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 previous due date. L162
 
 Criminals of Chicago 
 
 By 
 PRINCE IMMANUEL OF JERUSALEM 
 
 Boston 
 The Roxburgh Publishing Company, Inc.
 
 Copyright, 1921 
 
 By PRINCE IMMANUEL OF JERUSALEM 
 All Rights Reserved
 
 364 
 
 Z-wt 6 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Foreword 9 
 
 I. Tentacles of the Traffic 25 
 
 II. Madame Coupler 43 
 
 III. May Misogamy 60 
 
 iy. Opium Ophidia 81 
 
 V. Jambon Eugenicised 97 
 
 VI. Petromortis 117 
 
 VII. Calls' Cradle 138 
 
 VIII. Innocent Infanticide 158 
 
 IX. Rattler, the Fixer 178 
 
 X. Waginsky, the Wittol 196 
 
 XI. Steel's Strappado 214 
 
 XII. Pureheart's Putrefaction . . 236
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 About two years after I had written 
 "Criminals of Chicago," I was given a copy 
 of the Journal of the American Judicature 
 Society which contained "A Description of 
 the Work of the Psychopathic Laboratory 
 of the Municipal Court of Chicago." I was 
 not surprised, but highly gratified to find 
 that the methods I recommended in my 
 story and which I advocated thirty years 
 ago in "The Modern Bible," are being 
 adopted by leading criminologists. 
 
 I take the liberty of prefacing my story 
 with numerous quotations from the above 
 article, as I have no doubt that the pub- 
 lishers would welcome every medium that 
 gave greater publicity to this reform. 
 
 The attention of the public has been 
 drawn to the cases that come before our 
 courts, but just at the present time we 
 have a type of dementia praecox that is 
 a greater menace to us than the so-called 
 criminal class. These are the morons, fe- 
 male as well as male, to whom the methods 
 of segregation advocated by the Psycho- 
 pathic Laboratory might well be applied. 
 
 This turning of the searchlight of public 
 opinion to questions that are usually for- 
 bidden the ordinary channels of publicity
 
 10 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 is therefore doubly fitting at the present 
 time. 
 
 Thousands of doctors have become con- 
 vinced of the fundamental soundness of 
 this new field of science; thousands of 
 officers have come to look upon it as a 
 dependable and practical resource; proba- 
 bly many lawyers, serving as judge advo- 
 cates, will come to see and understand the 
 intimate relationship of mental defective- 
 ness and delinquency through studying the 
 records of courts martial. 
 
 All over the land there is skepticism and 
 a sense of futility with respect to the way 
 the law deals with delinquency. With more 
 machinery for convicting and punishing 
 the law-breaker than ever before, we find 
 the supply increasing in a rising curve. 
 Everywhere there is a feeling that some- 
 thing is amiss, but there is little agree- 
 ment as to the causes and the correct 
 remedies. Judges are blamed by some for 
 being too lenient and by others for being 
 too severe. 
 
 The thing which baffles us most is the 
 marked tendency for delinquents to drift 
 back to the jails after correctional treat- 
 ment, so that the same names figure again 
 and again in the police records, in the 
 criminal courts and in various penal and
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 11 
 
 reform institutions. The reform school 
 has been supplemented by the juvenile 
 court, with a marked improvement in sal- 
 vaging youth; but we have by no means 
 got rid of the repeater, or recidivist. 
 
 The old idea that punishment is deter- 
 rent in proportion as it is severe, or even 
 brutal, is nearly obsolete. History shows 
 that hanging did not prevent petit larceny. 
 So we have abandoned the policy of fright- 
 fulness in punishment and cannot revert 
 to it even though it still has some few 
 supporters. 
 
 And yet we feel that the theory of 
 punishment being deterrent is philosophi- 
 cally sound. We feel that potential crimi- 
 nals should be deterred by dread of some 
 form of punishment. But we observe that 
 in a large class of cases this theory does 
 not work. The difference here between a 
 seemingly valid theory and actual practice 
 causes a great deal of bewilderment. 
 
 The first news from the Laboratory re- 
 vealed the prevalence of f eeble-mindedness 
 among delinquents. A layman's definition 
 of f eeble-mindedness may be attempted : it 
 is a defect in intelligence; a fairly definite 
 limitation of capacity for conscious think- 
 ing, for intellectual processes. The psychi- 
 atrist says that it is a defect of the cortex, 
 that portion of the brain which is phylo-
 
 12 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 genetically newer than the rest of the 
 brain. It is also held that feeble-minded- 
 ness is practically static and incurable. 
 This follows from the theory that it is due 
 to a brain lesion, to a physical injury or 
 malformation. 
 
 When one says that feeble-mindedness 
 is static, he means that there is no cure. 
 The individual will never achieve any 
 higher psychological level, no matter how 
 much attention is given to his education 
 or how long he lives. However, he may 
 grow in usefulness through acquiring en- 
 larged experience. He need not always 
 make the same mistakes of judgment. 
 Dependent upon the extent of the defec- 
 tiveness, there is a possibility of adjusting 
 the individual to his environment and of 
 making up for his deficiencies by protec- 
 tive environment. 
 
 Defectives of this sort, forced at an early 
 age to shift for themselves, may still wor- 
 ry along through life without serious con- 
 sequences to society in an easy environ- 
 ment. But in the great city, with its spurs 
 to appetite and its remorseless competition, 
 the environment is the worst possible. The 
 city cannot be made to become a safe abode 
 for the abnormal. Its development is in 
 the interest of the strong and successful. 
 
 So long as the feeble-minded delinquent
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 13 
 
 is not recognized as such when he has com- 
 mitted an offense, every form of punish- 
 ment is likely to be but one more step in the 
 degradation which leads to hopeless crimi- 
 nality. This is the great truth which ex- 
 plains the frequent failure of the correc- 
 tional institution. The institutions and 
 methods which have been evolved for the 
 discouragement of crime are practically all 
 predicated on mental competence and re- 
 sponsibility ; they are based on the former 
 universal conception that every person not 
 imbecile or insane will react uniformly to 
 certain corrective influences. 
 
 As we have seen, the feeble-minded con- 
 stitute a considerable proportion of the 
 body of delinquency, and this defect is 
 quite readily ascertained by a compara- 
 tively simple method of testing. But there 
 are common types abounding in the jails 
 which are not so readily detected, and still 
 less readily classified in a quantitative way. 
 For them there are more subtle tests em- 
 ployed only by the neurologist and psychi- 
 atrist. 
 
 Chief of these types is that known as 
 dementia praecox. This is a form of mental 
 instability which may not reveal itself to 
 the uninitiated. It is a defect of the basal 
 ganglia, that part of the brain which is the
 
 14 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 seat of the emotions of affectivity. It is 
 easier described than defined. Dr. Hickson 
 is authority for the statement that sixty- 
 five percent of the inmates of insane asy- 
 lums are victims of dementia prsecox, or 
 schizophrenia, as he prefers to call it. But 
 there are doubtless more cases of dementia 
 prsecox outside of asylums than inside. 
 
 Unlike feeble-mindedness, dementia prse- 
 cox does not imply any lessening of intel- 
 ligence. It may be associated with any 
 grade of intellectual power. There are 
 classical instances of dementia prsecox 
 combined with extraordinary intellect, and 
 this combination must be understood to 
 account for some of the most remarkable 
 cases of persons who excel to an extraordi- 
 nary degree in some special field, but who 
 are known, nevertheless, to be mentally 
 unstable. They may even have great fol- 
 lowings as leaders of religious movements ; 
 they may be successful inventors; they 
 may be masters of oratory, or distin- 
 guished writers, or noted musicians or 
 artists. 
 
 Of course, dementia prsecox is sometimes 
 coupled with average intelligence. Con- 
 sider this not uncommon type. The indi- 
 vidual differs mostly from the normal, 
 perhaps, in the one characteristic of "split 
 associations." He does not arrive at the
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 15 
 
 same conclusions as the normal from given 
 data. Since it is the affective center which 
 is abnormal, he is likely to have a different 
 view of moral questions than the normal. 
 Not infrequently he is entirely amoral. 
 There are enough such to constitute a class 
 by themselves. As well try to teach kittens 
 to swim as to reform the moral defect 
 afflicted with dementia praecox. He is or- 
 ganically wrong, and nothing can make 
 him right. 
 
 Again, speaking generally, the victims 
 of this defect are commonly in conflict with 
 their surroundings. This does not stop 
 with mere failure to fit the environment, 
 as is the case with the feeble-minded. No 
 environment can be imagined which will fit 
 them. Their springs of conduct are ab- 
 normal. They may be energetic, persistent, 
 persuasive in a degree, but their conclu- 
 sions are fallacious, especially in the sub- 
 jective field. 
 
 The victim of both psychoses, in the 
 language of Dr. Hickson, appears to be 
 "the criminal type par excellence." 
 
 A perfect continuity of data is observ- 
 able between dementia prsecox combined 
 with feeble-mindedness and such crimes 
 as robbery, with its incidental homicide, 
 rape and other sex crimes. These are the
 
 16 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 crimes which are most revolting to the 
 moral sense; they are also the least profit- 
 able to the criminal. The records show 
 that the typical "hold-up-man" in Chicago 
 is a boy between the ages of seventeen 
 and twenty-one. He often appears to be 
 quite fearless. While some cunning may 
 be displayed in certain instances, for the 
 most part there is a pitiful lack of ordinary 
 precaution. Detection and arrest is usual- 
 ly not difficult. These crimes are planned 
 with absolute disregard for decency. They 
 are often executed with the most ruthless 
 brutality. Mutilation of the criminal vic- 
 tim is often a mark of this type. 
 
 When the story of dementia praecox is 
 finally written, it will be seen to have been 
 at the bottom or potential to, not only the 
 criminal situation, but also to much of our 
 civil, commercial and social disturbances. 
 
 Its victims profess the deepest feelings 
 of remorse for a delict and at the same 
 instant are deliberating a similar or other 
 offense. As is obvious, it makes no differ- 
 ence who their victims are, friends, rela- 
 tives or strangers, there is an absolute 
 ethical frigidity. They possess a very 
 ready comprehension, but their reasoning 
 is ofttimes erratic through influence of 
 their complexes.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 17 
 
 Their offenses consist chiefly in confi- 
 dence games, swindling, every known art 
 of juggling with checks, much less often 
 the ordinary grand and petit larceny. They 
 show a fondness for carousing with the 
 opposite sex. Those that marry are al- 
 most always sooner or later divorced. They 
 often commit bigamy. Alcoholism often 
 complicates the picture. They are fablers 
 of the worst type, all the way from delib- 
 erate fabrication to pseudologia phantas- 
 tica, and always directly or indirectly to 
 their positive advantage, whereas with the 
 ordinary case of pseudologia phantastica 
 it may be directly or indirectly to their 
 disadvantage, though even here in some 
 instances, it begets sympathy. They tend 
 to be foppish. They are commonly known 
 as the black sheep of the family. They 
 are immune to every art of reform from 
 exhortation to prison, and being devoid of 
 insight through lack of complemental feel- 
 ing-tone consider such censure as gratui- 
 tous and unjust. 
 
 In spite of all this they possess the most 
 ingratiating personality imaginable, which 
 is their chief stock in trade, and which is 
 often the means of saving them from sen- 
 tence to prison, which they are most re- 
 sourceful in circumventing, though most 
 all sooner or later land there, but usually
 
 18 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 not until they have succeeded in bringing 
 their friends and relatives to financial ruin 
 in keeping them' out. There is no class of 
 delinquents who succeed in getting as 
 many tryouts as they do. There are, of 
 course, lighter forms, but the type is well- 
 defined and easily recognizable wherever 
 encountered, be it in pulpit, politics or 
 business. 
 
 The dementia prsecox question is one of 
 the most portentous socially, economically 
 and criminally that civilization has to deal 
 with. It is not only responsible for much 
 of the work of the criminal branches of 
 our courts, but also for a great deal of 
 that in our civil branches. It is responsible 
 for a goodly number of divorces; many of 
 the divorces coming before the courts of 
 Cook County have already been in one of 
 the specialized branches of the Municipal 
 Court, chiefly the Domestic Relations 
 branch. We get numerous requests to go 
 to other courts to testify in divorce and 
 other civil cases on the results of examina- 
 tions made on one or the other or both 
 parties, in some instances on examinations 
 made as much as three years previously. 
 
 The army and navy have their hands 
 full with their prsecox cases, not always 
 recognized as such.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 19 
 
 Environment is man-made, made by 
 dominants for dominants, with little con- 
 sideration for the recessives who are rep- 
 resented in the population numerically at 
 about two percent, but in the matter of 
 cost in taxes at anywhere from twenty- 
 five to fifty percent, which only covers the 
 public institutions for the insane and 
 feeble-minded. It is hard to estimate their 
 cost in indirect taxation such as the police 
 and detective forces, courts, prisons, jails, 
 reformatories, the various eleemosynary 
 institutions, etc. Then there is their waste 
 and damage industrially and elsewhere, 
 and the general friction and disorder and 
 accidents for which they are responsible. 
 Environment being man-made, by domi- 
 nants for dominants, and consequently 
 fitting them, gives them a relative degree 
 of freedom which is denied the recessives 
 on whom it exerts restrictions, whom it 
 relatively determines. 
 
 The only practical solution we see at 
 present for the treatment of these cases 
 after they are recognized is farm and 
 industrial colonies, community centers in 
 the country, as extensive as possible, built 
 on the order of detention camps. Such 
 colonies should be laid out in the order of 
 a small model community, with adminis- 
 tration building, and cottages for the ex-
 
 20 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 ecutives and inmates, with its industrial, 
 farm, amusement, hospital, living and 
 other sections. They can be laid out and 
 built up gradually by the inmates them- 
 selves after the first buildings are com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The necessity for sterilization before 
 parole will have to be considered, though 
 the isolation of such defectives will elimi- 
 nate the largest source of propagation of 
 defectiveness with its concomitant delin- 
 quency. 
 
 In such colonies they will have economic 
 worth, while on the outside they are an 
 economic burden. They are responsible 
 for most of the accidents on land and sea, 
 for wastage, loss, theft and bad morale. 
 They are undependable, work irregularly, 
 always changing employment, and they 
 make up the bulk of the army of the 
 unemployed. The colony proposition is 
 logically a national one, but under our 
 system of government it will have to be 
 dealt with by the State. Such colonies will 
 be provided with laboratories, with brain 
 and other research, and will thus indirectly 
 contribute much to the advancement of 
 society. 
 
 It is only a short step after all, in view 
 of the numerous institutions which we 
 now possess, to establish industrial farm
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 21 
 
 colonies for defective delinquents. One of 
 the great reasons for such a step is the 
 fact that these persons are now spoiling 
 the administration of existing institutions 
 where they are kept with those of normal 
 mentality. We recognize the ghastly 
 futility of mixing first offenders with 
 "hardened criminals" in .our jails and 
 prisons, and have established detention 
 homes and other means for segregating 
 these classes. But in doing so we have 
 made just as great a blunder by herding 
 together the degenerate boys with the 
 normal and redeemable boys, and degene- 
 rate girls and women with the girls and 
 women who are of normal mentality. Re- 
 ports from such institutions, disclosing the 
 shocking perversions which are there 
 rampant, illustrate most emphatically the 
 need for segregation based on psychopa- 
 thological differentiation. 
 
 But the biggest element of the entire 
 subject remains to be considered. It is 
 that psychopathology will assist the court 
 to be what courts should be, and must be 
 preventive of crime. The place of the 
 Laboratory especially is to pick out the 
 defective at an early stage and put him 
 where he cannot again fail. Eventually 
 the most useful field for the Laboratory 
 will be among juveniles, and it will co-
 
 22 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 operate with psychopathology in the public 
 schools. There is room here only to hint 
 at the usefulness of science in solving the 
 hardest problems of education, for our 
 schools have been laboring and groaning 
 under the burden of defectiveness, where- 
 by five percent or less of the pupils hold 
 back all the rest and impose a great cost 
 on the school systems. The schools have 
 their problem of repeaters quite as much 
 as the prisons. 
 
 Dr. Hickson discusses this preventive 
 side of psychopathology and sees its great- 
 est future here. When the potential crimi- 
 nal can be diagnosed with certainty before 
 any serious offense has been committed, 
 and given such treatment that the best 
 that is in him will be developed and the 
 worst kept under check, the courts will 
 become what they should be, preventive of 
 crime. It is prevention, in fact, that we 
 are determinedly seeking. Cure comes too 
 late. This discloses a noble aim and one 
 not too remote by any means. 
 
 This is the best answer to the person 
 who instinctively fights the proposal to 
 subject to mental investigation the "brute" 
 who has committed some shocking crime. 
 That objector says: "Death is none too 
 good for such a wretch, whether crazy or 
 not!"
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 23 
 
 The student of the new science replies: 
 "The fate of this one criminal is of little 
 consequence. Hang him, if you will, but 
 next month and next year there will be 
 other murders committed just as brutal. 
 The purpose of psychopathology is to 
 determine in advance these enemies of 
 society and shut them up before they have 
 killed."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 TENTACLES OF THE TRAFFIC. 
 
 We are in a typical Chicago block. In 
 the center is a chintzed chop suey, flanked 
 on the right by a Chinese laundry, on the 
 left by a draught- and drug-store, which 
 in addition to legitimate pharmacy also dis- 
 penses candy and ice-cream to the boys 
 and girls that attend the high school in 
 the rear block, sells postage stamps and 
 juvenile cigarettes, and degenerates less 
 from sesculapian aesthetics by activities 
 evidenced in the installation of a telephone 
 booth. Its windows are variegated with 
 a display of douches, suspensories, electric 
 belts to regenerate lost vitality, and a 
 patent drug bearing the trade-mark of a 
 ram's head and guaranteed to impart the 
 energies of the emblem, and other fitting 
 exhibits for the neighborhood of a high 
 school. (Some of my friends, evidently 
 more concerned for Mrs. Grundy than they 
 are for the millions of Chicago shoppers 
 and children, have anxiously suggested that 
 no paper will publish this description of a 
 Chicago drug-store window, however typi-
 
 26 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 cal. If the picture is so Paphian, how 
 much more Fescennine must be the origi- 
 nal which I desire to have repressed by 
 this realism?) 
 
 Before and after school hours the tele- 
 phone booth is filled with a bevy of boiste- 
 rous and slangous girls who take full 
 advantage of the fact that, although the 
 uninitiated are compelled to drop a nickel 
 into the slot, esoterics are allowed free 
 calls. Many of these gargoylous girls on 
 their way home drop into the laundry, not 
 always to emerge with a cardboard box of 
 linen, and it is remarkable how the jaun- 
 diced dhobi finds time to entertain these 
 palefaces, while he carefully notates their 
 addresses, phone numbers, and every item 
 of family history that they ingenuously 
 impart. 
 
 Adjoining the laundry is a garage, at 
 the left corner a saloon, condemned as all 
 of that ilk by its architectural devices for 
 latitation; at the other corner a movie 
 theatre more kinematic in its throng than 
 on its screen. 
 
 Above Richard Rattler's saloon and 
 Wago Waginsky's drug-store are several 
 halls usually let for dances, weddings, and 
 secret society functions; over Fujii are 
 furnished rooms managed by Madame 
 Coupler ; Ching Wo Po is superimposed by
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 27 
 
 Professor Gulliver, a famous medium; 
 Sister Innocent, a much demanded mid- 
 wife, looks down upon Steve Speedway, 
 the proprietor of the garage; and next to 
 her are the offices of Dr. Pureheart, spe- 
 cialist for female ailments and obstetrics. 
 
 These varous establishments are heated 
 by steam from a basement to which they 
 all have access, and intercommunication is 
 further facilitated by a balcony that runs 
 the whole length of the second floors. 
 
 The back half of the block, surrounded 
 by a wooden fence and gates usually ajar, 
 faces the high school, serves as a short 
 cut from the school to the back entrance 
 of Waginsky's, an emergency exit from the 
 movies, and not seldom as a convenient 
 approach to the vennel behind Rattler and 
 Fujii. This vacant plot, dump of lumber 
 and barrels, is the modern arena and grove 
 of crap gladiators in school recess, and of 
 Eleusinian mysteries during the movie 
 intervals. 
 
 The oracle in charge of all these acces- 
 sories to civilization, the Janus-faced jani- 
 tor, is Rob Righteous, only inhabitant of 
 the basement, regular communicant, 
 eulogist, apologist, and chucker-out of the 
 liquid-lambative landlord, Richard Rattler. 
 
 I passed along this block one midnight 
 when suddenly a booklet was thrust into
 
 28 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 my hand. I glanced casually at the title, 
 "Secrets of Life Plainly Told For Men," 
 looked at the building, and as my eyes 
 and ears and brain became alert, I halted. 
 I caught the sign "Dr. Pureheart," and 
 remembered that this name had lately 
 appeared in the Press, denying that any 
 immorality existed among high school 
 girls. I heard music (or was it a chari- 
 vari?) and dancing above the saloon; I 
 noticed several girls inspecting Waginsky's 
 Malthusian manikins for msenads; I saw a 
 painted demi-mondaine slide into Rattler's. 
 
 Was I again a student in the Quartier 
 Latin ? No ! I saw a bright-eyed child of 
 twelve seated with a boy her own age on 
 a garbage box, and the inscription was 
 English: "Help Keep the City Clean." 
 
 The whimsical desire filled me to open 
 the lid and drop that boy and girl in. I 
 approached them and heard the boy say: 
 
 "Gee, kid, there goes yer sister, May, 
 and her feller. Ain't they a goin' into 
 the chop suey?" 
 
 I turned in the direction indicated and 
 saw a beautiful girl of sixteen just pass 
 into Fujii's. 
 
 "Yah! She's goin' to gradyerate this 
 year. Hi ! kids, come right here. Did yer 
 see Charlie Chaplin? Ain't he jest cute?" 
 
 Then it struck me that the street was
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 29 
 
 full of boys and girls. Surely, these 
 Americans are "crazy," thought I, to allow 
 their children to run about in this manner, 
 at this hour, and in this neighborhood, 
 alone. In Europe they would have been 
 put to bed at 9 P. M., and would never at 
 any time be allowed to roam about such 
 surroundings by themselves. But I thought 
 of Dr. Pureheart's asseverations, and Dr. 
 Pureheart is an honest man. 
 
 I turned to the pretty child who appar- 
 ently was there to "Help Keep the City 
 Clean," and enquired gently: 
 
 "Why does your mother allow you to 
 stay here till midnight?" 
 
 She looked at me saucily, and the other 
 children gathered round and stared at me 
 with amused curiosity. 
 
 "My God! what a question! Why it 
 helps to edj create us!" 
 
 When I heard the name of the Creator 
 taken in vain by this child, I was again 
 tempted to "Help Keep the City Clean," 
 but I curbed my anger, and thought of the 
 "Mam" school in the next block that was 
 edjercating these children in this fashion, 
 and I turned into the chop suey. 
 
 "Jesus !" hooted a boy behind me, "ain't 
 he a guy, don't he look like Charlie Chap- 
 lin?" 
 
 And another retorted:
 
 30 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "No, he ain't, kid. Christ! didn't yer 
 see it's Buffalo Bill?" 
 
 May sat at a table with her feller, an- 
 other woman and another man. On this 
 occasion I did not try to analyze the effect 
 my appearance made on the spectators, an 
 idiosyncracy to which I am often prone. 
 My physiognomy and physique are unusual 
 and always attract attention. I am five 
 feet two inches, have a thirty-nine chest, 
 and weigh one hundred and fifty pounds, 
 so you can well imagine that I am too 
 Napoleonic around the waist for an active 
 abstainer of forty. My hands and feet are 
 tiny and delicate like those of a lady, yet 
 I can walk fifty miles a day, and wring the 
 neck of a giant. But it is my tri-colored 
 Vandyke beard and heavy upturned mus- 
 taches, black, brown, and grey, that create 
 the cynosure. 
 
 Then my olfactory organ receives its 
 unmerited share of attention. A few years 
 ago it was perfectly straight. Now since 
 my horse rolled over a precipice with me, 
 it is a cross between a Semitic bridge and 
 a bon viveur's nostrils ; that is, the tip has 
 been flattened and inflated, and gives my 
 whilom Welsh naze a decidedly aquiline 
 caste. 
 
 My almost black hair, thick, and parted 
 in the middle, surrounds the brow of an
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 31 
 
 artist, sleuth, seer, and student; and the 
 brown eyes, when they are not inwardly 
 brooding or staring far away into other 
 realms, can laugh as a baby to its mother, 
 or sear into your soul as the Scythe of 
 Time. The innocent love the face in spite 
 of its blemish; the criminal instinctively 
 recognizes his antithesis; the nervous, 
 careless, and inane woman betrays her 
 pique before the deliberate, methodical, 
 and intellectual male that despises and 
 pities her. 
 
 A few words of Fujii in Japanese, which 
 I understand the least perfectly of a score 
 of languages, caused me on this occasion 
 to synthetize my own impressions. Fujii 
 was not a pure-bred Jap; he was too tall 
 and too fat, and reminded me more of a 
 Chinese carving of a wrestler. His voice 
 was low and effeminate; and as he passed 
 hither and thither in his slippers, he 
 seemed always ready for a throw. 
 
 He approached me with an almost super- 
 cilious indifference. I did not give him an 
 order, but looked him over from head to 
 heel. Then I examined the tablecloth. 
 Regarding him straight in the eye, I now 
 said very quietly: 
 
 "When you put a clean cloth on the table, 
 I shall give you an order." 
 
 He trembled as if connected with a
 
 32 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 battery, his hands came on to the table, 
 and the fingers twitched ; but I did not see 
 them, for I was transfixing his murderous 
 eyes. He wanted to spring at me, but my 
 perfect tranquility undecided him. He 
 stepped backwards until he reached the 
 kitchen door, and pressing it open with his 
 back, disappeared. A waiter now emerged 
 with a clean tablecloth, and I ordered an 
 American chop suey. Fujii did not re- 
 appear that evening. 
 
 May, who was "goin' to gradyerate," 
 wore a short white skirt that displayed 
 part of a beautiful calf above her high 
 bronzed shoes laced with white strings; a 
 transparent shirt-waist that served only to 
 accentuate her chemise a jour, gaping 
 when she bent over her plate to expose the 
 little that was not entirely bare. She was 
 practically sleeveless, as the gauze that 
 surrounded her armpits, permitted me to 
 see that they were clean-shaven. She had 
 blue eyes, and although her hair was blond, 
 her brows were pencilled brown to increase 
 their apparent length. One kiss-curl lay 
 plastered to her brows, two beau-catchers 
 to her cheeks in front of her ears, and the 
 rest of her hair rose in pyramidal puffs for 
 at least six inches above her numbskull. 
 Her porous pachyderm lay buried beneath 
 an avalanche of powder, relieved under the
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 33 
 
 beau-catchers and on the lips by a touch 
 of rouge. When she laughed and usually 
 her lips were parted she disclosed several 
 gold molars and sybaritic gums. She was 
 evidently in the habit of using some cor- 
 rosive cathartic, and had ruined her skin 
 in her attempts to hide the fact that her 
 red corpuscles were running to seed. Yet 
 she was beautiful, healthy, and well-devel- 
 oped for a girl of sixteen. 
 
 Her vis-a-vis, whom she addressed as 
 Calls, was almost similarly attired in pale 
 pink, but she was a brunette and twenty 
 years of age. She had large, bright black 
 eyes surrounded by dark circles, yet her 
 complexion was so flushed that she did not 
 require any heightening of carmen and 
 could barely tone it down by constant 
 recourse to her chamois. Her eyes were 
 further remarkable for the great width 
 that separated them, a sure sign of the 
 possessor's vanity and imbecility, in spite 
 of the popular novelist's characters to the 
 contrary. The great thinkers have never 
 had those prominent, deployed pupils, con- 
 stant thought beetles the brows, narrows 
 the lids, coarctates the orbs. 
 
 Her lips were loose, full, and displayed 
 a tiny fold over the upper teeth when she 
 laughed. The weakness of her character, 
 the voluptuousness of her nature, immedi-
 
 34 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 ately bared themselves to me when the 
 risible muscles came into play. The dark 
 rings told me of a constant drain and 
 insufficient sleep; the erubescent skin, of 
 alcohol or opium and excesses. 
 
 I gathered from the conversation that 
 she was a switch-board operator. 
 
 May's feller was the typical model of an 
 advertising placard. Tall, attenuated, de- 
 bonair, and sylphlike; a rather short nose, 
 and flaxen pompadour. His clothes were 
 of immaculate cut and the very finest 
 material, and convinced me, without the 
 additional evidence of a first-water scarf- 
 pin and ring, that he was more used to 
 sipping a highball at the club and guzzling 
 beer at a college keg stag than to dining 
 at Fujii's. His face did not betray any 
 intellectuality, but still bore the flush of 
 an electric massage, as his finger nails, the 
 polish of an expert manicure. 
 
 They called him Jack and Jambon, and 
 snatches of talk led me to believe that he 
 was the son and heir of a pork potentate. 
 
 The only strong character of the party 
 was the other man. I judged him to be 
 a detective, and later events proved my 
 surmise to be correct. Over six feet, 
 powerful, massive-jawed, with swarthy 
 skin, and firm, thin lips that hardly parted 
 when he spoke or laughed sardonically.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 35 
 
 His voice was deep and guttural, and he 
 spoke in monosyllables, as if under con- 
 stant restraint. Across his low forehead, 
 almost in a line with his beaked nose, ran 
 a red scar that gave him a sinister ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 Calls loved him and feared him as a bitch 
 her master, and Steel treated her as a 
 master. 
 
 The meal over, the quartette, instead of 
 leaving by the front entrance, disappeared 
 in the rear of the chop suey. I waited a 
 few moments, and then attempted an exit 
 in the same direction; but Fujii, who had 
 evidently been watching me from behind 
 his wicket, sent a waiter to tell me that I 
 could not leave except the way I came. To 
 allay suspicion, I said that I desired to 
 wash my hands, and was directed to the 
 lavatory in the basement. There I made 
 a careful inspection, but discovered nothing 
 more questionable than a steel door with 
 a patent lock. 
 
 I paid my quarter, and then made the 
 tour of the block as previously described. 
 Rob Righteous espied me, and asked me 
 my business. 
 
 "I'm looking for a furnished room, but 
 I think it's too late to go and ask upstairs. 
 You see, I work in the day, and I've got 
 to move to-morrow, and if I can't get fixed
 
 36 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 up to-night, I'll be in a pickle. If you can 
 help me, I'll make it worth your while." 
 
 "Ye're a forinir, ain't ye?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "I could see ye're a Frenchy. [I'm a 
 Welshman, but did not intend to be the 
 goat.] I don't know as how Madame 
 Coupler would let ye have a room. She's 
 got mostly wimin, an' she's mighty per- 
 tikler, an' she charges stiff." 
 
 I passed him $2. 
 
 "But we can go up an' see. Ye see, 
 I 'as got charge o' this building, an' if I put 
 in a good word, she'll listen to me. Ye 
 see, I'm a member o' the -church, an' I'm 
 responsible for the pertiklerness o' this 
 block, an' it's mighty pertikler it is. Ye 
 never see a drunk at Rattler's, the cleanest 
 saloon in Chi. No wimin or crooks around 
 here while Rob Righteous has the keys." 
 
 We had arrived at Madame's. Righteous 
 rang the bell, and a negro opened the door. 
 When he saw Rob, he called to the back: 
 "It's Massa Righteous, Ma'am," and Rob 
 passed by him leaving me at the door. 
 
 After several minutes' conference, the 
 janitor returned and told the negro to 
 show me in. 
 
 "When ye come down, let me know what 
 luck ye've had. I told Madame Coupler 
 that ye're O. K; but she's got her rules 
 and regilashins."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 37 
 
 I was ushered into Madame' s presence, 
 a big, fat female of forty, painted, pow- 
 dered, dyed, and bejewelled. As she scru- 
 tinized me, I heard May's orgastic giggle 
 in an adjoining room. 
 
 "You want a furnished room ? My price 
 is $6 a week. Is that too high?" 
 
 "Not if I can get every home comfort." 
 
 The folds of her face broke into a laugh, 
 and displayed her false teeth. 
 
 "That depends on what you call home 
 comforts." 
 
 "Well, you know what I mean. I don't 
 want to stay in a Y. M. C. A." 
 
 "Yes, I think I understand. But where 
 are you staying now, and what's your 
 business? I like to know who I let my 
 rooms to." 
 
 "I'm a foreign correspondent," and I 
 named a swell hotel where I was not stay- 
 ing. 
 
 "And will you please leave me your 
 card?" 
 
 "I'm sorry, I haven't got my cards," and 
 I rummaged in my pockets, "but my name 
 is I." 
 
 "Well, Monsieur High, I'll let you see 
 the room." 
 
 I was shown into a beautifully furnished 
 room, redolent with violet perfume, and 
 pervaded by a dim red light. On the walls
 
 38 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 were several nude vignettes which evident- 
 ly had once adorned a Parisian boudoir. 
 The chamber undoubtedly awoke my ar- 
 tistic temperament. 
 
 "I'll take the room, and bring my grips 
 to-morrow. Shall I pay you now?" 
 
 "Yes, if you don't mind." 
 
 I gave her six dollars, and went down- 
 stairs to tell Rob Righteous of my good 
 fortune. 
 
 "I tell ye, Mr. Eye, ye're mighty lucky, 
 because she's mighty pertikler, as I told 
 ye. But seeing that ye're a Frenchy, an' 
 she's been in Parees, an' she's a bit softy 
 on yer countrymen [this with a wink] , she 
 took my word for ye, an' took ye in." 
 
 "And I'm very thankful to you, I assure 
 you, and if I am able to do anything for 
 you, I'll be only too pleased, Mr. Righteous. 
 By the way, that's a nice name you have, 
 and I'm quite certain that it's very appro- 
 priate." 
 
 Mr. Righteous raised his hand in right- 
 eous modesty. 
 
 "Naw, naw; but ye see I'm a reglir 
 member o' the church, an' accordin'ly I 'as 
 got to keep this block pertikler, an' I 'as 
 got to be a bit pertikler myself. But ye've 
 got a funny name yeself, Mr. Eye." 
 
 "I expect my family got that name be- 
 cause they all have peculiar eyes. Just
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 39 
 
 you take a good look at them, Mr. Right- 
 eous, and your own excellent judgment will 
 convince you of the peculiarity. But I 
 think we had better go into the hall, or 
 we shall have a crowd around us in a 
 minute." 
 
 I took his arm, and drew him into the 
 doorway before he was able to form any 
 judment of his own, and as soon as I got 
 him to a recess where I thought no one 
 would interrupt us, I looked full into his 
 eyes, and began to exert my hypnotic 
 powers over him* 
 
 "Now take a good look. Do you see 
 those two yellow blotches in the whites? 
 Don't look at the outside corners of the 
 eyes, look towards the nose. Ah ! That's 
 it." 
 
 I made several rapid passes, and Right- 
 eous began to totter. 
 
 "Well, those yellow blotches sometimes 
 glitter like diamonds. Take a good look, 
 but don't let them dazzle you." 
 
 His eyelids sank heavily, and I had him 
 under my influence. 
 
 I willed him to descend the hall stairs 
 and unlock a heavy door in the basement. 
 We entered a living-room which, after the 
 light was turned on, I surmised belonged 
 to Righteous himself. I commanded him 
 then to lock the door by which we had 
 entered.
 
