 
 AV. Taylor, Taylor & Jarvis, J. D. Terhune & Co., Philadelphia ; J. R. 
 Thomas, Albany, N. Y. ; L. K. Thomas, Garrettsville, O. ; C. B. 
 
792 LIST OF SWINDLING FIRMS. 
 
 Thompson, Bridgewater, Conn. ; S. S. Thompson, Thompson, Ray- 
 mond & Co., Bridgewater, Conn. ; Th. D. Thorp, E. F. Tilton, Alo. 
 Todd, C. E. Todd & Co., B. C Travers, Tropical Nurseries, Albany, 
 N. Y. ; E. Thornton, Hoboken, N. J. ; Trow & Co. ; W. C. Truax 
 Pan Handle, Va. ; J. H. Tuttle, Bevons and Flatbrookville, N. J. 
 
 Union Brotherhood, Union Jewelers' Society, Union Watch Company, 
 U. S. Directory Company, U. S. Prize Association, U. S. Tontine Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Van Holm, Boston ; B. Vernon, Victoria Manufacturing Company, 
 Vineent, Willis & Co., Williamsburgh. 
 
 Wm. Wade, M. Wagner & Co., Marshall, Mich. ; G. W. Wakefield, 
 alias G. W. Wakefield & Co. ; Ch. M. Wakeman, Jersey City, alias 
 Mutual Protective Union ; B. B. Walker, alias B. B. Walker & Co. ; 
 Thos. A. Walker, J. C. Walter, Rob. S. Ward, J. M. Ward & Co., J. 
 W. Ward & Co., Ward, Nash & Co., Jas. Warlow, alias Thos. Jackson, 
 alias E. C. Catlin, alias C. T. Benger, alias S. W. Westervelt, alias K. 
 M. Walters, alias J. S. Lewis, alias Edwin Virgil, alias A. Debenham ; 
 W. W. Warner, S. Jackson, Mich. ; Washington Library Company, 
 Philadelphia ; Washington Sewing Machine Company, Boston ; J. T. 
 Waters, Waters & Co., Watch Distribution on the Berlin Plan, H. L. 
 Watson, Watson, Grafte & Co., G. Webber & Co., Marion, Ohio ; G. 
 A. Wells, Bridgeport, Conn. ; Sam. Wells, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Wells & 
 Co., Chicago ; Wickes & Taylor, Wilcox & Co., W. A. Wilder, W. P. 
 Wiikins, C. A. Williams, alias C. D. Williams, alias Williams & Co., 
 alias J. F. Williams & Co., T. Williams, C. D. Williams & Co., 
 Williams & Co., Cincinnati ; Thomas F. Williamson, S. B. Willis & 
 Co., E. M. Wilson, Knob Noster, Mo. ; Rev. A. Wilson, Williams- 
 burgh ; Miss Wilson, Brooklyn ; J. Wilson, L. Wilson, Springfield, Vt. ; 
 Wilson & Co., W. A. Wilton, Winslow & Co., J. De Wolfe, F. T. 
 Wood, Vernon, N. J. ; J. S. Woodruff, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; E. Wright & 
 Co., Wright Bros. & Co., J. Wright & Co., in New York and Philadel- 
 phia. 
 
 C. Yardley, Pittsburgh, Pa. ; J. Young, Philadelphia ; Young d© 
 Morse, alias J. T. Palmer. 
 
T11K DAlUt 3IDB OK NSW YO&K LIFE. 793 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We have now described the most prominent " Dark Sides of New 
 York Life." They are very many, but unfortunately there are more. 
 Those not mentioned in this book can be easily traced back to some one 
 of those described here. We close this our work with the consciousness 
 of having materially promoted the good object for which it was written. 
 The impartial reader will give us credit, that we have made him ac- 
 quainted with the vice and crime of our city in a manner which ought 
 to teach him to avoid it, and which should serve him as a safeguard 
 against many hidden cliffs which would otherwise have proven false to 
 his inexperience. 
 
 Easy as it would have been to assume the common sensational tone, 
 to give some spicy food to frivolous minds, by interspersing sensational 
 items here and there, we have remained true to the higher aim we set. 
 The " Dark Sides of JNew York," as we have given them, are, as we 
 have said in the beginning, by no means sensational literature, but an 
 instructive picture composed of plain, bare facts, showing the reverse 
 sides of our social life. An old but true saying tells us that " Know- 
 ledge is power/' and nowhere is it more true than with regard to evils 
 which lurk under the surface of the society of a great metropolis, and 
 which threaten the inexperienced at every step. If he would avoid 
 these dangers, as well as those arising from them, he must become well 
 acquainted with them. 
 
 The time has long passed when inexperience was considered a safe- 
 guard of virtue, and it was thought that the knowledge alone of the ex- 
 istence of vice and its temptations sufficed to corrupt a pure mind. This 
 almost sounds as if we were to say that he is the best seaman, who puts 
 out to sea without any knowledge of cliffs, currents, etc. Our age has 
 learned to think differently. It tries to educate the mind for the world 
 as it is, and not for the world as it ought to be. Only too frequently 
 T.oes vice go about under the mask of virtue, and temptation spread its 
 snares just where they are least expected. It by no means suffices to 
 will the good, but we must also learn to distinguish it from evil. Temp- 
 tation is most dangerous for the inexperienced, who do not know its true 
 nature, hidden under a. glittering mask. 
 
 This is in general the undisputed truth, but nowhere more so than in 
 the society of the metropolis of America. Examples of how ignorance 
 of the temptations of vice and crime have already destroyed many a pro- 
 
794 CONCLUSION. 
 
 mising career, we have given sufficiently in the course of this work* 
 They alone would justify a work like the present, if a justification were 
 at all needed. One evil was not to be avoided, however. This was that 
 t should make the impression on the thoughtless reader that New York 
 was a modern Sodom, and therefore fully deserves the fate of its biblical 
 predecessor. A book whose object it is to describe the dark sides of 
 New York, has certainly very little opportunity to describe its bright 
 sides also. But because the sua has spots, is certainly no reason to sup- 
 pose that the astronomer who writes on the sun-spots desires to deny the 
 existence of light in the sun. Thus it is also in our case. The " Dark 
 Sides of New York" are all the blacker, the brighter its bright sides 
 oppose them. The brighter the light, the blanker is always the shadow. 
 A light without a shadow has not yet become known. The true aim of 
 of this book has been accomplished by giving a description of the dark 
 sides, but we feel compelled to show to the reader some of the bright 
 sides before we part with him. The immense enterprise which makes 
 itself felt in the most distant regions of the globe, the almost unparal- 
 leled activity of trade, which makes our city the pulsating heart of the 
 New World ; the richly-endowed institutions of Art and Science, which 
 are open to the poor and humble, as well as the rich and proud ; the 
 well-ordered system of public schools, which no other city of the United 
 States, that of Boston perhaps excepted, has attained to such a degree 
 of perfection, — where is the man who would dare to ignore these bright 
 sides, simply because there are dark ones beside them ? 
 
 New York full well knows its weak spots, and knows that it covers a 
 great amount of ein and vice and wretchedness. But nowhere else is 
 so much done as in our city to remove these festering evils. "Help 
 yourself," it is true, is the motto everywhere in the struggle for life ; 
 but, nevertheless, the idea of Joving your neighbor, is nowhere so little 
 an empty form as in the great city of New York. 
 
 Under the cold covering of egotism, there is a warm under-current 
 of pity for the misery and misfortunes of others. The proof of this is 
 found in our numerous and well-endowed charitable institutions, which 
 in no other city in Europe or America have their equal, either in their 
 number or in the extent of their activity and usefulness. Nowhere in 
 the world do the real poor find help so easily and so effectually as here 
 in the metropolis of the New World. Nowhere does charity and benev- 
 olence take so much pains to seek out the sick and unfortunate, to lead 
 the vicious and unfortunate back to the path of virtue, and to place the 
 abandoned youth under proper care, than here with us in New York. 
 In this respect, therefore, very much is done to gradually brighten 
 the dark sides described by us in these chapters, and to cause them to 
 disappear in time. 
 
 We therefore do not know a more fitting conclusion to our book than 
 
TUK BRIGHTER OF TUB 795 
 
 by an enumeration of the long list of our charitable institution':, which 
 must undoubtedly be considered as 
 
 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK, 
 
 although their beneficial influence is exerted quietly and without much 
 show. 
 
 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE BRIGHT SIDES 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 We give the private institutions the preference, and begin with the 
 hospitals and lying-in asylums. We will enumerate the institutions in 
 their different groups, in the order in which they began their benefiicial 
 career. 
 
 The "New York Eye and Ear Infirmary," on the corner of Second 
 avenue and Thirteenth street, wr.s founded in 1820, and began very 
 modestly in a retired house — No. 45 Chatham street — and its present 
 magnificent building, furnished with all conveniences, and which was 
 built in 1856, is a speaking picture of its growth. The number of pa- 
 tients treated in it during the year 1872 amounted to 10,127, of whom 
 more than one-half were treated free of charge. The number of opera- 
 tions performed during the same year amounted to 1,490. Since its 
 foundation it has received nearly 107,000 patients. The hospital serves 
 at the same time as a college for the study of the diseases of the eyes 
 and ears. 
 
 The "Asylum for Lying-in Women," in No. 85 Marion street, is the 
 oldest institution of the kind in the city, as it was founded in 1823. It 
 is governed by a board of directors composed entirely of ladies. Differ- 
 ences of religion, nationality, or race are not taken into account with the 
 applicants. The only condition imposed is that the applicant must show 
 her certificate of marriage. Besides receiving women who are awaiting- 
 their confinement, the hospital also supplies nurses for poor women at 
 their homes. The number of women thus nursed since 1823 was 13,021, 
 while in 1872 it was 229. 
 
 The " Seamen's R2treat," a hospital for sailors, situated on Staten 
 Island, between Staplelon and Vanderbilt Landings, was opened in 1831. 
 The fuDd from which it is supported is raised by various means. The: 
 
790 BRIGHT SIDES OF NKW YOUR. 
 
 principal part is raised by taxing every sailor who leaves the port one 
 dollar. This hospital is now enabled not only to receive a sailor free of 
 charge, but also differs in this respect from other institutions in that it 
 offers a permanent home to sailors suffering from incurable diseases, and 
 thus becomes a true home to these unfortunates. Recently this truly 
 charitable institution has suffered considerable damage from the fact that 
 Vanderbilt forbid the seamen employed on his vessels to pay this tax, 
 and that his example has been followed by others. The large hospital, 
 consisting of a central building with two wings, has during its existence 
 received and cared for 60,850 sailors. The number of those received 
 during 1872 amounted to 1,660. Although it was originally intended 
 only for sailors of the commercial navy, the United States Government 
 has for some time past also sent its sick sailors there, for which it pays 
 a weekly board of six dollars per head. 
 
 " St. Vincent's Hospital," on the corner of Eleventh street and Sev- 
 enth avenue, was founded in the year 1849, and began its beneficial ca. 
 reer in a small house in Thirteenth street. It is governed by the Sisters 
 of Mercy, and, although a Catholic institution, it is open to all patients 
 without distinction of sect. The number of patients treated in it since 
 its foundation is 16,849. In the course of the year 1872, 1,028 patients 
 were received, of whom 780, or more than one-half, were treated free of 
 charge. The regular price of admission is six dollars per week for male 
 patients, and five dollars for females. A branch of this hospital, for 
 those patients who wish separate rooms, is situated at No. 166 Twelfth 
 street. 
 
 The " New York Opthalmic Hospital," situated on the corner of 
 Twenty-third street and Third avenue, was founded in 1852, and, al- 
 though in name only a hospital for diseases of the eye, it also receives 
 patients afflicted with diseases of the ear and larynx. During the year 
 1872 not less than 2,323 such patients were received, and the majority 
 treated free of charge. The institution serves at the same time as a 
 medical school for diseases of the eye, the ear, and the larynx. The 
 building in which it is located at present, and which was erected some- 
 thing over a year ago, is one of the finest architectural ornaments of 
 Third avenue. The erection of this building was made possible by the 
 donation of $100,000, which it received from a lady, Mrs. Emma Keep, 
 several years ago. 
 
 The " Nursery and Childs' Hospital, on the corner of Fifty-first street 
 and Lexington avenue, is a combination of a children's hospital, a lying- 
 in asylum, and a foundling asylum. It was founded in 1854, and is gov- 
 erned by a board of director* composed entirely of ladies. Its original 
 object was to furnish a home for the children of poor mothers or nurses, 
 who were kept away from home much of the time by daily occupations. 
 Since 1857, however, women have been received who are awaiting thei r 
 
TBI BRIGHTEST OF TIIK 7i>7 
 
 confinement. Women who pay for their board, can leave the hospital 
 after their confinement. Those, however, who are received free of 
 charge, must engage themselves for three months to nurse and care for 
 another child beside their own. Such women can remain in the house 
 free of charge until their children are weaned. A branch of this insti- 
 tution is situated on Staten Island, as a summer residence for weakly 
 mothers and children. During the year 1872 there were received, iu 
 both branches ot the institution, 279 infants and children under four 
 years of age, and 251 pregnant women, while 208 children were born 
 there. Unmarried mothers were received a9 well as married ones, as 
 one of the chief objects of the institution is to prevent child-murder and 
 the exposure of children as much as possible. During the war, and un- 
 til 1867, the hospital served as a home for wounded soldiers. At its 
 foundation the institution was situated in St. Mark's Place. The present 
 magnificent building was erected in 18G1. 
 