 40 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 The perspiration was already streaming 
 from his pores, and he was extremely pal- 
 lid and weak. I therefore told him to lie 
 down on the bed, sleep soundly for two 
 hours, lose all remembrance of what had 
 occurred, and at the words "Yellow 
 Blotches" to fall again under my will. 
 
 I took his keys, and determined to dis- 
 cover whether any cryptic ramifications 
 would give me the clue to the few Japanese 
 words I had caught from Fujii. 
 
 Every drawer, closet, and door was 
 locked with a patent key that was inserted 
 and turned in some peculiar fashion. I was 
 accordingly compelled to take Righteous 
 with me to open the doors, while I care- 
 fully watched how he manipulated the 
 keys and locks. I feared that he would 
 collapse at any moment, as this was his 
 first experience under hypnotism, and I 
 had to exert an almost lethargizing lode to 
 make him obey me and not lapse into 
 lipothymy. 
 
 Adjoining the living-room under Fujii's 
 were his kitchen and bedroom. To the 
 right, under Ching Wo Po, were the fur- 
 nace and boiler, separated from the rest 
 of the basement by fireproof partitions as 
 prescribed by city ordinance, but this salu- 
 tary provision here served a lethiferous 
 purpose. Then, extended on either side
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 41 
 
 were coal bins, drug-stores, saloon cellars, 
 heaps of wood, packing-cases, barrels, 
 window screens, and storm doors. Under 
 the saloon, the chop suey and the movies 
 there were walled-off spaces, which I took 
 to be lavatories, and I noticed they all had 
 heavy doors such as I had seen in Fujii's 
 lavatory. 
 
 There was nothing suspicious in all this. 
 Was I mistaken? I had examined every 
 door in the basement and had discovered 
 nothing unusual. 
 
 I allowed the janitor to lie on the bed, 
 turned out the light, sat down near him 
 and began to think. 
 
 Suddenly I heard a raucous voice almost 
 at my ear, and I must admit that it gave 
 me a shock. I dared not turn on the light, 
 lest it should betray me. 
 
 I drew my revolver and bending over the 
 janitor commanded him to tell me whence 
 the voice proceeded. 
 
 "Under my bed." 
 
 I am not afraid of death, and am con- 
 sidered fearless, yet at that moment my 
 legs turned cold when I thought they were 
 within reach of that sepulchral voice. 
 
 I stepped back, in imitation of Fujii, and, 
 pointing my weapon beneath the couch, I 
 demanded : 
 
 "Who are you?"
 
 42 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "It's the phone," replied Righteous, and 
 my heart gave a bound of relief. 
 
 I turned on the light, ordered him to 
 rise, and, examining the bed, found that 
 it could be swung back into the wall, was 
 in fact a bed-in-wall. I raised it and dis- 
 covered the ends of a wire-tapping system 
 and a receiver within reach of the occupant 
 of the couch. I put the receiver to my ear, 
 but the voice had died away. This dis- 
 closure, however, redoubled my suspicions, 
 and I asked if there were any doors we had 
 not opened. The janitor hesitated. 
 
 "I command you to lead me to the door 
 where you hide the white slaves." 
 
 The suggestion given in this manner 
 and being veridical, could not be denied. 
 
 The back wall of the basement, under 
 Fujii's, was composed of unplastered 
 bricks. The janitor approached the wall, 
 drew out one of the bricks that worked 
 on a hinge and catch, inserted a key, and 
 pushed open a door, the face of which was 
 covered with bricks exactly similar to 
 those which composed the wall. 
 
 Unless an inkling of its existence had 
 previously entered his mind, this door 
 would have defied detection by the most 
 astute sleuth or cunning architect known 
 to criminal annals.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 43 
 
 n. 
 
 MADAME COUPLER. 
 
 The following evening I brought my 
 grips, or at least part of them, for I ex- 
 pected to have my possessions examined 
 during my absence. 
 
 While I was busy unpacking, Madame 
 knocked at the door, and after I had asked 
 her to come in and take a seat, she 
 inquired whether she could be of any 
 assistance to me. 
 
 "I'll take the will for the deed, as I would 
 not dare to put you to any trouble, even if 
 I was not already through. But don't go 
 away, I shall be glad to have your con- 
 versation and company." 
 
 She offered me a cigarette. 
 
 "I'm sorry, I don't smoke." 
 
 "0 Lord, and I expect you don't drink 
 either?" 
 
 "Now, don't mind me," and I struck a 
 match; "smoke your cigarette and take 
 your drink, if it will make you feel more 
 at home."
 
 44 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 While I was holding the light to her 
 cigarette, she took hold of my hand. 
 
 "My, what a small hand, just like a 
 girl's!" 
 
 "What about the drink/' I suggested 
 evasively, withdrawing my hand from a 
 caress that apathized me. 
 
 "I think I'll drink a bottle of stout," and 
 she called to the negro to bring her the 
 beverage. 
 
 I had purposely seated myself on the 
 davenport some distance from her, but as 
 soon as she had gulped down the malt, 
 she came over and pounced herself down 
 next to me, and again took my hand. 
 
 "Don't be afraid of me, my dear; I won't 
 eat you, although I should like to. I think 
 I'll call you, mon ami, Monsieur High, it 
 reminds me of gay Paris." 
 
 At that moment I could not help think- 
 ing of the innumerable men and women 
 whom an inexorable law bound inseparably 
 to a partner that they loathed as I loathed 
 this female, and yet they lived through it 
 all. Would it kiU me? No, though "they 
 that touch pitch will be denied." I would 
 be a Jesuit for the nonce. "The end justi- 
 fies the means," yet would I not forget 
 that "Hell is paved with good intentions." 
 I became physically passive, though the
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 45 
 
 lump in my throat would not descend. 
 Mentally the interaction was reversed. 
 
 "Won't you tell me something about 
 your other roomers?" 
 
 "Why, I have my pensionnaires, mon 
 ami; and they'd all be nice respectable 
 girls if it wasn't for that sacre maquereau, 
 Steel. And that reminds me, you'd better 
 keep out of sight while he's in the house, 
 or he'll make me tell you to quit. He 
 won't have any men rooming here regular- 
 ly, as he doesn't want them to see his go- 
 ings-on, and then he's suspicious that some 
 one may come here to spy on him. But 
 he's pretty high up, and he'll take a lot 
 of shaking. But I'll let you know when 
 he's here, and then you can lie low." 
 
 "Tell me which is his room, so that I 
 can keep out of his way." 
 
 "When he's here, he usually sticks to 
 number eight." 
 
 "I noticed the room. It looks like the 
 best in the flat, though it is hidden away 
 from passers-by. Was this flat specially 
 built by him so that he could hide him- 
 self in that room ?" 
 
 Madame laughed. 
 
 "I don't know; but you're right. All 
 these flats are built exactly the same, room 
 for room. The doctor has his surgery in 
 his number eight, Sister Innocent has her
 
 46 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 lying-in charnber in her number eight, and 
 the medium has his seances in his number 
 eight." 
 
 I did not allow Madame to notice how 
 much her information interested me. 
 
 "Don't you think it would be a good idea 
 to disguise myself ? I've got a tight-fitting 
 black pulcinella that covers me entirely 
 except over the eyes and nostrils. If I 
 wear over this a capote and rubber shoes, 
 he would not recognize me, in case he came 
 across me, and I could pass as a woman." 
 
 "Geewiz, that's an excellent idea; but 
 you don't know Steel. He's one of the 
 smartest tecs in Chi, although he's a 
 crook." 
 
 "But I don't understand how he can 
 order you about. Is he the boss here?" 
 
 "No, I'm the boss, I pay the rent; but 
 when he gets drunk which is not very 
 often, he's too fly for that he makes me 
 give him my honest earnings, he robs my 
 pensionnaires, and beats them about and 
 puts them through such pacings that I am 
 surprised one of them has not squealed or 
 put a knife into him yet. But what can 
 I do? He can put us all behind the bars, 
 and if we said anything, the judges would 
 not believe us, or if they did, he's got too 
 much pull to be hurt, or he'd get out of it 
 by pleading that it was part of his scheme
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 47 
 
 to try and find out all about us. Besides, the 
 judges are no better than he is; one of 
 them comes here regularly, and knows that 
 Steel owns this block through Bloater, the 
 banker. The policeman on this beat 
 squeezes us for his share too. All of us, 
 the saloon, the drug-store, the chop suey, 
 the Chinaman, the garage, the doctor, the 
 midwife, the medium, we all pay Steel 
 double rent, and whatever he can rob us 
 of." 
 
 "But what does the laundry do to get 
 into his clutches?" 
 
 "They smoke opium in the basement, 
 they sell drink and cigarettes and dope to 
 boys and girls ; when they get into trouble, 
 they come up to the doctor or the midwife 
 or the medium, and he sends them to the 
 doctor for a percentage, and the doctor 
 sends them to the drug-store for a percent- 
 age. If Steel brings some one up here, I 
 dare not refuse to take them in. And God 
 knows what they do down in the basement ! 
 I'm an honest woman, Cheri, and it's my 
 own fault that I'm here." 
 
 Her voice grew plaintive, and the tears 
 began to roll over her fat cheeks. 
 
 "Coupler is my Christian name, not my 
 family name. My father invented the 
 railway-coupler and gave me this name in 
 remembrance of his invention."
 
 48 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "I see the inventive genius of other 
 members of the family runs in a similar 
 direction," I hinted mildly, but Madame 
 had become too lachrymose under the in- 
 fluence of her souvenirs, cigarettes, suit, 
 and stout to notice my compatible com- 
 parison. 
 
 "He left me a pot of money. I went to 
 Paris and Monte Carlo; and here I am to 
 be squeezed by that sacre maquereau. No 
 wonder I can't get out of this. And it's 
 the same with my pensionnaires. There's 
 that gentle Yvette. She got a decent job 
 in a department store. Steel heard it and 
 made her quit. These tecs and police don't 
 want any reformed women about; it cuts 
 down their pin-money, and when a woman 
 can earn a respectable living, she becomes 
 independent of her official protectors, and 
 one day she may blab." 
 
 "I should like to know Yvette, you've 
 made me quite interested. Won't you give 
 me an introduction?" 
 
 Madame was immediately on her guard. 
 
 "No, I won't give you a knock-down to 
 her. What you want to know her for? 
 Ain't I good enough for you?" 
 
 "Now, now, you need not get mad or 
 jealous; I only wanted to help her get a 
 job in some other town." 
 
 "Oh, so you're one of those guys that
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 49 
 
 goes round picking up fallen women. If 
 you think you can try any of those stunts 
 on Yvette or on any other of my pension- 
 naires, you can quit right away, and here's 
 your six dollars. D' ye get me ?" 
 
 I twisted my hand out of Madame's 
 clasp, and seizing hers began to fondle it 
 in jiujitsu fashion. 
 
 "My God!" she screamed, "let go my 
 hand, you're hurting me, you little black 
 devil!" 
 
 "Madame," I said composedly, without 
 loosening my grasp, and giving her an- 
 other slight wrench that made her squirm 
 and turn pale, "I get you. If you give me 
 back my money, I'll pack my traps at once. 
 But I think you've told me sufficient to 
 make things rather warm for you, and I'll 
 see Yvette just the same." 
 
 Madame had recourse to the mollifier 
 that wears away the hardest rock. The 
 tears trickled from her eyes in terror and 
 torture. 
 
 "Please, Sir, let go my hand. I didn't 
 mean to insult you. If you like, I'll call 
 Yvette at once. Oh, please, Sir, let go my 
 hand, or I'll faint or call the boy. I really 
 didn't mean it." 
 
 I did not release my grip, but I relaxed 
 the rack. 
 
 "0 my God!" she sighed in relief, "I
 
 50 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 was afraid you were going to kill me. Shall 
 I call Yvette ? Are you really a reformer, 
 or were you only joking? If you are, I 
 hope you won't ruin me. I'm an honest 
 woman, and I meant you no harm. I only 
 wanted you all for myself. Shall I go 
 away now, Sir? And do you want your 
 $6? Please forgive me, Sir. I was only 
 a bit jealous and excited, and I had too 
 much stout." 
 
 "No, I don't want my money back; I'll 
 stay on now. And you may remain here, 
 if you like. I'm not a reformer, as you 
 call it, and you needn't call Yvette. I 
 thought you wanted her to get out of this, 
 and I really wanted to do you a favor by 
 helping her. You're not a bad sort, after 
 all; only you get mad too quick. I'll be 
 your ami again, if you like." 
 
 Inwardly I determined to see Yvette, 
 and send her to a friend of mine in the 
 country, who was looking for a French 
 lady's maid. I had often thought that the 
 State showed its crass decrepitude in 
 handling the social evil, as it did in every 
 other of its activities; and among the re- 
 forms which I pondered for the Future 
 State and which I determined to experi- 
 ment on myself, if I could find funds and 
 friends, was a Magdalene Moralizer. 
 
 These women are not criminals until
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 51 
 
 rendered so by_State compulsion. Itjsjiot 
 the JaiTthey" need, but a Hybrid between 
 a^cpnvent and a^fagtorg Here they must 
 be employed, between religious exercises, 
 in earning their own living at female voca- 
 tions, and paid by the piece so that they 
 may appreciate the rewards of individual 
 industry. 
 
 Such a Magdalene Moralizer would, 
 therefore, be self-supporting, and the 
 Magdalenes must have the spending of 
 their wages, in ways which their natures 
 no less than those of the virtuous women 
 of your time desire. 
 
 Attached to the Moralizer must be a 
 Department Store, a Ball Room, and a 
 Theatre, where they may fritter away 
 their earnings in baubles, disport them- 
 selves in decollete toilettes, weep or laugh 
 over the latest movie star or actor and 
 actress who will generously deign to visit 
 them; and Tea Parties, at which their 
 latest scandals may be septically susur- 
 rated, should not be altogether tabooed. 
 
 But to revert to Madame. Her idyl was 
 as sudden in its interruption as in its in- 
 ception. My small, soft hands were now 
 a repulsion instead of an attraction. The 
 inflated nostrils were no longer to her an 
 index of moral laxity but of mobile lungs. 
 Of the relish there remained only regard, 
 respect, and reverence.
 
 52 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 I proffered Madame my hand, as I 
 wished her pleasant dreams, but it re- 
 mained unshaken. 
 
 As soon as she left me, with a wistful 
 look in her moist eyes, I carefully examined 
 the walls, the floor, the ceiling 1 of my room 
 to discover whether there was any device 
 for listening or spying on me. Then I 
 drew a plan of the flat and put in the 
 approximate measurements as I had pre- 
 viously paced them. This comparatively 
 simple task completed, I donned my pul- 
 cinella, capote, and rubbers, and slipped 
 out of the house unseen with a hand-bag 
 which was the only part of my belongings 
 which would not bear too close scrutiny. 
 
 In the vacant half of the block, I went 
 through some perambulating evolutions 
 and geodetic calculations which finally 
 landed me under a most fortuitous forma- 
 tion of lumber, barrels, and boxes. As I 
 have previously remarked, this was the 
 resort of many who had evidently utilized 
 their trysting terms to prepare such lurk- 
 ing lures, and those who passed would not 
 have been surprised if they had discovered 
 me here, neither would they have intruded 
 on or betrayed me, for there is honor 
 among thieves. 
 
 I opened my bag and, choosing a drill, 
 began my Columbian quest for the anti-
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 53 
 
 podes. After an hour's patient toil, I in- 
 serted my periscope, but was not able to 
 sight even as much as Columbus did on 
 a pitch-black night when his men, filled 
 with fear and doubt, threatened to return. 
 
 I attached my microphone, but neither 
 was this more microcoustic than my peri- 
 scope, perspicacious. 
 
 Had I erred? Again I applied myself 
 to mensurations, and arrived at the same 
 Q. E. D. 
 
 I placed my ear anew at the orifice. 
 What was that? I listened intently, and 
 above the beating of my heart caught the 
 shuffling of feet. Then the impatient ink- 
 ling to glean another glance took possession 
 of me. Where had my wits been? How 
 could I expect to discern anything in dark- 
 ness? When the approaching person 
 switched on the light, my vision would be 
 vibrated as now was undulated my audi- 
 tion. 
 
 That I might use both senses at the 
 same time, I now attached a dictaphone 
 tube to the periscope. The human noises, 
 intermingled with sounds of furniture and 
 utensils, drew nearer, until suddenly my 
 optic nerve was dazzled by a stream of 
 light. 
 
 When my eye grew accustomed to the 
 glare, I perceived with joy that the crypt
 
 54 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 I had visited on the previous night with 
 my mesmerized manciple was now within 
 my range. There were the couch, the 
 dresser, the bath, the electric cooker, the 
 radiator, the exhaust and the indraught 
 fans, the soft carpets decking the floor, 
 and every appurtenance possible in one 
 compartment. No windows to hold out 
 hope, and only one heavy steel door, 
 clamped like that of a safe, gave egress 
 to a tunnel and entrance to a second vault 
 fitted out for another form of hellish 
 hospitality. 
 
 But here is the caretaker of these cata- 
 combs, dusting to prepare for dirt. I must 
 hurry. The vultures are preparing for 
 their prey. 
 
 I now took another insidious invention 
 out of my bag, and tested its collapsion. 
 The white rubber horn and bladder drum 
 flew open with a slight snap, taking the 
 shape of a miniature phonograph funnel. 
 I squeezed it together between my fingers 
 and tried it again. It was a transmitting 
 microphone, the fruits of my own ingenui- 
 ty. Withdrawing the inner tube of the 
 periscope which contained the prism, the 
 object and the eye-glasses, I screwed the 
 trumpet to the end of another tube and 
 slipped it down the shaft. Then I glued 
 my lips to the pipe and shouted several 
 times :
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 55 
 
 "Yellow Blotches! Yellow Blotches!" 
 
 When I looked again, the janitor was 
 subservient to my behests. 
 
 "Let me into your room, by the alley 
 entrance in the basement." 
 
 I carefully folded the transmitter, and 
 laid it in my bag, reinserted the periscope 
 for future use, and, covering the end with 
 a cap, hid it under a layer of sand. 
 
 While Righteous reposed in a rocker, I 
 visited the crypt and found that the peri- 
 scope projected about two inches from the 
 ceiling. This I remedied as soon as I got 
 above ground. 
 
 Then I devoted my energies to tapping 
 the tappers. I had brought with me several 
 coils of wire, similar to the kind used here, 
 so that an additional one strung in the 
 midst of the dozens which circled the walls 
 might not attract attention. I attached 
 two, one a tapper, the other a transmitter. 
 These I led out of the basement through 
 an alley skylight, and left the ends at the 
 bottom of a rain spout. 
 
 Slipping off my capote into the bag 
 which I strapped around my shoulders, for 
 it was rather heavy, I now climbed one of 
 the balcony posts on to the roof, detached 
 my burden, and dropped down the spout 
 two insulated wires which I connected up 
 on my descent.
 
 56 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 It was still too early to pursue my task 
 on the roof, so I spent my time testily till 
 about 2 A. M. in the lumber piles, watch- 
 ing the backstairs habitues. 
 
 The roof was French, or what is more 
 commonly called curb. Catherine-wheel 
 dormer windows faced the street, and were 
 partly hidden from below by a crenelated 
 balustrade; the back butted on to the bal- 
 cony roof. I pushed the ends of my wires 
 under the tiles which lapped into the gut- 
 tering, and then crawled over the ridge 
 piece to the extreme window. As I ex- 
 pected, it was nailed on the inside, as were 
 all the others which I tried in succession. 
 This did not intercept my passage long. 
 With the steel wheel of my jack-knife I 
 cut out a pane, inserted a pair of pliers, 
 and drew out the two nails which held the 
 frame in place. I pushed in the window, 
 and wriggled through into the musty, cob- 
 webbed loft. 
 
 Before attempting a gingerly-picked 
 peregrination across joints and girders, 
 between queen-posts and struts, I put the 
 dormer back in position and fastened it 
 with a hinge to the top and with a bolt at 
 the bottom, so that the wind might not 
 force it open. 
 
 Then I went in search of my wires, 
 somewhat as a Diogenes, but with better
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 57 
 
 success. It had been my intention to let 
 them down into my closet, but since the 
 shattering of Madame's ardent hopes, I 
 had a presentiment that my domiciliary 
 dulcitude would have to be removed to 
 fields and pastures new, as Madame's dul- 
 ciloquy would no doubt be transferred to 
 more appreciative ears. My ears must be 
 attuned for harsher cacophany. 
 
 I accordingly fastened them to one of 
 the queen-posts, and attached the micro- 
 phones. Would they work ? I listened. 
 Surely that was Righteous cussing most 
 unrighteously. 
 
 "I must a been drunk. Me head feels 
 like a barrel o' booze. I wonder if I 
 cleaned up the dens? I'll go an' take a 
 squint. Steel told me Jack's bringin' sum 
 un, an' they're a goin' to have a pipe. 
 Blast me noddle!" 
 
 Then I heard a door slam. 
 
 If the one worked, I trusted the other 
 would, but would put it to the test on some 
 other occasion. 
 
 I now took out my tape measure and 
 went through manoeuvres somewhat simi- 
 lar in their purpose to those I had per- 
 formed on the ground, but with more 
 precision, and on my hands and knees. 
 
 I inserted three periscopes; one into 
 Madame's number eight; another into
 
 58 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 Sister Innocent's; and the third into Dr. 
 Pureheart's. To the latter I attached a 
 dictagraph, for I did not expect to be 
 always able to reach this whispering clere- 
 story, and never in the daytime. 
 
 My scientific aids were now complete. 
 I had racked my brain in search of some 
 means to approach the saloon and the 
 garage, but they were on the ground floor, 
 and the basement beneath them was oc- 
 cupied by liquor vats and petrol tanks 
 respectively, so that at all hours of the 
 night there was the risk of someone in- 
 truding upon my criminological reconnais- 
 sance. I gave it up as something beyond 
 my powers. 
 
 When I reached the parapet, the dawn 
 was just beginning to break across Lake 
 Michigan. Not a cloud obscured the sky, 
 and Venus greeted me with celestial can- 
 dor, and filled my soul with adoration for 
 my Maker. 
 
 It seemed to me as if I stood here be- 
 tween heaven and hell. Over me rolled the 
 realms of the blessed ; above the rumble of 
 the city I heard the music of the spheres, 
 "the speech of angels," "like the faint, ex- 
 quisite music of a dream"; below were 
 "the hue of dungeons and the scowl of 
 night," the mutterings and machinations 
 of Mephistophelian myrmidons, the inha- 
 bitants of Pandemonium.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 59 
 
 I shuddered. 
 
 My spirit wished to mount "the great 
 world's altar stairs, that slope through 
 darkness up to God," but my task was 
 here. 
 
 I sank to my knees in prayer, and then 
 slid down to my chamber the way I had 
 come.
 
 60 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 III. 
 MAY MISOGAMY. 
 
 The following day was Saturday, Sa- 
 turn's day, the festival of Saturn. Thou 
 son of Crelus and Terra, father of Jupiter, 
 even today thy Saturnalia are celebrated! 
 I say thy Saturnalia, but was not thine the 
 golden age, distinguished for its purity, 
 integrity, and simplicity; for the mildness 
 and wisdom of thy reign? Then perish 
 the paradox! 
 
 The unrestrained license of all classes 
 which extended even to the slaves is no 
 less rampant today than in ancient Rome. 
 Saturday night is the night of vice and 
 crime and drunkenness; and even the 
 virtuous unchain their passions on Satur- 
 day night, for they can "rest" and recu- 
 perate on Sunday. If they but knew that 
 their need for this recuperation labels their 
 actions, even though licensed, as vice! 
 And was it a wise Providence that insti- 
 tuted Sunday to follow Saturday night, 
 that humanity might have an immediate 
 avolation from its sins ; or was it a vulpine
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 61 
 
 sept that botched a Saturday night before 
 Sunday in calculation of a more easily 
 attained absolution? 
 
 As soon as it grew dark enough, I 
 climbed to the loft, and after an examina- 
 tion of the periscopes and microphones, 
 put the dictagraph to my ears. 
 
 I caught the conclusion of a conversation 
 that did not interest me, then a voice which 
 I soon after recognized as that of Jambon. 
 
 "I say, Doc, May's got something the 
 matter with her, and she's coming round 
 to see you to-morrow. It won't take you 
 long to fix her up, and she can rest all 
 day at Innocent's and then Speedway can 
 take her home in a machine at ten in the 
 evening, before her people get in." 
 
 "Alright; when's she coming?" 
 
 "About eight in the morning, and as her 
 people are invited out with the kids, she 
 can get into bed before any of them re- 
 turn. On Monday morning she'll tell her 
 folks to ring you up, then you can run 
 round and tell them some cock-and-bull 
 story; and I expect she'll be out again in 
 a couple of days. Now, I don't want you 
 to make a mess of it. You'd better give 
 her a sleeping draught to take home with 
 her to keep her quiet till you get there on 
 Monday morning." 
 
 "It'll cost you five hundred dollars."
 
 62 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "What, five hundred dollars! You took 
 only fifty from Yvette a week ago." 
 
 "That's my business. You'll pay five 
 hundred or tell her to go to some other 
 doctor, or you can take her to Sister In- 
 nocent," 
 
 "Innocent would send me round here, 
 and you know it, you old money-grab. And 
 I can't speak to May; she gets on my 
 nerves. I'm tired of what she calls her 
 eternal love, I'll tell you what; I'll give 
 you the five hundred if you tell her to keep 
 away from this block. I'm going to get 
 another girl, and I don't want any scenes 
 Here's your check." 
 
 "Thanks, I don't want your check." 
 
 "What's that, isn't my signature good 
 enough for you?" 
 
 "Your signature's good enough for fifty 
 thousand, but I don't want to cash any of 
 your checks. Bring it round in bills, and 
 I'll tell the kid to hook on to some other 
 guy, as soon as she can stand it." 
 
 There was nothing else of interest to my 
 eyes or ears here, I therefore slid down to 
 periscope number one. It was Smoke 
 Night, as the initiated called it. The scenes 
 and sounds which shook me that night 
 must be reserved for the following chapter, 
 suffice that they resulted in another person 
 accompanying me to Pureheart's periscope 
 at 8 A. M. on Sunday morning.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 63 
 
 That night I took a quick look and turned 
 away, for the revolting operation was too 
 repulsive even for my senses hardened in 
 the slaughter and surgery of battlefields. 
 There lay May in the oblivion of the 
 scopolamm-morphine anaesthetic, popularly 
 known as "twilight sleep." I commanded 
 my captive to look. 
 
 O God ! If I could then have had all the 
 other members of her sex and age to take 
 but a fleeting glance at that horrible Neme- 
 sis of shame and sin, how many would I 
 not have drawn back from the brink of 
 the Stygian abyss whence there can be no 
 rescue ! 
 
 Mothers of Chicago daughters, mis- 
 tresses of Chicago schools ! It is your duty 
 to warn the virginity entrusted to your 
 suckling and teaching against the inevi- 
 table vengeance of transgression. While 
 you bury your heads beneath the sand, the 
 violation of your nests is consummated. 
 The conspiracy of silence, the duplicity of 
 denial, will not protect your homes. None 
 can speak but the tongue of Dr. Pureheart, 
 and his is the tongue of dementi. Others 
 speak of what they know not. 
 
 Civic guardians of Chicago ! When the 
 
 censors of publidlnorals. fog detftC* nvR - Q 'f 
 social crime, may anticipate a living only 
 during a presidential term, they are
 
 64 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 tempted to provide in that brief spell for 
 the many lean years that must inevitably 
 follow. The Republican judge brow-beats 
 the Democratic prisoner, as the Democratic 
 magistrate bears down the Republican 
 culprit. 
 
 Should a man be deprived of his work 
 because he is honest and a Republican, or 
 should another be entrusted with that 
 work because he is a Democrat and dis- 
 honest ? 
 
 It is a question that is easily resolved 
 by upright men, civic guardians of Chi- 
 cago! 
 
 And why are male morons lynched or 
 incarcerated and female morons given 
 heart balm, alimony and lawyers' fees by 
 judges who often participate in the pro- 
 miscuous embraces of these women? Be- 
 cause the former are the elemental out- 
 bursts of the people's desire for virtue; the 
 latter, the cursed hunger for gold legalized 
 at Springfield, a cesspool of vice and cor- 
 ruption. The judges and lawyers who 
 share in the extortions and embraces of/ 
 these women are pimps and panders, what-/ 
 ever their positions at the bar or on the' 
 bench. Without lawyers' fees, such cases 
 of extortion would be impossible; women! 
 cannot pay fees out of their own honest \ 
 earnings. And without discriminating)
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 65 
 
 legislation, a female moron would be 
 stamped for what she is, whether she wear 
 a wedding ring or an engagement ring or 
 not. These metal circlets are sought by 
 these women merely as links of evidence 
 and never convert her into a virtuous 
 fiancee or wife. And why are these female 
 morons often congratulated and even 
 envied by members of her own sex? Be- 
 cause she got away with it. Her rotten 
 body has been plated over with gold. 
 "Serves him right, and bravo for her!" 
 they cry enthusiastically. Because these 
 are the ethics of the "Mam" schools. Be- 
 cause the same type of politician that 
 wallows in prostitution and drunkenness at 
 Springfield, appoints the unmarried school 
 mams to educate the daughters of the 
 Republic. What else can you expect from 
 the appointees of such hypocrites? 
 
 It was Wednesday night, the end of my 
 first week, and I took six dollars into 
 Madame' s sitting-room. 
 
 "I've come to pay you my rent for next 
 week." 
 
 Madame did not hold out her hand for 
 the proffered bills. 
 
 "Why, what's the matter? Why don't 
 you take the money? Are you going to
 
 66 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 make me a reduction, or don't you want 
 me any longer?" 
 Madame hesitated. 
 
 "I thought I was going to be your ami." 
 
 "I'm, I'm very sorry, Monsieur High; 
 
 it's not my fault. I told you about Steel. 
 
 He's in number eight now, and just asked 
 
 me about you." 
 
 "Why don't you tell him I'm your ami?" 
 "Because you're not. You're a very nice 
 man, and all that, if you hadn't hurt my 
 hand so, but you're too much like a father 
 confessor. I don't believe you've been the 
 ami of any woman. There's something 
 about you that would prevent any woman 
 becoming too intimate with you. You're 
 like a minister, and people have to mind 
 their P's and Q's when they're speaking 
 to you. If you'd only smoke or drink like 
 other men, and forget yourself, you might 
 be some woman's ami; but you've always 
 got your wits about you, you're too clever; 
 and a woman would think you're playing 
 with her or studying her, even if you were 
 in earnest. 
 
 "I don't know why I'm telling you all 
 this. I don't want you to stay here, or at 
 least Steel doesn't; but I don't want you 
 to quit, and think I've got something 
 against you. To tell you the truth, you're 
 too good for me, and I'm ashamed of my-
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 67 
 
 self when you're here, and I think you 
 ought to stay in a decent place. Now I've 
 told you all, and you've got enough brains 
 to understand me." 
 
 Before I could answer her, there was a 
 knock at the door, and May walked in 
 without waiting for an invitation. She 
 looked ghostly pale and there was a wild 
 look in her eyes. 
 
 "My God ! May, what brought you here ? 
 You look sick. I haven't seen you for an 
 age." 
 
 "Is Jack here?" 
 
 "Yes, he's with Steel." 
 
 "I want to see him at once; I'll walk 
 right in." 
 
 Then she caught sight of me. 
 
 "Meet Mr. High, May." 
 
 "How d'ye do, Mr. High ? Oh yes ! I've 
 noticed you in the chop suey. Please ex- 
 cuse me now; I should like to talk to you, 
 but I'm a little upset, and want to catch 
 a friend." 
 
 "I trust I shall have the honor on some 
 future occasion." 
 
 May slipped out of the room, and as 
 Madame was about to follow, I stopped her 
 for a moment and told her that I would 
 leave on the morrow. Then I hurried to 
 the roof. 
 
 When I attained my microphone, May
 
 68 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 and her feller were seething in an acrid 
 altercation. 
 
 "You hadn't the nerve to tell me your- 
 self, you coward, but let another break it 
 to me, when I was almost dying through 
 your fault. Or perhaps you thought the 
 news would kill me, and you'd be rid of 
 me forever. But I wouldn't die just to 
 spite you." 
 
 "If I wanted to get rid of you that way, 
 I wouldn't have paid the doctor $500 for 
 you." 
 
 "For me ? For yourself, you mean, you 
 liar!" 
 
 "You needn't call me names. You know 
 it's not the first five hundred I've spent on 
 you. Didn't your diamonds cost me a 
 couple of thousand? Haven't I always 
 paid your bills downstairs at Waginsky's? 
 I took you to all the cabarets, dances, 
 theatres, and every other place you fan- 
 cied; so you can't say I spent the money 
 for my own pleasure." 
 
 "Yes it was, it was for your own 
 pleasure, and I'll give you back the dia- 
 monds, I expect you'll want them for your 
 next victim. No, I won't give them to 
 you ; I won't be such a fool. It'll make you 
 buy some others, if you want to snare some 
 one else. And God knows, I've had to 
 suffer more than those diamonds are
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 69 
 
 worth. I ought to sue you for breach of 
 promise and ruining my life, you cur." 
 
 "If you've come here to squeeze me, 
 you'd better name your price and get done 
 with it." 
 
 "No, I didn't come to squeeze you, you 
 hound, and you know it. I'm not one of 
 that sort. I came to tell you what I 
 thought of you. I didn't sell myself to 
 you, I loved you. A woman is not like 
 you pigs who love a score at a time. No 
 sooner off with the old than on with the 
 new ! I expect you've got another already. 
 It's nothing for you, but for me it's every- 
 thing. You wakened my love, and now 
 you expect me to live without it, while you 
 do as you please." 
 
 "To hear you talk, one might think 
 you've been a faithful woman to me. And 
 Steel sitting here all the time. Perhaps 
 Steel will console you." 
 
 The detective sat stolidly in his chair 
 as if not interested in such infantile re- 
 criminations. 
 
 May turned towards him, not knowing 
 whether to cast down her eyes or stare 
 him out, but his demeanor turned the 
 balance in favor of a brazen challenge. 
 
 "You see, he doesn't want to return to 
 his vomit." 
 
 May wheeled on her heels and screamed 
 into his face:
 
 70 CRIMINALS QF CHICAGO 
 
 "You're both a set of scoundrels. You 
 think I can't get anybody else; I'll show 
 you I can. I'm just as good as a man, and 
 if you think you'll break my heart, or I'll 
 mope, or kill myself, you're jolly well mis- 
 taken. I'll get some one as good as either 
 of you, and better." 
 
 She paused for breath, then she snapped 
 at him again: 
 
 "And you'd better pay for all that medi- 
 cine; I'm not going to pay for it." 
 
 "How much is it?" 
 
 "Fifty dollars." 
 
 He drew out his check book. 
 
 "No it isn't. It's five hundred, a thou- 
 sand; I want a thousand dollars." 
 
 He scrawled his signature, she snatched 
 up the paper, and whirled out of the room. 
 
 I met her on the stairs. 
 
 "You look very pale, Miss May; may I 
 help you down? I'm afraid you'll fall." 
 
 "I wish all the men in the world were 
 dead." 
 
 "I beg your pardon." 
 
 "No, I didn't mean you, Mr. High," she 
 said suddenly, seizing my arm, as she 
 staggered. "Please help me, don't go away. 
 Take me somewhere, take me home. Oh 
 my head! I don't want to faint here, I 
 don't want him to see me like this." 
 
 I lifted her in my arms and carried her
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 71 
 
 to the balcony in the rear, then down the 
 stairs, and into the little covert under the 
 timber pile. 
 
 "Now, don't faint or be afraid. I'll be 
 gone only a second. I'll get you some salts 
 and a drink; then I'll take you home." 
 
 It was about two weeks later. I had 
 often seen May at the chop suey and paid 
 for her dinners, but had always succeeded 
 in evading her gentle overtures. This 
 night I noticed her at a table with a type 
 similar to Jack. Jack, Steel, and Calls sat 
 at another table. I took the vacant one 
 between them. 
 
 May and her companion were more in- 
 timate than a casual acquaintanceship and 
 the propriety of a public restaurant war- 
 ranted. She was evidently bent on demon- 
 strating to Jambon that she was better off 
 for the change, and she exerted all her 
 feminine wiles to elicit open admiration 
 from her Lothario as a provocating proof 
 that she not only loved, but was loved in 
 return. 
 
 Suddenly an exasperating and unfore- 
 seen circumstance interrupted this drama. 
 Lothario was called to the phone. When 
 he returned, he looked grave, and his 
 hesitating explanations and apologies filled 
 his listener with dismay. She seemed to
 
 72 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 be stunned, and did not recover her equili- 
 brium until he had left the chop suey and 
 her eye fell on me. Then she came to my 
 table. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. High, he just heard that his 
 father was taken suddenly ill, and he had 
 to leave me like that. It gave me quite a 
 turn." 
 
 "Won't he come back again?" 
 
 "Not to-night, but he made a date for 
 to-morrow night. And I was having such 
 a good time. But why is it you always 
 look so glum?" she inquired with a sudden 
 change of front. "I don't want to have 
 the blues to-night. Liven up a bit, for my 
 sake. Do now, there's a good chap, and 
 I'll be nice to you too, so nice, you can't 
 think. You know, I really like you, you're 
 such a gentleman, but you treat me just 
 like dad. Now if you'd only imagine that 
 I'm ten years older, and you ten years 
 younger, and that I don't want a dad, you 
 don't know what a good time we'd have 
 together." 
 
 She was attempting to put me in the 
 place of Lothario ; she had been worked up 
 to such a pitch of recklessness that she 
 was compelled to continue the role she had 
 adopted, and the derangement of her de- 
 nouement only made her redouble her 
 darts, though the target had changed.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 73 
 
 She was so absorbed in this purpose that 
 she was totally blind to my impregnability. 
 
 And I ? I was thinking how I could pro- 
 tect this girl of sixteen against herself. 
 To-morrow she would have taken another 
 irrevocable step towards irredeemableness. 
 
 A terrible resolve took possession of me. 
 
 "Let's go up to Madame Coupler's," she 
 urged excitedly and in a voice that was 
 intended for Jack's ears. 
 
 I answered in barely audible tones: 
 
 "I don't think I shall be welcome there." 
 
 "Well, come with me to another place. 
 I know where we can go, and nobody will 
 see or hear us, and we can have a nice 
 long talk, all by ourselves. Come on." 
 
 I followed in her wake. At the hall door 
 sat the janitor. She spoke to him in a 
 whisper, while I held aloof. Then she 
 beckoned to me to approach. 
 
 "Don't be afraid, we're going down into 
 the basement. There's such a cosy little 
 nook down there. But we've got to walk 
 in the dark, so that we can't see the way 
 in, and when we're in, we can't get out till 
 the janitor lets us out. Are you afraid?" 
 
 "No, I'm not afraid. But will you excuse 
 me just for five minutes? I've got to ring 
 somebody up." 
 
 "You're not trying to get away, are you ? 
 If you're not back in five minutes, I'll never
 
 74 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 forgive you, and I'll never speak to you 
 again." 
 
 I was moving off when she put her hand 
 on my arm and stopped me. 
 
 "Don't you like me? Tell me the truth. 
 Don't fool me." 
 
 "I'm not fooling you. When I say I'll 
 come back, I mean it. But you'll be sorry." 
 
 "No, I won't be sorry." 
 
 "How about the young fellow that just 
 left you?" 
 
 "I don't know, perhaps he fooled me and 
 won't come back to-morrow. I don't think 
 you're like that. You're honest." 
 
 "But if he does come back?" 
 
 "If he comes back If you show me 
 to-night that you love me, and he comes 
 back to-morrow, I won't speak to him. 
 But you don't say that you like me. Per- 
 haps you'll tell me when we're alone, eh?" 
 
 "And if I'm ever cruel to you?" 
 
 "Cruel! Come back quick, you stupid; 
 you couldn't be cruel to a fly." 
 
 I hurried up to my lair and took out of 
 my satchel a coil of covered wire. Cutting 
 off a piece about four yards long, I folded 
 it into four, and hid it in my pocket. 
 
 "Well, you see I'm back." 
 
 "Come on, make haste! I'm dying to 
 hear you talk to me. I'll do nothing but 
 listen. You use such perfect English, not
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 75 
 
 like a Frenchman at all, and I'm sure you 
 can say nice things if you only want to 
 
 "I'm scared in this dark. I'm always 
 afraid when I come down here. I think I 
 can see ghosts, but I know it's only 
 imagination. Oh ! did you see that ? Take 
 hold of my arm, so that I can feel you. 
 Make haste, Righteous, I believe you're not 
 going fast on purpose, so that I Oh ! did 
 you see that?" 
 
 She threw herself on to my shoulder, 
 and hid her face. 
 
 "Come along, Miss May, here we are," 
 and a stream of light burst upon us. We 
 were standing beneath my periscope. 
 
 "0, it's you, is it, Mr. Eye? I didn't 
 know ye. So, you want something younger 
 than Madame, I see. Well, I don't blame 
 ye. Miss May's a fine lass, an' if she 
 wasn't, I wouldn't bring ye two here, be- 
 cause I'm responsible for the pertiklerness 
 o' this block, an' I'm a member o' the 
 church. Ye've come to talk it over, eh? 
 Well, ye couldn't a chosen a quieter cranny, 
 an' I'll let no one in on ye for an hour, 
 an' I won't let ye out either. Here's luck, 
 an' I'll throw the first slipper." 
 
 "I got quite scared in the dark. I thought 
 I saw an angel holding your other arm. 
 You know I sometimes see things, and 
 Gulliver asked me to sit with him, and he'd
 
 76 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 develop me into a good medium. Let's sit 
 down on the couch and talk. My ! why do 
 you look so pale and serious. My God! 
 I'm afraid something's going to happen. 
 Why don't you say something, talk, or I'll 
 scream." 
 
 "May, I have come here only for one 
 purpose, to ask you never to return to this 
 block again, to devote your life to your 
 studies and some honest profession, to keep 
 your little sister off the streets and prevent 
 her from following in the sinful path which 
 you have chosen, but which it is not too 
 late to forsake, if you will ask God's help. 
 You are only sixteen, and do not know 
 what is before you. Your experience with 
 Jack and Steel and with Pureheart is only 
 a foretaste of what your life will be, if you 
 do not repent. 
 
 "I've heard you laugh at marriage, and 
 say you would never give up your liberty 
 for any man. You have become a greater 
 slave to your passions than any honest wife 
 and mother could ever become. God or- 
 dained marriage, and it is the only rela- 
 tionship between the sexes that can bring 
 happiness to men and women. You would 
 never be treated by a husband as you have 
 been treated by Jack and Steel, and as any 
 other man would finally treat you if he 
 were not the father of your children.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 77 
 
 "I have heard you despise children. 
 When you are an old woman, and have lost 
 the beauty of youth, and are alone in the 
 world without a home, then your heart will 
 cry out for some son or daughter to caress, 
 or to be at your bedside in sickness. God 
 said, 'Be fruitful and multiply.' And what 
 is the alternative ? You have felt it at the 
 hands of Pureheart, and you will find it 
 more in life-long hysteria and melancholia. 
 
 "I have heard you say that a woman 
 that is earning a competent salary should 
 not throw it up for a man, who may not 
 be able to keep her in the luxury that her 
 earnings permitted. And then you have 
 said that if you have to work after you are 
 married to retain the same income, it is 
 better not to be married. Your stupid 
 Government is responsible for these im- 
 moral fallacies. When your teacher mar- 
 ries, your foolish legislators compel her to 
 leave her work, a work which only a wife 
 and mother is able efficiently to perform. 
 Read the Bible, and see what God says 
 about married women working. See what 
 is said about 'the virtuous woman whose 
 price is far above rubies'." 
 
 I was beginning to forget that I was 
 speaking to a mere child. 
 
 "Your law-makers say that a married 
 woman's interests lie in her home. That
 
 78 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 is an ennobling influence and one that will 
 react beneficially on her scholars. As a 
 mother wishes her own daughter to be, so 
 she will train the daughters of others. 
 Have your legislators ever stopped to study 
 the psychology of the unmarried teacher, 
 to find out where her interests lie ? More 
 in trying to make herself attractive to 
 some man, in arranging dates and dresses, 
 than in fitting girls for domestic experi- 
 ences of which she is totally ignorant. As 
 the pedagogue, so the pupil!" 
 
 I stopped abruptly, feeling that I was 
 rising above her intelligence. 
 
 She had watched me with ever widening 
 eyes and growing anger. 
 
 "So, that's why you came with me, to 
 preach me a sermon. I should have known 
 that a man old enough to be my father 
 would have sense for nothing else. And 
 what's my affairs got to do with you, you 
 old idiot! Mind your own business! I'll 
 do as I like, and please myself, without 
 asking advice, or giving account to such 
 as you. I expect you thought you could 
 say what you liked to me, because I said 
 I loved you. Love you, a thing like you? 
 You make me sick to look at you." 
 
 She turned her back in my face. 
 
 I drew the wire from my pocket, and, 
 stepping to one side, brought it down upon
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 79 
 
 her shoulders with the force of a cat-o'- 
 nine-tails. 
 
 A piercing shriek filled the cell, and she 
 dropped to her hands and knees. Her 
 whole body shook with sobbing and moan- 
 ing, the blood soaked through her waist, 
 and trickled down her nape on to the floor, 
 bringing to my mind the incongruous 
 visions of sanguisages and sacrifices I had 
 witnessed in the Orient. 
 
 I turned away, and wiped the tears from 
 my eyes, while I prayed to God to forgive 
 me if I had done wrong. 
 
 Suddenly I felt her arms around my 
 legs, and looking down, beheld her blood 
 and tear-stained face turned to mine in 
 remorse and supplication. 
 
 "Don't strike me again, for God's sake! 
 I'll never come here again, I'll save my 
 little sister, I'll study and work, and I'll 
 pray, God ! I'll pray, as he tells me, only 
 forgive me for what I've said and done, 
 and I'll never sin again. You won't strike 
 me again, will you ? I'll do all you tell me. 
 I'm different now. I won't be wicked 
 again 
 
 "If you'd only love me, or let me love 
 you, I'd be able to do some good in the 
 world. For you I could be a wife and a 
 mother. Thank God, you struck me ! I'm 
 different now. I told you a lie when I said
 
 80 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 I did not love you. I never loved anybody 
 till you carried me down the stairs in your 
 arms. No man is like you, I want to be 
 good, and useful, for you. And if you 
 strike me again, I know you will do it only 
 for my good. Thank God, you struck me ! 
 Thank God, you've made me different!" 
 
 Then, somehow, the light was turned 
 off. 
 
 "Oh! There's the angel again standing 
 near you. And there's another. No, it's 
 a devil. See he's coming for me. High! 
 High ! Hold me tight ! Don't let him take 
 me. Tell him I'm different, I won't sin 
 again. I've changed, and I'll pray. God 
 have mercy on me. Don't let him take 
 me." 
 
 The light returned, as "that orbed con- 
 tinent, the fire that severs day from 
 night," the Cyprian gloom dispersed, and 
 was no more. 
 
 I bent down, and raised this regenerated 
 penitent from the ground. 
 
 I had not done wrong.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 81 
 
 IV. 
 OPIUM OPHIDIA. 
 
 We now revert to the Saturday night 
 with which I opened the preceding chapter. 
 
 I am at my first periscope. Ching Wo 
 Po is seated beneath me on his haunches 
 with his legs crossed under him like a 
 Buddhist idol. He is engaged in preparing 
 opium pipes. Every now and then a stag- 
 gering, blear-eyed Oriental thrusts his 
 head into the room like a spectre, and van- 
 ishes. Ching Wo Po continues to prepare 
 the poppy plague, unmindful of these in- 
 trusions, his imagination filled with a 
 phantasmagoria of American girls that 
 have passed in and out of his laundry dur- 
 ing the day. 
 
 Here is another Celestial ghoul. No, he 
 seems to be human. He enters, and in 
 his arms he bears a white woman. Her 
 naked arms are entwined around his bull 
 neck, and she speaks. 
 
 "My lord, you are more handsome than 
 all the gods. My Apollo, you are strong 
 as a lion, and gentle as a lamb. Bear me
 
 82 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 in your arms to paradise. There is no love 
 like your love, my king, my conqueror !" 
 
 Fujii pays no heed to these Circean 
 panegyrics, he understands them not, and 
 if he does, this is the woman of the giant, 
 the dispenser of punishment or protection. 
 He places Calls gently on the couch, and 
 loosens her unwilling arms. 
 
 "My lord, why do you leave me? Now 
 is the hour of bliss. My lips are thirsting 
 for your embraces. Return, A j ax! Return, 
 Apollo ! My arms would hold you, for you 
 are mine and I'm yours. Return, my lord, 
 return !" 
 
 But he has disappeared. 
 
 Ching Wo Po's fingers twirl around the 
 pipes as deftly as they do among a lady's 
 frills, and he sees nothing, hears nothing, 
 except the smiles and the laughter of the 
 American girls that carry boxes of pure 
 white frocks out of his shop. 
 
 From the couch the praises of Apollo 
 rise reiteratedly, but no god appears to 
 appease these appeals. 
 
 Fujii enters again, bearing another 
 human burden, but she is silent and hangs 
 limply in his powerful arms. He lays her 
 on the floor and glides away as swiftly as 
 a serpent. 
 
 Ching Wo Po's fingers have suddenly 
 ceased their manipulations. Was he as
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 83 
 
 oblivious to his surroundings as his Chi- 
 nese passivity purported ? A furtive glance 
 at the American girl on the floor, a fura- 
 cious look to the door, and he crawls to- 
 wards her as silently as a cat. He has 
 reached her side, and is poised as if about 
 to spring. Another rapid leer over his 
 shoulders at the entrance of the crypt, and 
 he stretches forth one hand and gently 
 caresses the auburn curls and white swan- 
 like throat with his lank-clammy fingers. 
 
 There is a sudden shuffling of slippered 
 feet, Ching Wo Po recoils as a catapult, 
 and is again absorbed in his mirage. 
 
 A shrivelled, shrunken apparition totters 
 into the roomi, and drops half across the 
 girl on the floor. 
 
 The pipe packer moves as if to approach 
 his compatriot, but a volley of American 
 oaths approaching, arrests him. 
 
 Steel staggers forward, cursing as he 
 comes. His foot strikes the prostrate 
 Chinaman, and he looks around. 
 
 "Get out o' here, you pig," and he 
 
 kicks the stupefied fiend clear of the girl. 
 Another kick elicits a howl from Ching 
 Wo Po, before he can leap clear of the 
 whisky-sodden brute. 
 
 "Here, you Chinaman, take that 
 
 brother of yours out, and get out o' 
 
 here yourself, and shut the door after you, 
 if you don't want your dirty head split."
 
 84 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 While the one Celestial drags the other 
 away, Steel drops on to the couch, and is 
 welcomed by a paean of praise: 
 
 "My conqueror, I knew you would re- 
 turn. Beautiful Apollo, I have waited for 
 your embraces for many years. Why have 
 you kept me waiting and panting for your 
 love? Here I am, yours, my king, my 
 conqueror." 
 
 The door is closed behind the Chinamen, 
 and everything is wrapt in darkness, the 
 darkness that hides the Inferno from 
 mortal vision. 
 
 "Who is that red-haired girl in the den?" 
 
 "She's May's chum, Mr. Eye, an' I 'as 
 got to bring her out at 12 o'clock, so's she 
 can get home." 
 
 "You'll bring her out at once." 
 
 "But she won't wake up before twelve, 
 an' if I go in now, Steel'll kill me." 
 
 "Steel's drunk, and it's all dark; and if 
 he says anything, tell him it's midnight." 
 
 "But she's asleep." 
 
 "All the better. Go!" 
 
 Righteous brought the sleeping girl 
 to me without any mishap and placed her 
 in my arms. She was barely sixteen, about 
 my own height, and very slender. Her 
 complexion, naturally waxen, now had the 
 pallor of death.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 85 
 
 "Bring me a coil of rope to strap her 
 to my back." 
 
 When this operose operation was com- 
 pleted under my direction and to my satis- 
 faction, I dismissed the hypnotized janitor 
 to his post at the door of the den. 
 
 In my last ascents to the balcony roof I 
 had made use of a ladder that projected 
 through a skylight. I now scrambled up 
 this as best I could, then over the roof 
 and to the window. Both of us could not 
 pass through at the same time, as I had 
 anticipated, so I was compelled to loosen 
 the ropes, crawl through myself first, and 
 then drag the girl in. 
 
 As soon as we were safely under the 
 roof, I tied a handkerchief across her 
 mouth and lay down at her side to sleep. 
 The precaution of a gag, however, proved 
 unnecessary, as I awoke at 4 A. M., about 
 two hours before her. 
 
 As soon as she started to move I untied 
 her hands and woke her up. My diabolic 
 doublet and domino caused her eyes to 
 bulge in terror, and she would have 
 shrieked if her mouth had not been 
 covered. 
 
 "I'm going to let you speak, but if you 
 scream I'll kill you. If you do as I tell 
 you, I'll not hurt you, and you may go 
 home again to-night."
 
 86 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 I removed the handkerchief. 
 
 "Now tell me who you are." 
 
 She was too terrified to open her mouth, 
 and stared at me as if hypnotized. I waited 
 patiently for several minutes, and then 
 addressed her again. 
 
 "I'm going to let you see May, soon. 
 Tell me your name." 
 
 She opened her mouth to speak, but only 
 incoherent articulations escaped her. At 
 last she could formulate a complete sen- 
 tence. 
 
 "Where ami?" 
 
 "You are in Hell and I am the Devil." 
 
 She shuddered, and drew her hands over 
 her eyes to blot me out. 
 
 "But you need not be afraid. I shall 
 let you return to earth again, and will 
 bring you back only if you smoke or do 
 anything wrong again. Now what is your 
 name?" 
 
 "Mary," she stuttered. 
 
 "Mary who?" 
 
 "Mountjoy." 
 
 "Now, Mary Mountjoy, sit up and you 
 will feel more comfortable. Don't speak 
 very loud, or the inhabitants of Hell will 
 hear you and flock around us." 
 
 She covered her ears with her hands 
 and turned on her side in anticipatory 
 agony. I raised her to a sitting posture
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 87 
 
 and taking hold of her hands, uncovered 
 
 her ears. 
 
 "What do you know about May?" 
 "She's my class-mate. Is she here?" 
 "Yes, she's here, and you'll see her." 
 "She didn't come for me, and Righteous 
 
 was going to wake me up, so I could go 
 
 home." 
 
 "Yes, I know, and you'll soon see why 
 
 May couldn't come for you. How long have 
 
 you been smoking opium?" 
 
 "Six months. Please let me go home 
 
 to my mother. They won't know where 
 
 I am. W hat time is it? " 
 
 "It's six in the morning." 
 
 She uttered a faint scream, but immedi- 
 ately suppressed it as I raised my hand 
 toward her mouth. 
 
 "Oh, what shall I do? I've never been 
 out all the night before. They always 
 woke me at twelve, so I could get home. 
 Can't I go home?" 
 
 "You can't go home till it's night again." 
 
 She burst into tears, and between her 
 sobs she moaned: 
 
 "What will father and mother say? 
 They'll go to the police, and they'll think 
 I'm dead. Can't I go back? I'm not dead, 
 am I?" 
 
 "No, you're not dead, you're alive." 
 
 "If I promise I won't do any bad things
 
 88 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 again, won't you let me go? What are 
 you going to do with me? Can't I go?" 
 
 "Now, don't do so much talking. Answer 
 my questions, and you'll be home again to- 
 night. Who took you into the opium den? 
 May?" 
 
 "No, it wasn't May. It's the Chinaman. 
 He took me and another girl through the 
 laundry. He told me May was there, and 
 when I saw May smoking, I also tried it." 
 
 "And where's the other girl?" 
 
 "I don't know. She got lost or ran away. 
 Her picture was in the papers, and the 
 police said she eloped. I asked the China- 
 man, and he told me that the big man 
 with the scar on his head sent her to 
 Mexico, because she said she wanted to go 
 on the stage. He told me not to say any- 
 thing about it." 
 
 "What was her name?" 
 
 "Mary, my name, Mary Ashland. He 
 asked me if I wanted to go to Seattle, and 
 I would become a dancer, but I was afraid, 
 and the Chinaman told me not to go away 
 from Chicago, if they asked me." 
 
 '"The Chinaman seems to be your 
 friend." 
 
 "He never made me pay for my laundry, 
 and he once asked me to marry him. He's 
 got lots of money and a nice house and a 
 machine, but I wouldn't marry a China- 
 man."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 89 
 
 "Do you know Jambon?" 
 
 "Yes, he's May's feller. He asked me 
 many times to go up to Gulliver's with 
 him, but I wouldn't go out with May's 
 feller, and the Chinaman told me he's a 
 bad man, and to keep away from him. I 
 once heard him speaking to the man with 
 the scar (I don't know his name) , and they 
 thought I was asleep. I was just waking 
 up. The scar man told him that Mary 
 Ashland was making lots of money, but 
 they had to watch her carefully, as she 
 wanted to run away. They talked as if 
 she was like a prisoner and they beat her. 
 I didn't understand properly, and when I 
 asked the Chinaman, he wouldn't tell me. 
 He only said that if he didn't want to 
 marry me, they would have sent me to 
 Mexico also. But I think he said that 
 only to frighten me into marrying him," 
 
 "I think he was telling you the truth, 
 and it is fortunate that he really wanted 
 to marry you or your experiences would 
 not have ended with the opium den. 
 
 "Now I am going to let you see May, but 
 I must tie up your mouth again. It will 
 be a terrible sight, but I must show it to 
 you, so that you may know from what I 
 have saved you. Satan sometimes saves 
 sinners if they are as foolish as you are. 
 It is only those who refuse to be rescued 
 that are ruthlessly damned."
 
 90 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 The relief that had begun to take posses- 
 sion of her suddenly evaporated as I 
 muffled her again, and the terror which 
 had seized her soul in her waking moments 
 returned redoubled. Her hands rested 
 limply in her lap, too weak and agitated 
 to cover her eyes or close her ears again. 
 
 I then took the look described in the 
 previous chapter, and asked this gaunt 
 girl to bear a scene which was too repulsive 
 even for me. 
 
 While I held her shoulders to prevent 
 her falling, I felt the galvanic convulsions 
 shake her body, then suddenly she lay 
 motionless in my grasp, and her head sank 
 to one side. 
 
 I did not attempt to revive her, but 
 carried her to where I judged she would 
 not be heard in case she moved, and I left 
 her lying on her back in her unconscious 
 condition. Then I crawled to Madame's 
 periscope. I saw Steel in his room engaged 
 in his morning ablutions, and heard an 
 occasional oath escape his compressed 
 lips. 
 
 As soon as he was dressed, he rang up 
 someone, but I could not catch his words. 
 My first intention was to leave the peri- 
 scope and move towards my tapping wires, 
 but I feared I might miss something more 
 important than his message. I according- 
 ly waited.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 91 
 
 In a few minutes my patience was re- 
 warded. Ching Wo Po slunk into the room 
 in abject servility, 
 
 "Say, you dirty Chinaman, how much 
 have you got for me?" 
 
 The Celestial laid a roll of bills on the 
 table, and the detective proceeded to count 
 them in most deliberate fashion. Then he 
 stared at the Chinaman, who had never 
 dared to raise his eyes and who now 
 seemed to shrivel to half his stature. 
 
 Suddenly he raised his hand and flung 
 the notes into Ching's face. 
 
 "What you mean, you dog, by bringing 
 me only hundred dollars?" 
 
 "The copper shakee me down seventy 
 dollar, last night." 
 
 "And supposing he did ? You must have 
 collected at least five hundred. They were 
 shooting craps all the night." 
 
 "No, Boss, not shootee craps, last night. 
 Help me God! Only hundred-seventy." 
 
 "None of your lies, you wash- 
 tub. I want three hundred. Get out and 
 get 'em." 
 
 "Help me God! Boss, no gotee three 
 hundred." 
 
 "If I don't get three hundred before 10 
 o'clock, I'll see what we can do with that 
 kid that you want to marry." 
 
 Ching looked up in blank terror, and then 
 fell to his hands and knees.
 
 92 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "Boss not kill girl? Machine not takee 
 home last night." 
 
 "Oh no, I won't kill her; she wouldn't 
 be worth much dead. I'll send her down 
 to Mexico to the other kids, and break 
 her in." 
 
 The Chinaman lifted his hands in Sinim 
 supplication. 
 
 "Boss no sendee girl Mexico. I bring 
 three hundred next week. I gotee brother 
 lend me." 
 
 "No you won't. I want it before ten. I 
 want to buy some lots." 
 
 "I goee ring brother." 
 
 The Chinaman was about to leave when 
 Steel stopped him. 
 
 "Here, you dirty scrubber, I've got a 
 proposition. That kid'll never marry you. 
 If you get me $5,000, I'll force her to 
 marry you, and if she won't, I'll give her 
 to you just the same, and you can spend 
 your honeymoon downstairs in the den. 
 What you say? Will you have $5,000 by 
 next Saturday night when she comes round 
 again ?" 
 
 The Chinaman looked at him in doubt. 
 
 "I won't fool you. Fujii can keep the 
 stakes, and we'll keep the kid in the den 
 with you till she agrees to live with you 
 and not to squeal. Then I'll take the bills." 
 
 "But if girl goee home?"
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 93 
 
 "That's up to you. You've got a nice 
 house, and if you give her your machine 
 and some diamonds and dresses, and take 
 her to Frisco or New York and give her a 
 good time, there's no reason why she 
 shouldn't stick to you." 
 
 "Where Ching getee muchee money like 
 Rockyfeller, buy all things and goee 
 Frisco? And who lookee shop?" 
 
 "That's all right, you've got enough. 
 You haven't been robbing all those opium 
 suckers for five years for nothing, and you 
 can leave your brother in the shop. I 
 won't increase your rent for another year, 
 and that'll save you a couple of hundred, 
 and your brother can look after the den, 
 and he'll be able to steal enough to send 
 you." 
 
 "How muchee Boss take for smoke from 
 brother?" 
 
 "I'll keep it down to $250 a week, and 
 he can stick to the rest." 
 
 The Chinaman pondered this tempting 
 bait of an American girl. 
 
 "Go and fetch that three hundred and 
 make arrangements for the five thousand, 
 and \\hen you get back you can give me 
 your answer." 
 
 Ching slipped out of the room and Steel 
 took up the Sunday paper. 
 
 I immediately crawled back to my cap-
 
 94 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 tive, and was now as anxious to bring her 
 to as I had previously desired her to re- 
 main quiet in her swoon as long as possible. 
 I had half an hour to fan and friction her 
 and then force her to suck a few mint 
 lozenges, the only nourishment I had avail- 
 able. 
 
 "I don't want you to faint again. If you 
 do, I won't be responsible for your safety. 
 I'm going to show you your Chinese friend 
 and the man with the scar. They've 
 traded you to Ching, and will force you to 
 marry him, or something worse, next 
 Saturday. You'll see the money pass 
 hands, and may even hear the bargain 
 discussed. 
 
 "Let me tie up your mouth again, so 
 that you can't scream. 
 
 "As soon as it gets dark, I'll let you out 
 and put you in a machine to take you home. 
 I think you had better leave Chicago for 
 some time. If you have any relatives in 
 some other town, go to them. Don't you 
 ever come back to this opium den again, 
 or let Ching or Steel, that's the man with 
 the scar, hear that you're in Chicago, or 
 they'll get you, as sure as I liberate you 
 from Hell." 
 
 She listened to me as a punished and 
 obedient child. 
 
 "Now get on to my back and hold tight."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 95 
 
 With this strange burden and in 
 stranger guise, I crept back to Steel's 
 ceiling, and deposited her gently on the 
 boards. As soon as Ching returned, I 
 placed her in possession of the microphone 
 and the periscope, and she told me after- 
 wards what passed. 
 
 The Chinaman handed a roll of bills to 
 the detective, who counted them and then 
 asked : 
 
 "What about the five thousand?" 
 
 "Boss makee girl marry me?" 
 
 "If you deposit the money with Fujii, 
 Mary Mount joy will be Mrs. Ching Wo Po 
 next Saturday night. If she ain't, you 
 can take your money back." 
 
 "And if girl makee row, me not go 
 prison ?" 
 
 "No, you won't go to the pen. Besides, 
 we won't let her out till she swears she 
 won't squeal. And she'll swear all right 
 enough when she hears what'll happen to 
 her if she does blab. Well, is it a bargain?" 
 
 "I getee money very good. Me marry 
 Mary Saturday night." 
 
 "Then get out o' here quick now. 
 Somebody's coming to see me." 
 
 We passed the day in sleep and hunger 
 near the open catherine-wheel window, and 
 as soon as it grew dark enough, I blind-
 
 96 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 folded her, tied her to my back again, and 
 carried her down to my lair of logs, where 
 I brought her something to eat and drink. 
 I then placed her in a motorcar, convinced 
 that I had again successfully performed 
 the righteous service of a guardian angel, 
 though I had adopted for this purpose the 
 insignia of Lucifer, son of the morning.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 97 
 
 V. 
 JAMBON EUGENICISED. 
 
 The wave of self-murder steadily in- 
 creases in volume. In 1915 there were 
 14,180 suicides in the U. S. A. Of these, 
 965 were caused by domestic infelicity, 
 536 by disappointed love. 
 
 The number of deaths by personal vio- 
 lence reaches the appalling figure of 9,230. 
 Of these, 723 were caused by jealousy, 135 
 by infanticide, 16 by criminal outrage. 
 
 No wonder that in this country of 98 
 lynchings a year, the country that claims 
 to be the most moral on earth, the urge 
 of sex should claim such a tigerish toll. It 
 is the deterration of hypocrisy, the con- 
 comitant of luxury. 
 
 The son of the pork potentate threads 
 his car through the verdant boulevards in 
 search of prey ; the daughter of the poorer 
 plebian, tantalized by the ostentatious 
 concatenation that rolls before her eyes, 
 becomes a willing link in this vicious circle. 
 
 Wealth beyond that of any other land, 
 opportunity to share in it and fritter it
 
 98 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 away in baubles either through one's own 
 exertions or through the thriftless toady- 
 ism of the males, gynocracy defined and 
 practised as female license, will lead to only 
 one result. 
 
 One Sunday I was walking along these 
 blatant boulevards to exercise my lungs 
 and limbs, gain a more intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the Garden City's topography, 
 and satisfy my artistic craving for scenery 
 and new sights, when I noticed Jambon 
 glide past me in his double-six. This was 
 no fortuitous coincidence. Stand at any 
 point on this magnificent belt that girdles 
 the filthiest metropolis in the world, and 
 on a beautiful holiday you will see every 
 man and woman that owns a vehicle pass 
 before your eyes. 
 
 Paradoxical ? No ! 
 
 It will require no great stretch of im- 
 agination either to blot out the infernal 
 rattle, nauseating stench, and impene- 
 trable pack of the strap-hangers' trap, 
 splashing mud or spreading dust over you, 
 and believe yourself beyond the limits of 
 a city, with pneumatic-tyred, incontiguous 
 creatures sailing through sylvan groves, 
 redolent with the flowers of spring and 
 echoing only the chirp of birds. 
 
 All this beauty in the largest hog market 
 in the world!
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 99 
 
 And many of the hogs in these cars! 
 
 It was dusk, and dark enough for some 
 fatuous female to look with longing at the 
 vacant seats in Jambon's car. This breed 
 usually hunt in couples, not for mutual 
 protection, but because company engenders 
 boldness and whispers wiles. She was 
 alone through exasperated recklessness. 
 
 He stopped his car and nodded to her. 
 She blushed, hesitated, looked around 
 furtively to see whether she was noticed, 
 then sniggered. 
 
 He opened the door and beckoned her to 
 approach. 
 
 "Come along, kid! Let's go for a joy- 
 ride." 
 
 She shook her head in feigned modesty 
 and refusal. Then she frowned in pre- 
 tended indignation. 
 
 "Ah that deceit should steal such gentle 
 shapes !" 
 
 "I don't mean anything," he apologized. 
 
 "So smooth, he daubed his vice with 
 show of virtue." 
 
 "I only wanted to take you around the 
 boulevards. If you don't want to come, 
 I'm sorry, and I'll say, Good-by." 
 
 "I don't know you," she spoke at last, 
 "and how can I get into a strange man's 
 machine?" 
 
 "0! what a goodly outside falsehood 
 hath!"
 
 100 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "I'll take you only where you wish to 
 go." 
 
 She approached. 
 
 "Will you promise not to take me any- 
 where and let me get off when I like?" 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 "What a question ! Where should I want 
 to take you to, and how could I hold you 
 if you didn't want to stop ? Come on, kid, 
 jump in, and I'll give you a dandy spin." 
 
 She had waited for this second invitation 
 only, sprang lightly into the luxuriously 
 appointed seat, and as the car moved 
 silently off, I noticed her ensconce herself 
 comfortably in this "strange man's" prop- 
 erty, as if it had belonged to her all her 
 life. 
 
 Facilis descensus Averni! 
 
 But I did not stop to meditate. I had 
 long made up my mind to trap this mag- 
 nificent biped ftagrante delicto, and mete 
 out to him the reward of his career, doubly 
 justified by the burden placed upon me 
 through the love of his latest victim. 
 
 I hurried to one of the turbid arteries 
 of the metropolis, vaulted literally into a 
 juggernaut, for the step is so abnormally 
 high, and the indifference, or shall I call it 
 superciliousness, of the conductor so Chi- 
 cagoean, that you are flung off your feet
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 101 
 
 before you are able to place yourself 
 safely on the car, and soon found myself 
 in front of our Block. I posted myself on 
 the opposite side of the thoroughfare and 
 awaited events. 
 
 I was so absorbed in my purpose that, 
 though usually alert, I failed to notice May 
 come down the same pavement until she 
 addressed me. 
 
 "Mr. High, I want to speak to you. I'm 
 so glad I met you. I want you to let me 
 help you and be near to you always. Won't 
 you let me?" 
 
 I looked at this reformed girl in pity, 
 unable to refuse her ingenuous desire. 
 
 "Whenever I can, May, I will give you 
 an opportunity to help me. I can't promise 
 to have you near me always. You must 
 find some employment, or take up some 
 hobby or study that will keep you con- 
 tinuously busy, then you will not feel that 
 you would like to be in my society so 
 much " 
 
 "Oh, I'm sure I shall," she interrupted. 
 
 "You might take up nursing," I con- 
 tinued without heeding her. "It is a noble 
 profession, and will enable you to do good 
 to others while improving yourself." 
 
 As I urged her, I noticed Jambon drive 
 up with his new-found companion and put 
 on the brakes before Waginsky's, as I had 
 anticipated.
 