 The "New York Infirmary for Women and Children" is situated at 
 No. 128 Second avenue. This hospital was originally a female dispen- 
 sary, which was opened, in 1853, in a rented room, near Tompkins' 
 Square, and was kept there until the founders were enabled, in 1862, to 
 purchase the commodious building in which it is situated at present. It 
 is especially characterized by the fact that, not only was its organization 
 principally brought about by female physicians, but also that the entire 
 management of the hospital, as well as the treatment of patients, is iu 
 the hands of ladies. 
 
 The institution serves at the same time as a school for female physi- 
 cians and nurses. Poor patients are treated free of charge, while the 
 )*egular price is four dollars per week. The number of beds is fourteen. 
 A dispensary is also connected with the hospital, where patients not only 
 lire treated tree of charge, but also receive their medicines gratis. Poor 
 patients are also treated free of charge at their homes, in such cases in 
 which their removal to the hospital would not be advisable. The num- 
 ber of patients treated since 1863 is 60,000. The number of patients 
 treated in 1872, in the hospital, the dispensary, or at their homes, was 
 5,170. 
 
 The " Women's Hospital of the State of New York " began its bene- 
 ficial activity in a small house in Madison avenue, where it received iu 
 its first year 61 patients. During the year 1872 the number of patients 
 received was 1,174. The hospital is governed by a board of lady di- 
 rectors, and only receives such patients as suffer from so-called female 
 diseases. The regular prices of admission vary from six to fifteen dol- 
 lars per week, yet poor persons are received, without distinction of race 
 or color, and every county in the State is entitled to a free bed in this 
 hospital. Of the large building laid out in a grand style, only one pa- 
 vilion has been finished until now, which contains sixty-eight beds. 
 
798 BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Large collections have already been made for the erection of the 9econd 
 pavilion. When this is finished, it will be able to provide for four hun- 
 dred ,patients. 
 
 The " Mount Sinai Hospital," also called the " Jewish Hospital," was 
 founded in 1828, in Twenty-eighth street, in a building which held about 
 sixty patients. The fact, however, that in time it was surrounded by 
 factories, breweries, distilleries, etc., made it necessary to remove the 
 hospital. A new building was soon erected, and the present Mount Si- 
 nai Hospital, opened in June, 1872, is one of the largest and finest hos- 
 pitals in the New World. The number of patients treated in it during 
 the year 1872 was 1,429. A lying-in asylum is also connected with the 
 hospital, in which seven births occurred during the past year. Although 
 it is in reality a Jewish hospital, patients are received in it without any 
 distinction of religion, and, in case of absolute poverty, free of charge. 
 The palace-like building of this hospital is situated on Sixty-sixth street, 
 between Third and Lexington avenues, and cost over $350,000. 
 
 " St. Luke's Hospital," also one of our largest buildings of this kind, 
 is situated on Fifty-fourth street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, and 
 is 280 feet long, and three stories high. It was founded in 1859, and 
 its seal, with the motto, " Corpore Sanare, Animam Salvare," (To heal 
 the body, to save the soul), shows that it rests on a more religious basis. 
 Although conducted by Protestant Episcopalians, it receives patients of 
 all denominations. The nurses are " Sisters of the Holy Communion." 
 The rates of admission, for those persons who are able to pay, are seven 
 dollars per week for adults, and four dollars for children. Poor persons, 
 however, are received free of charge. The number of those received in 
 the hospital every year is over 1,000, of whom about one-half are cured 
 free of charge. 
 
 The "Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled," on the corner of 
 Forty-second street and Lexington avenue, was founded, in 1864, by the 
 • 4 Society for the Aid of the Ruptured and Crippled." The object of 
 this society was indicated by its name, to bring within the reach of even 
 the poorest, trusses, crutches, and similar apparatus. Afterwards it also 
 undertook to cure persons afflicted with such diseases, and obtained par- 
 ticularly gratifying results with children. It soon gained a high reputa- 
 tation, and its present magnificent hospital, which it built in 1870, in 
 the place of its former humble place of abode in No. 97 Second avenue, 
 is a lasting monument of its success. Children received for treatment 
 not only receive medical attendance, but also instruction. Since its 
 foundation, 21,814, and during the year 1872 over 4,000, patients were 
 received. Eighty-one per cent, were discharged either completely cured 
 or considerably improved. 
 
 The " German Hospital and Dispensary," on Fourth, avenue, between 
 •Seventy-sixth and Seventy-seventh streets, was incorporated iu 186 1» 
 
TI1R KltlOHTKST OP TIIK 
 
 70!) 
 
 but the erection of the building was not begun until September 3, 1866, 
 and one pavilion was completed on October 28, 1868. The number of 
 beds in the six divisions and the five privato rooms is eighty, of which 
 thirty-five are free beds. This pavilion has been in use since September 
 13, 1869. According to its last annual report, the hospital treated, in 
 all, during the year 1872, 769 patients. Although a German hospital 
 to all intents andd purposes, it receives patients of any nationality. With 
 regard to its administration and its medical attendance, the German hos- 
 pital could serve as a model for any other in the land. After its com- 
 pletion, it will be one of the largest and most beneficial institutions of 
 the kind in the world. 
 
 The " German Dispensary," established in 1852, and considerably en- 
 larged in 1873, when it was removed to No. 65 Eighth street, is under 
 the same administration as the above hospital. The number of persons 
 who applied for medical attendance at this dispensary during the year 
 1872 was 12,076. 
 
 The "Hospital of St. Francis" was opened, in 1865, by the Catholic 
 order of " Sisters of St. Francis," in Fifty-eighth street, between Ave- 
 nues A and B, and was incorporated in 1866. It is in every respect a 
 hospital lor the poor, into which any one is admitted, and may pay much, 
 little, or nothing at all, according to his circumstances. The hos- 
 pital, which can contain about two hundred patients, derives its income 
 by aid from the Legislature and collections in the city, for which purpose 
 two Sisters are continually on the way from house to house. The num- 
 ber of patients received annually amounts to about seven or eight hun- 
 dred. 
 
 The " Roosevelt Hospital," so-called from its founder, James H. Roose- 
 velt, a gentleman who left a part of his immense fortune for the erection 
 of a hospital. — This hospital, which was begun in 1868, is situated on 
 the square between Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth streets and Ninth and 
 Tenth avenues. The part now in use was finished in 1871. Since this 
 time about 1,800 patients have been admiited into it. When it is com- 
 pletely finished, according to the original plan, the Roosevelt Hospital 
 will be one of the best in the New World. 
 
 The " New York Opthalmic and Aural Institute," in No. 46 East 
 Twelfth street, was founded in 1869. It is an excellent institution, con- 
 ducted on a strictly scientific plan, which has treated since its existence 
 already over 12,039 patients. In connection with the hospital there is a 
 medical school for diseases of the eye and ear, and a dispensary. The 
 number of patients treated during the course of the year 1872 was 
 4,251, of whom 3,903 were in the dispensary, and 348 in the hospital. 
 Of these all the dispensary and 56 of the hospital patients were treated 
 free of charge, while only 6 hospital patients paid the entire fee, and 32 
 on ] y a part of it. 
 
800 BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 
 
 The " New York Medical College and Hospital for Women :" Of 
 this the Women's Hospital only interests us, which was opened, in 1864, 
 in. connection with the college existing since 1863. It is situated on the 
 corner' of Second avenue and Twelfth street, and the hospital, as well as 
 the college, being the creation of female physicians. Since its founda- 
 tion over 500 patients, exclusively women and children, and mostly free 
 of charge, have been received there. 
 
 The " Hahneman Hospital," founded in 1869, was, up to May, 1873, 
 in Nos. 307 and 309 East Fifty-fifth street. Since the first of May the 
 reception of patients has been discontinued, and will only be begun 
 again when the newly projected hospital building will be finished. This 
 building will occupy twelve lots ou Fourth avenue, between Sixty-seventh 
 and Sixty-eighth streets, and, judging from the plans, will be one of the 
 finest buildings in the country. As the name of the hospital indicates, 
 it is devoted to homoeopathy. 
 
 A branch of this establishment is the " Northeastern Homoeopathic 
 Medical and Surgical Dispensary," founded in 1868, and situated on the 
 corner of Fifty-eighth street and Second avenue. Since its existence it- 
 has treated 12,000 patients and made 8,000 visits. Medical attendance,, 
 as well as medicines, are giveu free to the poor. 
 
 The "Manhattan Eye and Ear Infirmary," in No. 233 East Thirty- 
 fourth street, was opened in 1869, for the treatment of diseases of the 
 eye, ear, and larynx. The institution serves at the same time as a med- 
 ical school in the branches named. Since its opening it has treated 
 6,069 patients, and performed 1,274 operations. The number of patients 
 treated during the year 1872 was 508. 
 
 44 St. Mary's Hospital for Children" is situated at present in No. 206 
 West Fortieth street. Its present locality has, however, been found too 
 small, and plans have been laid to enlarge it considerably. It is the 
 only hospital which receives children exclusively. It has only fourteen 
 beds, in which it treated, during the year 1872, in all forty-nine children, 
 all free of charge. 
 
 w The Strangers' Hospital," on the corner of Avenue D and Tenth 
 street, the creation of John D. Keyser, a rich New Yorker, was opened 
 iu January, 1871. It is not only intended for strangers, as might be 
 inferred from its name, but is open to worthy persons without regard to 
 whether they are rich or poor. This institution, containing in all 108 
 beds, has been suspended since September, 1873 — we hope, however, 
 only temporarily. 
 
 The " Presbyterian Hospital," also called " Lenox Hospital," is a cre- 
 ation of the New York Presbyterians, inspired to this work by James 
 Lenox, who contributed over half a million in money and real estate. 
 It is situated between Seventieth and Seventy-first streets, and between 
 Fourth and Madison avenue, and the central building was opened on 
 
THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 801 
 
 October 10, 1872. When finished it will have room for three hundred 
 patients. Since its opening it has received over four hundred patients, 
 mostly free of charge. 
 
 The "New York Hospital," the oldesi of our hospitals (founded in 
 1771), which until recently was situated on Broadway, between Duane 
 and Worth streets, has been suspended since February, 1870, after hav- 
 ing relieved over 150,000 patients. The cause of the suspension was 
 that the State .Legislature had refused to pay the annual aid of $22,500 
 since 18G6. 
 
 As a branch of it the " Bloomingdale Asylum for the iDsane " is still 
 in operation. Although the present site of the institution, on the Har- 
 lem Heights, on One-Hundred-and-Seventeenth street, between Tenth 
 and Eleventh avenues, was a satisfactory one, in every respect, at the 
 time of its foundation in 1821, the constant growth of our city has made 
 a change desirable. The administration has therefore purchased three 
 hundred acres of land in White Plains, Westchester County, and not 
 only intends to bring the lunatic asylum there, but also to revive the 
 New York Hospital. 
 
 We have already given, on a former occasion, details of this the lar- 
 gest lunatic asylum in the United States. Strictly speaking, it is not a 
 true charitable institution, as poor persons are admitted on rare occasions 
 only free of charge. 
 
 The institutions for the deaf; dumb, and blind, although not to be re- 
 garded as hospitals, must still be classed among them. Of these the fol- 
 lowing have been erected by private charity : 
 
 14 The New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb," situated on 
 Oue-Hundred-and-Sixty-second street, on the so-called "Washington 
 Heights." It is built in a truly palatial style, and the grounds belong- 
 ing to it have an area of thirty-seven acres. The institution was opened, 
 in 1817, in a private house, with only four scholars. In 1829 it was 
 moved to the building now used by Columbia College, where it remained 
 until, in 1856, its present magnificent building was erected as a speaking 
 picture of its development. As now existing, the institution can take 
 charge of over 600 pupils, while the annual average for the past years 
 has been from 500 to 550. The annual report for 1871 mentioned 534, 
 and that for 1872, 509 pupils (294 boys and 215 girls). The institution 
 is not intended as a home for deaf-mutes, but only as a school in which 
 such unfortunates receive such instruction as will enable them to become, 
 in spite of their natural defects, useful members of society. Pupils are 
 received in general only from twelve to twenty-five years of age, and 
 their period of instruction continues for eight years. Among the twenty 
 teachers, not less than twelve have been educated as deaf-mutes by the 
 institution itself. Although brought to life and conducted for a long 
 time by private means, it is now under the protection of the State, so 
 
 5] 
 
802 BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 
 
 that it might with equal justice be termed a State institution. Beside* 
 the regular instruction, the boys are taught the various trades, and the 
 girls sewing and housework. The regular charges are $300 per annum, 
 but poor persons are received upon the production of proofs of their 
 inability to pay this sum, at the expense of the State or the county. 
 Of the entire 509 pupil's, only fourteen are paid for by parents or other 
 friends ; all the rest are received as poor — that is, free of charge. 
 