 102 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "There's our friend, Jack, with an un- 
 plucked chicken. I have an idea that this 
 is going to be his last attempt at snaring. 
 May, you can help me to-night, and at the 
 same time learn that revenge is sweet, 
 though bear always in mind that 'Ven- 
 geance is mine, saith the Lord'." 
 
 "In high vengeance there is noble scorn," 
 she capped from George Eliot, and knowing 
 what she had suffered, I dared not con- 
 tradict. 
 
 Jambon and his quarry entered the drug- 
 store, and a few moments later I noticed 
 one of Speedway's chauffeurs drive the 
 double-six into the garage. 
 
 The timid damsel was evidently recon- 
 ciled to an unlimited extension of her con- 
 versation with the "strange man." 
 
 "You go into Fujii's, May, and if they 
 are there, let me know. If they are not 
 there, take a chambre separee and wait 
 for me. I'll go into Wage's. Don't let 
 Jack see you if you can help it, as I don't 
 want him to notice me with you; he may 
 become suspicious." 
 
 From a telephone booth I noticed how 
 Jack ordered a second sundae, and how the 
 proprietary dispenser dexterously added a 
 few drops from a vial to the frozen 
 melange, which instead of having a cool- 
 ing effect, brought a flush to the cheeks,
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 103 
 
 a sparkle to the eyes, and a wag to the 
 tongue of the damsel. 
 
 She accordingly did not require more 
 than a second or third invitation to pass 
 through the door which gave access to the 
 chop suey, and where I also joined May 
 after I had donned a somewhat hasty 
 disguise. 
 
 Jambon had chosen the chambre adjoin- 
 ing the one occupied by May, and as Fujii 
 passed us, I noticed that he carried a 
 large bottle of champagne in a pail of ice. 
 The conversation and giggling of the girl 
 grew so loud that I could plainly hear 
 every word, while Jack's voice was barely 
 audible. Finally they passed us on their 
 way to the back entrance which not only 
 gave egress to the vacant block, but led 
 to the basement, as did the iron door in 
 the lavatory. 
 
 May under my directions hurriedly paid 
 for our repast, and we left by the front 
 door. I told her to go up to Madame 
 Coupler's to see whether they had gone up 
 there, while I made the detour of the build- 
 ing and posted myself at the periscope. 
 
 I had not long to wait. Before May 
 rejoined me, Jack and the girl entered the 
 den. The glare of light dazzled her for a 
 moment and she put up her hands. Then 
 she glanced around, and I noticed she was
 
 104 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 now pale and a look of terror suffused her 
 face. 
 
 "Where have you brought me to? You 
 said you were taking me to a cabaret. 
 Take me out or I'll scream," 
 
 Jack laughed contentedly. 
 
 "Sit down, kid. I won't kill you. I'll 
 let you go after you've loved me," and he 
 attempted to take her hand. 
 
 She repulsed him, and turned her wild 
 eyes towards the door, but the exit was 
 barred. 
 
 "Oh, my God," now burst from her blue 
 lips. "What have I done? Please let me 
 go. I'm an innocent girl," and she held 
 out her hands supplicatingly towards her 
 captor. 
 
 He seized them in an athletic grasp and 
 drew her towards him, while her shrieks 
 filled my ears. 
 
 "Stay here. May, and listen to my direc- 
 tions!" 
 
 I sprang to my feet, and hurried into 
 the basement, while I drew a black hood 
 over my head. I met the janitor standing 
 guard, and having no time to hypnotize 
 him, stunned him with a right upper-cut. 
 Then I took the keys from his pocket and 
 made my way to the den. 
 
 As I flung open the door, I noticed that 
 the girl's waist had been torn from her
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 105 
 
 shoulders, and there were several scratches 
 on the brute's face. He wheeled around 
 and faced me. 
 
 "Who the devil are you ?" he hissed, and, 
 dropping his prey, sprang towards me. 
 
 I was ready for him and landed a power- 
 ful punch in the pit of his stomach, but 
 he was an expert boxer and in perfect con- 
 dition, and as he doubled up managed to 
 grapple with me. I could not spring back 
 as I was right up against the door. We 
 went down together, while the hysterical 
 girl panted in utter exhaustion : 
 
 "Save me! Save me!" 
 
 He had caught me round the waist and 
 buried his head into my chest. My hands 
 were free, but I could not get at his throat, 
 and his hair was too short to afford a firm 
 grasp. I seized his ears, and tore the right 
 one off, but he was pressing the wind out 
 of me, although I held him under. 
 
 How the struggle would have ended I do 
 not know. Probably I should have torn 
 his other ear off. But at that moment I 
 received an unexpected ally. May rushed 
 into the vault. 
 
 "Pierce his hands," I shouted. 
 
 With the weapon that has many a time 
 drawn blood in female duels, the hat-pin 
 that in Germany must be sheathed under 
 penalty, she jabbed his hands that were
 
 106 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 exposed on my back until I felt his devilish 
 tentacles relax. Then with a sudden effort, 
 I jerked myself free, and crashed into his 
 face with both my fists. Before he could 
 recover, I had him on his face, with his 
 arms twisted behind his back. 
 
 "Run up and fetch me that rope near 
 the periscope," I commanded May, while I 
 sat on Jambon's back. 
 
 When she had gone I addressed myself 
 to the girl. 
 
 "Get up, you idiot, and straighten your 
 dress." 
 
 I was angry. 
 
 "You don't deserve to be saved, getting 
 into a stranger's car at night, going to a 
 chop suey with him, getting drunk on 
 champagne, and going to a subterranean 
 cabaret. Get up, I tell you, you drivelling 
 idiot." 
 
 She staggered to her feet, and with 
 weak, trembling fingers adjusted her waist. 
 
 "You won't take me to prison, will you, 
 Sir?" she whimpered. "I'm engaged, and 
 if Tom and my father know this, they'll 
 turn me out of the house, I'll lose my job, 
 and Tom won't marry me. Please, Sir, 
 don't take me to prison, and I won't do it 
 again." 
 
 "Oh, so you're engaged," I sneered, but 
 before I could vent my sarcasm, May re- 
 turned with the coil.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 107 
 
 With her assistance, I bound her whilom 
 lover's hands and feet, and turned him on 
 his back. 
 
 While he stared at her with his bleared 
 eyes, I bound and gagged Righteous, and 
 then returned to the crypt. 
 
 ''So, you're engaged to Tom," I snarled. 
 "A fine girl to be engaged to any one! 
 Do you hear that ?" I said turning to Jack. 
 "This young lady that so lately was swill- 
 ing your champagne is engaged to Tom." 
 
 I laughed. 
 
 "And what's Tom's business, and what's 
 your business ?" I demanded sternly. 
 
 She burst into tears. 
 
 'Please, Sir, I won't do it again." 
 
 "Answer my question," I repeated 
 harshly. 
 
 "Tom's a salesman, Sir, and I'm a sales- 
 lady." 
 
 "Lady, lady!" I snapped. "Lady for- 
 sooth! And why were you not with Tom 
 to-night?" 
 
 She hesitated. 
 
 "Answer me, or to jail with you right 
 away !" 
 
 "Don't, Sir, I'll answer you. I was mad 
 with him." 
 
 "What were you mad about?" 
 
 "He's got a motor-cycle, and I'm tired 
 of riding behind him, and asked him to
 
 108 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 hire a taxi to-day, and he said it'd cost 
 too much, and I said if he didn't think me 
 worth the price of a taxi, I'd get some one 
 who did. But please, Sir, I didn't mean 
 it." 
 
 "Oh, no, of course you didn't, Miss sales- 
 lady! Did you hear that, Jack? A seat 
 behind her future husband on a motor- 
 cycle is not good enough for a sales lady 
 who is earning seven dollars a week. She 
 must have a taxi! Thirty cents a mile! 
 That's why you gentlemen land your fry so 
 easily. A taxi! Instead of encouraging 
 Tom to save up for a future home, she 
 must have a taxi, our saleslady! And she's 
 only a type of your American lady! I ex- 
 pect you were going to nag Tom to-morrow 
 by telling him you'd been round the boule- 
 vards in a beautiful car with this hand- 
 some young gentleman. 
 
 "That's right ! That's the way to train 
 your future husband ! Let him understand 
 before you're married that you intend 
 having a good time. If he can't afford to 
 satisfy your whims, somebody else can. 
 And if you ruin him through your extrava- 
 gance, or if he can't afford to fulfil your 
 every desire, and even should be so bold 
 as to refuse to live beyond his means, you 
 can sue him for non-support or incompa- 
 tibility of temper, and some idiotic Yankee 
 jury will grant you a decree nisi."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 109 
 
 I paused and looked into the sullen, lack- 
 lustre eyes of the man on the floor, then 
 at the two girls I had saved from his 
 clutches. 
 
 "And now, May, I want you to do some- 
 thing more for me. Before I entrust this 
 stupid creature to your care, to see that 
 she gets away from here safe, I want you 
 to go up to Dr. Pureheart's. Tell him 
 Jack wants him, and to bring his surgical 
 instruments with him." 
 
 "Won't you let me stay and see what 
 you do to him?" she pleaded. 
 
 "I'm sorry, May, the sight will not be 
 fit for your eyes." 
 
 "What the devil do you mean?" shouted 
 Jambon. 
 
 Without heeding him, I continued speak- 
 ing to May: 
 
 "Rest assured that his punishment will 
 be just, befitting his crimes, and rendering 
 him innocuous for all time. You will be 
 amply avenged. 
 
 "But stay a moment, I had almost for- 
 gotten. Before you go for the sanctimo- 
 nious surgeon, let me run up for my re- 
 volver. The Doctor may prove obstrepe- 
 rous." 
 
 As I left the crypt, I passed the janitor, 
 and noticed that he was recovering his 
 senses. I stopped to hypnotize him, but I
 
 110 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 did not loosen his bonds, as I expected the 
 justice meted out this night would lead to 
 enquiries and reprisals. Under the roof I 
 gave a hasty look at my periscopes, and 
 discovered Pureheart in conversation with 
 Bloater, the banker, and with Rattler. I 
 could not devote more than a passing 
 glance at this interesting conference, but 
 I determined to visit the saloon as soon as 
 I was through with my present task. 
 
 When I returned to the subterraneous 
 part of this mansion of machinations, I 
 warned May to speak to the leach in 
 private, as I did not desire any other wit- 
 nesses to our court of last resort. 
 
 Soon the Doctor, bearing his satchel and 
 rather flurried, was ushered into our midst 
 by May, and I immediately took the initi- 
 ative in regulating his conduct. 
 
 "My dear Doctor, your friend Jack has 
 met with a rather unusual mutilation 
 which will probably be followed by an 
 amputation," I said rather equivocally. 
 "You will notice that he has lost his ear, 
 and I should like you to patch it up in your 
 most skilful fashion. It would be a pity 
 to allow such a handsome fellow to remain 
 disfigured for life." 
 
 He looked at me dubiously. 
 
 "Of course, I trust we shall not be com- 
 pelled to have a perforation also," I added
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 111 
 
 sharply, drawing my revolver and dangling 
 it with the muzzle towards him. 
 
 He seized my meaning, and immediately 
 set to work in silence to wash and bandage 
 the prostrate prisoner. While he worked, 
 I spoke to May in a low voice: 
 
 "Take this girl home, and you had better 
 stay at home yourself for a few days or 
 go out of town. If Steel gets hold of you, 
 he'll put you through the third degree, but 
 whatever happens, don't say a word about 
 this evening's affair." 
 
 I raised my hood slightly and kissed her 
 on the lips. A flush of happiness spread 
 over her pale face which was now devoid 
 of any makeup, and I knew that she would 
 suffer the last torment rather than disclose 
 anything. Then I spoke aloud, so that the 
 Doctor and Jambon might hear me: 
 
 "Take this girl home. If I had not 
 caught sight of her entering this accursed 
 den, God knows what would have happened 
 to her. If I did not wish to keep her name 
 unsullied, I should deliver this whole damn- 
 able gang into the hands of the police. 
 But I wish to save her father and mother 
 the shame of having a daughter who could 
 accept this hound's overtures. If anything 
 happens to you, however, I shall not hesi- 
 tate a moment, but expose the whole ring. 
 If you had not told me what he had done
 
 112 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 to you and what he would probably do to 
 this girl, when I asked you who they were, 
 she would probably have shared your fate. 
 You did right to tell me, and I am thank- 
 ful that I was near to enable you to have 
 him punished. God bless you, and now, 
 Good-night!" 
 
 I gave vent to these falsehoods aloud in 
 the hope that they would protect May and 
 put the sleuth off the scent. The girl, 
 however, might have spoilt my scheme for 
 she wished to say something and tried to 
 fall at my feet, but May, seizing the drift 
 of my intentions, dragged her away, and 
 that was the last I saw of her. 
 
 As soon as they were gone, I spoke again 
 to the Doctor: 
 
 "My dear Doctor, I note you have made 
 a good job of it. You are a skilful surgeon, 
 and I have heard that you are also a 
 philanthropist and a writer in the daily 
 Press. No doubt you have read Othello 
 and remember the line : 
 
 "'To beguile many and be beguiled by 
 one.' 
 
 "That is exactly your position at the 
 present time. 
 
 "You stand in the presence of an im- 
 placable judge, and you are to be the 
 executioner of his behests. 
 
 "I am to-night also to play the role of
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 113 
 
 Shylock and demand literally a pound of 
 flesh, but there will be this difference: my 
 demand will be complied with, thanks to 
 .your panurgy and obedience to the dictates 
 of justice. 
 
 "You are well acquainted with all the 
 tenets of eugenics, and are no doubt able 
 to apply them. If you were writing for 
 the daily Press, you would surely argue 
 that we have here a fitting object for their 
 application, but between ourselves you 
 must admit that, if our friend were ever 
 arraigned before the most eugenic tribunal 
 in the United States, your code would 
 never condemn him to suffer the eugenic 
 ordeal, though he is more potent to pro- 
 pagate his criminal instincts than the 
 thief, drunkard, or murderer. His sole 
 profession is the instilling of his vile pas- 
 sions into posterity, therefore he, more 
 than all others, is the fit mark for the 
 eugenic code. 
 
 "You see, my dear Doctor, that in my 
 role of public prosecutor, I am determined 
 to satisfy your every qualm of conscience, 
 and allow you to justify your act on the 
 principle of undefiled justice. 
 
 "And now," I said, turning to Jambon, 
 "is there any reason why this sentence 
 should not be passed upon you? You 
 understand the nature of the verdict, and
 
 114 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 the court is prepared to listen to your 
 defence." 
 
 "Curse you, and damn you, whoever you 
 are," he said between his teeth. Then he 
 turned to the Doctor: 
 
 "Don't do it, Pureheart. I'll give you 
 all you ask. I'll give you a hundred thou- 
 sand dollars. If you only cut these cursed 
 ropes and let me get at the devil! Hun- 
 dred thousand!" 
 
 "The bait is very tempting," I remarked, 
 addressing the Doctor, "but I hardly think 
 you will allow yourself to be bribed, even 
 by a million dollars. I will tell you why. 
 
 "You have applied your science to mak- 
 ing Nature barren, its fruit an abortion," 
 I said pointedly. 
 
 "You see, I know something of your 
 practice, and if that argument is not suf- 
 ficient, I have one that cannot be gainsaid." 
 
 I raised the revolver and pointed it di- 
 rectly between his eyes. He cowered. 
 
 "Besides," I added, "you will be doing 
 your friend a service. If you refuse, I 
 shall execute the sentence myself, but as 
 I have not the skill that you have, my 
 worthy Doctor, it is very probable the 
 culprit will succumb. 
 
 "You will see the time has arrived for 
 you to make your practice co-educational, 
 and apply your methods to the sterner sex.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 115 
 
 "The aim of your reformers is to make 
 degenerates innocuous to posterity. You 
 shall do more, and make this beast impo- 
 tent towards his contemporaries and to- 
 wards himself, a monstrosity in his own 
 eyes. 
 
 "Please take hold of his shoulders, and 
 I'll take hold of his legs with one hand, so 
 that my other hand may be free to per- 
 form the necessary perforation, if required. 
 Now lift him on to the bed, and tie him 
 down, so that his movements may not 
 interfere with the operation." 
 
 Jambon shouted and cursed, reiterated 
 his offer in ever increasing glamour, 
 struggled, and supplicated, but the fear of 
 imminent death was greater than the lure 
 of proximate pelf. 
 
 "I hope I am explicit enough. If I am 
 not, I shall direct you more minutely. 
 Take your knife and sponge. I am unable 
 to help you, as I have my revolver to hold." 
 
 Then the Doctor spoke for the first and 
 last time that evening. 
 
 "He may bleed to death, and I'll be 
 accused of murder. Shall I administer an 
 anaesthetic ?" 
 
 "No, use a local astringent. He's too 
 young and strong to die, and you're not 
 fool enough to kill him. Begin!" 
 
 In a few minutes the sentence had been 
 executed.
 
 116 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "My dear Doctor, allow me to congratu- 
 late you on your professional dexterity. 
 I shall now leave you here to take care of 
 the patient. You won't mind my locking 
 you in. A few hours' rest will do you a 
 world of good after your strenuous exer- 
 tion. I am leaving for New York immedi- 
 ately, and if they have not found you by 
 morning, I shall have taken the precaution 
 to send a wire to the drug-store upstairs 
 apprising them of your devotion to the 
 patient." 
 
 The Doctor looked concerned. 
 
 "I won't leave you and your friend here 
 to die. There's lots of water, and a cook- 
 ing-range I see, and some bottles of beer, 
 and biscuits. That'll suffice for a few 
 hours. 
 
 "I trust I shall not be recalled from New 
 York. 
 
 "Good-night!"
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 117 
 
 VI. 
 PETROMORTIS. 
 
 I did not go to New York, but simply 
 went upstairs, doffed my disguise, and 
 entered Rattler's saloon. 
 
 I may safely affirm that I have not been 
 in a saloon more than half a dozen times 
 in my life. If a visitor from some other 
 planet were constrained to compile a classi- 
 fication of the beasts of the earth, I have 
 no doubt that if he were shown a saloon, 
 man would be placed at the bottom of his 
 categories. 
 
 "0 that men should put an enemy in 
 their mouths to steal away their brains!" 
 
 The foul stench, lewd oaths, and dis- 
 torted visages nauseated me; and I began 
 to doubt the truth of a friend's epigram: 
 
 "It is not the weakness of the toper, but 
 the strength of the trust, that we have to 
 fight." 
 
 But I tried to suggest this away from 
 me by concentrating my mind on my pur- 
 pose. 
 
 Before ordering a mineral water, I
 
 118 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 looked around, ostensibly in search of some 
 one, and fortunately espied Yvette. Ma- 
 dame Coupler had introduced us, but I had 
 never yet had an opportunity to broach my 
 idea of sending her into the country as my 
 friend's lady's maid. 
 
 She was typically French; pale, regular 
 features; large, dark eyes; black hair, 
 brilliantined and dressed close to her head, 
 instead of dry and fluffy in the predomi- 
 nant style; of medium height; restless, 
 rounded figure that showed to advantage 
 in her tight fitting costume; chic and 
 vivacious. Yet, with the unmistakable 
 marks of the demi-mondaine, there were 
 lines of suffering and spirituality around 
 her eyes and mouth. 
 
 I addressed her in her native tongue, 
 and was immediately admitted into her 
 good graces. When I made my proposi- 
 tion to her, her expressive eyes filled with 
 tears, and she caught my hand and kissed 
 it. 
 
 "You don't know, Monsieur, how much 
 I should like to escape from this life. I 
 had heard so much about American men, 
 their chivalry, and the way they treated 
 women, that I thought I should find some 
 sentiment among them, and give at least 
 one of them my love. But they are all 
 brutes, pigs, selfish voluptuaries, without
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 119 
 
 the semblance of chivalry towards us 
 women. It is all hypocrisy ; their affection 
 even to their wives is mere calculation ; and 
 I know it, if any one does. He gives her 
 wealth, because he wants her to make a 
 show, not out of unselfish love. She im- 
 agines that she is master, but she is wrong, 
 stupidly wrong. She can do what she likes, 
 because the American husband doesn't care 
 what she does. * A Frenchman really loves 
 his wife, and because he loves her, he 
 cares what she does, and is interested in 
 giving her advice ; and because we French- 
 women appreciate this love, we feel that 
 our husband's love is proved by this show 
 of executive control. This does not mean 
 that we are slaves. Far from it. More 
 French than American wives share in 
 their husbands' business affairs, and any 
 psychologist will tell you that this would 
 be impossible if there were not true chiv- 
 alry. 
 
 "Then compare the respect we show our 
 parents, the affection between members of 
 the same family, with the insolence of 
 American children towards their fathers, 
 mothers, brothers, and sisters. 
 
 'They judge us by the immorality that 
 prevails in Paris among certain classes, 
 mostly foreigners. But you have lived in 
 France, and know that the French are as
 
 120 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 virtuous as any other race. What im- 
 morality exists is human. Compare it with 
 the brutal bestiality of American cities. I 
 know it, mon Dieu! In quantity and kind, 
 the Americans have us beat, as they say 
 here; and it is not necessary to meet an 
 American in Paris to know what he, or 
 for the matter of that, what she, is capable 
 of. 
 
 "Oui, Monsieur, I shall thank God to get 
 out of it, and earn a respectable living, and 
 shall always be grateful to you for helping 
 me." 
 
 "I see you are a philosopher, and I can 
 endorse all you say. But the American 
 men are only what the women have made 
 them. 
 
 "I have noticed that parvenus, from 
 Rabbis to Oriental rug dealers, have noth- 
 ing but unstinted eulogy for the American 
 women. American women made them, and 
 lined their pockets. The appreciation of 
 anything by an American woman is, there- 
 fore, its condemnation, for they are super- 
 ficial, without judgment, mere tinsel, and 
 fitting wives for the husbands you have 
 so aptly described. 
 
 "The men who praise American wives 
 are not their husbands. 
 
 "When a wife has interests distinct from 
 those of her husband, they must naturally 
 drift apart.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 121 
 
 "One hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 divorces in one year that is the record 
 of the American women's efficiency as 
 wives. They look upon marriage as the 
 men look upon the State as an object of 
 graft. The husband is manipulated as a 
 slot-machine to supply dresses, limousines, 
 opera boxes, and trips to the Old World; 
 and nothing is even reciprocated, not even 
 the atmosphere of a home. 
 
 "They want to 'express themselves,' and 
 they exude nothing but egregious efflu- 
 vium! 
 
 "The men have indolently entrusted to 
 them the national culture, and what have 
 they made of it? Take American litera- 
 ture! A well-known detractor of the 
 American female has put it tersely as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "'I can only see that it is the echo and 
 the mirror of the 'active and interested' 
 New York woman. An eclecticism which 
 stumbles over its own feet, a faddism 
 which believes every week in another 
 panacea, a sensationalism of the lowest 
 type, and a conventionalism of the highest 
 type that is American literature, made 
 by women!' 
 
 "Of education she has made a mere 
 means of mercenary and meretricious 
 coxcombery.
 
 122 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "She 'disdains the shadow which she 
 treads on at noon/ 
 
 "Her unrestrained striving to have her 
 doings and her picture blazoned to the rest 
 of the world through her putrid Press and 
 at her soidisant social functions, have 
 banished discipline and self-control from 
 the vocabulary of the American pupil. 
 
 "The murder rate of this country is 124 
 per million men, as against 12 in Switzer- 
 land, and 15 to 20 in the rest of Europe. 
 What is the cause of this but lack of disci- 
 pline and self-control? This may sound 
 farfetched, but I say it on the authority 
 of Maj.-Gen. Leonard Wood. 
 
 "But this is not the place to enter into 
 a discussion of this nature. Please tell 
 me who those two men are?" I remarked 
 innocently. 
 
 "They are types of American men. The 
 podgy one is Bloater, the banker; the big, 
 fat, red tun is Rattler, the publican. They 
 just stood me a drink in honor of their 
 latest trade. A maquereau is going to 
 bring Bloater a girl from New York to- 
 morrow night, but he's afraid to pay the 
 money direct, so Rattler's the fixer. He 
 gets $500. One hundred stick to his fingers, 
 two hundred go to Steel for protection or 
 as his share of this stew, and the balance 
 goes to the entremetteur. But of course
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 123 
 
 Bloater doesn't know this; he thinks the 
 whole five hundred are paid over. 
 
 "I feel sorry for the girl. They usually 
 spy her when she lands, or even have 
 agents that travel back and forth, follow 
 her to a rooming-house, recommend her to 
 an employment agency, where they go and 
 engage her for a position that does not 
 exist in some other city. Some woman 
 then brings the unsuspicious victim to a 
 Madame Coupler's, and there she is broken 
 in and broken to bits till she is unable to 
 reconstitute herself, and fight. That's 
 how they caught me. We either die or are 
 killed, or our bodies and minds are so 
 perverted that we have not the organism 
 or will to revert to normality. 
 
 "I've tried, mon Dieu, more than once, 
 but they always brought me back. When 
 I told my story, the judge laughed at me, 
 the tecs said I was a liar. I tried to poison 
 myself, but the tecs saved my life; they 
 said they could not afford to lose 50 per- 
 cent of my takings. Even the street car 
 men that rob their companies of more than 
 they earn and that are in the pay of pick- 
 pockets for allowing them to hunt for 
 prospects on crowded cars, testified that 
 I Tiad solicited on the cars, though I swear 
 that I never solicited in my life. Steel 
 shares with a lot of them, and he put them
 
 124 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 up to this, because I had to take the car 
 regularly. 
 
 "I have prayed every night that God 
 might kill me or let me starve to death, 
 but I can't die. Sometimes I have wished 
 to kill some one that I might be hanged, 
 or steal something that I might go to 
 prison, but I can't commit any other sins 
 besides the one I was forced to, and am 
 not allowed to quit. Steel always tells me 
 that he can't afford to let me die or go 
 to the pen." 
 
 "You are not going to die yet, Yvette, 
 and if you have the courage, we'll save 
 this girl you speak of and get even with 
 your tormentors." 
 
 "You don't know the men who own this 
 block. They are like Caesar's wife, above 
 suspicion." 
 
 "Never fear, we shall not invoke the 
 assistance of the law, we shall take the 
 law into our own hands. If they bring her 
 to Coupler's, let me know." 
 
 "I don't think they'll take her upstairs 
 for a few weeks, they'll hide her in the 
 basement where we can't get at her." 
 
 "I'll get at her, and all you have to do 
 is to go up to Coupler's and tell her that 
 some fellow is going to take you on a trip 
 to-morrow night. Get your things ready, 
 and when I have the girl, I'll hand her
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 125 
 
 over to you, and you can take her with 
 you to my friend's. Ring me up to-morrow 
 night at ten o'clock, but don't use a phone 
 in this block ; all the wires are tapped, and 
 don't mention any names; they've several 
 girls at Central. Now, don't forget, take 
 all your valuables, but leave something, so 
 that they may think you're coming back. 
 Bonne nuit, et Dieu te garde!" 
 
 The following night I waited impatiently 
 to hear the phone bell. At last it came: 
 
 "Hello!" 
 
 "Oui?" 
 
 "She's not here, and there's been a big 
 row." 
 
 "I dare say. Come along quick." 
 
 When Yvette arrived, I introduced her 
 to the Russian girl I had rescued an hour 
 previously, and whom I had already dis- 
 guised in a suit of my own. I had simply 
 put the janitor to sleep, and taken her out 
 of the crypt. 
 
 "Now tell me about the big row." 
 
 "Steel is there. It seems he was out 
 of town and Pureheart was trying to get 
 in touch with him all the day. He got 
 there at nine o'clock and while he was with 
 the doctor, Bloater rushed in and started 
 to shout, then Rattler came, and Steel sent 
 for Righteous and Speedway. After half
 
 126 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 killing Righteous, Speedway took him 
 away in a machine. Now they've got 
 detectives all round the block, and I was 
 afraid to take my grips, and came along 
 just as I am. Mon Dieu, mon Dieu! I'm 
 scared to death." 
 
 "You must leave Chicago at once with 
 this girl, but you can't go to the depot, as 
 they'll be watching them all. One of them 
 has probably followed you here. Go down 
 the back stairs and along the alley till you 
 reach the street car; take that as far as 
 the L,and ride till you strike the Milwaukee 
 Electric. Take the train at Milwaukee. 
 Here's $100, and get into this rain-coat, 
 and put this veil over your face. Come 
 along!" 
 
 I continued my instructions as I led them 
 to the street car and saw them safely on 
 it, then I made my way to the front of 
 the flat where I had been given the hos- 
 pitality of a friend's room for the evening 
 only. 
 
 The fight had begun. The flat was being 
 watched. In about fifteen minutes two 
 other detectives, who had probably been 
 summoned by phone, dashed up in a ma- 
 chine, and after a hurried conference, one 
 left with the car, and the other worked his 
 way to the rear of the flat. I had no fear 
 that either of them would gain much in-
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 127 
 
 formation, as my friend had been warned, 
 no one had seen us come or go, and I had 
 means of communicating with my friend 
 without having to see him for months. 
 
 Reassured in this direction, I took the 
 street car back to the Block. I was not 
 concerned about May, as she was on her 
 way to Boston to stay with an aunt, and 
 intended entering a nursing school there. 
 
 I walked boldly into the chop suey with- 
 out giving a glance around, as I knew any 
 curiosity on my part would be instantly 
 detected. Calls was sitting alone at a 
 table suffering from nostalgia. 
 
 "Have you seen May?" I inquired. 
 
 "No, I haven't seen her, and I wanted 
 to. I haven't seen anybody. I've been 
 looking for Yvette too, and Jack. When 
 I went up to Madame's, she wouldn't let 
 me in, she said she wasn't running a lying- 
 in hospital. I think I'd better jump into 
 the lake, and have done with it." 
 
 "Why, what about Steel?" 
 
 "Told me to go to the devil. I'd like to 
 take him with me. After giving him all 
 I have, he has me turned out of Coupler's. 
 The only return for my love was advice to 
 see Pureheart, and the dirty doctor sent 
 me to Innocent's, because he knows that 
 I can't pay and Steel won't. If I don't see 
 Innocent on Thursday night, it's the Lake 
 for me."
 
 128 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "I shouldn't commit suicide or see In- 
 nocent, if I were you." 
 
 "Oh, I expect you want me to hold a 
 baby on one arm, and operate the switch- 
 board with the other?" 
 
 "Perhaps some friends would help you 
 to find another position? I know some 
 people who would be only too glad to assist 
 you, and then he ought to be made to 
 marry you." 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 "Be made to marry me ! Why, it's too 
 stupid to even mention. Steel be made to 
 marry me ! He'd find a hundred witnesses 
 to swear that he's a monk, a celibate, an 
 ascetic, a virgin, or whatever you call it, 
 and that I'm just the opposite. Thank 
 you just the same. I don't want to carry 
 my shame around in my arms, or take 
 charity from women who consider me an 
 inferior animal, because they can force the 
 men they love to marry them, and I can't. 
 I wouldn't be in this condition now, if I 
 hadn't believed that Steel would marry me. 
 No! No fatherless children for me! No 
 husbandless motherhood for Calls! In- 
 nocent or the Lake!" 
 
 "I'm sorry for you, Calls, and will see 
 you again before Thursday night." 
 
 "You needn't see me to try and change 
 my mind," she interrupted ; "it's settled."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 129 
 
 While this conversation was in progress, 
 I had been looking around the chop suey 
 to see if I could discover any of Steel's men. 
 I did not notice any one that looked like a 
 detective, but of course there might have 
 been one in one of the cha/mbres. Fujii 
 usually kept as far as possible from me 
 whenever I honored his place with my 
 presence, and I failed to discover him. 
 
 In the affairs of my life, I have often 
 been compelled to run great risks, and 
 experience has taught me that the greater 
 it be, the more likelihood is there of it's 
 proving a success. I was now forced to 
 take one of these customary chances. I 
 was convinced that the basement and all 
 the first floor was scrupulously guarded, 
 and that any investigation in that direction 
 would be immediately detected. The second 
 floor had hitherto been immune against my 
 reformatory depredations, and as the dic- 
 tator of the delators was probably engaged 
 there in devious devices, his myrmidons 
 would no doubt consider him well able to 
 take care of himself, and leave the second 
 floor without surveillance. I have already 
 described four doors of the chop suey; 
 there was a fifth that led to the central 
 hall where the stairways of the basement 
 and the second floor were situated. If 
 these stairways were watched, my plan
 
 130 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 would of course fail, but I argued that a 
 man would be placed at each of the outside 
 doors, and perhaps below in the basement, 
 if Steel trusted them, and that I could 
 hurry upstairs from the chop suey without 
 being noticed. If I was noticed, I would 
 simply walk out of the building ; if caught 
 on the second floor, I should walk into the 
 clairvoyant's. 
 
 Fortune favored me, and I reached the 
 back balcony without mishap. Now the 
 perilous part of my peregrination began. 
 If caught scaling to the roof, I knew no 
 questions would be asked, and it would 
 mean two drops of fourteen feet each, and 
 the rapidity and certainty of my magazine 
 revolver, to save my life. 
 
 Ah well ! Death has no terrors for me. 
 I have been a spiritualist all my life, and 
 know what to expect. 
 
 Breathing a silent prayer, I ran up the 
 ladder and stretched myself flat on the roof 
 ready to spring as a cat at a bird. Not 
 hearing anything to arrest my progress, I 
 crept along the parapet as usual and was 
 soon above Madame Coupler's number 
 eight. 
 
 There they were in violent altercation, 
 Steel, Bloater, Rattler, and Pureheart! 
 
 "I don't care a ," shouted Bloater. 
 
 "If the same fellow that did for Jack
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 131 
 
 swiped my piece, and you won't fork out 
 the five hundred, I want that hundred 
 thousand loan back. The game's up in 
 this block, and I don't want to run any 
 risks. It's ready to foreclose, anyway, 
 and if I don't get the money back to- 
 morrow, I'm going to sell this building." 
 
 "Now don't be a darned fool," growled 
 Steel. "You know I can't raise that much 
 to-morrow ; besides, I don't believe the guy 
 that's operating against us wants to bring 
 it to a show-down, or he'd go about it 
 differently. Then you agreed to renew the 
 mortgage for another five years." 
 
 "I won't renew it for five days," snapped 
 the podgey banker. "I'll have all the papers 
 here to-morrow night, and surrender them 
 on payment of $100,000; if it's not paid, 
 I'll foreclose the next day, and that's all 
 there's to it." 
 
 With this parting ultimatum, the banker 
 wheeled out of the room, and left the trio 
 to discuss ways and means. 
 
 While they were still pondering their 
 dilemma, Speedway returned. 
 
 "He's safe now, and there's no fear of 
 his squealing. I told Bill to crack him on 
 the nut if he tried to take a vacation. 
 What you all looking so glum about?" 
 
 Rattler imparted Bloater's threat. The 
 garageur took on the dejected mien of the
 
 132 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 others, but not for long. Suddenly he 
 broke out: 
 
 "I'll fix him! What'll you give me to 
 settle his hash, Steel, and get all the papers 
 from him ?" 
 
 "How'll you do it?" 
 
 He lowered his voice and propounded his 
 scheme, but I could not catch a single word. 
 
 Finally Steel raised his voice and said: 
 
 "If I get that mortgage back without 
 having to pay a cent, and nothing happens 
 to this block, I'll give you twenty thousand 
 bucks." 
 
 "It's a bargain, give us your hand on it, 
 and you two are witnesses. But, wait a 
 bit," he continued warily; "suppose you 
 turn on me some day, I won't be able to 
 say a word. Give it us in writing, so I'll 
 have proof you knew what the game was, 
 and that'll make you an accomplice or ac- 
 cessory, as the cops say." 
 
 The stake was big, and the detective 
 could not afford to demur. Speedway 
 wrote the paper, Steel signed it, and the 
 other two were compelled to witness it, 
 though the Doctor made strenuous objec- 
 tions to affixing his signature. 
 
 After some further talk concerning Jack, 
 May, Righteous, the vanishing of their 
 latest victim, which the banker had dis- 
 covered as soon as he entered the cell at
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 133 
 
 9 o'clock, and Steel's remark that he 
 wished he could get rid of Calls as easily 
 as of Bloater when she visited Innocent on 
 Thursday night, the powwow prorogued. 
 
 As I did not wish to risk my neck or 
 unbored body twice in one night, I stayed 
 where I was, sleeping the whole night and 
 the better part of the following day. As 
 soon as it grew dark enough, and under 
 cover of a heavy thunder-storm that was 
 raging over the city, I slid down the way 
 I had come, and slunk into the garage. A 
 number of passers-by were taking shelter 
 from the rain, so my advent did not cause 
 any comment, and I wandered about, 
 casually looking at the machines. 
 
 The rear part of the garage, on either 
 side of the back entrance, contained two 
 smaller rooms. One of these was locked, 
 and I surmised that it contained stores; 
 the door of the other stood wide open, and 
 I noticed that it could be used as a garage. 
 Near this latter stood a heavy touring 
 machine which had a large receptacle for 
 baggage at the back. As no one was near, 
 I raised the lid, and crawled in. There was 
 ample room for my small proportions, and 
 I immediately set to work and bored sever- 
 al holes for air and observation. 
 
 As the rain abated, the garage was 
 vacated, until it seemed to me that I re-
 
 134 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 mained alone, but evidently I was mis- 
 taken. 
 
 At eleven o'clock a machine drove into 
 the garage and I heard the doors close, 
 then Speedway's voice: 
 
 "Bring her up here, Bloater, and we'll 
 take some of the mud off." 
 
 I saw the car go into the room I have 
 described, the dim lights were extin- 
 guished, and Speedway slammed the door. 
 The lights in the central garage went out. 
 I could now see nothing and heard only 
 the violent throb of the machine. Then I 
 caught the shout of the banker and his 
 blows on the door. In five minutes they 
 ceased, and only the throb of the motor 
 reached my ears. 
 
 It must have been half an hour later 
 that I heard the door open and saw the 
 light in the smaller garage turned on 
 again. Then there was another interval 
 of about a quarter of an hour, I saw the 
 garageur enter step by step, and I immedi- 
 ately sprang out of my lair, before he had 
 time to test the air and stop the whirr of 
 the engine. 
 
 While he bent over the prostrate figure 
 of the banker and extracted the papers 
 from his pockets, I crept forward on my 
 rubber shoes, but he must have heard me, 
 for he raised his head and turned towards
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 135 
 
 me. I sprang at him and stunned him 
 with a piece of rubber tyre. Then I took 
 all the papers I could find on both of them, 
 and stopped to view the dead banker. 
 
 Petromortis is the death that wears the 
 livery of life. It kills with a touch as light 
 as thistle down, and leaves the dead with 
 the flush of counterfeit life upon brow and 
 cheek. 
 
 Due to the non-oxydation of some of the 
 elements of gasoline, the lethal fumes or 
 splitting products of benzine escape from 
 the exhaust of every running automobile. 
 In the open air, where a motorist inhales 
 but a whiff or two, it is not dangerous. In 
 a closed garage it kills almost instantane- 
 ously. 
 
 The banker, liable to vertigo, had no 
 chance for his life. He was almost im- 
 mediately overcome and asphyxiated, and 
 died of cerebral hemorrhage or brain and 
 lung congestion. Yet his face was as pink 
 as if he were alive and had had the blood 
 whipped into his cheeks by a walk in the 
 cold wind. 
 
 De mortuis nil nisi bonum! 
 
 Yet I begrudged him this painless and 
 beautiful death. 
 
 And here lay another that was to escape 
 "Hell's grim Tyrant." 
 
 In a country where justice is subservient
 
 136 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 to politics, it is necessary for the righteous 
 citizen to take the law into his own hands 
 until such time as the whole legal execu- 
 tive, from the policeman to the judge, are 
 appointed and retained independently of 
 any party. 
 
 If I denounced him, he might escape; 
 certainly his confederates would not be 
 made to face the King of Terrors. His 
 guilt was autoptic, and until such time as 
 the State furnished the means of reforma- 
 tory punishment, I was compelled to adopt 
 the crude social defence of capital punish- 
 ment. 
 
 I turned on the motor, closed the door 
 behind me, but did not lock it, and left 
 them "in the dark union of insensate dust." 
 
 As soon as I reached home, I sank to my 
 knees and asked the Author of all Being to 
 forgive me if I had done wrong in super- 
 erogating to myself the horrible duties of 
 the executioner, and to save me from turn- 
 ing a deaf ear to the "unrespited, unpitied, 
 unreprieved." 
 
 After an hour's meditation, I dared to 
 examine the papers I had brought with me. 
 One of them especially arrested my atten- 
 tion, and if I were interested in weaving 
 a plot and leading the reader up to a sen- 
 sational denouement instead of telling the 
 unvarnished truth, I should withhold the
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 137 
 
 contents until the dramatic moment ar- 
 rived. But as I was determined to enlist 
 no exterior aid in my war upon vice and 
 crime, and as such damning evidence could 
 serve no other purpose but to satisfy my 
 own conscience, I here admit the reader 
 into my confidence. 
 
 The document read as follows: 
 
 In consideration of Speedway putting 
 
 Bloater out of the way for all time 
 
 before he can foreclose the mortgage on my 
 
 building at , and if the said Speedway 
 
 procure for me without any payment to the 
 said Bloater all the papers pertaining to the 
 said mortgage, I hereby agree to pay to the 
 said Speedway $20,000 six months from date. 
 
 Steel. 
 
 As witness: 
 
 Pureheart, 
 
 Rattler. 
 
 Such was the euphemistic phraseology 
 of murder and blood-money. 
 
 As to the mortgage, I pondered long 
 whether I should mail it to the officials of 
 the Bloater Bank and allow them to fore- 
 close, but I finally decided that such a 
 course would not aid in -my projected 
 general clean-up of the gang. 
 
 The following morning I read with no 
 distinterested attention the startling head- 
 lines and sensational articles of the acci- 
 dental double-death by petromortis.
 
 138 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 vn. 
 
 CALLS' CRADLE. 
 
 It was the first of the month, and as I 
 walked past the Block, I noticed a "To Let" 
 sign in the laundry and an unusual com- 
 motion in the chop suey. Enquiries elicited 
 the information that Fujii had sold out and 
 Ching Wo Po had removed his plant several 
 blocks. Evidently their Oriental instinct 
 had warned them that the sword of Da- 
 mocles was suspended over their heads. 
 
 I entered the chop suey and, taking ad- 
 vantage of the disorder and preoccupation 
 of the new proprietor, made a wax impres- 
 sion of the lock of the steel door in the 
 lavatory. With this I hurried to an expert 
 locksmith, and in an hour was supplied 
 with two skeleton keys which the crafts- 
 man confidently wagered would not both 
 fail to turn the lock for which they were 
 designed. 
 
 Furnished with these passe-partout, I 
 returned, and immediately descended to 
 the lavatory again. There were several 
 guests there at the time, so I made believe
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 139 
 
 that I was washing my hands till they left 
 me alone. Then I approached the door and 
 with much trepidation inserted a key. I 
 did not fear interruption from the direc- 
 tion of the chop suey, though that might 
 prove more than unpleasant, but I did not 
 know what I might encounter beyond, and 
 as soon as I got through, I should be com- 
 pelled to lock the door behind me. It was 
 a rash reconnaissance, but I repeated to 
 myself the lines: "Have I not in my time 
 heard lions roar? I dare do all that may 
 become a man," and I turned the key. It 
 grated slightly, but the spring snapped, 
 and I pushed open and closed as rapidly 
 behind me the door. With bated breath 
 I stood on the qui vive and peered into the 
 darkness. No "gorgons and hydras and 
 chimeras dire," met my sight. Neither 
 did I catch any sound. Truly "there is 
 always safety in valor," as Emerson says. 
 When my eyes grew accustomed to the 
 obscurity, I moved stealthily forward in all 
 dhections, but did not encounter a living 
 soul. At last I entered the boiler room. 
 The iirnace glowed and crackled cheerfully 
 in strfdng contrast to the surrounding 
 silence vnd gloom. Who had taken the 
 place of Righteous ? That was the motive 
 of my qujst. 
 
 Near tie entrance to the boiler room
 
 140 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 were stacked up heaps of packing-cases 
 and other junk, which, as occasion re- 
 quired, was broken up to start the furnace. 
 Selecting a good-sized case, I huddled into 
 it and awaited the advent of the new 
 janitor. I sat thus patiently for at least 
 two hours before I heard the welcome 
 sound of approaching footsteps. To my 
 great joy I discovered that Rattler served 
 the furnace, and that apparently a new 
 janitor had not yet been assigned. 
 
 As soon as he was gone, I tumbled out 
 of my compressed position and stretched 
 my limbs aching with pins and needles. 
 Then I made my way back to the chop 
 suey. I was compelled to depart the same 
 way I had come, for every other entrance 
 would surely be guarded. The new host 
 had probably not been warned, or he would 
 not have bought the good-will that a com- 
 patriot had sold cheap. If I met a guest 
 on the other side, while opening the door, 
 he would not unnaturally consider that I 
 was within my rights. If I encountered 
 one of the old waiters, trouble might en- 
 sue ; but I counted on being able to make 
 my escape before he could warn the de- 
 tectives, if so disposed, for he wouM hardly 
 attempt to stop an armed man or give the 
 alarm in such wise as to frighten away the 
 new proprietor.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 141 
 
 It was therefore with less misgivings 
 that I turned the key the second time, and 
 re-entered the lavatory. Again there were 
 several guests around, but none of them 
 paid any special attention to me, except to 
 look at the long white beard with which 
 I had disguised myself. In the chop suey 
 were gathered a number of habitues to do 
 honor to the new management, but I did 
 not stop to make any observations. 
 
 As soon as I got outside, I felt that I 
 was being shadowed. There is some in- 
 fallible instinct that warns every high- 
 strung creature of the proximity of mortal 
 danger. It is something intangible, like 
 the contagion of gaping, yet it is as real. I 
 knew that death threatened me, as surely, 
 as my ancestors had always had presenti- 
 ments of their impending deaths. 
 
 I must not look around or hasten my 
 steps, for that would tell him that he had 
 been discovered. Had my appearance or 
 my movements awakened suspicion, or, 
 worse still, had some who saw me open the 
 lavatory door given him warning? He 
 himself evidently had not seen me in the 
 lavatory or chop suey, or I should not have 
 been allowed to step outside. I was sure 
 only of one thing. No attempt would be 
 made to arrest me. The fight was between 
 me and the gang, not between the law and 
 me.
 
 142 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 It was about 9 P. M. and raining. I could 
 have entered some crowded place and per- 
 haps shaken him off, but he knew too much 
 of my gait and build to be allowed to return 
 unscathed to the Block. If he were de- 
 termined to hunt me to the death, I also 
 had resolved that he should not go back 
 to the Block alive. 
 
 We were approaching the Lake. Hardly 
 a light or a pedestrian was now to be seen. 
 The last building, some darkened store- 
 house, was apparently at my side. If I 
 darted round the corner and waited for 
 him, I should be at his mercy; for, if he 
 were anything of a blood-hound, he would 
 not come right on, but either go around 
 the building in the opposite direction and 
 wait for me to come round a corner and 
 pick me off before I could take aim, or, 
 more likely, he would go off at a tangent 
 .to the opposite side of the street and crawl 
 along unseen till he caught sight of my 
 outline against the wall and then fire. Then 
 I did not wish to use my weapon except 
 in self-defence. 
 
 In South Africa I have been hunted by 
 black and white, and have hunted them, 
 and was therefore equal to my tracker un- 
 less he were a crack shot in the dark. I 
 determined to walk straight on, across an 
 open prairie, and take the risk of a bullet.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 143 
 
 I had about reached the other side, when 
 I felt a sudden afflux of heat all over my 
 body, and knew I had been struck. I did 
 not hear the report, as the shock had set 
 up a ringing in my ears that prevented all 
 exterior sound from reaching my brain. 
 I was not unprepared, and dropped im- 
 mediately, though I could have retained 
 my equilibrium. I felt no pain, and, as I 
 have been wounded several times, I judged 
 that I had received a flesh-wound under my 
 left armpit, and could feel the blood sat- 
 urating my clothes. I pressed my left arm 
 tight against my body to stop the bleeding 
 as much as possible, and waited for the 
 approach of my assailant. 
 
 I did not expect him to rush up to me. 
 He would no doubt wait to see if any one 
 approached or if I made any outcry or 
 movement. Finally I noticed his crouch- 
 ing outline slowly stealing towards me. I 
 was in no hurry. The nearer he approached, 
 the more confident would he become, and 
 the surer would my aim be. 
 
 He was almost bending over me when I 
 pulled the trigger. With a piercing cry he 
 sprang into the air. Then he dropped in 
 his tracks at my side, so close to me that 
 I could hear the rattle in his throat and see 
 the spasms of his body and limbs. I had 
 aimed at his heart, and I judged that my
 
 144 
 
 bullet had found its billet, or I would have 
 fired again. 
 
 When I felt sure that he was dead, I 
 grasped the ring of my revolver between 
 my teeth and sat up, unbuttoned my coat 
 and vest, slipped my belt up to where I 
 thought I was wounded, and drew it tight. 
 
 Then I rose to my feet and tried to as- 
 certain whether I was still bleeding, and 
 if I had lost much blood. I did not feel 
 weak, and only noticed the blood dripping 
 down my side and leg, but not running 
 from the wound. 
 
 I now turned my electric pocket lamp 
 into the face of the dead man. I did not 
 know him, and he had nothing to identify 
 him except his secret service star. 
 
 We were only about a block away from 
 the Lake, so I dragged his body into the 
 water, hoping that it would be floated away 
 from this spot and that the rain would 
 further wash away every other evidence of 
 my presence. As soon as I had consigned 
 him into his watery grave, I washed the 
 blood from my clothes and person, and took 
 the first taxi I encountered to a surgeon 
 friend. 
 
 As I had anticipated, the wound was not 
 serious, though my friend held up his 
 hands in horror when I told him that I 
 must go out again as soon as the wound 
 was dressed.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 145 
 
 "I can't allow you to move. You must 
 sleep here. If your broad military belt 
 had not fortunately just covered the 
 wound, you would be so weak now from 
 loss of blood that you would not be able 
 to move, if you wished to." 
 
 "That's all right. I've moved about and 
 ridden hundreds of miles with worse than 
 this. It's not bleeding and it doesn't hurt. 
 Tie it up tight, and I'll come around to- 
 morrow and let you have a look at it again. 
 But if you want to spare me any exertion, 
 I'll let you do something for me before I 
 leave." 
 
 VI know it's no use arguing with you. 
 You're too pig-headed to listen to reason, 
 and one day I'll read in the papers that 
 they've found you hanged, or shot, or gar- 
 roted, or stabbed, or some such pleasant 
 end." 
 
 "Always better than allowing a doctor 
 a month to kill you." 
 
 "Shut up and tell us what you want." 
 
 "Go out and buy me a pair of over-alls, 
 a flannel shirt, a slouch cap, and bring up 
 a bucket of coal-dust from the cellar, and 
 a safety-razor from wherever you can get 
 it." 
 
 He looked at me in doubt, as if he could 
 not believe that I meant it seriously. 
 
 "If you won't, I will, and that might 
 hurt the wound."
 
 146 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "Well, of all the ," he ejaculated, 
 
 but I did not catch the closing words, for 
 he was out of the door. 
 
 He soon returned with the stage fixtures. 
 
 "I have determined to make a clean 
 sweep " 
 
 "I thought a dirty sweep, judging from 
 the coal-dust," he interrupted savagely. 
 
 "I want you to give me a clean shave, 
 mustaches and Vandyke." 
 
 "I'm yer barber. Shave yer head, Sir, 
 and yer eyebrows? Singe yer lashes, or 
 pull 'em out with the tweezers? As ye 
 like, Mister." 
 
 I allowed him to yap on so long as he 
 did the work. 
 
 "Shampoo, Sir?" 
 
 "Thanks, no! Take off my boots and 
 socks, in fact all my clothes, and, when 
 I'm gone, pitch them into the furnace." 
 
 "Don't ye want to go with 'em, Mister? 
 The furnace's plenty big enough." 
 
 "And bring me a pair of old boots and 
 pants of your own. They're miles too big, 
 but that can't be helped." 
 
 "Want me pocket-book too, Sir?" 
 
 "Now roll all this stuff in the coal-dust." 
 
 "You too. Mister?" 
 
 "This time I'll give you the satisfaction 
 you desire. Cover my face and hands with 
 the dust too."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 147 
 
 He evidently enjoyed this part of the 
 performance. 
 
 "And now dress me." 
 
 "Your valet, Sir, at your service! Be 
 your tailor, too. Cut off the ends of your 
 unmentionables, or turn 'em up and press 
 'em, Sir?" 
 
 "Never mind the pressing, just turn 
 them up, and put my revolver in my hip 
 pocket. What you think of me?" 
 
 "Swell, Sir ! Regler sport ! Jest a little 
 perfume, and a suite at the Helldorf, and 
 all the kids'll be after ye. Shine, Sir?" 
 
 "Good night, dear friend! Your hand's 
 as black as mine, so I don't mind offering 
 to shake. I'll tell you all about it some 
 day." 
 
 He looked at me with wistful eyes, as I 
 left him, and I knew that his facetious 
 sallies covered the concern of a warm and 
 loyal heart. 
 
 I was soon ensconced in Rattler's saloon 
 and not undesirous of attracting his atten- 
 tion. He eyed me several times obliquely 
 before he approached and dropped his 
 ponderous carcass into a chair opposite 
 me. 
 
 "Well, stranger, what ye're going to 
 have?" 
 
 "Doctor's orders, only milk and soda." 
 
 "Sick?"
 
 148 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "Hurt," and I placed my hand conscien- 
 tiously over my wound. 
 
 "Been here long?" 
 
 "Couple o' weeks." 
 
 "Coal heaver?" 
 
 "No, janitor." 
 
 "Looking for a job?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Where ye hail from?" 
 
 "Canada." 
 
 "What ye do there?" 
 
 "Time." 
 
 "Oh ! Got any long greens ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Better take a job then. I've got some- 
 thing in yer line, if ye can keep yer jaw 
 shut." 
 
 "No, too weak yet." 
 
 "Never mind that. We'll make it light 
 for ye at first. I'll just call the boss and 
 talk it over." 
 
 He rose from the chair and went over 
 to the phone. In a few minutes Steel en- 
 tered the saloon, and after a short confer- 
 ence they both came over to the table 
 where I sat aloof. Steel eyed me long and 
 searchingly and finally enquired: 
 
 "What you do time for?" 
 
 Noting the badge of a secret society on 
 his fob, I gave him the penal sign, and he 
 evidently took it in the double sense in- 
 tended.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 149 
 
 "What you come to this saloon for?" 
 
 "Heard something up." 
 
 "Know any of the kids?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Don't think you'll make anything here. 
 Can you use a gun?" 
 
 "Yep." 
 
 "If you don't want the janitor's job, 
 you'd better beat it. Take it?" 
 
 "No, hurt." 
 
 "How long will it take to get fixed up ?" 
 
 "Week." 
 
 "Just shovel the coal into the furnace, 
 and we'll help you carry out the cinders. 
 Take it or beat it?" 
 
 "What's the pay?" 
 
 "Two bucks a day, and you sleep in the 
 basement with a gun in your hand, and put 
 a hole into any man that's got no business 
 there. Take it?" 
 
 "Yep." 
 
 "Rattler'll show you round, and give you 
 a knock-down to all who belong here. Give 
 'em the once-over, and then go on the job. 
 Here's two bucks." 
 
 He left us with a sardonic grin on his 
 face, looking exactly what he was. 
 
 Under the guidance of the publican, I 
 was shown over the building and presented 
 to the various tenants. I was warned to 
 take special notice of all such as were per-
 
 150 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 mitted to enter the basement, and advised 
 to shoot first if I found any one else below, 
 as a daring burglary had been perpetrated 
 a few days previously. Four detectives 
 were pointed out to me, and I was told that 
 there were several others stationed around 
 the block. 
 
 I was not told of the opium den and its 
 secret entrance, but the wiretapping appli- 
 ance beneath the bed was pointed out to 
 me, though no instruction as to its opera- 
 tion was vouchsafed to me. One introduc- 
 tion was of especial interest to me. Open- 
 ing on to the back balcony of the second 
 floor was a little room where the janitor 
 kept some of his mops, brooms, mats, etc. 
 In one of its dark recesses I noticed a dusty 
 flight of stairs which evidently led to the 
 loft. I did not exhibit any curiosity as to 
 its purpose, but I determined to make use 
 of it on the first possible occasion. 
 
 After I had been ciceroned through this 
 sink of iniquity, I went down to the saloon 
 and drank a pint of hot milk. I took an- 
 other bottle with me to drink during the 
 night, and, after banking the fire, threw 
 myself on the bed in my clothes, and im- 
 mediately sank to "tired Nature's sweet 
 restorer, balmy sleep." 
 
 It was Thursday night. I had told Rat- 
 tler that I was going to visit my doctor,
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 151 
 
 and not to be surprised if I was not at 
 my post. On my return I hastily stoked 
 the furnace, and ran up to the loft by way 
 of my newly discovered stairs. 
 
 Calls was lying in an immaculately white 
 bed, staring vacantly before her, and 
 deathly pale. The perspiration poured 
 from her face and bosom and she seemed 
 to have just gained respite from some 
 violent spell of pain. As I did not see In- 
 nocent, I crawled towards Pureheart's peri- 
 scope, but she was not there. Then I tried 
 Madame Coupler's, and discovered her in 
 animated conversation with Steel, but their 
 tones were deliberately suppressed as if 
 they feared being overheard, and I re- 
 turned to view Calls. 
 
 In a few minutes she began to moan, 
 then to utter ear-piercing shrieks, and I 
 judged that the pangs of parturition were 
 upon her. 
 
 Innocent now appeared on the scene, 
 bearing a pair of silver forceps in her right 
 hand. She was exceptionally skilful in 
 obstetrics, and in a few moments I heard 
 the faint wail of an infant. The mother 
 had become suddenly quiet, and I thought 
 she had fainted. 
 
 Then an unexpected proceeding riveted 
 my attention, and filled me with horror. 
 The accoucheuse looked searchingly at the
 
 152 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 unconscious mother, then deliberately 
 turned the nut on the forceps till she had 
 crushed the skull of the being she had only 
 a few instants before brought into this vale 
 of tears. The deed was so sudden and 
 perpetrated with such callous sangfroid, 
 that I did not recover my power of action 
 till after Steel had entered the chamber at 
 Innocent's call, taken the hastily wrapped 
 corpse in his arms and departed. 
 
 Then I shook myself free from the in- 
 cubus and hurried to the basement. But 
 Steel was already there, standing guard 
 before the closed furnace. 
 
 "Just thought I'd give you a hand and 
 make the fire for you. You needn't look 
 at it again for a couple of hours. Rattler 
 told me you'd gone to see the doctor." 
 
 But he made no attempt to leave me 
 alone, and before I could make up my mind 
 what to say or do, the phone in my room 
 called me away. It was an urgent appeal 
 from the murderess: 
 
 "Tell Steel to come up at once." 
 
 I did not go into the boiler-room, but 
 called to him, and then threw myself on 
 to the couch, so that he might see me in 
 this unsuspicious attitude as he hastened 
 past me. 
 
 As soon as the door closel behind him, 
 I jumped up, and dashed to the furnace.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 153 
 
 There were the cremated remains of the 
 tiny holocaust! 
 
 The mother, filled with aversion at the 
 prospects of motherhood, would hardly 
 have resigned her illegitimate offspring to 
 such a cradle. 
 
 But I did not tarry long before this sad 
 commentary on human depravity. Steel 
 might return at any moment; besides, 
 what might not be happening elsewhere? 
 
 I hurried again to the clerestory to wit- 
 ness another act in this twentieth century 
 tragedy. 
 
 Calls was wildly tearing her hair and 
 screaming shrilly: 
 
 "Where's my baby? I want my baby. 
 It's my baby and his. I want my baby." 
 
 "I told you you can't have it now," said 
 Innocent doggedly. 
 
 "I want it, I want it now. Bring my 
 baby." 
 
 "I told you I'd take it to Baltimore." 
 
 "I want it here, and he's got to marry 
 me," she screeched, pointing to Steel who 
 stood near the door. "It's his child, and 
 I'll make him marry me, or I'll show him 
 up. I want my baby." 
 
 "It's not here," retorted Steel. 
 
 The frantic mother stared at him for a 
 moment, then at the woman, as if trying 
 to divine the full import of his words.
 
 154 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 Then in a sudden paroxysm of inspiration, 
 peal upon peal of accusation broke from 
 her hoarse throat: 
 
 "You murdered it, you murdered it. I 
 saw you do it. It was alive. I heard it 
 cry, and you murdered it. Murderer! 
 Murderer!" she shrieked, pointing first at 
 one then at the other. 
 
 Innocent squirmed uneasily, but Steel 
 stood unmoved. His indifference seemed 
 to provoke her beyond endurance. She 
 seized a tumbler at her side and flung it 
 at him. It fell shattered at his feet, the 
 crash smothered by her own strident voice : 
 
 "Help, help! Murder! Help, help! 
 Police! Help! Murder!" 
 
 A sudden resolve seemed to pass over 
 Steel's impassive face, and he left the 
 room. In a few moments he returned, 
 accompanied by Pureheart. The doctor 
 looked thoughtfully at the raving creature 
 for several moments, then he turned to the 
 detective and said: 
 
 "She's sane." 
 
 "Then go and fetch it," commanded Steel 
 impatiently. 
 
 Calls still gesticulated, and her lips 
 moved, but no sound escaped them. She 
 was utterly worn out with all the excite- 
 ment and suffering through which she had 
 passed, but she still sat upright.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 155 
 
 The doctor turned and strode out of the 
 chamber, but he was absent only a few 
 minutes. When he returned, he bore a 
 small medicine glass in his hand which he 
 offered to Steel. 
 
 "Here, take this," said the detective 
 gruffly to his unwedded wife. "It'll make 
 you sleep. You're crazy, and don't know 
 what you're talking about." 
 
 But she refused the proffered potion. 
 
 "If you won't take it, I'll pour it down 
 your throat," he threatened. 
 
 Still she shook her head and held her 
 hand over her mouth. 
 
 "Here, Doc, and you too," he said ad- 
 dressing Innocent, "come and help me hold 
 her while I make her swallow it." 
 
 Pureheart hesitated, but the woman ap- 
 proached as if fearing to disobey. Steel 
 caught the hand that was held tightly 
 across the mouth and dragged it roughly 
 away, but Calls immediately placed her 
 other hand in the same position. 
 
 "Pull her hand away," he ordered angri- 
 ly, and Innocent did his behest. 
 
 But he could not force the lips apart. 
 
 "Why don't you lend a hand? Haven't 
 you the nerve?" 
 
 The doctor thus dared, came reluctantly 
 forward and took the hand that Steel 
 grasped. The latter now relieved, seized
 
 156 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 a tablespoon and forced open the teeth of 
 the struggling scapegoat whom he had 
 forced back on her pillow. Then he poured 
 the contents of the glass into her mouth, 
 and held her down till she had swallowed 
 it. 
 
 The doctor released his hold, then the 
 midwife, and Calls clutched feebly at 
 Steel's hands that held her down and 
 covered her mouth. 
 
 In less than a minute I saw pass through 
 her whole body a single tetanic convulsion, 
 such as toxicologists state accompanies 
 death from liquid cyanide of potassium; 
 then she became still, and the pallor of 
 death spread over her face. 
 
 Until then I had thought they were 
 administering some sleeping draught, 
 otherwise I should have fired through the 
 ceiling. Now I knew they had poisoned 
 her. 
 
 The doctor, prescriber of parturifacients, 
 slunk out of the room, obsessed by the 
 crime he had abetted. The woman, the 
 professional feticide, who had unflinchingly 
 taken the lives of dozens of infants, dared 
 not now look upon the face of a martyred 
 mother, and crept out after him. The un- 
 natural uxoricide, instigator of this inhu- 
 manity, looked around, and, seeing himself 
 alone with his dead, drew away his hack- 
 ster hands and followed his accomplices.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 157 
 
 "The trail of the serpent was over them 
 all." 
 
 I, believing I had witnessed sufficient 
 human hideousness for one night, raised 
 myself from the boards, and sped down 
 to my couch. 
 
 temporal mores!
 
 158 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 VIII. 
 INNOCENT INFANTICIDE. 
 
 I had slept for several hours, when in 
 the midst of a dream of "a soul as white 
 as heaven," "as chaste as unsunn'd snow," 
 I was suddenly awakened by a violent rap- 
 ping at my door. I seized my revolver 
 and called out: 
 
 "Who's there?" 
 
 "Open the door," came back in Steel's 
 metallic voice. 
 
 Had he discovered something, and was 
 this to be the final reckoning ? I hesitated, 
 but answered him: 
 
 "All right, wait a bit." 
 
 Should I open and risk his vengeance? 
 
 I would. 
 
 "What stronger breastplate than a heart 
 untainted?" 
 
 "Simple duty hath no place for fear." 
 
 But I cautiously shielded myself behind 
 the opening door, and held my cocked re- 
 volver before me. 
 
 "I see you've got it ready," he smiled 
 forcedly. "I only wanted you to lend a hand 
 with a dead woman upstairs. She died
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 159 
 
 having a baby, and the midwife wants her 
 buried to-night. Afraid to handle her?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Come along then." 
 
 He led me to the chamber of the dead. 
 In the hall adjoining I saw four black- 
 clothed men and a coffin. No one else was 
 about. 
 
 "Help me carry the coffin into the room." 
 
 "Can't lift anything with my left hand. 
 Tie a rope round it, and I'll pick it up with 
 my right." 
 
 One of the undertaker's underlings, 
 hearing my request, produced a strap, and 
 slipped it under the coffin. Taking hold 
 of this, I helped Steel lift the box and carry 
 it into the room. 
 
 Calls lay there exactly as I had seen her 
 last. 
 
 "Let it down on the floor. Now slip the 
 strap under her feet, and I'll take her 
 shoulders, and we'll lift her into it." 
 
 As I performed these last rites, I could 
 not help thinking that perhaps she would 
 be better off in her grave than in this 
 pitiless world of ours. 
 
 If "virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious 
 strokes," "virtue the greatest of all mon- 
 archies," how should vice bear "the dismal 
 universal hiss, the sound of public scorn?" 
 
 God rest her soul, and may she meet that
 
 160 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 of her innocent babe, which nipped in the 
 bud on our terrestrial sphere, may bloom 
 unblemished in the astral planes! 
 
 But why had he asked me, and not those 
 funeral-garbed hirelings to coffin his vic- 
 tim? I understood why his accomplices 
 dared not handle the dead, but his motive 
 for not allowing the professional mourners 
 to view his paramour was inscrutable, un- 
 less there lurked in his dastardly designs 
 some latent fear that they might read in 
 her face his guilt. Or perhaps he wished 
 to put me to the test. 
 
 As soon as he had screwed down the lid, 
 he called to the paid pallbearers and they 
 immediately removed the coffin. 
 
 Before leaving with them, he ushered 
 me into another bed-chamber where I dis- 
 covered Innocent in travelling attire, and 
 a tiny infant lying on her bed. 
 
 "Here's the janitor. Tell him what you 
 want done," said the detective curtly, and 
 immediately turned on his heel. 
 
 The midwife eyed me long before she 
 spoke, while I tried to evade her gaze. 
 
 "I want you to clean up the room where 
 that woman died, poor soul. I'm going to 
 take her baby to her relatives in Baltimore, 
 and I'll be away a few days. If any one 
 calls, tell them I'll be back soon. You'll 
 find the linen in this dresser, and you'd
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 161 
 
 better burn the other. I've left a note for 
 the milkman. Take my grip down to the 
 taxi, while I carry the baby." 
 
 She was a gaunt, peroxide blonde, with 
 steel grey eyes, and a staccato intonation. 
 She moved about silently and rapidly, and 
 as she lifted the child, I noticed that her 
 long, lean fingers were extraordinarily 
 knotted at the knuckles. 
 
 I did not say a word, but took the satchel 
 and followed her down-stairs to the taxi 
 which stood in front of the building. As 
 soon as she was gone, I wondered where 
 the hearse was. It could hardly have dis- 
 appeared so quickly. Then I bethought 
 myself that it most probably would be 
 standing in the rear, and I hurried through 
 the hall just in time to see the long, black 
 machine glide off bearing the cocained 
 corpse to "the deep cold shadow of the 
 tomb" unmourned, for the men who occu- 
 pied the adjoining compartment neither 
 knew nor cared whom they interred, and 
 the one who knew grieved not and accom- 
 panied the mother of his child only that 
 he might have her inhumed unknown and 
 unseen. 
 
 Day was beginning to dawn. It seemed 
 to me as if "sable-vested night" was fol- 
 lowing in the wake of the dead, and I could 
 feel "the breezy call of incense-breathing
 
 162 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 morn." But I was still weak, and, if de- 
 prived of rest and sleep, would not be able 
 to cope with the wakeful wretches that 
 surrounded me. I descended to my bed, 
 but "the eternal landscape of the past" 
 would not fade from my vision, and, after 
 tossing my weary body about for an hour, I 
 was compelled to go up into the fresh air. 
 
 My life had been spent in sunlight and in 
 pure air; the dank, dark basement was 
 therefore torture to me. I went out to the 
 green spot in front of the school and 
 looked up to "this gorgeous arch with 
 golden worlds inlayed." Then I waited for 
 the "flames in the forehead of the morning 
 sky." When they came, they seemed to 
 dissipate my weariness and I began to 
 think logically. 
 
 Whose child had she taken with her, and 
 was she really going to Baltimore? A 
 few days previous I remembered having 
 read an article that would explain her rea- 
 son for choosing this destination. 
 
 In an exhaustive, detailed report, the 
 state-wide vice commission had shown that 
 vice was rampant in Baltimore. The most 
 sensational of the features dealt with in 
 the report was the alleged traffic in babies. 
 It was asserted that investigators had 
 found there were institutions in Baltimore 
 to which the mother of an illegitimate child
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 163 
 
 might consign her offspring upon payment 
 of a fixed sum and forever rid herself of 
 legal responsibility for it. 
 
 Of the hundreds of children so taken in 
 charge by the institution, the committee 
 averred that 80 to 90 percent died and were 
 buried in heaps in small plots of ground, 
 one such plot, approximately fifty-five feet 
 square, having been the tomb of 5,000 
 babies since 1886. 
 
 Since the commission began its work the 
 police had closed the resorts in the segre- 
 gated districts formerly tolerated by the 
 authorities. 
 