 A similar but much younger institution is the " Institution for the Im- 
 proved Instruction of Deaf Mutes," in No. 642 Seventh avenue, which 
 was founded in 1871, and had, in January, 1873, according to the last 
 annual report, sixty-seven pupils (30 boy3 and 37 girls), under seven 
 teachers. It differs from the above-mentioned institution in its method 
 of instruction. While in the former the pupils are instructed in 
 the language of the signs of the fingers, the latter has adopted the more 
 recent but also much more difficult system, not only to understand the 
 common language from the motion of the lips, but also to make them- 
 selves understood by others by articulated tones. It therefore actually 
 teaches the dumb to speak ; but instead of regulating the sounds by his 
 power of hearing, the mute regulates them by the motion of the larynx, 
 tongue, and lips. This institution is the first one which has introduced 
 the new system on this continent. Like the above-mentioned institution, 
 it receives aid from the State, and will probably change its present insuf- 
 ficient accommodations for a more convenient building in a new location, 
 as for this purpose it has already received building lots in Lexington 
 avenue, betweeu Sixty-seventh and Sixty-eighth streets. 
 
 The " New York Hospital for the Blind," on Ninth avenue, between 
 Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets, was incorporated in 1831, and in 
 1832 opened a small place in No. 47 Mercer street. Its present large 
 and commodious building was erected in 1839, and considerably enlarged 
 and renovated in 1872. The last annual report shows that there were 
 in all, at the end of the year 1872, 166 pupils, who are instructed by 
 sixteen teachers, not only in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the differ- 
 ent handiworks, but also in music and singing. It is richly furnished 
 with materials for the instruction of the blind, and is regarded as one of 
 the best institutions of the kind in the world. As in the institution for 
 the deaf-mutes, poor persons are also received here at the State's expense. 
 It 13 by no means intended to serve as a home for blind people, and only re- 
 ceives children and young people to educate them. 
 
 Next to these institutions are those whose object it is to offer a home 
 to such persons who have become unable to support themselves through 
 old age, disease, accidents, and other causes. In this class we must 
 place the following : 
 
 The "Association for the Relief of Respectable Aged and Indigent 
 .Females." — This institution was founded, in 1813, by a number of New 
 
THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 803 
 
 York ladies. For many years the members of tke Association performed 
 their charitable work, by looking up the poor and indigent women of the 
 city and supplying them with the necessaries of life. In 1838 the Asso- 
 ciation built its " Home for Respectable Aged and Indigent Females," 
 on the site where it is still standing at present, in No. 329 East Twen- 
 tieth street. It added, in 1845, a hospital, or department for the sick. 
 From eighty to one hundred women are cared for on an average during 
 the year. According to the regulations, applicants must belong to some 
 one of the various denominations of the Protestant Church, be over 
 sixty years of age, and be able to pay fifty dollars as an entrance fee. 
 The society has already purchased building lots on Seventy-eighth street 
 and Fourth avenue, where they are about to erect a new and grand 
 building. 
 
 The " Sailors' Snug Harbor," at Castleton, Long Island, is the home 
 for sailors, and is one of the finest in the world. The founder of it was 
 Captain R. R. Randall, an old seaman, who in 1801 left his entire pro- 
 perty, consisting of real estate in the Eleventh and Fifteenth wards of 
 New York city, for this purpose. But only in 1830, after protracted law- 
 suits against relatives of the testator, could the noble work be brought 
 under headway. One hundred and fifty-one acres were then bought on 
 Staten Island, and in 1833 the still existing palatial building was erected, 
 consisting of a central building three stories high and one hundred feet 
 long, and two equally long wings connected with the main building by 
 large halls. Round about the institution there is a park containing 
 twenty-three acres, and fenced in by a high iron railing. The institution 
 consists of the real home and the hospital, the latter having accommo- 
 dations for seventy-five patients. The number of patients who find a 
 a home here for the rest of their lives, not unfrequently extending over 
 one hundred years, is about four hundred per year. The conditions of 
 reception are : Service on American vessels for at least five years, pov- 
 erty, and unfitness for further service on account of old age, sickness, or 
 being crippled. The pensioners enjoy the greatest liberties both within 
 and without the institution, and mostly employ themselves with the man- 
 ufacturing of mats, baskets, and other useful as well as fancy articles, 
 which they sell in large numbers, using the money thus obtained in the 
 purchase of personal comforts. There are special rooms for such work, 
 situated in the basement, and furnished with everything necessary for 
 this kind of manufacture, while a library of over one thousaud volumes, 
 and a reading-room supplied with the daily papers and magazines, offers 
 ample chance for literary improvement. Captain Randall's property, 
 originally valued at $30,000, is now worth over $2,000,000, and this 
 increase in value has made his noble work one of the richest charitable 
 institutions in the country. 
 
 "The Colored Home," on First avenue, bstween Sixty-fourth and 
 
804 BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Sixty-fifth streets, was founded by a number of noble white women, who 
 in 1839 formed themselves into a " Society for the Relief of Worthy 
 Aged Colored Persons/' and opened a house on the North River, known 
 as Woodsi'e, as the first home for their colored proteges. In 1843 they 
 moved to the corner of Fortieth street and Fourth avenue, and in 1849 
 to their present magnificent house. The Home, as it now exists, is a 
 combination of a home, a hospital, and a children's home. In the Home 
 uot only poor and aged colored persons are received, but it also offers a 
 home to such as are forced by circumstanced to make use of public 
 charity for a time. In accordance with an arrangement made, the Com- 
 missioners of Public Charities also turn over poor colored persons to the 
 Colored Home, instead of sending them to the Poor-house. The hos- 
 pital consists of the real hospital and the lying-in asylum. The Chil- 
 dren's Home takes charge of such children, over three years of age, as 
 are not received in the Colored Orphan Asylum. The number of these 
 children amounts on an average to twenty a year. In the course of the 
 year 1872, 889 persons were received in the institution, of whom 597 
 came into the hospital department, and 292 into the poor department. 
 Of these there were, on December 31, 1872, 246 remaining in the house, 
 (164 in the sick and 82 in the poor department). Although intended 
 only for the poor negroes of the city of New York, colored persons from 
 other parts of the State are also received upon the payment of $1.65 for 
 the poor, and $1.85 for the hospital department, if there is sufficient 
 room to receive them. 
 
 The " Home for Aged and Infirm members of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church in the City of New York," is under the direction of the 
 " Ladies' Union Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church," and 
 was opened, in 1850, in a small house in No. 16 Horatio street. Its 
 present fine building in Forty-second street, near Eighth avenue, which 
 was built in 1856, is four stories high, and occupies four building lots. 
 The noble object of the institution is clearly indicated by its name. The 
 last annual report shows the presence, at the close of the year 1872, of 
 85 pensioners, mostly females, in the institution. In connection with 
 this institution, it is interesting to remark that, in 1854, two of its in- 
 mates died, the one at 100 years, and the other at the still more advanced 
 age of 117 years. 
 
 " St. Luke's Home for Indigent Christian Females," is a fine Gothic 
 building on the corner of Eighty-ninth street and Madison avenue. It 
 was begun, in 1851, as a home for indigent aged women of St. Luke's 
 parish, who were furnished with free lodgings in rented rooms. In 1867 
 its sphere of action was enlarged by being placed under the protection 
 of all the Protestant Episcopal churches of the city of New York, and 
 that the house No. 481 Hudson street was rented for the purposes of 
 the Home. There it remained until, in 1871, the present building, in- 
 
TI1K HKMIUTKST OK TIIK 
 
 805 
 
 tended for seventy-four women, was finished. The conditions for ad- 
 mission to the institution are, good character, poverty, old age, the mem- 
 bership of a Protestant Episcopal Church, and the payment of one hun- 
 dred dollars. 
 
 The former home in Hudson street was changed, in the spring o* 
 1873, into a " Home for Old Men and Old Couples." The name clearly 
 indicates the character of the institution. 
 
 The "Home for Incurables," founded in 1865, is in West Farms, 
 Westchester County (at present the Twenty-fourth ward of the city of 
 New York). The name of the institution clearly indicates its object. 
 The number of patients does not exceed thirty or forty, owing to the 
 want of accommodations. Poor persons are received free of charge, 
 while those inmates who are able to pay are charged six dollars per 
 week. 
 
 Similar to this is "The House of rest for Consumptives," which was 
 opened, in 1869, in Tremont, Westchester County, and which has re- 
 ceived, since its existence, over one hundred persons, without distinction 
 of creed, and, in cases of poverty, has treated the inmates without 
 charge. 
 
 "The Samaritan Home for the Aged" was originally only a home for 
 poor old women belonging to any Protestant church, and was opeued, in 
 1866, in No. 175 West Thirty-seventh street. In 1868 the directors 
 also established a home for old men, in No. 259 West Thirty-seventh 
 street, and united these two institutions in May, 1869, in its present 
 building on the corner of Ninth avenue and Fourteenth street. The 
 number of inmates in the year 1872 was forty-four (2 men and 24 
 women). The conditions of admission are: Protestant religion, an age 
 of over sixty-five years, and the payment of two hundred and fifty 
 dollars. 
 
 The " Presbyterian Home for Aged Women " is situated in a fine 
 building in Seventy-third street, between Lexington and Fourth avenues. 
 It only receives poor old women of the Presbyterian and Dutch Re- 
 formed Churches, and the inmates must pay three dollars per week for 
 board. This Home was opened by some Presbyterian ladies, in 1866, in 
 No. 45 Grove street. At the end of April, 1873, it had forty-three in- 
 mates. 
 
 The " Home for the Blind," in No. 219 West Fourteenth street, is the 
 first attempt at the establishment of such an institution in our city. It 
 is the work of the " Society for the Aid of the Poor Blind of New York 
 and Vicinity," and has been in operation since the year 1869. The ob- 
 ject of this institution, is to offer a home to poor and friendless blind 
 persons of both sexes when they are old and infirm, or to give them an 
 opportunity to earn a little towards their maintenance. The institution 
 is governed, like several others we have mentioned, by a board of di- 
 
806 BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW TORE. 
 
 rectors consisting entirely of ladies, and for the present only receives 
 blind persons of extreme old age. 
 
 The " Roman Catholic Home for the Aged Poor," in No. 447 
 West Thirty-second street, was founded by the Sisters of Charity, in 
 1870, and furnishes a home for about ninety poor and aged persons for 
 the rest of their lives, without distinction of sex or religion. The insti- 
 tution is supported mainly by contributions which the Sisters continually 
 solicit and collect in the city. At present the Home, which consists of 
 th*ree rented buildings, is capable of accommodating one hundred and 
 ten persons. 
 
 The " Baptist Home for Aged and Infirm Persons" was opened, in 
 1870, in No. 41 Grove street, from where it has just moved into its new 
 building on Lexington avenue, between Sixty-seventh and Sixty-eighth 
 streets. In Grove street there were from twenty to twenty-five benefi- 
 ciaries of both sexes. Only poor old members of the Baptist Church 
 are received, and applicants are charged an entrance fee of one hundred 
 dollars. It is governed by a board of directors consisting of lady mem- 
 bers of the Baptist Church. 
 
 The " Home for Aged Hebrews was opened, in 1870, in No. 215 
 "West Seventeenth street. Up to the present it is not much more than a 
 home for poor and aged Hebrew women, and has room for about thirty- 
 five beneficiaries. The Ladies' Aid Society, who have charge of the 
 young institution, also do a great deal of good by giving to poor Hebrew * 
 and also Christian women sewing to do, and, after selling the work and 
 deducting all actual expenses, pay them the remainder, with the excep- 
 tion of a small part, which goes to the society. According to the last 
 annual report, there were six men and twenty-four women in this insti- 
 tution. 
 
 " Chapin's Home for the Aged and Infirm," is an institution which 
 was opened, in 1873, in Sixty-seventh street, between Lexington and 
 Third avenues, for aged and infirm members of the Universalist Church, 
 of which Dr. Chapin, after whom the institution is named, is one of the 
 most influential ministers. 
 
 Our city is no less rich in institutions whose object is the care of or- 
 phans. The following belong to this class : 
 
 The " New York Orphan Asylum, the oldest and richest orphan asy- 
 lum in the United. States, was founded, in 1806, by a society known as 
 the " Society for the Relief Widows with Small Children." It opened 
 its first orphan asylum in 1807, in Raisin street, with about twenty chil- 
 dren. In the same year the society was enabled to buy four lots in 
 Greenwich street, and to erect an orphan asylum with accommodations 
 for about two hundred children. The ravages of the cholera iu 1834 
 induced the society to look about in the country for a more fitting and 
 safe location. In 1846 the present building, on Broadway, between Scv- 
 
BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 807 
 
 eulv-third and Seventy-fourth streets, was erected. The purchase of 
 the property connected with the Home laid the foundation for its wealth, 
 a< the nine acres which were then bought for $18,000, are worth at pres- 
 ent over SI, 000, 000, three and a half acres of which were sold for 
 
 ',000. Children once received, are not discharged before the end of 
 
 ar, and no child is permitted to leave the institution who does not 
 possess a knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic. There are 
 lrom 170 to 190 orphans in the institution every year. It differs from 
 other institutions in this respect, as it receives orphaned infants. 
 