 According to the report, however, 
 there was no evidence that immorality was 
 not as prevalent as ever. Much of this evil 
 was practised clandestinely, said the com- 
 mission, and business places, offices, board- 
 ing houses, and even homes were said to 
 have been found in great numbers where 
 immorality was introduced and continued 
 in practice. 
 
 Here evidently was an idoneous dump for 
 the deliveries which she failed to defeat. 
 This illuminating thought gave me peace, 
 and I lay down on the grass to sleep. 
 
 That evening I proceeded to perform the 
 housemaid duties assigned to me. They 
 were not particularly palatable, and I would 
 gladly have delegated them to other hands,
 
 164 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 if that had been at all possible, but under 
 the circumstances I was compelled to go 
 through the sad and sickening chores my- 
 self. I determined, however, to be amply 
 repaid. 
 
 As soon as my odious task was com- 
 pleted, I examined every room in the flat 
 very minutely. In her medicine chest I was 
 not surprised to find a bottle of arsenic, 
 a number of drugs and appliances used in 
 illegal operations and to promote abortions 
 or to check conception. Judging from the 
 quantity, she must have carried on quite an 
 extensive trade in these latter. 
 
 Every drawer in her massive Japanese 
 secretaire was locked, but I had come pre- 
 pared to pick thenii and was soon absorbed 
 in a perusal of documents more instructive 
 in the methods of human degradation and 
 depravity than were the papers I had ap- 
 propriated from Bloater's assassin. 
 
 Her banking account at the Bloater insti- 
 tution ran into five figures, and she made 
 deposits of from $100 to $5,000 at a time. 
 Several letters showed that she received 
 similar amounts from different women, and 
 there were also quite a number of men 
 among her contributors. The withdrawals 
 amounted to somewhat more than 50 
 percent of the deposits, and though her 
 checks were made payable to herself, many
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 165 
 
 of the counterfoils bore the notation "for 
 S," whom I judged to be Steel, while others 
 had the single word "Baltimore," which 
 made me believe that the money had been 
 used to pay baby farmers in that city. 
 
 Her diary, though fragmentary, was suf- 
 ficiently itemized to disclose its purpose. 
 Certain names appeared opposite certain 
 dates, with* some single word or initial to 
 denote the purpose of the appointment. 
 Then in ink of a different age or in pen- 
 cil would be shown the receipt of a sum of 
 money and disbursements, if any. Some 
 women paid her for drugs, others for oper- 
 ations, others for confinements, and yet 
 others for the disposition of children. The 
 infants, if not still-born, were either sold to 
 people who wished to adopt, placed in a 
 Baltimore creche, or where $5000 had been 
 paid and there was no debit or explana- 
 tory term, I deemed the child had been of- 
 fered at the altar of Moloch. Very few 
 took charge of their own children. 
 
 There were quite a number of letters 
 from people who had answered advertise- 
 ments which she seemed to insert regu- 
 larly, either offering a child for adoption, 
 or touting for some aphrodisiac, some ob- 
 scene or suggestive photo, some nostrum 
 against secret ailments, etc., etc. 
 
 I had noticed many of these exposed for
 
 166 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 sale in Waginsky's windows, and from the 
 replies to her advertisements I gathered 
 that she claimed many of them had been 
 concocted either by herself or by the fam- 
 ous professor of sexual ailments, Dr. Pure- 
 heart. 
 
 I append a selection of the advertise- 
 ments which I found inserted in a Chicago 
 paper having a circulation of over a mil- 
 lion:
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 167 
 
 SUFFERERS E1ROM NERVOUS. WEAK, RUN 
 down conditions should take Juven Pills. They 
 accomplish marvelous results. This medicine 
 has more rejuvenating, vitalizing force than has 
 ever before been offered. Sent postpaid only on 
 
 receipt of this advertisement and $1. ._ _. 
 
 A SETTER TO DR. THE~SPECIALIST 
 
 will obtain his latest book on symptoms and 
 cure of varicocele, stricture and urinary dis- 
 eases. Every man should have it ; postage 4 
 cts. Send today. Dr. 
 
 W1EAK, NERVOUS, RUN DOWN MEN; REMEM- 
 toer we are spcialists in chronic, nervous, blood, 
 'kidney, bladder and iprivate diseases. Book symp- 
 tom blank and advice free, sealed. ;Dr. 
 
 SEX KNOWLEDGE MALE AND FEMALE DE- 
 scrfbed and illustrated, 276 pages of interest. 
 
 By Dr. . (Sent sealed, plain wrapper 60c. 
 
 Circular free. . . . 
 
 LADIES, $1000 ! I positively guarantee my great 
 Successful "'Compound." Safely relieves some 
 of the longest, most obstinate, abnormal affec- 
 tions in 3 to 5 days. No harm, pain or interfer- 
 ence with work. Mail $1.50, Double Strength, 
 $2.00. BOOKLET FREE. Write today. Dr. . 
 
 LADIES : iSECRETS YOU NEED FREE. Send to- 
 day for information. . . . 
 
 LOVERS, SIEND ONLY 20 CENTS, FOR $1.75 
 
 packages Patented Lovine Sachet. Real thing. 
 
 Guaranteed. Never fails 
 
 LOVERS' SACHET WINS YOUR SWEETHEART 
 
 without delay. Powder and its "SECRET" 25c. 
 LOVERS' PERFUME POWDER. SECRET AND 
 
 full directions, one dime. . . . 
 
 MISS IMERRY WIDOW BEFORE THE BATH, 2 
 poses IQc. . . . 
 
 LITTLE 'MISS MABLE IN TWO NATURE 
 poses, IQc. 
 
 MY LADY BEAUTIFUL AT BATH. TWO INA- 
 ture poses, IQc. . . . 
 
 TWO i STUNNING PICTURES OF FEMALE 
 loveliness at bath, lOc. . . .
 
 168 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 Many of the letters showed that she 
 practised a regular system of blackmail. I 
 give extracts of two which corroborate the 
 crimes I had personally witnessed. 
 
 Dear Nurse Innocent: 
 
 For pity's sake, have patience till I am 
 married, then I'll send you $100. 
 
 I paid you the $5,000 agreed on, and I'm 
 quite sure you told me there would not be any 
 undertaker's expenses, so I can't understand 
 how you got a bill for $100 from an under- 
 taker. You said there would not be any grave 
 or coffin or funeral, and that you'd fix it all 
 so that no one but yourself would know. 
 
 But I'll send you the money as soon as I'm 
 married. I can't send you a penny now, as 
 my parents are spending so much for my 
 trousseau, and I dare not pawn anything just 
 before my wedding. 
 
 When I'm married, I'll ask Frank for the 
 money, and I'll send you $150. The extra $50 
 is for some more of the stuff which you gave 
 me. Please send it at once. I want a lot so 
 that I can use it all before the wedding. I'm 
 so nervous that Frank may guess something, 
 though you promised me faithfully that he 
 wouldn't notice anything, if I took the stuff 
 regularly. But since your letter about the 
 undertaker's bill, I've got scared, and perhaps 
 you didn't tell me the truth. 
 
 Please have patience for the money, and tell 
 me if the stuff will really make me as if noth- 
 ing had happened. 
 
 My God! What would happen to me if Frank 
 found out? And then I wouldn't be able to 
 pay you. I'm sure I'd poison myself.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 169 
 
 Dear Nurse: 
 
 I received your letter asking me for $250 to 
 pay the people in Baltimore, or they would 
 send the baby back to you and you would bring 
 it to me. For God's sake tell them to keep it 
 a little longer, and I'll send you some more 
 money as soon as I get my month's pay. 
 
 I send you in this letter a money order for 
 $50. It's all I saved this year, and I wanted 
 to go on a vacation. You know I've been sick 
 ever since, and the doctor told me to go home 
 to the farm to mother, but I daren't, and I 
 wanted to go somewhere else. So now I can't 
 go at all. 
 
 You know I only get $9 a week, and I send 
 $2 to mother and put $1 in the bank for the 
 baby, and sometimes I can't, because I've got 
 to pay the doctors and the medicines. 
 
 I promise faithfully, I'll send you all I can 
 at the end of the month, and please tell the 
 people to wait and I'll pay them everything. 
 And don't write like that, it makes me so sick, 
 and then I can't work, and have to call 
 the doctor. 
 
 While I was absorbed in close scrutiny of 
 these papers, I fancied I heard a slight 
 movement in the corridor, and dashed to- 
 wards it with lightning-like velocity. 
 
 There was Innocent with her back to me, 
 the telephone in her hand and about to 
 summon help. Without hesitation or halt 
 in the impetus of my rush, I sprang at her, 
 snatched the transmitter from her hand, 
 and snapped the wire.
 
 170 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 As she whirled towards me, I feigned 
 complete surprise and blurted out : 
 
 "Didn't know it's you. Thought a thief 
 got into the house." 
 
 She looked at me with unfeigned incred- 
 ulity and dudgeon, and retorted sarcastic- 
 ally: 
 
 "The only thief in the house is your- 
 self. What were you looking for among 
 my papers ?" 
 
 "Looking for?" I reiterated, hurt. 
 "Wasn't looking for anything. Was 
 straightening them out." 
 
 "You're a liar,"she snapped conclusively. 
 "All the drawers were locked, and I've got 
 the keys." 
 
 "Sorry, ma'am, you don't believe me and 
 take me for a crook. Look at them your- 
 self, none of them locked," and I stepped 
 aside to allow her to pass. I wanted her to 
 enter her own room so that I might place 
 myself between her and escape. Though a 
 cunning woman, she fell unwittingly into 
 my trap. 
 
 "It seems they are all open," she said in 
 puzzled tones, turning towards me, "but 
 you may have picked them all. You're no 
 janitor, and I'm sure you're clever enough 
 to do it. I hurried back, because I had a 
 presentiment that something was wrong, 
 and my woman's instinct never deceives
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 171 
 
 me. I don't know who you are, but you're 
 no ordinary man, and you're not a crim- 
 inal. When I saw your eyes, I felt it at 
 once. You're our enemy. I'm surprised 
 Steel didn't read your eyes and your brow. 
 He knows a man as soon as he sees him. 
 Perhaps he recognized the brains and how 
 you use them, and mistook you for a great 
 crook, but you can't deceive a woman. 
 What did you want among my papers, and 
 what do you want here working as a jani- 
 tor with hands and nails that have never 
 done a day's work in their life?" 
 
 I had been compelled to wash my 
 hands before I touched the bedclothes. 
 
 "When a woman has once made up her 
 mind about a man, it is useless to try and 
 disabuse it," I replied coldly. "But in this 
 instance your intuitive instincts have not 
 deceived you. I was looking for evidence to 
 convict you of murder." 
 
 Her eyelids widened, she grew ghastly 
 pale, and sank into a chair. I kept my 
 eyes riveted on her as a trainer on a sav- 
 age beast. She tried to rise, but there was 
 no power in her limbs. Her fingers twitched 
 convulsively as they grasped the arms of 
 the chair, and her bosom panted in vain 
 efforts to urge some sound along her com- 
 pressed throat. At last she whispered : 
 
 "And have you found any ?"
 
 172 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 My only answer was a continued stare. 
 
 Her eyes shifted restlessly and finally 
 settled on the carpet. 
 
 We remained in this attitude for several 
 minutes until she was able to say in a 
 somewhat stronger and steadier voice : 
 
 "May I drink something?" 
 
 "You may eat, too, if you have the ap- 
 petite," I replied ironically. 
 
 She rose weakly and tottered to her med- 
 icine cabinet. Her hand trembled so vio- 
 lently that she could barely turn the key, 
 and when she attempted to pour some wine 
 or other liquor into a glass, she spilled the 
 greater part on the floor. But at last she 
 managed to gulp down several small tum- 
 blerf uls, and these steadied her. 
 
 I noticed that she kept her back towards 
 me, and I was convinced that she was plan- 
 ning or attempting some means of escape 
 or retaliation. When she turned again, 
 quite a different woman faced me. She was 
 still pale, but her eyes glittered ominously 
 and some set resolve appeared on her face. 
 In her left hand she held a glass of wine 
 and her right grasped a shelf behind her. 
 Her voice was firm and even sneering when 
 she addressed me : 
 
 "Perhaps a glass of wine will loosen your 
 tongue and help you answer my question?" 
 
 I could see part of the third and fourth
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 173 
 
 shelves behind her. The bottle of arsenic 
 was no longer on the fourth where I had 
 seen it before, but stood now in the corner 
 of the third. 
 
 "I am not very fond of arsenic," I replied 
 coolly. 
 
 She started and began to shake again, 
 spilling part of the wine on her dress. Then 
 she raised the glass slowly towards her 
 own lips, while a look of fearful futility 
 filled her eyes. 
 
 "Drop it!" I thundered at her and the 
 suggestive sound brought a compelled cry 
 of terror from her, while the glass crashed 
 to the floor. 
 
 "That is not the kind of death designed 
 for you," I continued, pitilessly. "You are 
 to be judged by the Mosaic Law 'An eye 
 for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' 
 
 "I will answer your question now with- 
 out the spur of your poison. I have found 
 sufficient evidence to convict you of mur- 
 der. I saw you crush the skull of Calls' in- 
 fant, and I saw you hold Calls while Steel 
 poisoned her." 
 
 She swayed forward and would have fall- 
 en, if she had not caught hold of the door 
 of the medicine cabinet. 
 
 "I know of the babies that you sent to 
 the furnace, of those that you took to Bal-
 
 174 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 timore. I know of your blackmail and 
 quackery, of your countless illegal opera- 
 tions and illicit drugs. 
 
 "If your crimes had ended at abortion, I 
 should allow you to live, for you might 
 plead in extenuation the general practice of 
 physicians and midwives all the world over. 
 
 "I do not wish to disprove either, 
 though I could, that it might be beneficial 
 for the State to establish hospitals where 
 population might be controlled before con- 
 ception or even before birth, in preference 
 to allowing men and women of your and 
 Pureheart's calibre to fatten on such as are 
 unfortunate enough to fall into your hands, 
 when you destroy parent and child. Or per- 
 haps it is as well for posterity that they 
 are drawn into your toils and are often 
 rendered impotent to propagate their kind. 
 
 "But when you apply your malignant 
 methods to children after, birth, you over- 
 step the boundary of immunity from death, 
 you trespass on the domain of the mur- 
 derer, and the murderer's penalty must be 
 your penalty." 
 
 Her hand had been groping, as I 
 thought aimlessly, among the bottles at 
 her side and behind her, while her gaze 
 was magnetized to mine. But suddenly she 
 lifted one and flung it at my head with the
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 175 
 
 power of desperation. I ducked, and it 
 broke against the wall behind, splashing 
 its contents all around and bleaching every- 
 thing white that it touched. 
 
 As soon as she apprehended that I had 
 escaped, she set up a peal of piercing 
 shrieks, and I sprang towards her. She 
 raised her hands to ward me off, but I 
 seized her throat with my right hand, and 
 smothered her cries. 
 
 It was not my intention to strangle her 
 with my hand. I forced her along till we 
 reached her instrument chest, and there 
 with my left hand I took the large silver 
 forceps with which she had crushed the 
 child. 
 
 "You have lived by the forceps, you shall 
 die by the forceps !" 
 
 Her eyes were now beginning to bulge 
 and her tongue to protrude, but she was 
 perfectly conscious of my intentions, and 
 dug her nails into my wrist and forced the 
 blood from it. 
 
 If I had not been afraid of reopening 
 the wound under my left arm, I should 
 have used my left hand to pinion her throat 
 with the forceps, but I was now compelled 
 to throttle her till her hands fell and she 
 sank to her knees. Then suddenly I loos- 
 ened my grasp, changed the forceps to the
 
 176 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 other hand, and nipped it round her throat. 
 
 I did not wish to prolong her agony un- 
 necessarily, so tightened the vice as rapidly 
 as the nut would turn. Then I let her sink 
 back till she lay on the floor dead, the for- 
 ceps still clutching her throat as a warn- 
 ing and premonition to those who would 
 behold her. 
 
 I now opened one of the windows that 
 gave on to the back balcony, went down 
 to the basement to wash my wrist, cover 
 the wounds with artificial skin, and be- 
 smirch myself in coal-dust again. 
 
 Then I paid a visit to the saloon, had a 
 chat with Rattler, and after telling him 
 that I would just take a look round and 
 then turn in, I went to the balcony, fired 
 two shots from my revolver, and waited 
 for the detectives to rush up to me. 
 
 In the most excited tones I could affect, 
 I exclaimed: 
 
 "Just saw a man crawl out of the mid- 
 wife's flat. Think I must have hit him. 
 She's not at home," and I rushed towards 
 the open window, followed by the sleuths. 
 
 "See, her window's open. I'll get the 
 keys downstairs." 
 
 When I returned, the detectives had al- 
 ready entered by way of the window, and 
 were standing around the corpse.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 177 
 
 (The Chicago Tribune recently claimed 
 there were over 3,000 illegitimate births a 
 year in Chicago, and tried to show what 
 became of these martyrs. Some of them 
 were traced to a premature death, the des- 
 tiny of others was left in darkness. Was 
 the task beyond the power of the Tribune ? 
 No ! It was merely beyond its courage.)
 
 178 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 IX. 
 RATTLER, THE FIXER. 
 
 Rattler had been summoned to the cham- 
 ber by the detectives, and I found him 
 rummaging among the papers into whose 
 secrets I had already so deeply delved. His 
 interests were twofold ; not only did he col- 
 lect the rent and hand over the proceeds 
 to Steel, though ostensibly acting for the 
 pseudo landlords, Bloater and his heirs, but 
 both he and Steel were nephews of Inno- 
 cent, and among the papers I had found a 
 will bequeathing everything "equally to my 
 nephews, Stoneheart Steel and Richard 
 Rattler," but later amended so as to leave 
 only one quarter to the latter and the resi- 
 due to the former. 
 
 I recognized this document in his hand, 
 and an evident impatience that the detec- 
 tives might terminate their domiciliary 
 visit as soon as possible and leave the 
 apartment. 
 
 "If you've got all the facts, we may as 
 well bury her at once," he said at last. 
 
 "Don't you think we'd better let Steel 
 have a look at her?"
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 179 
 
 "Will he find out more than you know ?" 
 
 "No, not that, but he might like to take 
 a look over, himself." 
 
 "I'll answer to him. If you're through, 
 I'll get the undertakers and have it over." 
 
 The detectives took this as a hint that 
 they might depart, and accordingly left 
 Rattler and me alone. 
 
 "I want you to help me move this desk 
 into my room, and bury my aunt. I don't 
 want the undertakers to know she was 
 killed." 
 
 "I'll help with the desk; that is, I'll carry 
 the papers; but can't move the furniture 
 or the woman. Hurt my arm lifting the 
 last dead woman in this flat. Ain't going 
 to kill myself for two dead females." 
 
 "Alright, I'll get Pureheart to lend a 
 hand. Let's get the papers out first." 
 
 He emptied the papers into a sheet, and 
 we both carried them to his room adjoining 
 the hall above the saloon. I was until 
 then unaware that he slept on the prem- 
 ises or that there was a room there, or I 
 should have extended my periscopic per- 
 forations to this part of the premises. But 
 I now determined to transfer Innocent's 
 periscope to Rattler's room. I had already 
 discovered, since taking up my residence 
 in the basement, a private room in the sa- 
 loon opening on to the basement steps, and
 
 180 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 had bored a hole large enough to hear with 
 the help of a microphone what was said, 
 though I dared not risk the insertion of a 
 periscope. 
 
 As I was not interested in the imminent 
 interment of the object of the lex tcdionis, 
 I sought a much needed rest, and awoke 
 after midnight refreshed and prepared to 
 continue my sweep of the Augean Stable. 
 
 Naturally my curiosity now centered 
 around the saloon, and I had become a con- 
 firmed convivialist. Although it was near 
 closing time, I noticed an unusual number 
 of evil-looking characters still ordering 
 drinks in a manner that did not presage 
 their early departure. Immediately before 
 the doors were locked, a gentlemanly-look- 
 ing crook sauntered in, and, as soon as Rat- 
 tler caught sight of him, he beckoned him 
 to follow, and they both disappeared in 
 the direction of the basement stairs. I 
 slipped out and downstairs at once, and 
 was soon attentively listening at my micro- 
 phone. 
 
 "Can you do it ?" I heard Rattler enquire. 
 
 "What's it worth?" replied the other. 
 
 "Name your figure." 
 
 "Five hundred." 
 
 'Til pay it." 
 
 "When you want it done?" 
 
 "Right away."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 181 
 
 "Shall I work here?" 
 "I'll fix you up in my room upstairs. I've 
 got to see the boys here." 
 
 "What do you want said exactly?" 
 "Make it read like this : 
 
 'After due consideration, I have come to the 
 conclusion that my nephew, Stoneheart Steel, 
 does not require my money as much as my 
 nephew, Richard Rattler, does. I therefore will 
 and bequeath all I possess to Richard Rattler. 
 INNOCENT IMMUNE.' 
 
 "And date it today, or rather yesterday. 
 Come along!" 
 
 It was no use my following them, as I 
 would probably not gain any further in- 
 formation, even if I could watch the forger 
 at work. Accordingly I remained where 
 I was to learn what the "boys" had to im- 
 part. In about a quarter of an hour I again 
 heard voices and the most discordant dia- 
 logues it has been my lot to listen to. 
 
 I was evidently an auditor at the pro- 
 ceedings of an infamous pay-off joint. Dif- 
 ferent voices became audible in their turn, 
 and amid asseverating curses and ribald 
 interruptions on the part of Rattler, either 
 recounted or were forced to confess foul 
 deeds perpetrated and felonous spoils 
 filched. And then as a climax, and after 
 heated haggling and thumb-screw threats,
 
 182 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 each handed over a percentage of his ill- 
 gotten gains with a rake-off for the fixer, 
 Rattler. 
 
 I calculated the percentage of that night 
 to exceed $5,000. 
 
 Towards three in the morning Rattler 
 came down the stairs and walked towards 
 my room. While he pounded at my door, I 
 slipped out, and then when I descended 
 made believe that I had been upstairs. 
 
 "Up early," he remarked enquiringly. 
 
 "Too hot to sleep down here. Went up 
 for a whiff of air. What about a fan ?" 
 
 "Never mind a fan. I'll give you all the 
 air you want. Can you drive a machine?" 
 
 I nodded affirmatively. 
 
 "Must collect last month's rent. Come 
 up to the garage, and we'll get out at once." 
 
 It struck me as being an unearthly hour 
 for rent collecting, but perhaps he was go- 
 ing into the country. My surmise seemed 
 to be verified, when I noticed he steered 
 the car in the direction of the West Side. 
 But he halted before a large flat building 
 when we reached 3000. 
 
 "Watch this," he said, shifting a satchel 
 to my side and leaping from the machine. 
 "If any cops ask questions, say 'Rattle- 
 snakes.' They know I got to collect rent 
 here. If any crooks or private tecs come 
 around, and there's no cop near, beat it
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 183 
 
 home, and lie low. Keep the power on, and 
 your gun handy. I'll be down in a second. 
 Get me?" 
 
 I winked. 
 
 He ran into the hall of the building, and 
 left me with the car drawn up where no 
 lights would expose me to view. I immedi- 
 ately tried to open the satchel, but it was 
 locked. 
 
 A few seconds later another machine 
 stopped right in front of the hall door, and 
 a young fellow in evening dress handed out 
 a lady of easy virtue and hard bargains. 
 They disappeared into what I was now con- 
 vinced was a house of assignation, an aga- 
 pemone. The "rent" that Rattler collected 
 
 "While nymphs take treats, or assignations 
 give," 
 
 was evidently protection graft. 
 
 No sooner had this conviction dawned 
 upon me than the fixer appeared and 
 sprang into the car. 
 
 "Anyone around ?" he panted excitedly. 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 He then selected a key from a heavy 
 bunch at his side, turned the lock of the 
 satchel, took a heavy wad of bills from his 
 pocket, and dropped it hurriedly in, but not 
 before I had espied several other thick rolls
 
 184 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 of notes reposing at the bottom. He then 
 sped away towards the South Side. 
 
 When he closed the satchel, I noticed he 
 forgot to turn the key, and I determined 
 to make use of my opportunity at our next 
 halt ; for I presumed from the direction we 
 were taking that there was some more 
 "rent" to be collected. But why did he 
 trust me with all this money ? I could only 
 surmise that he was in some extraordinary 
 hurry to get in this "rent," and had some 
 desperate design in view. His excited ex- 
 terior lent color to my theory. 
 
 At our second halt I peeped into the sat- 
 chel. There was nothing but bills and the 
 will, which I discovered by a hasty look to 
 have been forged in Rattler's favor. 
 
 I was almost discovered in these investi- 
 gations by a policeman. 
 
 "What news?" enquired the groggy 
 guardian of the law. 
 
 "Rattlesnakes !" I replied with a grin. 
 
 The shibboleth worked like a charm, and 
 I appreciated the hasty retreat beaten 
 by the blue-coated cop. Who, especially 
 one suffering from deceptio visus, cares to 
 tackle "Rattlesnakes" at 4 A. M. ? 
 
 At our fifth halt (we made nine that 
 night or rather morning), I was accosted 
 by a sprightly young fitte de joie who was 
 wandering home alone.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 185 
 
 "What you wait for?" she enquired in 
 her charming French accent. 
 
 I replied in French, and she uttered a cry 
 of pleasure to hear it. As best I could, I 
 explained we were collecting "rent," or at 
 least I surmised we were. 
 
 A sudden frown spread over her finely 
 chiselled features, and I hastened to dis- 
 claim any connection with Rattler's errand. 
 
 "I'm only looking after the car, Made- 
 moiselle, and I love him and his trade less 
 than you do," I whispered confidentially. 
 
 Her frown relaxed. 
 
 "What's he look like?" 
 
 I described him. 
 
 "Sacre maquereau!" she hissed. "He 
 owes me ten dollars, and he hit me. I'd like 
 to knife him." 
 
 "I don't mind helping you," I answered 
 in sympathy. 
 
 She laid one delicate little hand on mine, 
 and the other she placed on my shoulder. 
 
 "I love you," she exclaimed impetuously. 
 "Come here to-morrow and ask for Mimi, 
 number fourteen." 
 
 "I'll come and see you Mademoiselle, but 
 I can't promise it'll be to-morrow night or 
 rather to-night, because I have another 
 rendezvous. But go away now, there comes 
 Rattlesnakes." 
 
 She cast a look of deep hatred at her
 
 186 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 debtor, and I almost feared that she would 
 attack him there and then. If she had had 
 a weapon handy, I believe she would not 
 have been able to restrain herself. But she 
 slipped into the shadow before Rattler rec- 
 ognized her or that she had been speaking 
 to me. 
 
 Our last stop, before we turned home- 
 ward, was in a rather genteel neighbor- 
 hood. On this occasion Rattler took the 
 bag with him, and rang the basement bell 
 of a single-storied house on the facade of 
 which I noticed a highly-polished brass 
 plate bearing the legend "Attorney at 
 Law," and some downtown office address. 
 He pressed the button intermittently for at 
 least ten minutes before he was admitted, 
 and it was daylight before he reappeared 
 minus the satchel. 
 
 We whirled home in silence, and I noticed 
 that a look of intense satisfaction had now 
 replaced the anxious and urgent light in 
 his eyes. 
 
 I had had no sleep that night, and even 
 in a healthy condition I always make it a 
 rule to have between seven and eight 
 hours' repose. I had discovered during my 
 term of active military service, when I was 
 compelled to remain in the saddle for 48 
 hours at a stretch and often for three days
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 187 
 
 and nights, that my courage waned in pro- 
 portion to the amount of sleep I missed. 
 Although my requirements in this respect 
 diminish as I grow older, on this occasion I 
 felt it my first duty to make up for lost 
 rest, in spite of the fact that most great 
 men are known to have been content with 
 about four hours, and I consider good ex- 
 amples worthy of imitation. 
 
 That night I kept a sharp lookout for 
 Steel, as I expected his encounter with his 
 cousin would be worth overhearing and 
 perhaps witnessing. Towards midnight he 
 dashed up in his racer, and before he could 
 alight, one of the detectives who had ex- 
 amined the corpus delicti in Innocent's 
 room, stepped up to him and evidently im- 
 parted the events of the day. I did not stop 
 to note the effects of the news, but hurried 
 into the saloon. 
 
 In a few minutes Steel appeared affect- 
 ing complete nonchalance. Rattler, how- 
 ever, could not hide his deep concern as his 
 cousin approached him. 
 
 I was unable to catch their words, but 
 noticed Steel's bullying scowl, and in a few 
 moments he walked off in the direction of 
 the room on the basement stair, followed 
 unwillingly and somewhat timorously by 
 Rattler. 
 
 Their departure was the signal for my
 
 188 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 own descent, but in a roundabout way, to 
 the microphone. 
 
 "You were in a hell of hurry to bury 
 her," I heard Steel say when I reached my 
 station. 
 
 "I was afraid some un might come along 
 and find out she was strangled," apologized 
 Rattler somewhat lamely. 
 
 "You needn't have let 'em see her." 
 
 "Didn't think of that." 
 
 "Who d'ye think did it and why?" 
 
 "Dunno." 
 
 "Rogers told me they didn't take any- 
 thing. Did you look through her papers ?" 
 
 There was a long pause before Rattler 
 replied almost inaudibly. 
 
 "Yah, I took 'em all into my room, to be 
 on the safe side." 
 
 "The devil you did," shouted Steel, "and 
 what ye do that for ?" 
 
 "Thought she might have some papers 
 that nobody but us ought to see." 
 
 "Did you find the will?" 
 
 "Yah, and I took it to my attorney." 
 
 "Oh ! You did, did you ? And what was 
 your reason for that?" sneered his inter- 
 locutor. 
 
 Rattler's voice was loud and defiant when 
 he retorted: 
 
 "Because I read it, and noticed you'd 
 made her change it and leave three quar-
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 189 
 
 ters to you and only one quarter to me. But 
 she came to her senses, and left it all to me 
 at last." 
 
 "So," drawled Steel sarcastically, "that's 
 interesting, very interesting. And when 
 did our dear aunt come to her senses, my 
 dear cousin?" 
 
 "Didn't look at the date." 
 
 "That's strange! You were so careful 
 about everything else." 
 
 Then his voice changed and rang out 
 sharply : 
 
 "That will will bear close inspection, and 
 your hurry to bury your dear aunt, cross- 
 examination. I must see that will." 
 
 "You can see it at my attorney's," re- 
 joined Rattler aggressively. 
 
 There was a long silence, then Steel en- 
 quired, and I heard the menace in his voice : 
 
 "The boys were here last night. What's 
 the figure?" 
 
 "I kept it on account of the ten thousand 
 you owe me as my share." 
 
 "You're getting very independent, my 
 dear cousin. But I'd like to know how much 
 it was." 
 
 "Two thou." 
 
 "I'll have to check that up. Should have 
 been double. Rogers told me that you were 
 out for a spin this morning. Where did 
 you go with the janitor?"
 
 190 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "I'm not compelled to give you an ac- 
 count of all my movements. But if you'd 
 like to know, I went round to the 'houses.' " 
 
 "Did you go to see that little kid that 
 you owe $10 to, and who you punched for 
 dunning you, or did you go on business ?" 
 
 "I collected about $1,100." 
 
 "And I expect you applied it as you did 
 what the 'boys' brought ? I must go round 
 and see the ladies. Last time it was 
 $3,000." 
 
 Then his tones changed abruptly and he 
 hurled between his teeth : 
 
 "I'll give you half an hour to hand over 
 the swag and till 9 o'clock to-morrow to get 
 me that will." 
 
 I heard footsteps, an opening door, then 
 Rattler's voice: 
 
 "I'll see you in hell first!" 
 
 There was a sudden rush, and a body 
 came tumbling down the basement steps. 
 I peered between the cases and barrels 
 which I had arranged to shield me, and 
 my eyes, accustomed to the obscurity, 
 made out the figure of Rattler rising slow- 
 ly to his knees. A moment later Steel's 
 outlines came into view. 
 
 They were both powerful men inured to 
 the eventualities of a rough-and-tumble 
 life. Rattler might have been the heavier 
 and stronger, but Steel possessed intelli- 
 gence and science.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 191 
 
 The former crouched in silence till his 
 assailant came within reach, then he leapt 
 at him like a lion, and they both crashed 
 to the floor. It was too dark, and I was not 
 favorably situated to witness all the vicis- 
 situdes of this consanguineous contest. 
 
 Neither of them said anything as they 
 rolled hither and thither; it was only 
 their violent panting that gave me an ink- 
 ling of the progress of the battle. 
 
 At last their struggles ceased, and they 
 lay quiet for several minutes. 
 
 Then I noticed the tall figure of Steel 
 rise laboriously from his prostrate oppo- 
 nent, and stand over him in silence as if 
 contemplating the vindication of his own 
 prowess. 
 
 After what might have been a quarter 
 of an hour's reflection in this immobile at- 
 titude, he moved away towards the door by 
 which he had descended. This he closed 
 and bolted. The other doors which gave 
 access to the saloon basement were simi- 
 larly secured. Then he made the tour of 
 the large vats which encircled the cellar, 
 and examined each one carefully. The in- 
 spection completed, he returned to the mo- 
 tionless body of his cousin, lifted it with 
 apparent effort and carried it towards one 
 of the vats. With greater difficulty he at- 
 tempted to raise the body to the top of
 
 192 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 the vat, but his strength proved inadequate, 
 and he let the body sink to the ground 
 again. 
 
 Overcome by the exertion, he sat down 
 on the ledge which projected beyond the 
 vat, and looked around in search of some 
 appliance to aid him in his purpose. A skid 
 standing in a corner attracted his atten- 
 tion. He sprang to his feet, stepped swiftly 
 to the skid, and carried it to the vat. Using 
 this as an inclined plane and a ladder, he 
 pushed the body before him to the top, and 
 then allowed it to slide silently into the 
 liquor which the vat no doubt contained. 
 
 Thus immersed in the element with 
 which he was saturated and with which 
 he had hastened the end of innum- 
 erable others, Rattler, if not already dead, 
 had meted out to him through some in- 
 scrutable retributive justice a death 
 worthy of his life. 
 
 His sexton, slayer, and cousin did not 
 stop to mourn or exult, but immediately 
 closed the lid of the vat, and left the base- 
 ment by a different door from which he had 
 entered. I allowed him several minutes to 
 precede me, and then left my lurking place, 
 and proceeded to the saloon again. 
 
 In a few minutes Steel entered the bar, 
 asked the tender for a drink, for which he 
 did not pay, and brought it over to the
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 193 
 
 table where I sat. He had changed his 
 clothes, had a wash and brush up, and the 
 closest observer would not have recognized 
 in this spruce and collected person the in- 
 dividual who had only a quarter of an hour 
 before sent a relative to his doom and con- 
 signed him to his sepulchre. 
 
 "Would you remember where you went 
 last night?" he enquired suavely. 
 
 -"Guess some, not all," I replied. 
 
 "I wanted to send you to the attorney 
 where Rattler left some papers. Do you 
 remember his office ?" 
 
 I was certain that he did not know the 
 attorney or his address himself, but I al- 
 lowed him to draw me. 
 
 "Yep, his name's , and Rattler 
 
 left the bag and a bunch of greenbacks 
 there too," I volunteered ingenuously. 
 
 "Fine ! You've got a head on your shoul- 
 ders. Exactly what I wanted to send you 
 for. Rattler was afraid to keep 'em here. 
 Just wait five minutes." 
 