 The "Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum" was founded, in 1817, by 
 the " Roman Catholic Benevolent Society," and was originally situated 
 on the corner of Prince and Mott streets. This part of the city was at 
 that time far beyond its built-up limits, and the original institution was 
 only a collection of shanties. In 1825 the still existing four-story brick 
 house was erected, with accommodations for two hundred and fifty chil- 
 dren. But even this structure soon proved itself to be insufficient. In 
 
 i the institution received from the city the block bounded by Fifth 
 and Madison avenues and Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets, as a site 
 for a new asylum. On this ground the department for boys, fronting on 
 Fifth avenue, was built in 1851, and that for girls, fronting on Madison 
 avenue, in 18G8. The latter is not as yet quite finished. When com- 
 pleted, the two departments together will be able to accommodate thous- 
 ands of orphans, and compare favorably both with regard to the large- 
 ness and beauty of the building, as well as to its arrangement, with any 
 similar institution in the world. It is governed by the Sisters of Mercy. 
 "When the education of the children is finished, they are apprenticed to 
 some trade, or given out to farmers or private persons. Such as arc 
 endowed with peculiar talents, are in some cases educated at the expense 
 of the institution. The house in Prince street is still a part of the asy- 
 lum. It serves as a home for about two hundred of the larger orphan 
 girls, who are there occupied with sewing, washing, and other work 
 for the institution. This, the largest orphan asylum on the continent. 
 
 lea receiving numerous legacies and gifts, is chiefly sustained by col- 
 lections taken upon Christmas and Easter in all the Catholic churches in 
 our city, and which frequently amount to over fifty thousand dollars. 
 Orphans are received in it without regard to religion or nationality. 
 Children whose father or mother is still living, are only received when 
 their surviving parent engages to pay a certain sum for their mainte- 
 nance. 
 
 The " Colored Orphan Asylum" was founded, in 1837, by a society 
 of New York ladies. The plan of its founders was severely attacked at 
 that time, when the prejudice against the negro was still at its height, 
 and no property-owner could be found who would rent a building for such 
 a purpose. At last the society succeeded in buying a small shanty in 
 
808 THE BRIGHTEST OP THE 
 
 Twelfth street, where it placed the colored children under its protection. 
 The house was from the beginning much too small for the purpose of 
 the institution, and it cost a great amount of trouble to get the city au- 
 to grant a building site for the society, which they did in 1842. Here 
 the society erected its new building, and it remained there until the 
 breaking out of the momorable riots of July, 1863, when the mob set 
 fire to the building and completely destroyed it. The children, 233 in 
 number, were at first received in a neighboring police station, and after- 
 wards were brought to the Poor-house, on Blackwell's Island. There 
 they remained until October, 1863, when they were removed to a build- 
 ing on Washington Heights. In 1868 the large and magnificent build- 
 ing was finished which the society had built in One-hundred-and-Forty- 
 third street, near Tenth avenue. In December, 1872, the date of the 
 last annual report, the asylum contained 240 children (160 boys and 86 
 girls), from two to twelve years of age. All orphans are received free 
 of charge. Half-orphans, however, only on the payment of seventy-five 
 cents per week. Applicants for admission must be within the ages of 
 two and ten years. They remain in the institution until their twelfth 
 year, when they are generally given out to work on farms. Since its 
 foundation, and up to December, 1872, over 1,850 children have been 
 received in the asylum. 
 
 " Leake and "Watts' Orphan House." This orphan asylum, which bears 
 the name of its original founders, was built in 1843. It is an imposing 
 granite building, and is situated in the midst of some beautiful, park-like 
 grounds, between Ninth and Tenth avenues and One-hundred-and-Tenth 
 end Oue-hundred-and-Thirteenth streets. It is one of the richest and 
 best managed orphan asylums, and only receives such children as have 
 lost both father and mother, and without any regard to religion. The 
 number of orphans received into it since its foundation amounts to over 
 one thousand. John Leak, the original founder, was a rich citizen of 
 New York, who died in 1827, childless, and without any relatives what- 
 ever. To perpetuate his name, he declared the son of one of his friends, 
 Robert Watts, as his heir, if he and his descendants would add the name 
 of Leake to their own. Unfortunately the will had no real signature, 
 and, in a suit which followed, and which was not decided until 1829, 
 the real estate was awarded to the city, and the personal property to Mr. 
 Watts. The personal property amounted to $400,000, and Mr. Watts 
 declared himself willing to conform to the conditions of the will. The 
 legacy was therefore delivered over to him. But shortly afterwards he 
 was stricken down by death, and the property went to his father. The 
 latter, being wealthy himself, decided to bring into execution a favorite 
 idea of Leake's, and, by building the above-mentioned orphan asylum 
 erect a monument to the memory of Leake and his son, which should be 
 more enduring than brass or stone. He died in 1836, at the age of 
 
BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 809 
 
 eighty-six, and as, according to his directions, the asylum should only 
 be built with the interest, and the capital remain intact, he himself did 
 not see it finished. 
 
 The " Orphan Home and Asylum of the Protestant Episcopal Church," 
 in Forty-ninth street, between Lexington and Fourth avenues, was built 
 in 1851, and is a large and beautiful building in the Gothic style of ar- 
 chitecture, capable of holding over one hundred and fifty children. It 
 receives orphans, as well as half-orphans, between the ages of three and 
 eight years, upon the payment of seventy-five cents per week. Only 
 such orphans are received free of charge who are left entirely under the 
 control of the institution. Boys are then kept until their twelfth, and 
 girls until their fourteenth year, when they are given out to work. But, 
 even after leaving the asylum, the children are not lost sight of, and it 
 reserves the right of reclaiming them if they should not prosper with 
 those with whom they are placed. The asylum is under the direction of 
 a society of ladies of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and numbered, 
 in December, 1872, the date of the last annual report, 137 inmates, of 
 whom forty-three were received in the course of the year. 
 
 The " St. Joseph's Society," founded by a German Catholic Society, 
 is a beautiful, commodious building, on the corner of Eighty-ninth street 
 and Avenue A, and was erected in 1859. It is intended for the recep- 
 tion of German children who are either orphaned or otherwise helpless 
 and destitute. Besides being the children of German parents, they must 
 also belong to the Roman Catholic Church. The children received in it 
 are thoroughly educated, which enables them to make their way in the 
 world. According to the last annual report for January 1, 1873, there 
 were 195 children in the institution, of whom seventy-six were re- 
 ceived during the course of the year. The applications during the 
 same time amounted to almost five hundred, while the house cannot pos- 
 sibly contain more than two hundred at a time. The majority of the 
 children are received free of charge. 
 
 The "Orphan Asylum of St. Vincent de Paula" was first opened in 
 a rented house on Twenty-sixth street, where it remained until its ad- 
 ministration was enabled to buy some real estate on Thirty-ninth street, 
 near Seventh avenue, and to build its beautiful new building there. Only 
 one-half of this is finished up to the present time. According to the 
 last annual report, dated December 31, 1872, it contained 26 boys and 
 80 girls, of whom 25 boys and 43 girls had been received during the 
 year. When completed the building will be able to contain 350 chil- 
 dren. Orphans are received without distinction of nationality or religion. 
 They must, however, not be under four years of age. Boys are given 
 out to work io their eleventh or twelfth year ; but girls can remain in 
 the institution until their sixteenth year, and they are all taught some 
 useful trade or occupation. The institution is in the hands of the 
 
810 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 " Sisters of St. Vincent," a Catholic order introduced into this country 
 from France. 
 
 The " Union Home and School for Children of our Volunteer Soldier!? 
 and Sailors/' was founded in 1861, at the commencement of the Rebel- 
 lion, by a society of patriotic ladies. The name clearly indicates the 
 noble object of the institution. Since 1866 the institution has occupied 
 its beautiful building on the corner of One-hundred-and-Fifty-first street 
 and the Western Boulevard. The last annual report, dated February 1, 
 1873, gives the number of inmatos at 203 (131 boys and 72 girls), of 
 whom 132 were over ten, 60 between five and ten, and 11 under five 
 years of age. 
 
 The " Hebrew Orphan Asylum" is the noblest creation of the "He- 
 brew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society of New York." It is sit- 
 uated in a beautiful building, erected for this purpose, finished in the fall 
 of 1863, and located on the corner of Third avenue and Seventy-seventh 
 street. According to the last annual report, dated April, 1873, it had 
 183 inmates (133 boys and 50 girls). The age of these children range 
 from five to seventeen years. Besides the public schools, which are 
 largely attended by the children of the institution, there is a school in 
 the building itself, in which the children are taught in five classes, He- 
 brew and other branches of knowledge. An industrial school teaches 
 the children shoemaking, type-setting, etc., and, when they have learned 
 their trade, obtains for them situations. The "Ladies' Sewing Society" 
 is a society composed of Hebrew Ladies, whose object it is to do the 
 sewing for the asylum. 
 
 "The Sheltering Arm3" was first opened in 1864, on the corner of 
 Broadway and One-hundredth street, but was removed, in 1870, to more 
 extensive accommodations in Manhattanville. It receives all those chil- 
 dren who are not received in other orphan asylums, as blind, crippled, 
 and similarly afflicted children. It also receives such children whose 
 parents do not wish to separate themselves permanently from them, but 
 who wish to reserve the right to reclaim them at any time. Such chil- 
 dren it receives at any age below fourteen years, cares for them, and only 
 discharges them after they have learned some practical business, which, 
 will help them along in the world. At the end of the year 1872, the 
 institution had 135 children, of whom ten were afflicted with some in- 
 curable disease. The institution is in the hands of the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church. 
 
 The " New York Infant Asylum " was founded in 1865, in No. 29 
 Clinton Place. Its object is to receive and educate foundlings and chil- 
 dren in general not over two years of age, and to keep unmarried 
 mothers from the temptation of abandoning or murdering their children, 
 by offering them a place of refuge during the time of their confinement. 
 In this respect the institution faithfully does its duty. In July, 1873, it 
 
 
BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 811 
 
 moved from its old quarters in Clinton Place to its new, large and com- 
 modious building on Sixty-first street and Tenth avenue, keeping its 
 house in Clinton Flace as a place for the reception of their cnarges. 
 Since 1872 it has had a branch establishment in the country, at Flushing, 
 Long Island, designed for the better comfort and care of its weak and 
 sickly inmates. According to its last annual report, dated January 1, 
 1873, there were 107 children in the asylum. 
 
 The " Shepherd's Fold," in Eighty-sixth street, between First and 
 Second avenues, is an institution which receives children up to fifteen 
 years of age, whether they are orphans or only abandoned by their 
 heartless parents. It receives, however, mostly such children as are re- 
 fused admission into other orphan asylums. The children must be given 
 unconditionally into the care of the asylum, but to relieve poor families 
 children are sometimes received for a short period, in which cases four 
 dollars per month must be paid for such inmates. The institution is in 
 the hands of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and has from sixty to 
 seventy children. It was founded in 1868, and was situated first in Thirty- 
 eighth street, and then, uutil April, 1870, in Second avenue, between 
 Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets. 
 
 The " New York Foundling Asylum " we have described in another 
 place. We would only add here that its removal to its new and magni- 
 ficent building between Lexington and Third avenues, and Fifty-eighth 
 and Fifty-ninth streets, took place in September, 1873. 
 
 The charitable efforts in our^city are particularly active in the reform 
 of the abandoned children swarming in our streets, and from whom the 
 ranks of our professional criminals continually recruit themselves. 
 While our courts quietly permit the evil i;o grow, and content themselves 
 with sending the criminal to the scaffold or prison, numerous charitable 
 societies have been organized to prevent new recruits for these ranks 
 from growing up, by bestowing a loving care upon those children who, 
 without any fault of their own, generally grow up, in thu city, to a life 
 of crime and vice. 
 
 Among these societies we place in the first rank the " Children's Aid 
 Society," which began its beneficial career in February, 1853. Charles 
 Lorin^ Brace, the present secretary of the society, must be regarded as 
 the founder of this institution. He began this charitable work under 
 not very favorable circumstances, in a small office on the corner of Amity 
 street and Broadway. But his success shows what great results can 
 be attained with small means, if they are seconded by an earnest 
 will and by consistent efforts. The first annual report, published by 
 the society in 1854, shows that it provided about two hundred boys and 
 girls with suitable homes in the country, and that; an industrial school 
 for <z;irls had been opened, which was attended by about one hundred 
 pupils. The total expenses of the first year were $4,191. If we look 
 
812 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 at the report of the society for the year ending November, 1872, we will 
 find the following figures, which need no further commentary : The in- 
 dustrial schools belonging to the society have increased to twenty-one 
 day and fifteen night schools ; in five lodging-houses (four for boys and 
 one for girls), about 12,000 homeless children have received shelter for 
 a longer or shorter term, while 3,642 children were provided with per- 
 manent homes in other States. The expenses of the society during this 
 year amounted to more than $150,000. It is impossible to give, in the 
 small space allotted to us, a complete picture of the beneficial activity of 
 this society. Every industrial school, every lodging-house, is a charita- 
 ble institution complete in itself, in which disinterested philanthropy is 
 continually at work to improve and ennoble the youthful minds spoiled 
 by bad examples, by means of persuasion" and kindness. In the indus- 
 trial schools the girls are not only instructed in the elementary branches 
 of knowledge, sewing, etc., but are occasionally supplied with clothing, 
 and in sixteen even with dinner. The evening schools are open to all 
 those children who are at work during the day in factories, shops, etc. 
 The importance of these schools can be seen from the fact that, of the 
 9,503 children who visit them, 1,984 are the offspring of drunkards, 
 who do not care what becomes of them, and 2,527 were children who 
 regularly occupied their time with begging on the streets. These chil- 
 dren were supplied during the year with 5,412 articles of clothing, and 
 1,063 pairs of shoes ; 461 children were supplied with steady work, and 
 819 were sent to the public schools. The* schools cost, during the year 
 1872, not less than $60,939.' 
 
 Of the lodging-houses, the oldest and best known is the " Newsboys' 
 Lodging House." It was opened in 1855, in the attic of the Sun Build- 
 ing, and was used by about twenty newsboys. To-day it has its own 
 large building at No. 49 Park Place, with room for about 250 boys, 
 where about 9,000 boys received lodging during the year 1872. An 
 evening school and a savings bank are connected with the lodging-house, 
 in which latter 1,029 boys deposited, during the course of the year, 
 $2,644. This lodging-house is intended for newsboys and bootblacks, 
 who must pay six cents for a night's lodging and an equal amount for a 
 supper. This is done less to cover the expenses than to give the boys a 
 feeling of independence, and not to induce them to rely too much upon 
 public charity. Small as this sum is, however, it has covered almost 
 one-fourth the annual expenses of this lodging-house. 
 
 Besides this there are three other lodging-houses for homeless boys in 
 the city, in No. 709 East Eleventh street, in No. 211 West Eighteenth 
 street, and in 327 Rivington street, which in 1872 gave shelter to about 
 11,000 boys. 
 
 There is a lodging-house for girls in No. 27 St. Mark's Place, which 
 in 1872 was used by 1,535 girls. Of these, 1,417 learned to operate on 
 
IIRIGIIT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 
 
 813 
 
 Male. 
 
 Female 
 
 1,147 
 
 1,342 
 
 1,250 
 
 915 
 
 1,140 
 
 671 
 
 the sewing-machine, 375 were supplied with work, and 87 were sent to 
 their friends. About 250,000 meals were given at the various lodging- 
 houses, of which about 8,500 were paid for. Evening schools are con- 
 nected with all the lodging-houses, as well as rooms for gymnastic exer- 
 cises and for bathing. The daily use of the latter is made obligatory in 
 all lodging-houses. 
 
 But the society does not content itself with this. Every year it se- 
 lects from its proteges the best ones, in a moral and intellectual sense r 
 and withdraws them from the further danger of a contact with city life 
 by providing them with a home on some western farm. In 1872 the 
 number of these youthful immigrants amounted to 3,462 (2,097 boys 
 'and 1,365 girls), and, since the existence of the society, 28,677. Al-j 
 most all these were brought up to be useful members of society by the 
 Children's Aid Society, while otherwise they would probably have been 
 swallowed up by vice and crime, or would have helped to fill our prisons. 
 The beueficial activity of this society can also be seen from our prison- 
 lists. The number of men and women arrested in our city as vagabonds 
 during various years, was as follows : 
 
 Year, Male. Female. Year. 
 
 1859 2,822 5,778 1864 
 
 1860 2,708 5,880 1865 
 1862 1,203 2,243 1870 
 The decrease of this class of offenses in our police-lists can only be 
 
 explained by the annually-increasing number of asylums which were 
 opened to the friendless youth of our city by the Children's Aid Society. 
 For our street Arabs have always furnished a large percentage of our 
 vagabonds, and it is this class from which the large majority of all crim- 
 inals, from the pickpocket to the highwayman, burglar, and murderer, 
 develop themselves. 
 
 We have thus sufficiently described the character and the influence of 
 the Children's Aid Society on the friendless youth of our city. It is en- 
 tirely free from all sectarian spirit. Its noble object is to prevent crime 
 by assisting the friendless children of our city in a manner which most 
 readily appeals to their sympathetic mind. It saves thousands annually, 
 and makes them useful members of society at a cost which would not 
 have sufficed to try and execute a few dozen criminals in our courts of 
 justice. 
 
 The following institutions and societies follow the same ends, although 
 in a more limited measure : 
 
 The "City Mission Society" is a Protestant Episcopal society, whose 
 object is in general of a more religious character, but which also has an 
 industrial school for poor and friendless children, and a house of refuge 
 — the St. Barnabas House — in which sixteen children, mostly orphans, 
 wsre supplied with a home during the year 1872. This society, as well 
 
814 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 as the Children's Aid Society, have Christmas trees and pic-nics and 
 excursions every summer for the children. It has been in existence for 
 almost twenty-three years, and has its headquarters in the above-men- 
 tioned Barnabas House. 
 
 The " New York House and School of Industry " has existed since 
 1851, in No. 120 West Sixteenth street. Although its object is of a 
 general charitable charitable character, it turns its chief attention to the 
 young. It gives out sewing to poor women and girls, either in or out of 
 the House, at far better wages than are generally paid in factories. It 
 takes charge of small children during the day, whose mothers work out 
 of the house, and has, besides, a common school, and a sewing school 
 fbr girls of the poorest class of our population. During the year 1872 
 it has paid to 350 women, $5,754 for work done of various kinds, and 
 has given instruction to 175 children in the school, and to 125 girls, 
 from six to sixteen years, in the sewing school. 
 
 The "Wilson Industrial School for girls" is the oldest industrial 
 school in our city, and bears the name of its founder, Mrs. Wilson. It 
 began its career in 1853, in a small rented room in Avenue D, near 
 Eighth street, whence it moved, in 1855 to its present three-story build- 
 ing in St. Mark's Place. It only receives such children as are too poor 
 too dirty, or for any other reason, are not able to attend the publi'. 
 schools. Besides the branches taught in other schools, it also teache* 
 singing, sewing, etc. In connection with the school there is a lodging 
 house for homeless girls, in which such unfortunates receive a meai 
 besides the sleeping accommodations for the night. It is conducted b; 
 ladies. 
 
 The " Howard Mission and House for Little Wanderers " was founder 
 in 1861. It is situated at present in a three-story building in No. 41 
 New Bowery, in the most populous and therefore richest ward in vio 
 and misery. During the year ending May 1, 1873, the Mission receive' 
 in its school 925 children, had 39 of them adopted, gave 98,166 fre 
 meals, 1,004 articles of clothing, 748 pairs of shoes, 6,451 loaves o 
 bread, etc., to the poor. The members. of this association, as well as ol 
 the Wilson, are obliged to visit the haunts of misery and crime, and ti 
 try and bring the children there under the influence of their institutions. 
 Poor children are received either permanently or temporarily in the Mis- 
 sion, or only come there to be fed or clothed. 
 
 The " Five Points House of Industry," in No. 155 Worth street, was 
 founded in 1850, for the purpose of giving employment to prostitutes 
 who wished to abandon their life of shame, until they could find employ- 
 ment elsewhere. At present its chief work consists in receiving and 
 caring for abandoned children, but also continues not only to give em- 
 ployment to repentant prostitutes, but assists any poor people who may 
 apply to it, as far as lays in its power, by supplying them with food and 
 
BRIGHT SIDES OP NEW YORK. 815 
 
 work. Iu the House there is a school and a hospital. The House pos- 
 sesses a farm of sixty-four acres in Eastchester, iu which a part of the 
 women and children are cared for. 
 
 The large boarding-house for working women, opened in 1869, in 
 Elizabeth street, was a branch of the House of Industry. But it was 
 closed again in 1872. 
 
 Since the existence of the House of Industry, it has given instruction 
 to about 25,000 children, of whom about one-half were fed, clothed, and 
 cared for in the House itself. During the year 1872 it received 1,765 
 persons (588 children and 1,177 women), of w r hom 230 remained on 
 January 1, 1873. The number of meals distributed were 342,824. 
 
 " St. John's Guild " is an association of members of Trinity parish, 
 the object of which is to relieve the poor and suffering of the Fifth and 
 Eighth wards. Every member has a block of tenement-houses in these 
 wards, and is obliged to inform himself of the condition of its inmates 
 by frequent visits, and to report the same to the society. Very much 
 has been done in this respect, particularly for children. According to 
 the last annual report, the society had assisted, from October, 1872, to 
 October, 1873, over 600 families with medical attendance, medicines, 
 food, fuel, clothing, etc., and has clothed 2,207 children, and enabled 
 them to attend school. The intelligence office of the society has sup- 
 plied 215 applicants with work. In its sewing department 60 poor girls 
 were instructed in sewing, while in its children's hall 137 little ones were 
 taken care of during those days' in which their mothers were attsnding to 
 their daily occupations. 
 
 The u Society for the Relief of Poor Sick Children " has only been 
 founded a short time, and has its headquarters in St. Johu's Chapel, in 
 Varick street. This society, for its purposes, has divided up the city 
 into districts, each of which has its own superintendent. It is the duty 
 of this superintendent to visit or send a member to the dwellings of the 
 poor in his district, and particularly to relieve the condition of sick children 
 In the summer of 1873 the society arranged excursions on the river for 
 hundreds of sickly children and their mothers. 
 
 Next to these institutions and societies are those whose object it is to 
 reform such youthful criminals as have already come in contact with the 
 courts, but who are too young to be held legally responsible. These iu- 
 stitutious also receive such children as are unmanageable in the hands of 
 their parents. Our city has three such institutions, vis; 
 
 The "House of Refuge" was founded in 1824 by the "Association 
 for the Reform of Youthful Criminals," on Randall's Island. We have 
 already spoken of this institution in a former chapter. 
 
 The "New York Juvenile Asylum" was founded in 1852. It was at 
 first situated in No. 109 Banks street, but in 1853 changed these insuf- 
 ficient quarters for larger ones on Fifty-filth street, near the East River. 
 
816 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 Its present building, consisthig of a five-story central building and two» 
 four-story wings, together with a number of smaller buildings, was 
 built in 1856, in a splendid situation at Washington Heights, at the foot 
 of One-hundred-and-Seventy-sixth street. The grounds belonging to the 
 institution have an extent of over twenty acres. The children belonging 
 to it have either been sent there by the authorities, as youthful criminals, 
 vagabonds, etc., or by their parents for being unmanageable. The dis- 
 cipline is similar to that in the House of Refuge. In general the chil- 
 dren do not remain over six months in the institution, when they are 
 either returned to their parents, apprenticed to some trade, or sent out to 
 the West and placed with farmers. In No. 61 West Thirteenth street 
 the institution has a reception-house, in which new arrivals remain for a 
 few weeks, until by means of bathing, fresh clothing, etc., they have 
 been put in a fit condition to be sent to the asylum. In the course of the 
 year 1872 there were 1,153 children in the asylum and in the house of 
 reception (875 boys and 178 girls), of whom 546 had been received 
 during the year. Four hundred and twenty-seven were returned to their 
 parents or friends, 90 were sent to the west, 12 apprenticed to various 
 trades, and 6 transfered to other institutions. On January 1, 1873, there 
 remained therefore in all 617 children (530 boys and 87 girls) ; 53 in 
 the asylum and 94 in the house of reception. Buring the year 1872 thi> 
 authorities sent to this institution 41 children for various offenses, 21-L 
 at the request of their parents, and six at their own request. Two hun- 
 dred and eighty-one were received from home, and four from other insti - 
 tutions. 
 
 The above asylum has a house of reception at Bloomington, Illinois, 
 where the children who are sent to the west remain until the agents of 
 the institution succeed in finding a place for them with some farmer. It 
 is the duty of the Bloomington Agency to look after such children, and 
 to see that they are well treated. 
 
 The "New York Catholic Protectory" is an institution similar to the 
 former, and was founded in 1862. It was originally situated in York- 
 ville, in a rented room, but in 1866 moved to West Farms, Westchester 
 county, where it has erected a magnificent building. According to its 
 charter, a judge, when convicting a Catholic delinquent under fourteen 
 years of age, must send him or her to the Catholic Protectory, when re- 
 quested to do so by the parents, guardian, or the nearest relative of the 
 child. Unmanageable children are also sent by their parents to this in- 
 stitution as a last resort. The Protectory consists of two immense 
 buildings standing near to each other, one for boys, and the other for 
 girls. The latter was burned on July 25, 1872, and the girls have been 
 removed to a temporary building awaiting the completion of a new edi- 
 fice for their reception. In the course of the year 1872, 2,414 children 
 (1,796 boys and 618 girls) were sent to the institution, almost exclu- 
 
BRIGHX SIDES OP NEW TORE. 
 
 817 
 
 sively by the courts, of whom there were, at the close of September, 
 1872, still remaining 1,259 boys and 329 girls. The Boys' Department 
 is governed by the semi-religious order of the " Christian Brothers," and 
 the Girls' Department by the " Sisters of Charity." Everything is care- 
 fully avoided that would give the institution the appearance of a prison. 
 .No definite time is stated during which the children are retained at the 
 Protectory. Those who are not discharged at the instance of their pa- 
 rents or of the authorities, remain there until the institution sees fit to 
 place them out at service. Besides receiving a complete school educa- 
 tion, the children are also taught singing, and a number of trades, such 
 as shoemaking, tailoring, type-setting, etc., etc. Over one thousand 
 acres of good farm-land offer good opportunities to the children to learn 
 farming. 
 