 He rose and entered a telephone booth. 
 When he returned to me, he beckoned to 
 the bar-tender to approach us. 
 
 "Rattler's gone on his vacation for a 
 couple of weeks. Hand over the cash and 
 take your orders from him," he said, point- 
 ing to me, "when I'm not here. Go on!" 
 and he ordered the man back to his work 
 with a wave of his hand.
 
 194 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 In all my ambitions for new experiences, 
 I had never aspired to the dignity of a sa- 
 loon-keeper, but I was now virtually in the 
 position of one who has greatness thrust 
 upon him. Without such compulsion I 
 should never have achieved this altitude. 
 I accordingly bowed to the inevitable, took 
 my preferment with beseeming modesty, 
 and determined not to be puffed up with 
 overweening pride. 
 
 "Rattler runs an ad.," began Steel, "in 
 the afternoon papers for performers. 
 When the girls turn up, you tell 'em exper- 
 ience isn't necessary. All they have to do 
 is to dance with 'reubens/ and when you 
 blow the whistle every minute, they've got 
 to line the men up against the mahogany 
 to buy drinks. The bar-tender sells 'em 
 two small whisky glasses filled with a soft 
 drink and charges the rube 15 cents. A 
 nickel of that money goes to the girl, you 
 get the second nickel, and the bar gets the 
 third nickel. Of course, if they want to 
 order something stronger, nobody will re- 
 fuse to serve 'em. Tell the kids a 'live 
 wire' can make as high as $15 a night. 
 Get me?" 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 By the time I had received sufficient in- 
 struction to enable me to practise my new 
 vocation with profit, the gentlemanly look-
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 195 
 
 ing crook who had forged the will in Rat- 
 tler's favor appeared on the scene, appar- 
 ently in response to Steel's 'phone call, for 
 he approached our table, Steel immediately 
 retired with him to the room of his former 
 exploits, and I was told to wait where I 
 was for their return. 
 
 In half an hour Steel brought me a 
 sealed envelope addressed to the attorney 
 Rattler had visited, told me to take the 
 street-car to my destination, and, if asked 
 who had sent me, to answer, Rattler. I no- 
 ticed that the handwriting was an excellent 
 forgery of Rattler's scrawl, and the en- 
 velope probably contained a request for the 
 return of the will and the money, but, as 
 I was sure I should be shadowed on my 
 errand, I felt that I should not be able to 
 verify this. 
 
 Thus was I delegated a Messenger of 
 Hell.
 
 196 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 X. 
 WAGINSKY, THE WITTOL. 
 
 A friend of mine, who had taken the 
 trouble to read the previous chapters of 
 this story, expressed the fear that it would 
 not sell. 
 
 "Your criticisms of American morals are 
 too personal to be palatable," he said. 
 
 "Are they true?" I enquired. 
 
 "I cannot deny that they are true, but 
 you should never show up a man's weak- 
 nesses or those of his kin to his face. Now, 
 for instance, if you had gone after the 
 'dayum furriner,' the 'dayum Dutchman,' 
 the 'dayum Mick,' the 'dayum Dago' or the 
 'dayum Greaser,' the American public 
 would applaud your castigation of them to 
 the re-echo, but now they won't buy you. 
 The Americans like flattery, you know. To 
 be popular you must be pleasing." 
 
 "Charms strike the sight, but merit wins 
 the soul," I quoted sententiously and rather 
 too egotistically for a modest man. "You 
 know that of greater importance to me 
 than the almighty dollar is the omnipotent
 
 197 
 
 truth. 'That golden key that opes the pal- 
 ace of eternity/ " 
 
 "I'm afraid you will have little chance of 
 entering the palace of eternity. You have 
 taken the law into your own hands and the 
 lives of many." 
 
 "I know of no divine injunction against 
 my actions, yet, as I have told you before, 
 I do not justify myself, I merely condone 
 under present extenuating conditions. I am 
 an opponent of capital punishment, but I 
 have no means of reformatory restraint at 
 my disposal. I have always advocated re- 
 spect for the law, but you know as well as 
 I do that evasion and corruption of the law 
 are general in this country, and, if I ap- 
 pealed to the law, the men and women 
 whom I have hunted and will hunt to their 
 doom would have found means of frustrat- 
 ing my efforts. 
 
 "That brings us back to our starting 
 point your opinion that Americans will 
 resent my caustic criticisms. 
 
 " 'He makes no friend who never made 
 a foe.' 
 
 "If I were not indifferent to, in fact an 
 audacious antagonist of, American society, 
 I should not have taken up this purging 
 profession. But you are mistaken when 
 you think that the best American writers 
 are whitewashers.
 
 198 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "Look at this page of the Sunday Tri- 
 bune. These writers are supposed to be 
 among the best, and they do nothing week 
 after week but pull American society to 
 bits. Their articles to-day do not happen 
 to be apropos to our subject, but listen to 
 what they say. 
 
 Yes, there is no doubt of it, 'tis the American 
 from and of the United States upon whom the 
 Mexicans look as the foreigner most foreign 
 to their heart and mind, the gringo maldito. 
 This being true, why is it true? It will not 
 do to answer the question in the would-be 
 superior jingo way, by shrugging shoulders and 
 smiling contemptuously and drooling out some 
 jeering sentences to the effect that "The uh 
 dayum Greasers uh are nothing but dayum 
 savidges ennyhow uh and don't like us be- 
 cause they've got no better sense uh and 
 hate all our glorious cee-vee-ly-zashun uh 
 and it don't make a dayum bit of difference 
 ennyway what those Greasers think of US 
 uh "et cetera, ad nauseam. 
 
 Because that kind of jingo drivel is quite 
 as false as it is idiotic. It is not a particle less 
 false and idiotic than was and is the jingo 
 drivel, lamentably common in these United 
 States for the last half century or so, which 
 pronounced US able to "lick 'em all uh; let 
 'em all come uh; lick the whole world uh ; 
 hands down," et cetera, ad majorem nauseam, 
 and which represents a species of national im- 
 becility that has left us unprepared, practically 
 helpless, in the event of any serious martial 
 trouble. Wherefore, it could not possibly be
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 199 
 
 more fearfully false and disgustingly idiotic 
 than it is. 
 
 Granted the right to psychologize with a 
 people instead of an individual for a subject, 
 one may justly hold that the worst psychic 
 blemish, fault, or evil of the American nation 
 is the puerile self-admiration to which such 
 jingoistic self-praise, always implying jingo- 
 istic contempt for others, as has been instanced 
 in preceding paragraphs, bears witness un- 
 deniably. 
 
 "And the other, who also is a professor 
 at a great American university and a man 
 who had travelled much and is therefore 
 able to judge and compare, writes in a sim- 
 ilar strain in spite of the ill-will of his coun- 
 trymen." 
 
 It is not altogether Mr. Wilson's brand of 
 neutrality, his temporizing attitude of mind 
 and soul, the blundering of the Democratic 
 administration from the beginning of the war, 
 although without any doubt our president by 
 expressing the more timid, cowardly, and self- 
 ish desires of the people has had an enormous 
 influence in making them the prevailing will of 
 the nation. It is not the unimaginative and 
 gross pacifism of large sections of our country, 
 too remote apparently from the actualities of 
 any life outside their own placid horizons to 
 care much of what is happening to the whole 
 world. It is not the confused, unthinking way 
 in which Americans have long been accustomed 
 to express their political purposes. It is not 
 wholly our low grade politicians who have
 
 200 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 betrayed us, nor the fact that during two years 
 of the most tremendous object-lesson humanity 
 has ever had offered to it we have talked much 
 and done practically nothing to prepare our- 
 selves for either peace or war. It is not any 
 one or all of these reasons which convince me, 
 for instance, that Mr. Wells is right, that the 
 United States of America will play no im- 
 portant role such as it might easily have played 
 in settling the destinies of the world for the 
 next hundreds of years, in making the vision 
 of international peace something more than a 
 forensic entertainment. It is, rather, the spirit 
 of our people to-day as displayed in their activi- 
 ties and preoccupations, also by the blunt 
 utterances of many of our supposedly enlight- 
 ened citizens. 
 
 What precious thing beyond self-complacency, 
 "dreams of aloofness and ineffable superiority," 
 should we abandon by frankly admitting that 
 we are one of the world's family of great 
 nations, vitally concerned in all that concerns 
 them, above all, concerned in maintaining peace 
 among them? 
 
 "You see I am not alone in my refusal to 
 admire these Snobs of the Stars and 
 Stripes, and I can assure you that this is 
 the mildest stuff I have read for months. 
 If I can give these self-complacent Yankees 
 a jolt on their pedestal, I am merely follow- 
 ing the prevailing fashion of their best 
 scribes. 
 
 "Now let me get to the story of Wagin- 
 sky. It will please you, as I did not kill
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 201 
 
 anyone or take the law into my own 
 hands." 
 
 The drug-store adjoined the saloon, and 
 as I had now been virtually initiated into 
 the arcana of the gang, I had ample oppor- 
 tunities for spying on Waginsky's activ- 
 ities, learning the subterfuges resorted to 
 by dope fiends under the new law, and how 
 they lie, rob, and murder to procure drugs. 
 
 The Harrison law prohibits all persons 
 from selling or giving away habit forming 
 drugs without a physician's prescription or 
 under the direct instruction of a physician. 
 The penalty for violation is a fine of not 
 more than $2,000 or imprisonment for not 
 more than five years or both. That doc- 
 tors, dentists, druggists, veterinarians or 
 others may obtain them, the statute pro- 
 vides that they shall register at the United 
 States internal revenue office, pay a small 
 license fee and obtain a supply of 100 
 blanks, which, when properly filled out, es- 
 tablish their right to purchase morphine, 
 cocaine, heroin or any of their derivatives 
 for use in their business. 
 
 Waginsky was not adverse to selling 
 drugs without a permit, though I noticed 
 that he often sent his clients, especially if 
 they were new to him and came merely on 
 the introduction of a regular friend, up to
 
 202 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 Dr. Pureheart for a prescription, which 
 was very rarely refused. 
 
 His homemade candy, in the manufac- 
 ture of which I discovered Madame Coupler 
 was his chief aid, was very popular among 
 the boys and girls who attended the school 
 in the rear block, and I could not under- 
 stand why these children paid $1 and $1.50 
 a pound for it, till I stole some myself, and 
 found it filled with different varieties of 
 dope. 
 
 Since so many of Steel's associates had 
 been removed from their activities, Wago 
 was allowed to fawn upon his tyrant, who 
 often condescended to take a drink with 
 his satellite and honor him with his conver- 
 sation. 
 
 One evening I overheard Steel telling 
 him a story that interested him much. A 
 young man had presented himself at the 
 police station and made a confession to the 
 effect that he and a former engraver in the 
 United States treasury department were 
 living in a houseboat on the river and were 
 there engaged in the manufacture of bogus 
 banknotes. He told them that he had be- 
 come conscience-stricken and had decided 
 to give himself up and take his punishment. 
 His story was so plausible and told with 
 such a wealth of detail that he had fooled 
 even Steel himself.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 203 
 
 After the confession, Steel went on to re- 
 count, a look of intense agony had spread 
 over the young man's face, he pressed his 
 knuckles into the pit of his stomach and 
 writhed in apparent torture. He explained 
 that he was suffering from cramps, was 
 taken to a city dispensary, and there sev- 
 eral injections of morphine were admin- 
 istered. 
 
 Then came the climax to the tale. In a 
 few minutes the whole demeanor of the 
 penitent had changed. He had become 
 ecstatically happy, and under the influ- 
 ence of the drug had admitted that his 
 whole story was a mere fabrication, a 
 dodge to obtain a "shot" of the drug for 
 which he craved. 
 
 "That's a good one," laughed Wago in 
 undisguised admiration. "Pureheart told 
 me one the other day that he got at the 
 Federal Building, but it's not half as good 
 as yours. I'll tell it you, if you like." 
 
 Stoneheart's familiarity seemed to em- 
 bolden him, and he immediately changed 
 his mind and thought a yarn of his own 
 without the additional glamour of Pure- 
 heart's name might be ventured : 
 
 "But first I'll tell you one of my own, how 
 I cured Righteous, and then how one of my 
 clients left the habit behind him at Joliet, 
 dog gast him.
 
 204 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "You know our former janitor used to 
 take 26 grains of morphine a day, and none 
 of us could get any hot water or steam 
 when he was doped. He gave me $50 to 
 buy him a supply, and I agreed to get it 
 for him, if he allowed me to administer it. 
 When he came for his shot every morning, 
 I reduced the injections a quarter of a 
 grain a day and substituted quinine. No- 
 body can tell the difference between pow- 
 dered morphine and quinine, you know. At 
 last I gave him pure quinine, and that's 
 what he was taking when he disappeared." 
 
 "I couldn't account for his loss of mem- 
 ory," grunted Steel, "but now I understand, 
 it was your quinine." 
 
 "Yes, quinine has that effect," endorsed 
 Wago as if paying a tribute to the detec- 
 tive's toxicological acumen. "Don't you 
 think it was a good dodge of mine?" he 
 continued, seeking an expression of ap- 
 proval. 
 
 "Let's hear the other," replied Steel, 
 ignoring the question. 
 
 "You remember that young assistant in- 
 structor of chemistry that was picked up 
 in the streets by the police and who was in 
 the habit of spending Saturday night up- 
 stairs with Yvette? He used to buy $1 
 worth of morphine from me and sell half 
 of it to his chums for $1. They put him
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 205 
 
 away for four months, but let him out 
 after he had served three. That cured 
 him ; I lost a regular customer, and Yvette 
 her best sucker." 
 
 "I've heard that before," drawled Steel. 
 "Give us Pureheart's." 
 
 Somewhat crestfallen at this lack of ap- 
 preciation, Wago continued: 
 
 "One of his ovariotomy clients who had 
 been using dope for 30 years registered as 
 a physician and received a book of blanks, 
 but before she could use any, she was de- 
 tected, and fined $500 for riiaking a false 
 affidavit. She had given Pureheart as a 
 reference, and that's how he got to hear 
 about it." 
 
 "Served her right for not getting it 
 through Pureheart," mumbled Steel. 
 
 At this stage of the conversation I was 
 called away to another part of the saloon, 
 and missed the remainder of these interest- 
 ing anecdotes. 
 
 I was racking my brain for a means to 
 prevent Waginsky's nefarious trade and at 
 the same time trying to devise a suitable 
 form of punishment for him, when a letter 
 from Yvette changed my whole attitude in 
 this matter. Part of this effusive outburst 
 of gratitude contained the following pass- 
 age:
 
 206 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "May has written me that you are deter- 
 mined to exterminate the whole block. 
 Please don't kill Madame Coupler. She 
 tried to help me, but she couldn't. Her hus- 
 band, Waginsky, is a bad man. He's a 
 gambler, and often makes her do wicked 
 things, and then he takes her money. But 
 don't kill them, at least don't kill her. Just 
 threaten them, and I'm sure they'll be 
 afraid, and engage in some other kind of 
 business. They're both big poltroons." 
 
 It was news to me that Madame Coupler 
 was Mrs. Wago Waginsky, but I decided 
 not to antagonize Yvette's solicitude and 
 to put her advice to the test. That evening 
 I made use of a neighboring booth and 
 called Madame up. 
 
 "Hello, Mrs. Waginsky, don't you know 
 me?" 
 
 "No, who are you ?" 
 
 "Your old ami, Monsieur High." 
 
 "Oh ! I haven't got a room for you." 
 
 "I don't want a room. I want to give 
 you and your husband some sound advice. 
 Now, if you value your life, you'd better 
 take my advice, and don't put the receiver 
 up, or warn anyone, till I'm through. I'm 
 the man that's cleaning up your block. I 
 took May and Yvette and a few others out 
 of your clutches." 
 
 "0 God, I knew it."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 207 
 
 "No, you didn't. Shut up, and listen. I 
 settled Jambon, Rattler, Speedway, 
 Bloater, Innocent, Ching Wo Po, Fujii, and 
 Calls. Now there's only Steel and Pure- 
 heart left, and I'm leaving them for the 
 last. You and your wittol don't count, be- 
 cause I'll strangle you both in bed if you 
 don't beat it." 
 
 "We'll go, don't kill" 
 
 "Shut up. Before you go, you've got to 
 do something. Give each of your pension- 
 
 naires $50 and send them up to Mrs. 's 
 
 home, , Montreal. Then tell your 
 
 wittol to make a clean sweep downstairs 
 before he sells out, and to warn his suc- 
 cessor to run a clean business, or I'll slice 
 him up into mince-meat." 
 
 "OLord!" 
 
 "Shut up! Take all the tobacco, dope, 
 home-made candy, the pornographic books 
 and photos which you keep for sale in the 
 back room, the Aphro stuff with the ram's 
 head and the picture of the impotent young 
 man surrounded by nude girls in your win- 
 dow, the aphrodisiacal drugs and appli- 
 ances which you import via Holland, the 
 smutty toys you get from Germany, and 
 pitch the whole lot into the furnace. Then 
 take all the rubber goods out of the win- 
 dow and put them where they belong, in a 
 cupboard, out of sight of the school kids
 
 208 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 who enter and pass your store. When you 
 have made it respectable inside and out, 
 sell it to some decent pharmacist, and you 
 and your wittol beat it to where you can 
 earn a decent living. Now you'd better 
 make things hum, as I've got my eye on 
 you. Good night !" 
 
 When I returned to the block, I made it 
 my business to hang around Madame' s flat, 
 and soon discovered an unusual commotion 
 there. Everybody seemed to be packing, 
 and Madame visibly bore the effects of my 
 scare. When I descended to the drug-store, 
 I noticed that Wago still plied his tarta- 
 rean traffic unconcerned. Perhaps he had 
 not been cautioned or consulted ? 
 
 While I was still making my observation, 
 Steel entered the store and was immedi- 
 ately monopolized by Wago. After a few 
 minutes of earnest conference, the former 
 hurried up to Mrs. Wago, and all I could 
 gather, when I followed him, was that a 
 heated discussion was under way, which, 
 however, did not interrupt in the least the 
 preparations for a general exodus. Madame 
 was evidently bent on flight. 
 
 As Steel passed out of the flat, he caught 
 sight of me sweeping the balcony and im- 
 mediately accosted me: 
 
 "You've got to keep a sharp lookout to- 
 night. Some guy's threatened Waginsky
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 209 
 
 and his wife, and she's got scared. I'll put 
 somebody on to watch her flat and the 
 drug-store, but it won't do any harm if 
 you keep an eye on 'em too." 
 
 "I'll keep two eyes on 'em," I replied 
 boldly and truthfully, for I had my own 
 motives not to lose sight of the dope-dis- 
 penser and his gray mare. 
 
 From about 10 P. M. to midnight I 
 assisted Madame and her pensionnaires. 
 merely for the purpose of discovering their 
 plans. Madame was bound for New York 
 to stay with a sister, three of the girls 
 were going to Canada to the friend of mine 
 who had started a lace factory for fallen 
 women, two had decided not to leave Chi- 
 cago, but to move to a house on the South 
 Side. 
 
 Just before closing time; and after Wag- 
 insky had already extinguished several of 
 his lights, I walked past his store and took 
 a peep in. Only two customers remained, 
 and they were smoking at a table, with 
 empty glasses before them. Something 
 about their physiognomies attracted my at- 
 tention. They were either drunkards or 
 dope fiends. Wago was not visible, pre- 
 sumably he was at the back in his prescrip- 
 tion laboratory; his two assistants had 
 left, and a detective was strolling back and 
 forth before the block.
 
 210 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 In the laboratory was a door opening on 
 to the basement steps from which through 
 the keyhole one might obtain a view of the 
 dispensers at work, and, if the door were 
 slightly ajar, also hear their conversation. 
 I now hurried to these steps by way of the 
 basement, and crawled stealthily up to- 
 wards the laboratory. Before I could see 
 anything, I could hear a voice : 
 
 "We want some cocaine." 
 
 "How much ?" I heard Wago enquire. 
 
 "We just want some, to take home. 
 Ain't got no money to-night." 
 
 "Can't have it." 
 
 "We've got to have it." 
 
 "Nothing doing." 
 
 By this time I had crept up several steps, 
 and now saw one of the men I had noticed 
 in the store standing before Waginsky. Be- 
 fore the latter was aware of his intention 
 or able to utter a cry, the man had seized 
 him by the throat and compressed his wind- 
 pipe. Wago was a puny specimen of hu- 
 manity, and did not even attempt to shake 
 his assailant off. 
 
 The man now whistled to his companion, 
 and I saw the other enter the laboratory. 
 
 "Switch off the lights in the store, and 
 give me a package of that bandage to gag 
 him." 
 
 The switch-board was near the base-
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 211 
 
 ment door, and, as I heard several clicks, 
 I presumed the lights were extinguished. 
 Then they bound and gagged their victim, 
 and forced him to a sitting posture on the 
 floor. 
 
 Now began their search for their favor- 
 ite drug. They ransacked every shelf, 
 drawer, and bottle, until at last I heard 
 one exclaim : 
 
 "I've got it." 
 
 They both seated themselves near their 
 powerless prisoner, and shot the cursed co- 
 caine into their veins. As the drug began 
 to show its effects, their voices grew louder 
 and their demeanor bolder. 
 
 "Say, Shortey, tell us the combination 
 of the safe." 
 
 "How the can he talk when he's 
 
 gagged !" laughed the other. 
 
 "Right y'are. We'll make him write it. 
 Loosen his right hand." 
 
 They untied his hand, and put a pencil 
 into it, and I noticed him write something 
 on a pad one of the fiends held before him. 
 They then started turning the lock of the 
 safe, but they had either been given the 
 wrong combination, or their muddled brains 
 were unable to operate it correctly, for all 
 their efforts to open the safe proved futile. 
 Their failure exasperated them beyond 
 control, and the cocaine-mad desperadoes
 
 212 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 now turned their rage upon the chemist. 
 One of them seized a brass pestle from a 
 mortar and dashed out Waginsky's brains. 
 
 I did not stop to witness any further 
 scenes in this drama, but rushed up into 
 the saloon where I expected to find Steel, 
 and told him only that I had heard a noise 
 in the drug-store and thought something 
 was wrong. 
 
 He summoned several of his myrmidons 
 and ordered them to surround the store, 
 while I hypocritically warned them not to 
 forget the basement. 
 
 The fiends had not even taken the pre- 
 caution to lock the street door, and Steel, 
 followed by several detectives, had merely 
 to walk straight in. I followed discreetly 
 in the rear. 
 
 As soon as I entered, I heard the oaths 
 of the madmen as they smashed the bottles 
 and jars around them. 
 
 Steel stepped boldly forward with his 
 revolver in his hand. The fiends, totally 
 oblivious to our approach, continued their 
 work of destruction, not altogether with- 
 out my approval. 
 
 The posse made a sudden rush, and the 
 men, taken by surprise, were easily over- 
 powered. 
 
 Waginsky lay dead on his side, bathed 
 in a pool of blood and covered with a
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 213 
 
 shroud of broken bottles and the drugs 
 which had finally found a fitting object 
 for their effects. 
 
 "I wonder if these are the nuts that have 
 been operating against us?" queried Steel 
 pensively. 
 
 I did not proffer an opinion.
 
 214 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 XL 
 
 STEEL'S STRAPPADO. 
 
 Since Waginsky's death I had noticed a 
 great change in Steel's costive and caute- 
 lous conduct. It was no longer with him, 
 "Give every man thine ear, but few thy 
 voice." One could say, "What a spend- 
 thrift is he of his tongue !" The arrest of 
 the fiends had evidently allayed his suspi- 
 cions, but enhanced his loneliness. He now 
 had time to perceive that all his associates 
 had dropped away, either into the grave or 
 remoteness. Pureheart had never been his 
 intimate, and was too busy to console or 
 divert. 
 
 Whenever he visited the Block, he 
 sought my company and tried to extract 
 from me the story of my past. I spun him 
 a yarn, in which I allowed my imaginative 
 powers full play. When he thought that 
 my confessions had placed me in his power, 
 he rewarded me with his own confidences, 
 by suggesting that I could make a pot of 
 money, if I cared to fill one of the posts left 
 vacant by the recent deaths.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 215 
 
 "The only thing I'm fit for is to run the 
 saloon," I suggested. "But I've got no 
 money." 
 
 "We'll fix that. You can pay me out of 
 the profits." 
 
 "How about Rattler?" I queried inno- 
 cently. 
 
 He could not hide his embarrassment for 
 several seconds. 
 
 "To tell the truth," he said at last, "Rat- 
 tler told me he was tired of the job, and 
 if I could get some one else to run the 
 place, he wouldn't come back." 
 
 "All right then. We'll talk it over, but 
 you'd better get a new janitor first. The 
 basement makes me sick, and heaving coal 
 don't help my arm any." 
 
 "I'll get one to-morrow." 
 
 "Then, if you don't mind advancing me 
 a few dollars, so's I can go on the bum for 
 a week or so, and get well, I'll be much 
 obliged." 
 
 "How much?" 
 
 "Well, say $50." 
 
 He told the bar-tender to give me the 
 money. 
 
 "Have a drink on it, while we write a 
 contract." 
 
 I noticed that he now sought every pre- 
 text for a drink, whereas formerly, though 
 a hard drinker, he would never allow him- 
 self to be drawn into a drinking bout.
 
 216 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 I had demanded the vacation not princi- 
 pally for the sake of my health, but be- 
 cause I wished to have leisure to track my 
 employer, and to bring matters to a head 
 with Pureheart. I hoped to be able to do 
 this before the time arrived when I should 
 have to take charge of the saloon, more 
 mephitic than the basement to my consti- 
 tution. 
 
 I have always fled happiness, since ex- 
 perience taught me that its quest brought 
 me only misery. If I had to choose a voca- 
 tion with an eye to the minimum of felic- 
 ity it could impart, I would choose the one 
 least repulsive to my nature. 
 
 "They are happy men whose natures 
 sort with their vocations." 
 
 The first act of my holiday was to hire 
 the most powerful motor-cycle I could find, 
 and fly out of the city, until I was sure 
 that I was not being shadowed. Then I 
 returned as near as it was prudent to the 
 Block, and waited for Steel to pass in his 
 racer. He usually drove up to the limit, 
 and since my advent, had been on the alert 
 to see whether he was followed. I trusted 
 to his present unsuspicious, inebrious 
 mood, and my distance five blocks away, to 
 allay his habitual vigilance. 
 
 I waited patiently for at least an hour 
 before he whirled past me in his green
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 217 
 
 car. Then I sprang into the seat and be- 
 gan to track him, allowing several other 
 machines to intervene between us. I had 
 not troubled to disguise myself, as I had 
 decided that, if he recognized me, I would 
 not attempt any subterfuge, but would ac- 
 cost him with the plausible remark that I 
 was going into the country. 
 
 We threaded our way along Sheridan 
 Road at top speed, and I often had diffi- 
 culty to keep him in sight as he dashed 
 past the advance cars whenever opportun- 
 ity offered. 
 
 We were soon in Evanston, and I had to 
 increase the distance between us, as he 
 had left the main artery, and there were 
 no machines between us. The road was 
 dark and badly paved, and the houses sep- 
 arated by long stretches of field or garden. 
 
 Suddenly he stopped, and at the same 
 instant I halted my cycle and switched off 
 the light. As he did not continue his 
 route, I drew my machine into the long 
 grass at the side of the road, laid it flat, 
 and started to crawl forward on my hands 
 and toes in scout fashion. 
 
 How often have I reconnoitered or 
 trailed man and beast in this wise, some- 
 times on my hands and knees, at other 
 times flat on my stomach, wriggling for- 
 ward like a serpent ! The sensation brought
 
 218 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 back to me tender memories of koodoo 
 stalking and Boer ferreting on the sere 
 Karoo and through serried kopjes. 
 
 When I arrived opposite the car, I no- 
 ticed that it was drawn up at the side of 
 the road, and Steel was nowhere to be seen. 
 There were no houses near, at least I could 
 not discover the outlines of any in the dark, 
 but I made out several clumps of trees and 
 patches of shrubbery a little to my left. I 
 worked my way towards these, so as to ap- 
 proach them from the opposite direction. 
 My progress was necessarily slow, as the 
 night was dark and cloudy, and I was not 
 certain that this was not a trap set for my 
 own destruction. 
 
 As soon as I began to hear voices, I 
 stopped and listened. 
 
 "Is this why you sent for me?" I heard 
 Steel say in angry tones. 
 
 "Isn't it sufficient reason ?" came the re- 
 ply in a sweet, plaintive, girlish voice. "I'm 
 going to be a mother, Ted, and I don't want 
 to be a mother without a husband. You 
 promised to marry me before I yielded to 
 you, and we can't put it off any longer, if 
 you wish to save our honor." 
 
 "You can go to a doctor," was the surly 
 rejoinder. 
 
 "Go to a doctor ! I don't know what you 
 mean. I don't know any doctors, and I'd
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 219 
 
 be afraid to go to a stranger, and it's dan- 
 gerous. Besides, why should I go? Don't 
 you want to marry me any more, Ted ?" 
 
 "You can go to your father, he's a spe- 
 cialist in this line." 
 
 "My father! Are you crazy, Ted? Go 
 to my father, and tell him of my of my 
 ! No. I'd rather die." 
 
 "You can disguise yourself, so he won't 
 know you." 
 
 There was a long silence before the sad, 
 resigned voice spoke again: 
 
 "Ted, you haven't answered me. Won't 
 you marry me?" 
 
 The answer was sharp and brutal : 
 
 "You may as well know now as later, 
 Julia. You're not the kind of wife for me." 
 
 "O my God!" 
 
 The cry was low and heartrending, then 
 she crashed to the grass. 
 
 I heard hurried footsteps, and a few mo- 
 ments after the snort of his machine as it 
 flung itself away into the dolorous night. 
 
 Casting prudence to the winds, I crept 
 hastily forward until I reached the pros- 
 trate form of a girl. At first I thought 
 she was dead, and a sudden desire to follow 
 and fire made my veins swell. But then I 
 noticed the beating of her heart, and after 
 I had torn open her corset and induced her 
 respiration, she began to moan, and gradu- 
 ally came to her senses.
 
 220 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "Don't be afraid, Miss. I was passing, 
 and saw you lying here. Tell me where 
 you live, and I'll help you home." 
 
 "No, I'm afraid to go home. God, what 
 will become of me?" 
 
 Then she arrested herself in sudden self- 
 possession. 
 
 "What am I talking about ? I must have 
 fainted." 
 
 She tried to rise, but her limbs refused 
 to raise her. She passed her hands over 
 her loosened dress and corset, and I has- 
 tened to explain: 
 
 "I unbuttoned your clothes to give you 
 air. While I go for my cycle, you take off 
 your corset and fasten your skirt and 
 blouse. Then I'll put you on behind me and 
 take you home." 
 
 To spare her further embarrassment or 
 reply, I hurried away for my machine. 
 When I returned, she had arranged her at- 
 tire and was able to stand. 
 
 "I think I'll walk if you'll help me. I 
 don't want anyone to see me, and I'd be so 
 conspicuous on your motor-cycle." 
 
 "We'll ride till we get near the houses," 
 I suggested. "Then you may get off and 
 walk. But can't we go to a garage where 
 I can leave the wheel? Then I can take 
 you to your home." 
 
 She thought for a moment before she re- 
 plied :
 
 
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 221 
 
 "You are very kind, Sir. Your voice 
 makes me trust you, though I can't see 
 your face. I'm sure you don't mean to 
 harm me." 
 
 "If I thought you could walk home, I 
 wouldn't press my assistance upon you," 
 I replied gently. "But if you will tell me 
 where your friends or relatives live, I'll go 
 and tell them, and they can come and fetch 
 you." 
 
 "Oh, no, Sir, not that," she answered 
 apologetically. "I shouldn't like any one to 
 know. I didn't mean you to think that I 
 can't trust you. I believe you, I'm sure 
 you're a gentleman, and I'll go with you, if 
 you'll help me now." 
 
 "Well, do you know a garage that we 
 can reach without being seen ? You can get 
 off near it, I'll store the wheel, and hurry 
 back to you and help you home." 
 
 "Yes, Sir, I think I know a place." 
 
 "Then come along." 
 
 I helped her on to the hind seat, then I 
 straddled into the saddle, and, as we spun 
 along, she directed my course. After I had 
 stored the wheel, we strode along in si- 
 lence, arm in arm. When we passed a 
 street lamp, she averted her face, either 
 from me or from the passers-by. At last 
 she stopped. 
 
 "This is my home, Sir," she said point-
 
 222 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 ing to a bungalow half hidden behind an or- 
 chard. "I don't know how to thank you. 
 I'm in great trouble now, but if I can get 
 over it, I shall always remember your kind- 
 ness. Won't you please give me your name 
 and address. Sir?" 
 
 "If you want my name and address to 
 thank or reward me, I assure you that I 
 have received all the thanks and reward I 
 merit. If you require my help, I shall be 
 glad to tell you my name. Can I help you ?" 
 
 She did not answer me at once, then she 
 replied sadly: 
 
 "You can not help me, Sir." 
 
 "Are you quite sure?" 
 
 "I am quite sure, Sir. If I thought you 
 could, I trust you sufficient to ask you." 
 
 "Then will you do me one favor before 
 I go?" 
 
 "I will do anything for you, Sir." 
 
 "Let me look at your face." 
 
 "It is not worthy," she replied in modest 
 distress. 
 
 I took her arm again and led her towards 
 the lamp that stood at the corner of the 
 garden. When she stood beneath the light, 
 I turned towards her, and looked into one 
 of the most beautiful faces that I have 
 ever seen in America. Her eyes were down- 
 cast, and I did not see their violet depths 
 until she turned them full upon me as I
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 223 
 
 said, Good-by. But the brilliant black of 
 her lashes and uncovered hair, reposing in 
 striking contrast on the snow-like white- 
 ness of her Grecian features and brow, 
 drew a gasp of wonder and admiration 
 from me. 
 
 I held out my hand and stuttered : 
 
 "May God guard you ! I'll go now." 
 
 She raised her eye-lids and looked into 
 mine: 
 
 "Must you go now, Sir ?" she said plain- 
 tively. 
 
 "I will stay, if you wish, and if I can help 
 you." 
 
 She placed her hand in mine, and as I 
 pressed it, she said hardly above a whis- 
 per: 
 
 "Good-by, Sir. It is better that you 
 should go. You can't help me. I shall 
 never forget your kindness." 
 
 She withdrew her hand, and walked 
 slowly, with bent head, towards the garden 
 gate. I waited for her to disappear, then 
 I approached the entrance to take a last 
 glance at the spot where that beautiful vi- 
 sion had vanished from my wistful sight. I 
 looked into the semi-obscurity, my eyes 
 widened and my heart ceased to beat. On 
 the gatepost was a white enamel plate and 
 in black letters I read the name of the oc- 
 cupants.
 
 224 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 When I recovered from my brain storm, 
 I crossed the street and dropped into the 
 long grass, determined to keep this abode 
 under surveillance for that night at least. 
 I was fascinated by the marvellous grace 
 of the girl. To me "The beauty of a lovely 
 woman is like music." I wondered how she 
 could have given herself to Steel, until I re- 
 membered the theory of contrasts. Then 
 how could he, however heartless a brute he 
 might be, desert her as he had done this 
 night, and abandon her to shame? The 
 deep meaning of Byron's lines : "Thou who 
 hast the fatal gift of beauty" flashed me 
 illumination. 
 
 I desired also to learn whether Steel 
 would make any move here, and the name 
 on the gate awakened in me an intense in- 
 terest in the other members of that house- 
 hold. 
 