 Similar to these institutions are the following houses of refuge for 
 penitent prostitutes : 
 
 The " New York Magdalen Asylum," on the corner of Fifth avenue 
 and Eighty-eighth street. This institution we have already described in 
 a former chapter. 
 
 The "House of Mercy" was founded in 1851, and was conducted 
 only on a small scale in rented houses, or in buildings placed at the dis- 
 posal of the society. The present building, near the Hudson River, be- 
 tween Eighty-fitth and Eighty-sixth streets, was erected in 1859, and 
 considerably enlarged in 1869, while the building at No. 304 Mulberry 
 street still serves as a house of reception. The House is governed by a 
 Protestant Episcopal female order, the so-called " Sisterhood of Saint 
 Mary." The persons received are mostly youthful victims of prostitu- 
 tion, their ages ranging from twelve to twenty years. They are not 
 forced to remain at the House. Many remain only a few weeks or 
 months, when they are sent to their families or friends ; others remain 
 for a long time, frequently as long as two years, when they are brought 
 into respetable families by the Sisters. The House is able to receive 
 one hundred women. 
 
 The "House of the Good Shepherd," also a house of refuge for pros- 
 titutes, was founded in 1857, by a female Catholic order, introduced from 
 France (the "Order of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd"), 
 in Fourteenth street. In 1861 a convent was built on the East River, at 
 the ioot of Ninetieth street, and the asylum was united with it, but in 
 1864 the present large building was erected, which, although only two- 
 thirds of it is finished, will hold about eight hundred inmates. The ave- 
 rage number in it at present may be estimated at from six to seven iiun. 
 dred, while the total number received in it since its existence 
 is over three thousand. Many of these never returned to the outer 
 world, but entered the convent as nuns. 
 
 The "Home for Friendless Women" is the creation of a number of 
 
 52 
 
818 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 ladies, who in 1865 opened a house of refuge for penitent prostitutes, in 
 No. 22 West Houston street. In 1869 this house proved inadequate, 
 and the society moved into the building No. 86 West Fourth street. It 
 can accommodate about thirty women, and since its' foundation up to 
 January, 1873, has offered a home to 626 " Magdalens. As soon as 
 the women are thoroughly reformed, the society provides them with sit- 
 situations. 
 
 " The Midnight Mission," which is situated in No. 26 Greenwich 
 street. We have already given a description of this institution in a for- 
 mer chapter. 
 
 The " Water Street Home for Women," in No. 273 Water street, is a 
 similar house of refuge, which was opened in 1860, in the worst, most 
 criminal, and most miserable part of the city. Up to that time it was a 
 rum-hole of ill-repute, in which dog and rat-fights used to bring together 
 the lowest class of our population. It was remodelled in conformity 
 with its object, and, since its opening, the applications of the unfortu- 
 nate inmates of the neighboring dens of vice and crime have always 
 been more numerous than the accommodations of Home would afford 
 room for. Free concerts are occasionally given, the object of which is 
 is to attract the women in the neighboring dens, and draw them away 
 from their evil surroundings. 
 
 Among the private societies that have undertaken to relieve the suffer- 
 ings of the poor, our city can point with pride to the following : 
 
 The "Association for Improving the condition of the Poor" was 
 founded in 1844, and is the oldest society of the kind in the city. It ex- 
 tends its beneficial influence from its headquarters in the Bible House, 
 all over the city. Its rules are briefly as follows : Every one asking for 
 aid is regarded as worthy of it, until the contrary has been proven by an 
 examination. Aid is only given after examination by visit and inquiry. 
 Aid is only given by the visitor of the section in which the applicant 
 lives. Only necessary articles are given as aid, and of these only as 
 much as are necessary. In all cases only such articles are given as are 
 most needed, and only of these in smaller quantities than could be ob- 
 tained by labor. Aid will be given at the right moment, and will not 
 be continued when the most urgent necessity is past. Persons asking 
 for aid must pledge themselves to abstain from intoxicating liquors, and ? 
 if they have children, to send them to the public schools — or, if these 
 children are old enough, to send them out to work. Newly-arrived emi- 
 grants, or persons who are unable to work on account of old age or of 
 disease, receive no aid from the society, but turned over to the Com- 
 missioners of Charities or the Commissioners of Emigration. If it is 
 seen that an applicant relies more upon the charities of others than upon 
 his own exertions, he no longer receives any aid. 
 
 From these statements we can easily recognize the fundamental ideas 
 
BR1GI1T SIDES OF NEW YORK. 819 
 
 of the society. We see that it is the laboring class, when it is tempora- 
 rily involved in trouble, that this society directs its chief attention to, and 
 that it is ready to help all those that are ready to help themselves. It 
 has divided the city up into twenty-three districts, and subdivided these 
 again into 371 sections. Every district is under a committee of five, 
 and every section has a visitor residing within it. These sections are so 
 small that it is possible for those having charge of them to visit in person 
 all the applicants reporting to them. By this means the visitor is ena- 
 bled to see whether the applicant is really worthy to receive aid from the 
 society or not. In the former case it is given immediately. Loafers, 
 professional beggars, and bummers, however, who only too frequently 
 abuse charity to the detriment of true poverty, are not encouraged by 
 the society. 
 
 The extent of the activity of this society is best shown by the follow- 
 ing table : 
 
 From Oct. 1, 1872, to Oct. 1, 1873. Since Oct. 1, 1844. 
 Number of families aided, 5,292 202,355 
 
 Number of individuals aided, 19,737 833,032 
 
 Number of visits, 26,158 880,464 
 
 Expenses, $50,180 $1,361,640 
 
 The society has always made it an object to better the general condL 
 tion of the poor. To their efforts are chiefly owing the free baths. And 
 they called to life the " Society for the Aid of the Ruptured and Crip 
 pled, the "Association for Improving the Condition of Youthful Crimi- 
 nals," and indirectly also the " Children's Aid Society," the Dewitt and 
 and Western Dispensary, and also influenced the Legislature and author- 
 ities to decrease the causes of pauperism, as far as this is possible, by 
 laws and their conscientious execution. It has obtained most gratifying 
 results in this respect, without depending on any sectarian spirit, or re- 
 ceiving any other aid than the voluntary contributions of the philanthro- 
 pists of our city. 
 
 The society has at present over three thousand members. It also has 
 on its list the names of the richest and most influential citizens of New 
 York. 
 
 In this connection we also have the Dispensaries ; a number of them 
 are in connection with hospitals. These we have mentioned before, and 
 therefore will only give a short enumeration of the dispensaries existing , 
 by themselves : 
 
 The "New York Dispensary" was opened in 1791, in a rented room 
 in Tryon street. Its present building, on the corner of Centre and 
 White streets, it acquired in 1829. It has treated over 1,500,000 paiients. 
 
 The "Northern Dispensary," which is situated on the corner of Chris- 
 topher street and Waverley Place, was opened in 1827. It has treated 
 nearly 1,000,000 patients. 
 
820 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 The " Eastern Dispensary," in the Essex Market Court House, dates 
 from the year 1834. The number of patients treated in it amounts to a 
 little over &00,000. 
 
 The "Deniilt Dispensary/' on the corner of Second avenue and 
 Twenty-third street, was opened in 1851, since which time it has re- 
 ceived over 500,000 patients. 
 
 The " Northwestern Dispensary," on the corner of Ninth avenue and 
 Thirty-sixth street, has existed since 1852, when it began its career in 
 No. 511 Eighth avenue. Its present large building, which has been fin- 
 ished but a short time ago, is an architectural ornament to that part of 
 the city in which it is situated. The number of patients treated by this 
 dispensary is almost 400,000. 
 
 The " Northeastern Dispensary," founded in 1862, in No. 222 East 
 Fifty-ninth street, has treated over 200,000 patients. 
 
 Besides those mentioned above, there are also the " Central Dispen- 
 sary," No. 934 Eighth avenue ; the " Eclectic Dispensary," No. 22a 
 East Twenty-sixth street ; and dispensary for the treatment of cancer,. 
 No. 468 Sixth avenue ; for the treatment of skin diseases, No. 101 
 East Thirtieth street ; and for treatment of diseases of lungs and breast? 
 No. 234 Fifth street. 
 
 The general influence of these dispensaries on the poorer classes of our 
 population cannot be estimated too highly. 
 
 The "American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friend- 
 less," is a society conducted by ladies, whose noble object is to give a 
 home to young and respectable women, who are friendless and houseless, 
 until they have been provided with suitable situations, and to do every- 
 thing in general to withdraw unprotected girls from the temptations 
 which surround them, and to save those that have fallen victims to these 
 temptations. 
 
 It was founded in 1835, and began its beneficial career in the old 
 Tract House, in Nassau street, and afterwards in the church on the cor- 
 ner of Nassau and Beekman streets, which has long since disappeared. 
 Its present magnificent building, the "Asylum for the Friendless," which 
 was erected in 1848, is situated at No. 32 East Thirtieth street. In con- 
 nection with this is the " Home Chapel," in No. 29 East Twenty-ninth 
 street, which contains, besides a chapel, school, and sleeping rooms, a 
 reading room, etc., for children and women. 
 
 This noble institution also sustains various industrial schools for or- 
 phaned and abandoned girls throughout the city. The largest one of 
 these schools, at the corner of Forty-ninth street and Ninth avenue, is 
 visited by about four hundred children. The society also receives infants 
 for adoption, or for a certain time only, as may be the case. It has pro- 
 vided a home for 181 during the past year, and has returned 200 to their 
 parents and friends. The number of children admitted since its found- 
 
BRIGHT SIDES OK NEW YOKK. 821 
 
 AtioQ is 18,957. Besides their activity in the asylum, the members of 
 this society also look up poor people to bring them aid. 
 
 The society belongs to no particular church, and helps poor people 
 without regard to religion or nationality. 
 
 The " Society for the Employment and Relief of Poor Women," is a 
 society consisting of ladies belonging to the Unitarian Church, which 
 was founded in 1843, and whose object it is to supply poor women and 
 girls with sewing of all kinds, which it receives from private persons, 
 or which it offers for sale in its store, No. 143 East Thirteenth street* 
 when the profits, after deducting a small part, is given to the women- 
 During the yer.r 1872, 3,372 articles of clothing were manufactured in 
 this way by the society. The office where applicants must apply for 
 work is at No. 239 Fourth avenue. 
 
 The "Women's Aid Society and Home for Training Young Girls," 
 was founded in 1867. Its object is to protect poor and friendless young 
 girls, and, if necessary, to offer them a temporary home, and there to fit 
 them for life. Its asylum is on the corner of Seventh avenue and Thir- 
 teenth street. During the year 1872 it has received in all 173 poor 
 girls. Of these seventeen remained in the institution on January 1, 
 1873, 123 were suppUed with situations, six were sent to hospitals, eight 
 returned to their friends, five left of their own free will, six were sent away 
 on account of disobedience, and eight were sent to various other institu- 
 tions. 
 
 "The Five Points Mission" is a creation of the Protestant Episcopal 
 ** Ladies' Home Missionary Society," which began its activity in the city 
 in 1848. The large mission house, built in 1853, on the place of the 
 "Old Brewery," the favorite resort of thieves, murderers, and the low- 
 est class of prostitutes, is a living picture of its success. During the 
 year ending with May, 1873, not less than 1,020 children of the neigh- 
 borhood were instructed in the English branches, and 119 girls in sew- 
 ing, etc., in the mission house. The children were mostly clothed in the 
 Mission, and received one meal per day. Seventeen poor families had 
 received free lodging in the Mission, and, as long as it was necessary, 
 free meals. It has furthermore obtained employment during the year 
 for 73 adults and 41 children, and has distributed G,26G articles of cloth- 
 ing, and 77,000 rations of food. The free reading-room in the Mission 
 House, richly stocked with books and papers, was visited every evening 
 in the course of the year on an average by sixty to eighty persons. It 
 has, since its existence, saved many thousands of children and adults, 
 who otherwise would have gone to the State Prison, or a few probably 
 to the gallows. 
 
 " The Institution of Mercy," in No. 33 Houston street, is under the 
 direction of the Catholic order of the " Sisters of Mercy." It was 
 founded in 1851, and receives respectable persons of any age in its home, 
 
822 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 aod keeps them until work is found for them elsewhere. Since its exist- 
 ence it has received into its home 12,000 girls, and has supplied over 
 20,000 with situations. There are continually from seventy to eighty 
 persons in the institution at a time. In 1869 the Sisters erected a build- 
 ing on the block between Fourth and Madison avenues, and Eighty-first 
 and Eighty-second streets*, as an industrial school for poor children, It 
 is intended to hold five hundred children, and children are received, with- 
 out any distinction of religion or nationality, under twelve years of age, 
 and children of volunteers under this age are received free of charge. 
 These Sisters also prepare those sentenced to death, if they are Catholics, 
 for their execution. 
 
 Differing from the former institutions and associations, but of a bene- 
 ficial influence on the condition of the working classes, is the 
 
 " Working Women's Protective Union." This society gives no real 
 aid to the poor, but makes it its object to offer all that protection, free of 
 charge, to working women which is necessary to save them from unjust 
 oppression or defraudation on the part of unscrupulous employers. It 
 sees that the working woman receives the full wages due her toil, and is 
 therefore not placed in a position to seek aid. The Union has been in 
 existence since 1864, and has done exceedingly much to gradually im. 
 prove the condition of the. working women, which threatened to become 
 a perfect slavery. Up to February 1, 1873, it has collected the wages of 
 2,267 working women, and has obtained employment for 25,671 others. 
 It has furthermore made an arrangement with the largest sewing ma- 
 chine factories, according to which working women can obtain the ma- 
 chines at wholesale prices. Among its directors are some of the most 
 influential and best known names in the city. 
 
 In this connection we must not overlook the attempts which are made 
 to supply working women with better and cheaper 'odgings than can be 
 had in the cheap boarding-houses. 
 
 In this respect we must notice — 
 
 " The Young Women's Home," which was founded in 1860, by the 
 "+ Ladies' Christian Union of the City of New York." It is situated in 
 Nos. 27 and 28 Washington Square, and is intended for the reception of 
 ninety boarders, who are charged five to six dollars per week. 
 
 " The Female Christian House," in No. 314 East Fifteenth street, was 
 also founded by a society ot ladies, in 1863. The price is three-and-a- 
 half to five dollars per week, and there is room for ninety boarders. 
 
 The "Hotel for Working Women," which was built by the well- 
 known merchant, A. T. Stewart, on Fourth avenue, between Thirty- 
 second and Thirty-third streets, in a truly palatial style, and at an ex- 
 pense of §1,000,000, was intended to have been an immense hotel for 
 working women, in which the charges for board and lodging should be 
 so low as just to cover the expenses. But the building has been stand- 
 
BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 823 
 
 ing so long in an unfinished state, that the reports that Mr. Stewart in- 
 tended to use it for something else, seems to be not without all founda 
 tion. 
 
 Private societies whose object it is to protect emigrants, and especially 
 their particular countrymeD, are also not wanting in our city. In this 
 respect most of the foreign nationalities represented in the United States 
 have their own societies. 
 
 The "German Society of the City of New York" was founded in 
 1784, and pays particular attention to the welfare of the German emi- 
 grants. Its president is an ex-officio member of the State Board of the 
 Commissioners of Emigration. It pays particular attention that their 
 countrymen receive all the benefits to which they are entitled within five 
 years after landing here. It also sends money to and from Germany, 
 procures passages to and. from Europe, and tickets on all the lines of 
 steamboats and railroads, and changes money, collects legacies, etc. It 
 has also greatly diminished the swindling of emigrants by energetically 
 pushing the prosecution of " runners." Thus in 1872 it succeeded in 
 sending the celebrated emigrant-swindler, Charles Moore, to the State 
 Prison for five years. The society has appointed two physicians in the 
 city to treat poor sick persons, who made, during the year 1872, 1,545 
 visits free of charge, and had 1,571 recipes made at the expense of the 
 society. Pecuniary assistance was given during the same year to 4,9G6 
 persons, amounting to $8,815. Its office is in No. 13 Broadway. 
 
 " St. George's Society," founded in 178G, is a society which assists 
 and protects English emigrants and poor Englishmen in our city in gen- 
 eral. During the year 1873 it has given regular monthly aid to over 
 eighty poor widows, while it has assisted over 1,200 poor sick English- 
 men. As a branch of this society we must regard 
 
 " St. Andrew Society," which .follows the same ends with regard to 
 Scotchmen. This society gave, during the year 1872, assistance to 744 
 persons, to the amount of 83,702, and has sent twenty-one persons back 
 to Scotland upon their own request. 
 
 The offices of the above two societies are in No. 133 Nassau street. 
 
 " Socitte Francaise de Bienfaisance " is a society iutended to protect 
 and assist newly-arrived Frenchmen, as well as such as have resided 
 here for some time. During the year 1872 it has given to the French 
 poor S3, 856 in money, 14,800 loaves of bread, 331? tons of coal, and 
 S150 in medicines. 
 
 The "Irish Emigrant Society" was incorporated in 1833, and is for 
 the Irish emigrants what the German Society is for the German emi- 
 grants. The president is an ex-officio member of the State Board of 
 Emigration. Its office is in No. 51 Chambers street. The money ex. 
 pended for aid amounted, during the past few years, on an average to 
 about S10,000. In 1850 the society opened an l% Emigrant Industrial 
 
824 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 Savings Bank," whose books show the names of about 25,000 depasitors, 
 with deposits to the amount of more than $11,000,000. 
 
 " Soeiete Generale Suisse de Secours Mutuel et de Bienfaisauce 
 (General Swiss Aid and Mutual Benefit Society), clearly indicates its 
 object by its name. During the year ending April, 1873, it has paid the 
 rent for sixty poor families, and has given orders for 232 night lodgings, 
 465 meals, etc. 
 
 The " German Mission House for Emigrants, Sailors, and Travelers," 
 in No. 426 and 428 Pearl street, is the creation of the German Mission 
 House Society, which was organized in 1866. Mr. John H. Ockers- 
 hausen, its present president, presented it with $20,000, which, in con- 
 nection with several other smaller donations, enabled the society to buy 
 the Mission House and to open it in 1867. 
 
 The object of the Mission House is to offer to German emigrants, 
 sailors, and travelers board and lodging during their stay in the- city. It 
 is strictly conducted on the temperance principle, and no intoxicating 
 liquors are permitted within its walls. The charges for board are only 
 intended to cover the expenses, and any surplus is used for charitable 
 purposes. Since its foundation it has received over 15,000 persons, and 
 it has an authorized agent in Castle Garden to receive emigrants and to 
 bring them to the Mission House. All the officers and trustees of the 
 Association perform their duties gratis. 
 
 "The Sisters of the Stranger*' is a society of ladies which was 
 founded in 1869, for the purpose of assisting strangers in our city. It 
 assists them by supplying them with food, clothing, work, medical attend- 
 ance, etc. It also has three sewing machines, which it lends for a cer- 
 tain time to poor emigrant women and others. During the year 1872 it 
 has assisted 446 persons and families at an expense of $2,112 ; over 500 
 persons were supplied with second-hand clothing, and about 200 with 
 work. Its office is in No. 4 Winthrop Place (Greene street). 
 
 The " German Emigrant House " of the Lutheran Emigrant House 
 Mission in New York, in No. 16 State street, has been described in a 
 former chapter. We will only add here that it was opened on October 
 31, 1873, and has received since that time 175 emigrants. 
 
 The following associations watch over the welfare of those who must 
 serve their time in prisons, and those who have returned from prison : 
 
 The "Prison Association of New York" was founded in 1845. Its 
 objects are to reform the prisons, to secure to poor prisoners legal aid 
 and an impartial trial, or in cases in which they have been already sen- 
 tenced to procure for them a new trial, and the executive clemency, if 
 there is any just cause for it. The society has been authorized to make 
 any investigation, in the courts or in the prisons, that it may deem neces- 
 sary. According to the annual report, for 1872-3, 3,958 visits were 
 made, and 476 indictments were examined. Of these 124 were with- 
 
WRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 825 
 
 drawn at the instauce of the society, and 101 prisoners were immedi- 
 ately discharged, or recommended to the clemency of the judge. One 
 hundred and sixteen persons who had been discharged from prison were 
 aided with clothing, food, etc., until they were able to help themselves 
 -along. Over 700 received emplopment, while others were supplied with 
 tools ; 112 were given the means to return to their friends, The central 
 office of this Association, extending over the entire State, is in No. 19 
 Centre street. As a branch of this Association, we must regard the 
 
 u Women's Prison Association, which separated from the former in 
 1867. Its sphere of action is the same as the preceding one, except that 
 it extends to female prisoners. It has also in No. 213 Tenth avenue an 
 asylum, the " Isaac T. Hopper's Home," in which friendless women, 
 after their discharge from prison, find a home until they are supplied 
 with respectable situations. 
 
 During the year 1871, 405 such unfortunates were admitted into the 
 asylum for a longer or a shorter term. Of these, 247 were supplied 
 with situations, fifteen were sent to hospitals, forty-five remained in the 
 asylum at the close of the year, while the rest left it to look out for 
 themselves. 
 
 Among the private charitable institutions, the following must not be 
 overlooked : 
 
 " The American Seamen's Friends' Society," organized in 1828, has 
 Uept a "Sailors' Home" in 180 Cherry street, since 1842, in which 
 itailors can find good and cheap board, and are protected from the various 
 i langers which surround them in the city. During the year ending May, 
 1872, 2,828 sailors were received here, while the number received since 
 its foundation is 82,806. 
 
 The Life-Saving Benevolent Association " was incorporated in 1859. 
 j.ts object is to decrease the loss of life at the wrecking of vessels along 
 uur coast. 
 
 Of the following societies we received the reports too late to place 
 vhem in their respective classes : 
 
 The " New York Female Assistant Society for the Relief and Re- 
 ligious Instruction of the Sick Poor," in No. 34 West Twenty-fourth 
 street, has been in operation since 1817. Its board of officers, consisting 
 principally of ladies, is a visiting committee, Avhose business it is to visit 
 poor sick persons, and to satisfy themselves of their worthiness to receive 
 charity. Medical assistance, medicines, food, clothing, fuel, etc., but 
 not money, are given in aid. A branch of this society is the 
 
 " Dorcas Society," a sewing society of ladies, whose object it is to 
 make the clothing needed by the Ladies' Aid Society. The number of 
 articles of clothing manufactured annually by this society amounts on an 
 average to three or four thousand. 
 
 The "Bethany Institute Women's Christian Work," founded in 1871, 
 
826 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 has for its object the practical education of female missionaries. The 
 institute also embraces within the scope of its missionary work the visit- 
 ation of the poor, and has already brought to light many poor sick per- 
 sons from dens of poverty and filth. It is situated at No. 69 Second 
 avenue, and has room for twenty-five pupils. 
 
 The " Free Dormitory for Women," a quite young creation of a fra- 
 ternity in connection with the Church of the Strangers, who keep their 
 newly-opened rooms in No. 24 Amity street, as a free dormitory for 
 women. From July to December 5, 1873, this dormitory has given 
 lodgings to 432 poor women and girls. 
 
 The " Children's Fold," No. 437 Fifty-eighth street, was opened in 
 1868, by a society of ladies, to offer a home to friendless children be- 
 tween the ages of one and twelve. The institution keeps the children 
 until it is able to have them adopted by some respectable family, or to- 
 put them to work. Since 1868 over two hundred children, four-fifths of 
 them orphaned, have been received. 
 
 The " Helping Hand," No. 316 Water street, was opened in October, 
 1872. It is a missionary house, which, however, assists poor and re ■ 
 spectable men, who apply to it, with food and other necessaries of life 
 In this manner it has already offered a helping hand to over one thous • 
 and unfortunates. 
 
 The number of our charitable institutions is by no means to be regarded 
 as closed with this long list. Many are wanting whose silent labors ar'j 
 confined to closer quarters, and a number of others did not have this 
 kindness to answer our request for their constitutions, annual report?, 
 etc. The openings thus caused were all the more difficult to fill, as, 
 very strange to say, none of our large public libraries, with their large 
 stores of information, think it necessary to accord a place in the annual 
 reports of the benevolent societies. 
 
 Let us now look at the public charitable institutions of our city. The; r 
 are all, with the exception of those relating to emigrants, Under the con- 
 rol of the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections. There are 
 three of these Commissioners, who are appointed by the Mayor for the 
 term of six years. Their office is on the corner of Eleventh street and 
 Third avenue. With these commissioners a system of charity was es- 
 tablished reaching all the various forms of poverty and misery, and which 
 is not equalled by any other city in the world, either in the extent of the 
 means at its command, or in the thoroughness of the work done. 
 
 Almost all of these institutions are situated on the four islands in the 
 East River — Black well's Island, Ward's Island, Randall's Island, and 
 Hart's Island. Very few of them are located in the city proper. These 
 are — 
 
 The "Bellevne Hospital," in Avenue B, between Twenty-sixth and 
 Twenty-eighth streets, erected in 1826, and considerably enlarged from 
 
BRIGHT SIDES OP NEW YORK. 827 
 
 time to time. It is one of the largest hospitals in the world, and contains 
 thirty-live wards, which are capable of accomodating twelve hundred 
 patients. In connection with the hospital there are a medical school and 
 a museum for the study of pathological anatomy. In 18G6 the building 
 known as the Morgue was added to it. According to the last annual 
 report, dated January 1, 1872, 7,514 patients had been treated during 
 the past year. The number of births amounted to 37G. In 18GG a 
 u Bureau for the Medical and Surgical Treatment of Out-door Poor," 
 was created in connection with the hospital, aud its physicians were con- 
 sulted during the year 1871 by about 63,000 persons. There are two 
 reception hospitals for the temporary reception and care of persons who 
 have been taken suddenly ill in the streets. One is in City Hall Park ? 
 and the other, since December 1, 1871, has been situated in Ninety-ninth 
 street, near the Boulevard. The number of persons received in them 
 from May, 1871, to May, 1872, was over two thousand. Free dispen- 
 saries are connected with both these hospitals. 
 
 The M Bureau for the Relief of the Out-door Poor " is in the office of 
 the Commissioners. , Over five thousand five hundred families were as- 
 sisted by it with nearly 843,000. The treatment of poor sick persons 
 also comes within the duties of the bureau. For this purpose the city is 
 divided up into thirteen districts, each one of which has a separate phy- 
 sician. These thirteen physicians, during the year 1871, made about 
 9,500 Visits. 
 
 The " Free Labor and Intelligence Bureau," Nos. 8 and 10 Clinton 
 Place, on the corner of Mercer street, is one of the most beneficial and 
 most useful creations of the Commissioners of Charity. It is managed 
 in a truly excellent manner, and employers, as well as persons looking 
 for work, can apply there. It requires satisfactory references from both. 
 The contract is made in the office, aud strict attention is paid that its 
 provisions are kept by both parties. Whoever breaks the agreement, his 
 name is placed in the " Black Book," of which one is open for the in- 
 spection of employers, and another for employees. For persons entered 
 in this book, the bureau is closed accordiug to the gravity of their offense, 
 either for one year or forever. The bureau also undertakes to collect 
 wages fraudulently held back. The fo'lowing figures, which show the 
 number of persons who obtained situations, are the best measure for the 
 activity of the bureau : 
 
 1870— males 3,778, females 22,739 ; 1871— males 2,446, females 23,- 
 : 1672— males 3,751, females 26,158; 1873 (till October)— male* 
 1,509, females 14,158. 
 
 That is, since 1870, the large number of 98,41G — while the number 
 of applicants must of course have been much larger. It is hardly neces- 
 sary to mention that this great beneficial institution accepts no pay for 
 its services. 
 
828 THE BRIGHTEST OK THE 
 
 Of the various institutions on Blackwell's Island, the following are of 
 interest to us : 
 
 The " Charity Hospital," built in place of the Island Hospital, which 
 was burned down in the same year. It is 354 feet long, and has So2 
 beds, in twenty-nine wards. The number of patients received in it dur- 
 ing 1871 was 5,999. Not far from this hospital, at the southern end of 
 the island, is the 
 
 " Small-pox Hospital," a three-story building, 104 teet long by 44 feet 
 deep, which is able to receive one hundred patients, and was built in 
 1854. During the year 1871 it has received 2,498 persons afflicted with 
 the small-pox. On the east side of the island, between the Charity and 
 Small-pox Hospitals, is the 
 
 " Fever Hospital," for the reception of persons afflicted with ship fe- 
 ver, typnoid, etc. It consists of two long wooden pavilions, each 100 
 feet long, one for male and the other for female patients. In 1871, 252 
 patients were treated in it. 
 
 The " Alms-house," situated about in the middle of the Island, was 
 built in 1847. It consists of two separate three-sto*ry buildings, the one 
 containing the male and the other the female poor. Each building wil.' 
 hold about six hundred persons, and both are almost always full. In 
 1871, 3,716 poor received board and lodging there for a longer or shorter 
 period. The majority were over fifty years of age, and three women 
 even over one hundred years old. On the grounds of the Almshouse 
 there is also the 
 
 "Hospital for Incurables," in which, in 1871, 187 patients received 
 medical assistance. 
 
 The "New York City Lunatic Asylum" was built during the years 
 1835 to 1848. The principal building, consisting of an octagonal cen- 
 tral building and two extensive wings, will hold about two hundred pa- 
 tients. Separated from this building are two smaller ones — the one, the 
 so-called " Lodge," and the other, the " Retreat," for quiet patients. The 
 former can hold 100, and the latter 140 patients. During 1871 the 
 number of patients received was 2,023. On the grounds of the lunatic 
 asylum there is also the 
 
 "Epileptic and Paralytic Hospital,'' which consists of two wooden 
 pavilions, each of which contains sixty-five beds. In 1871 the hospital 
 received 297 patients, suffering mostly from incurable forms of these ter- 
 rible diseases. It will hold in all two hundred patients. 
 
 There are situated on Ward's Island, under the control of the Com- 
 missioners of Charity — 
 
 The " New York Inebriate Asylum," which attempts to treat habitual 
 drunkenness as a disease, and to cure persons afflicted with it medically 
 of their terrible vice. It was built in 1866, is three stories high, and 
 ■will hold four hundred patients. In 1871 the number of patients 
 
BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW YORK. 829 
 
 amounted to 1,718, of whom 233 were paying patients — 1,097 men and 
 621 women. The eastern wing is as yet too extensive for its purpose,, 
 and forms the 
 
 "Soldiers' Retreat," in which 855 invalidswere received during 1871. 
 The conditions of admission are : Honorable discharge from the United 
 States service, and inability to earn a livelihood in consequence of 
 wounds or disease received in the service. 
 
 Of the institutions on Randall's Island, the following belong to the 
 Commissioners of Charities : 
 
 " The New York Nurseries," which is only the Children's Department 
 of the Poor-house on Blackwell's Island. It is divided into three sepa- 
 rate departments, of which the " Nursery " is intended for healthy chil- 
 dren, while the second serves as an "Infant Hospital," and the third as 
 the " Idiot Asylum and School." Six large three-story buildings are in- 
 tended to receive the healthy children, each of which is under the special 
 supervision of a matron. The number of children there taken care of 
 during 1871 was 1,002, ranging from three to ten years of age. They 
 all belong to that class, who are found helpless in the streets by the po- 
 lice, or whose parents declare themselves incapable of sustaining them. 
 Parents cannot, however, leave their children in the Nursery over three 
 months. After this time they must either pay board for them, or re- 
 nounce all claims on them. 
 
 The " Infant Hospital," intended for the reception of babies and chil- 
 ( ren under three years of age. In former years the children were sim- 
 ply sent to the Alms-house, and there given into the care of the women 
 there. Since 1869, however, the new Infant Hospital has been finished 
 so far that, in eighteen large wards, there is room for 219 children and 
 1 53 nurses. During the year 1871 'there were 1,098 children in the hos- 
 pital, of whom 579 came with their mothers, and 516 were brought 
 I here alone. 
 
 The " Idiot Asylum and School," a three-story building, was erected 
 U 1868. According to the annual report of 1871, it had 115 children 
 in charge. 
 
 Of the " House of Refuge," under the control of the "Association for 
 the Reform of Juvenile Criminals," we have already given a description 
 on a former page. 
 
 The institutions of the Commissioners of Charity on Hart's Island 
 are : 
 
 " The Industrial School," which was opened in 1868, and is intended 
 as a reform school for boys between the ages of ten and twenty-one 
 years. During the year 1871 the police sent there 818 such boys, 
 who are forced to attend school, and to employ their time usefully. As 
 a branch of this institution we must regard the 
 
 School-ship " Mercury." This is a sailing-vessel of 1*200 tons bur 
 
-830 THE BRIGHTEST OF THE 
 
 then, which, was bought, in 1869, by the Commissioners, for the purpose 
 of putting to good use the restless activity and roving disposition of 
 many Of the boys. Lads who fancy a sailor's life — and they are not few 
 — are received on board of this ship, and there practically made familiar 
 with the duties of seamen. There are continually from two to three 
 hundred such boys on board of this vessel, on which the discipline of a 
 man-of-war prevails. Tae scholars are dressed in sailor suits, and under- 
 take, every year, long trips, in which they become practically acquainted 
 with the life of a sailor. The majority, upon their discharge, enter the 
 Navy, and are generally among the best sailors. When not at sea, the 
 school-ship is generally at anchor near Hart's Island. 
 
 As it must also be regarded as a charitable work to bury the dead, the 
 so-called 
 
 " Potter's Field," on Hart's Island, must not be overlooked here, as 
 persons that have died poor and friendless are buried there. The field 
 consists of two parts, designed the one to receive Catholics, the other 
 Protestants. The number of persons who were buried there in 1871, ac- 
 cording to the annual report, was 3,502. Thirteen corpses were removec' 
 at the instance of friends to other cemeteries. 
 
 The following institutions are under the control of the Commissioners 
 of Emigration of the State of New York : 
 
 " Castle Garden," since 1855 the landing-place of all emigrants arriv 
 ing at this port, situated at the south end of the city. We have alreadj 
 spoken of this institution on a former occasion, and it only remains fo 
 us now to enumerate the institutions on Ward's Island under the controi 
 of the Board of Emigration. 
 
 The " Verplanck State Hospital," ttje hospital for emigrants, an im 
 mense building, consists of a corridor 450 feet long, from which fiv< 
 wings emanate, 150 feet long and 25 feet wide. It was built in 1853, 
 and is intended for such sick emigrants as are not afflicted with contagi- 
 ous diseases. The house has room for 350 patients, and 8,676 patients 
 were treated during the year 1872. 
 
 " The Nursery," a three-story building, serves as a house for children 
 whose emigrant parents have either died or are too poor to care for them 
 any longer. 
 
 " The Refuge," as its name indicates, an asylum for poor emigrants, 
 is a three-story building, which offers a home to about 450 persons) 
 ^mostly children and women. 
 
 " The New Barracks," a three-story brick house, is an addition to the 
 Refuge, intended chiefly for the reception of male emigrants. It is 160 
 feet long by 44 feet deep, a^d has room for about 450 persons. 
 
 " The Lunatic Asylum," for emigrauts, was, until 1873, a building 
 capable of accommodating 125 patients. But it had for some time 
 already proven inefficient in every respect, and the Commissioners there- 
 
BRIGHT SIDES OF NEW TORE.. 831 
 
 fore thought it necessary to obtain a new building, which was opened in 
 June, 1873. The number of patients treated in the old institution dur- 
 ing the year 1872 was 347. 
 
 Besides these buildings there is also a Dispensary, with a division for 
 the reception of persons afflicted with chronic diseases ; furthermore, a 
 ward for surgical operations, one for male and one for female patients, a 
 dining-room with accommodations for 1,200 persons, the boys' barracks 
 with room for eighty boys, and other less extensive buildings on its 
 grounds containing; 120 acres. 
 
 The number of emigrants received in the various institutions of the 
 Commissioners during the year 1871 was 15,818, of whom 2,134 still re- 
 mained there at the end of the year. There were 378 children born in 
 the different institutions. 
 
 The following summary, from its creation up to December 31, 1872, 
 may aid us in estimating the usefulness of the Board of Emigration : 
 Total number of emigrants arrived in New York harbor, 
 from May 5, 1847, to December 31, 1872, that have 
 paid the commutation fee, ----- 5,033,392 
 
 s umber of those that received any aid from emigrant fund 
 
 within five years after their arrival, - - - - 1,465,579 
 \ umber of those that were cared for in the institutions on 
 
 Ward's Island, 398,403 
 
 > umber of those that received temporary aid in New York 
 
 city, such as board, lodging, or money, - 449,275 
 
 dumber of those that were sent to their place of destina- 
 tion, or were sent back to Europe at their own request, 53,083 
 dumber of those that received employment through the 
 Castle Garden Intelligence office, - 349,930 
 X umber of those that were aided by the Board in the State, 
 
 but outside of the city of New York, - 214,042 
 
 So much for our institutions of charity. We let them speak for them- 
 selves. Even the most embittered misanthrope cannot close his eyes 
 against their beneficial activity, while the strict moralist will judge our 
 social conditions less harshly, when the old proverb is called to his mind 
 by the above monuments of practical philanthropy, that 
 
 "CHARITY COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS!" 
 
I IsT ID IE X. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Introduction, 3 
 
 Pauperism, 7 
 
 Street Children, 20 
 
 New York Police, 34 
 
 ;New York Detectives, 38 
 
 United States Detectives, 51 
 
 Private Detectives, 59 
 
 The Thieves, 71 
 Fences, or Receivers of Stolen 
 
 Property, 158 
 
 The Rogues' Gallery, 162 
 
 Street Robbers and Garroters, 164 
 
 Swindlers, 167 
 Gambling Houses and their 
 
 Victims, 282 
 
 Prostitution and its Victims, 321 
 
 Concert Saloons, 371 
 
 Dance Houses, 386 
 
 Pic Nics, 397 
 
 Forgers and Counterfeiters, 403 
 
 Check and Note Forgers, 437 
 
 The Adulteration of Food, 444 
 
 The Abortionists, 448 
 
 The Quack Doctors, 468 
 
 Lotteries and Policy, 490 
 
 The Lunatic Asylums, 509 
 
 Fortune Tellers, 529 
 
 Mediums, 536 
 
 Pawnbrokers, 547 
 
 Emigrant Swindlers, 558 
 
 Page. 
 
 Intelligence Offices, 574 
 
 Tenement Houses, 581 
 
 Adventurers and Cheats, 59& 
 The Theatres of the Lower 
 
 Class, 603 
 Bar-rooms and their Frequent- 
 ers, 606> 
 Loafers and Rowdies, 614 
 Prize Fighters, 620- 
 Dog and Cock Fights, 625 
 Matrimonial Offices, 630 
 Black Mail, 641 
 Private Post-Offices, 649 
 Obscene Literature, 652 . 
 Professional Street Beggars, 659 
 Foundlings, 668 
 Incendiaries, 680 
 The Tammany Ring, 688- 
 Personals and Newspaper Ad- 
 vertisements, 694 
 The Police Courts, 705 
 The Criminal Courts, 712 
 The Lawyers, 723 
 The Tombs and the Other Pris- 
 ons, 730 
 Murders and Suicides, 752 
 Lost and Missed Persons, 766 
 The Morgue, 779 
 List of Swindling Firms, 785 
 Conclusion, 793