 I had watched for over an hour, when I 
 saw a dark figure coming down the walk 
 from the bungalow to the gate. Before she 
 pulled the latch, she looked all around, 
 either in expectation of some one, or to see 
 whether the coast was clear. Then she 
 stepped out on to the side-walk, and 
 walked briskly towards the more populous 
 part of the town. 
 
 I followed as rapidly as I could and had 
 time and opportunity to examine her
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 225 
 
 make-up, for I was convinced that she was 
 trying to hide her face and figure. She 
 wore heavy widow's weeds, so opaque and 
 dropping so perfectly around her whole 
 head to her waist, that it was impossible to 
 make out anything behind her veil. Her 
 dress, or rather dresses, for she must have 
 had several on, were loose and ill-fitting, 
 and completely obliterated all her natural 
 lines. As she hurried along, she glanced 
 around at intervals to see whether she was 
 followed, but I kept out of sight on the 
 opposite side of the road. 
 
 I tracked this strange female thus to the 
 Elevated, and, in my anxiety to keep out 
 of view, almost missed the train which she 
 took. She alighted in the city and boarded 
 a street-car. I hid myself on the rear plat- 
 form, and we travelled on the same cars 
 until I saw her descend in front of my 
 Block. 
 
 Mirabile dictw! 
 
 She looked up at the windows, then 
 around suspiciously, as if in doubt as to her 
 next move. If I had not tracked her, I 
 should have accosted her and offered my 
 assistance, but now it was in my interest 
 to remain at a distance. Suddenly she made 
 up her mind and stepped into the hall 
 which led to the second floor. I dashed 
 through the chop suey to the back en-
 
 226 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 trance, then up to the balcony from where 
 I could see the whole length of the passage 
 which led to the different second floor flats. 
 She stopped at the end, before Pureheart's 
 door. I did not wait to see whether she 
 entered, but rushed up to the loft and to 
 Pureheart's periscope. 
 
 In my impetuosity to spy, I failed to 
 heed whether I was spied upon, and this 
 inexcusable imprudence almost proved my 
 undoing. 
 
 It was almost midnight, the hour when 
 Pureheart usually left in his machine for 
 home. He was already dressed for his de- 
 parture, and stood before the strange fe- 
 male reading a typewritten page. When 
 he had finished, he laid it on the table and 
 addressed her: 
 
 "My dear lady, it is very late, and I'm 
 afraid I can do nothing for you to-night. 
 My assistant has left, and if an operation 
 is necessary, you will have to stay here; 
 you won't be able to move for several 
 hours." 
 
 She held out a roll of banknotes to him. 
 He took them and laid them on the table 
 before the typewritten sheet. 
 
 "I may have to give you some anaesthetic, 
 and then it would be necessary to see your 
 face, and how can I do that if you keep that 
 heavy veil on and do not desire me to see 
 you?"
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 227 
 
 She shook her head violently. 
 
 "Then how can I examine you and oper- 
 ate on you with all those clothes on ?" 
 
 She nodded to assure him that he could. 
 
 "If you have to stay here all the night, 
 you'll have to stay alone, as I must leave 
 immediately." 
 
 She gesticulated her assent. 
 
 "Very well, then. We'll go into the next 
 room." 
 
 She rose immediately. He took off his 
 hat and coat, rolled up his sleeves and pre- 
 ceded her into the operating theatre. They 
 disappeared from my vision. 
 
 A thousand conflicting emotions and 
 ideas passed through my being. I had al- 
 ready made up my mind to threaten Pure- 
 heart with immediate exposure, unless he 
 desisted prostituting his profession. If ne- 
 cessary, I was prepared to mete out a just 
 punishment. Now was the fitting oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 But should I give him time to save that 
 girl, for I was now convinced that it was 
 Julia, from terrestrial shame? My con- 
 science taught me that a mortal sin was 
 about to be committed. In a society organ- 
 ized on divine principles, the fruit of the 
 womb, conceived out of wedlock but under 
 promise of marriage, instead of being the 
 object of satanic scorn would meet with
 
 228 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 Christ-like commiseration. But what would 
 be her fate with a fatherless child in our 
 present stygian civilization? I shuddered 
 at the thought. 
 
 Then, was the progeny of that Hell's 
 hound fit for life, worthy of its mother? 
 Should I compel him to marry her and fet- 
 ter her for life with that infernal scoun- 
 drel, and thus undo the toils which I was 
 weaving around him ? 
 
 I could not decide, I could only act. 
 
 Feverishly I donned the disguise in 
 which I had frustrated Jambon's career, 
 and slid down to the balcony. It was a 
 close, dark night, and most of the windows 
 in the building were open. I lifted the mos- 
 quito screen and climbed into Pureheart's 
 office. Then I drew down the shades. 
 
 The banknotes and the typwritten sheet 
 still lay on the table. I took the letter and 
 read: 
 
 "I am a dumb girl, betrayed by a wicked 
 man. You can save me. I will pay you well. 
 Do not ask me my name or force me to show 
 my face. Let me go away unknown and un- 
 seen, only save me from everlasting shame." 
 
 Steel's suggestion had borne fruit. I 
 marvelled only at the courage of the girl 
 to carry through the plan, and then to suf- 
 fer its execution in silence.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 229 
 
 I still held the paper in my hand, ab- 
 sorbed in thought, when Pureheart re- 
 turned. 
 
 He looked at me as if doubting his vision, 
 raised his hand to his brow, and sank into 
 a seat. 
 
 "I am an old friend of yours, my dear 
 doctor, and have now called upon you to 
 enlist your services again, but this time 
 not for others, for yourself." 
 
 "I knew it was a trap," I heard him mut- 
 ter. 
 
 I seized at the suggestion. 
 "Yes, the corpus delicti is in the next 
 room, but without her I have sufficient evi- 
 dence to send you to the chair. Shall I 
 enumerate?" 
 
 His head sank on to the table, but he 
 raised his hand, as if supplicating me to 
 desist. 
 
 I waited for him to speak. At last I 
 heard his voice, as if addressing himself, 
 while he still kept his face buried in one 
 hand on the table. 
 
 "I am not afraid of the chair or the gal- 
 lows, and I'm tired of this double life. For 
 her sake I must quit without exposure. To 
 her I have always been the kind father, the 
 honorable citizen, the famous surgeon, and 
 I have tried to bring her up as the child of 
 such a man. She must never know. I must
 
 230 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 quit now, and leave her an honorable name. 
 She is beautiful, wealthy, talented; the 
 world is before her, and she will marry 
 some clean man, and live her life in ignor- 
 ance of my past. I have guarded her 
 against all the vanity and vices of this city, 
 and she has grown up as virtuous and mod- 
 est and frank and generous as an angel. 
 Yes, I must quit, before I bring shame on 
 her, my precious child !" 
 
 He rose from the chair, and without giv- 
 ing me a look, walked deliberately towards 
 his medicine closet, opened the door, and 
 chose one of the bottles labelled Prussic 
 Acid, and a conical measuring glass, from 
 among those which littered the shelves. 
 
 I stepped towards him, and immediately 
 and simultaneously I felt a bullet graze my 
 head and heard an explosion and a crash. 
 I flung myself past the doctor, as the 
 hydrocyanic slipped from his grasp, and 
 glided into a closet in the adjoining room. 
 
 Startled by the noise, the strange woman 
 ran into the doctor's room, and a moment 
 after Steel rushed in, shouting: . 
 
 "Where's he? It's the janitor. Damn 
 him ! I must have missed. I found all his 
 infernal machinery over the ceiling. I saw 
 him come down, and went up to see what 
 he had been doing." 
 
 I could discern his savage and deter-
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 231 
 
 mined countenance through the chink of 
 the closet door, and thrust my revolver for- 
 ward automatically as if to meet his attack. 
 
 He looked at the veiled figure suspi- 
 ciously, and, walking up to her, snatched 
 the weeds from her face. As soon as he 
 caught sight of those beautiful, pale fea- 
 tures, I heard him gasp in amazement: 
 "Julia !" and saw him stagger back. At the 
 same time the doctor uttered a cry of woe : 
 "My daughter!" and ran towards the tot- 
 tering girl. 
 
 "Yes, father, your daughter; and he's 
 the man that ruined me." 
 
 Then she sank to the floor. 
 
 Pureheart looked for a moment at the 
 partner of his foul commerce and now the 
 desecrator of his cherished idol, then he 
 seized a chair, and bounded towards him. 
 
 Steel raised his revolver, but before he 
 could fire I drew my trigger, and sent a 
 bullet through his hand. His weapon 
 dropped, and he wheeled towards me. 
 
 I now stood in full view before them, and, 
 as he recognized me, he sprang forward, 
 shouting : 
 
 "You damned , I'll have you yet !" 
 
 T laughed out loud, and sent another bul- 
 let crashing into his knee. He dropped on 
 his face before he could reach me, and I 
 immediately pounced on his back and
 
 232 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 twisted an electric wire, that I snatched 
 from a pedestal lamp, round his hands and 
 feet. Then I rolled him on to his back, 
 and he gave one shout for help before I 
 struck him in the mouth with the butt of 
 my weapon and knocked out several of his 
 teeth. The blood burst from his mouth 
 and ran over the tiled floor to mingle with 
 the pools from his hand and knee. 
 
 All this time the doctor was trying to 
 strike him with the chair, but I held him 
 back or interjected myself between them. 
 
 "We've got him now, Doc. He won't get 
 away. I'll leave him here with you, and 
 you can do what you like with him. Take 
 this as a warning for yourself. If it wasn't 
 for your daughter, I'd feel inclined to send 
 you both to Kingdom Come together. Now 
 you'd better look after her first, or she 
 may bleed to death." 
 
 My advice seemed to direct his attention 
 from his avidity for vengeance to the grav- 
 ity of his own child's condition. He turned 
 towards her, lifted her tenderly on to a 
 couch, examined and tended her, while ex- 
 pressions of paternal condonation and in- 
 tense grief escaped his lips. 
 
 In the mean time I laughed into Steel's 
 glaring eyes and listened to his curses, 
 which were, however, not loud enough to 
 attract outside help.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 233 
 
 "If you shout, I'll batter your whole face 
 to bits. You've got me now, right enough, 
 but on your chest. I expect it feels like a 
 nightmare. I wonder what Pureheart'll 
 do with you? I don't envy you your fate, 
 anyway. If he lets you go, I'll have to hurry 
 you to the gallows for sending Calls to 
 sleep, singeing your child, and soaking 
 Rattler, not to mention any other of your 
 peccadillos. 
 
 "If you live, life won't be worth living, 
 because I'm going to send Bloater's mort- 
 gage to his bank to-night, and tell them to 
 foreclose at once, and I wonder how you'll 
 explain your contract with Speedway ? 
 
 "What do you think of my periscopes? 
 You must admit I aimed them truer than 
 you did your six-shooter through my peri- 
 scope hole. You should have waited till 
 you got next to me, then you would have 
 had me right enough, for I shouldn't have 
 known that you'd found me out. But 
 you've got me now, any way, on your 
 chest, so what's the difference? 
 
 "By the way, Stoneheart, that contract 
 about running Rattler's saloon is off. There 
 won't be any saloon when the Bloaters 
 foieclose, and fish your cousin out of his 
 vat. Besides, I'm going to take a fresh air 
 and fresh water cure after this, and try 
 and get this wound in my armpit healed.
 
 234 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 You didn't know that one of your sleuths 
 bored it there. But I gave him a decent 
 burial in the Lake. You'll meet him soon." 
 
 I was interrupted in my raillery by the 
 doctor : 
 
 "Now I'll settle my account with this in- 
 fernal scoundrel." 
 
 "The pot calling the kettle black," I sug- 
 gested mildly. "But I'll get off his chest 
 and surrender my booty to you. I didn't 
 intend to do the killing if I could shift it 
 on to someone else." 
 
 The surgeon was too bent on his purpose 
 to hear my words, and immediately started 
 to drag the detective into his operating 
 theatre. I followed, an interested spec- 
 tator. 
 
 In the theatre, hanging over the operat- 
 ing table, was a fall and tackle, which the 
 doctor used for raising patients or for 
 swinging them on and off a couch. He now 
 lowered the rope and belt to the floor, and 
 in true hangman like fashion buckled the 
 latter round Steel's throat. I watched him 
 in approving admiration. He then caught 
 the end of the rope and tugged it viciously, 
 gradually raising his former confederate 
 till his head almost touched the ceiling. 
 
 His eyes and tongue bulged out of his 
 head, a horrible spectre, and his face was 
 almost as red as the blood that dripped 
 from his feet.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 235 
 
 I thought that his executioner would al- 
 low him to hang, and die from strangula- 
 tion. But no ! That would not satisfy his 
 retaliatory rancor. He seized a wire that 
 was attached to the topmost pulley, and 
 the half-dead devil dropped to the floor 
 with a thud. 
 
 Thus he hanged him and dropped him 
 half a dozen times, until he was satisfied 
 that he could not inflict any further tor- 
 ture. Then he looked at me with sunken 
 eyes. 
 
 "Fine work, Doc. Jack Ketch couldn't 
 do it better. I'll give you a chance to turn 
 over a new leaf for that job. Now what 
 are you going to do with him ?" 
 
 "Let the hound hang till I take my 
 daughter home where she can get proper 
 care. Her life's worth more to me than the 
 disposition of this carcass." 
 
 "Dangerous decision, Doc, very danger- 
 ous ; but it's none of my business. I'll take 
 off this rig, and help you take her home."
 
 236 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 XII. 
 PUREHEART'S PUTREFACTION. 
 
 The bungalow at Evanston was inhabited 
 by Pureheart, his daughter, and an old ne- 
 gress, who had taken the place of Julia's 
 mother, dead since Julia was barely a few 
 months old, according to the surgeon's ver- 
 sion. 
 
 I helped Maria to put her charge to bed, 
 as Pureheart was seized by a sudden dizzi- 
 ness, and the negress had become so hys- 
 terical at sight of her sick mistress that 
 she was also practically helpless. 
 
 "You thought I could not help you," I 
 said jokingly to the beautiful girl. I had 
 had a good hot bath, massage, shampoo, 
 and manicure, and had rubbed a bottle of 
 eau de cologne into my skin to get rid of 
 the saloon reek, and I was not altogether 
 unconscious of the fact that she was look- 
 ing at me in the light of a hero, and of a 
 man of not uninteresting appearance. Al- 
 though I can be callous on occasion towards 
 women, yet I have also felt "the sweetest 
 joy, the wildest woe/' and am not immune 
 to the darts of the gentler sex.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 237 
 
 "You can help me only to have faith in 
 a man again, but you cannot help me to 
 live. I feel that I am not going to stay 
 here long. If I had listened to you when 
 you offered me your help before, perhaps 
 you would have saved me from the terrible 
 sin I have committed and forced my father 
 to commit. I know I must die for that sin, 
 and perhaps by my death I shall atone for 
 it. Don't you think so?" 
 
 "I am quite certain that your sin will be 
 forgiven," I replied conscientiously. 
 
 "I am sure you wouldn't tell me a false- 
 hood. Won't you come closer to me and 
 let me take your hand?" 
 
 I drew my chair to her bedside. She 
 took my hand and caressed it gently. 
 
 "I'm not ashamed to tell you. I am go- 
 ing to die, and I want to tell the truth now. 
 I wanted a man to love so much. It was 
 something in me, and when he told me that 
 he loved me, I thought I loved him. But 
 he awed me, and I was afraid of him. He 
 was so commanding and brusque that I had 
 to submit. He didn't tell me that his name 
 was Steel. He called himself Edward En- 
 glewood, and said he was a medical student. 
 I hadn't seen him for months until to- 
 night. 
 
 "But I don't mind now. It brought 
 you to me, and now I know what it is to
 
 238 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 love a man. Don't be shocked, and do let 
 me believe that you return my love, be- 
 cause I'll be gone soon, and you won't have 
 done any harm. I don't want to die with- 
 out having loved someone, and been loved 
 in return. He never loved me. He never 
 kissed me, and I never kissed him. And I 
 never held his hand as I am holding yours. 
 Won't you kiss me ? Bend your head close 
 to mine, and let me kiss you. I don't want 
 to die without love, and if you will only let 
 me love you, I shall die happy." 
 
 Her beauty and ingenuousness were irre- 
 sistible. Still I would not dally with this 
 dying girl merely to appease her thirst for 
 affection, if I could not also honorably per- 
 mit her embraces. I kissed her as a man 
 would kiss his dying sister, and because I 
 believed with her that she was close to the 
 Valley of the Shadows. I accepted and re- 
 turned her sororal caresses with the sanc- 
 tity which the approach of death sanc- 
 tioned. And if she could have diagnosed 
 her own feelings then, she would have rec- 
 ognised that they were not sexual but sis- 
 terly. Pureheart and the negress were 
 present during this sad scene, and I thus 
 felt an added absolution for my fall from 
 asceticism. 
 
 "I think I'll give you a sleeping draught, 
 dear," the doctor suggested, as soon as he 
 had recovered from his weakness.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 239 
 
 "No, father, I don't want to sleep, I want 
 to remain awake with him so long as I have 
 to live," and she gave me a lingering look 
 of tenderness. 
 
 "I think you had better take it," I tried 
 to persuade her. "A little sleep will do you 
 good." 
 
 "If you say so, I'll take, it, but I'd much 
 rather remain awake with you. You won't 
 leave me, will you ?" she added with a touch 
 of fear in her voice. 
 
 "I will not leave you," I affirmed convinc- 
 ingly. 
 
 As soon as she was asleep, the surgeon 
 and I went into the adjoining room, where 
 he threw himself languidly on to a couch 
 and began to reproach himself bitterly for 
 his act. 
 
 "This has come to me as a punishment. 
 I have thrived on hacking others, and now 
 I have hacked my own child to death. I 
 thought that I had guarded her against all 
 that I have led others into; but the devil 
 elected my own trusted accomplice to frus- 
 trate all my precautions, and my own 
 hands were chosen as the instruments of 
 vengeance. 
 
 "If I could only have resisted the obses- 
 sion of the knife! But my skill mastered 
 me. I gloried in my ability to rob the womb 
 of its fruit, the ovary of its seed, the
 
 240 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 female of her fruitfulness, and, if oppor- 
 tunity to practise my art did not come to 
 me along the channels of my profession, 
 the fiends of hell drove me to create oppor- 
 tunities." 
 
 "It is not too late to apply your methods 
 legally," I interrupted. "Since the passage 
 of laws providing for the sterilization of 
 criminals, 634 insane and 1 criminal have 
 been operated upon in California, 21 insane 
 in Connecticut, and 24 feeble-minded in 
 Wisconsin. No attempt is being made, 
 however, to enforce any of the laws provid- 
 ing for the sterilization of criminals except 
 in Washington, where the law is punitive. 
 
 "The method of selecting persons to be 
 operated upon and the mode of procedure 
 is as follows : 
 
 "In Iowa the superintendent of any state 
 hospital for the insane and a majority of 
 the medical staff must agree, after investi- 
 gation and examination, that the operation 
 would be for the best interests of the pa- 
 tient and society, before they can author- 
 ize its performance on the patient, and 
 they cannot without the written con- 
 sent of the husband or the wife, if the 
 patient is married, or, if unmarried, of the 
 parent or guardian, and they also must 
 have the approval of a majority of the 
 members of the state board of control.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 241 
 
 "In Nebraska the board of commission- 
 ers of state institutions is required to ap- 
 point a board of examiners of five physi- 
 cians from the medical staffs of the insti- 
 tutions under their control. They decide 
 that if the inmate is capable of bearing off- 
 spring, the children born would inherit a 
 tendency to feeble-mindedness, insanity, or 
 degeneracy, and that such children would 
 probably become a social menace ; that pro- 
 creation by such inmate would be harmful 
 to society, and that such inmate should not 
 be paroled or discharged unless sterilized. 
 
 "Criminals are not mentioned in either 
 of these statutes. 
 
 "You see how illogical you Americans 
 are. You sterilize lunatics and allow crim- 
 inals to propagate. What is the difference 
 between the two ? If criminals are not lun- 
 atics, they are worse. Then lunatics are 
 usually under surveillance, and their op- 
 portunities for bearing offspring are lim- 
 ited. Criminals, on the contrary, when at 
 large, have every opportunity to procreate. 
 
 "Here is your chance to preach and 
 practise the sterilization of criminals." 
 
 I was talking more to give him a differ- 
 ent outlook on life than because I was con- 
 vinced by the force of my own arguments, 
 and I noticed that my words interested 
 him.
 
 242 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "Then you have another legitimate field 
 for the application of your knowledge, 
 the field of birth control. Your former 
 president will one day lose his sway over 
 the minds of his countrymen, when the ex- 
 perience of his ancestral land, Holland, has 
 had time to permeate their Dutch phlegm, 
 and you can help to hasten that day. Listen 
 to this: 
 
 BIRTH CONTROL IN EUROPE. 
 
 After years of prosecuting men and women 
 engaged in the propaganda for birth control 
 the British ^government finally appointed a 
 commission of distinguished physicians, clergy- 
 men and others, to look into the matter. At 
 one of the hearings Dr. C. V. Drysdale, secre- 
 tary of the Malthusian league, told what gov- 
 ernment approval did for birth control in 
 Holland. In 1885 a Dutch branch of the league 
 was established, and ten years later it was 
 recognized by a royal decree as a society of 
 public utility. 
 
 With the aid of a corps of physicians and 
 trained midwives work was begun among the 
 poor in every city of the kingdom. People in 
 remote districts communicated through the 
 mails. Pamphlets giving instructions were sent 
 in reply. Assurance had to be given that the 
 enquirer was married or about to be. 
 
 The result of this has been, so Dr. Drysdale 
 assured the commission, that the excessive birth 
 rate had been diminished on eugenic lines, 
 bringing with it a considerable rise in wages 
 and general prosperity. Amsterdam and The
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 243 
 
 Hague had become the healthiest large cities 
 in the world according to government statistics. 
 While the birth rate had decreased among the 
 poor, the increase in population in general is 
 now the highest in Western Europe, and the 
 stature of the people has increased four inches 
 within the last half century. 
 
 Dr. Drysdale asserted that the increase in 
 Great Britain's population is diminishing, not 
 because of a decline in the birth rate, but be- 
 cause of the policy of suppressing information 
 about birth control from the poor, and taxing 
 the middle and upper classes to support the 
 large families of the less fit, thus leading those 
 two classes to practice more largely family 
 limitation. . . . 
 
 Advanced thinkers now recognize that in- 
 crease in population depends upon the power of 
 supporting rather than creating new people, 
 and that the increase of a country's population 
 has no relation to its birth rate. No matter 
 how much an increase of population is needed, 
 it will not come by an increase in the birth 
 rate, but by an added production of the country. 
 Great Britain has at last begun to see the 
 truth of this, and the testimony before the 
 commission proved that it was a problem for 
 the upper classes who had to bear the burden 
 of supporting the increase of the unfit, and, 
 in defence, set about limiting the increase in 
 their own classes. A distinguished physician's 
 opinion was that as soon as this economic pres- 
 sure was removed from the well-to-do, there 
 
 v ould be an increase in their families. Chicago 
 
 Tribune.
 
 244 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 I was here interrupted by the telephone 
 bell, which the surgeon proceeded to an- 
 swer. I noticed that the message agitated 
 him to an extreme degree, and before 
 hanging up the receiver I heard him say : 
 
 "I'll come right away." 
 
 Then turning to me he added: 
 
 "I must go to Chicago at once. I hope 
 this will be my last call from the devil. 
 Stay with her. When I get back, I'll take 
 her to Canada, and if she lives, I'll never 
 return." 
 
 "While you're there, Doc, don't forget to 
 get rid of Steel. I don't feel easy with that 
 carcass dangling over your operating 
 table." 
 
 "What'llldowithit?" 
 
 "Nobody lives on the second floor now. 
 Drag him next to Rattler's bedroom. 
 There's a dumb-waiter that goes right 
 through to the saloon cellar. Lower him 
 down that, and, when they find him and 
 Rattler in the vat, they'll think anybody 
 except you did it. Take this master-key, 
 I don't expect I'll ever require it again." 
 
 "I'll do it. Look after her. I'll be back 
 before morning." 
 
 It was between three and four in the 
 morning when he left Evanston. Julia was 
 asleep, and the negress sat on the rug and 
 moaned somnolently.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 245 
 
 In the meantime, events that bore the 
 closest relation to this story were happen- 
 ing in an apartment on Grand Boulevard. 
 
 A beautiful woman, about thirty-three 
 years of age, bearing a recommendation 
 from the British consul, had presented her- 
 self at a certain police station, and de- 
 manded assistance to search the Grand 
 Boulevard apartment, where, she said, her 
 daughter, fifteen years of age, was being 
 held for immoral purposes. She had come 
 from Montreal, and as I discovered later, 
 through the papers, was a close friend of 
 the lady to whom I had sent several of Ma- 
 dame Coupler's pensionnaires. Through 
 one of these girls she had heard of the ab- 
 duction of her daughter, and that she was 
 being held a close prisoner, and without the 
 happy coincidence mentioned, would prob- 
 ably never have been able to communicate 
 with her mother, until she was utterly 
 ruined. 
 
 The police were not over anxious to help 
 the fair stranger. The house in question 
 was in Steel's precinct and had been im- 
 mune from police interference for many 
 years. But Steel had not reported, and 
 the woman was insistent, and would not be 
 put off till Steel could be located. In fact, 
 she threatened to report the matter to the 
 British Ambassador.
 
 246 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 At this stage of the proceedings, one of 
 Steel's rivals appeared on the scene, and 
 volunteered to make the raid. 
 
 "Lay off, or you'll go to the tall timbers," 
 whispered several of his colleagues, but he 
 could not be cowed. 
 
 He now stood in the hall, with the Cana- 
 dian lady behind him, and several secret 
 service men, whom he had collected from 
 other districts, were waiting his signal to 
 rush the place. 
 
 The procuress stood before him, haught- 
 ily indignant : 
 
 "Roll your hoop, young man, the plain 
 clothes men have been wearing out sole 
 leather trying to get something on this 
 place, and a common harness bull like you 
 cannot consider yourself in their class. If 
 you annoy me again, I'll have you trans- 
 ferred." 
 
 "If you don't let me search the place," 
 retorted the detective prudently, "I've got 
 the men ready to raid you, and I'll do it." 
 
 The conciliatrix was evidently impressed 
 by his determined manner. 
 
 "Will you let me ring up my friends ?" 
 
 "Go ahead, but I want to hear what you 
 say." 
 
 She tried to get in touch with Steel, 
 then with several men who "stood well at 
 the city hall," and finally she rang up Pure- 
 heart, as already described.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 247 
 
 "Will you wait till my friend comes? 
 Perhaps he'll be able to convince you to 
 leave this house alone." 
 
 "I'll wait for him, because I'd like to 
 make his acquaintance ; but nothing he can 
 say will prevent my making a thorough 
 search of this house." 
 
 In the interval before Pureheart's ar- 
 rival, the bawd suggested every conceiv- 
 able pretext to leave the room; but the 
 sleuth warned her that the slightest at- 
 tempt to communicate with the other in- 
 mates of the place would result in an im- 
 mediate raid. 
 
 At last Pureheart was ushered into the 
 parlor, looking pale and careworn from his 
 recent experiences. As soon as the Cana- 
 dian saw him, she started and uttered a 
 low cry. The surgeon looked at her a mo- 
 ment in doubt, then he staggered, reeled, 
 and fell heavily to the floor. The bawd 
 screamed and rushed to the door, but the 
 detective intercepted her. 
 
 "No you don't. Stay here !" 
 
 Then turning to his companion, he en- 
 quired : 
 
 "Do you know him ?" 
 
 "That's my husband. My daughter came 
 to Chicago to look for him. His name is 
 Herbert Hazeldon " 
 
 "No, it isn't," interrupted the bawd.
 
 248 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "That's Dr. Pureheart, the famous sur- 
 geon, and if he hadn't fainted, he'd have 
 got rid of you both pretty quick." 
 
 "I don't care what he calls himself here," 
 retorted the Canadian, "Pureheart may be 
 his right name. I'm quite sure he changed 
 his name, but he married me under the 
 name of Herbert Hazeldon seventeen years 
 ago, and he may have called himself Pure- 
 heart to hide his foul heart from the world. 
 He abandoned me to poverty sixteen years 
 ago, leaving me enceinte with our second 
 child whom I am sure you are holding here, 
 and taking our first daughter with him. 
 He tried to perform an illegal operation on 
 me before I had my second child; he said 
 he didn't want any children, and, when I 
 objected, he threatened to kill me, and dis- 
 appeared in the night. 
 
 "I always thought he was in Chicago, 
 because he got letters from there; but I 
 made up my mind never to look for him. 
 My second child said she would find him 
 and make him support us, and that's what 
 she was here for, when she fell into your 
 clutches." 
 
 "There's no girl here called Hazeldon," 
 contended the woman. 
 
 "Her name's Julia, the same as my first 
 child," replied the Canadian. "At home 
 she is Julia Jovanne, my maiden name, but
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 249 
 
 here she called herself Jeanne Johnson, and 
 the girl who saw her in this house told 
 me that she is known here as Jeanne John- 
 son." 
 
 "Is Jeanne Johnson here?" demanded 
 the detective gruffly. 
 
 The woman hesitated. 
 
 "I'll soon find out," he said sharply, and 
 without further ado he approached the 
 open window and blew three shrill blasts 
 on his whistle. 
 
 The woman began to scream wildly, 
 there was the crash of breaking panes, the 
 thud and slam of opening and closing 
 doors, the tramp of heavy feet, the clamor 
 of rapid orders, female shrieks and male 
 shouts, then the blows of bloody fists and 
 breaking furniture, mingled with oaths 
 and groans, and soon a medley of half- 
 dressed men and women were filed out into 
 the patrol wagons. 
 
 "There's a gal all by herself in one 
 of the rooms," reported one of the 
 raiders to his chief. "She looks sick and 
 asked me to save her, said she didn't belong 
 here, and they kept her a prisoner." 
 
 "Come with me, Mrs. Hazeldon," the 
 chief said gently to the Canadian, "but 
 please try and control yourself." Then, 
 turning to one of his men, he added : "Take 
 'em all to the station, but leave Pureheart
 
 250 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 here. Try and bring him round soon as 
 possible. Get a doctor and an ambulance." 
 
 Accompanied by Mrs. Hazeldon (or 
 Pureheart), he then followed his assistant 
 into the room where the girl lay. 
 
 What need to describe the meeting be- 
 tween mother and daughter? As soon as 
 the latter could speak coherently, she told 
 how she had been inveigled into this Adam 
 and Eve Club, as it was called. She had an- 
 swered an advertisement: "Furnished 
 Room for a Single Girl/' and been directed 
 to this address by the proprietress, who 
 told her that her own house was full. Once 
 in the toils of the procuress, she was com- 
 pelled to suffer every indignity, withstand 
 every temptation, repulse every attempt on 
 her virtue, until finally they had forcibly 
 performed an operation on her, which later 
 diagnosis showed to be ovariotomy, and 
 now she was barely convalescent, but still 
 as undefiled as when she had left her 
 mother's house. 
 
 "How's Pureheart?" here enquired the 
 chief. "I'd like this girl to see him." 
 
 "He's still a bit dazed, but he can walk." 
 
 "Bring him in then." 
 
 The surgeon was assisted into the cham- 
 ber by a doctor and a detective. As soon 
 as the girl saw him, she cried : 
 
 "He did it, that's him."
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 251 
 
 "I guessed so/' said the chief, evidently 
 pleased with his acumen and the results of 
 his raid. 
 
 Pureheart looked at the girl in the bed, 
 and the sight seemed to recall the preca- 
 rious condition of his other child, for he 
 whined feebly: 
 
 "Take me to my daughter, she's dying, 
 and I must save her." 
 
 "That's your daughter," replied the 
 chief pointing to the girl. 
 
 Pureheart looked from one to the other 
 perplexed. 
 
 "I mean Julia/' he said at last. 
 
 "That's Julia." 
 
 But the truth would not dawn upon the 
 surgeon's deranged brain. 
 
 "Perhaps his other daughter is dying," 
 finally suggested the chief. "Does anyone 
 know where his office is ?" 
 
 "Ya," volunteered one of his men. 
 
 "We'll go and see if we can't find some- 
 thing interesting there too. Take him to 
 the station, and hold him there till I get 
 back. Take Mrs. Hazeldon and her daugh- 
 ter to the hospital, and see that they get 
 all they want." 
 
 Thus it was that my plan to remove 
 Steel's body was never consummated, and 
 while this ghastly discovery was spurring 
 the detective on to extend his triumphs to 
 Evanston, Julia lay in my arms dying.
 
 252 CRDflXALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 "You don't know how happy I am to die 
 like this. If my mother was alive and here, 
 I don't think I could love her more than I 
 love you. I wish father would return soon, 
 Fd like to say Good-by to him. ni soon see 
 mother, and Til tell her all about you, and 
 vou'll come to me, one day, won't you, 
 love?" 
 
 Thus she rambled on, until the detec- 
 tive's arrival interrupted her reveries. 
 
 I met him at the door, told him simply 
 that the girl was dying, that I was her 
 friend, entreated him to defer his duties 
 whatever they were till she was laid at rest. 
 My earnest appeal impressed him, he told 
 me hurriedly the story of the girl's mother, 
 without, however, mentioning the discov- 
 ery of Steel's body, and I begged him to 
 send for Mrs. Hazeldon, while he and his 
 men remained in charge of the premises, 
 if he deemed it necessary. 
 
 He readily acquiesced, but wished the 
 doctor who accompanied him to see Julia. 
 I led him and the doctor into the sick cham- 
 ber with the understanding that they were 
 not to tell Julia anything about her father, 
 and that I would tell her that her father 
 had sent two doctors to attend her, as he 
 would be delayed for several hours. 
 
 While Mrs. Hazeldon was hurrying to- 
 wards her first-born and first-dead the
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 253 
 
 state doctor was tactfully notating data 
 that Julia was dying from internal hemor- 
 rhage caused by an illegal operation. His 
 diagnosis did not leave me above suspicion, 
 as I readily perceived ; but I trusted to my 
 intelligence to afford me the opportunity 
 of disassociating myself from this concat- 
 enation of crimes as soon as I had fulfilled 
 my pledge to Julia to remain with her till 
 the end. 
 
 Before Mrs. Hazeldon arrived, I broke 
 the news as gently as I could. I told her 
 that her father had just discovered that 
 her mother was alive, and was sending her 
 to her bedside. But the dying girl was too 
 near the grave and too wholly absorbed in 
 her infatuation for my unworthy self to be 
 additionally moved. 
 
 When her mother arrived, I prompted 
 her as I had done the detectives, and then 
 admitted her to the room. 
 
 Mother and daughter looked at each 
 other in silence, the former's eyes were 
 filled with tears; but Julia's had merely a 
 look of curiosity and compassion in their 
 violet depths. At last she said simply : 
 
 "Don't weep, mother, come and sit by me 
 and kiss me. This is my love. When I'm 
 gone, he'll take my place, he'll be a son to 
 you as I would have been a daughter. You 
 will, won't you ?" she enquired, turning her 
 beautiful face towards me.
 
 254 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 I nodded assent. 
 
 "I wish father would hurry back. I don't 
 want to go without seeing him, but you'll 
 tell him, mother, won't you, not to fret? 
 He's got you now, and you'll console each 
 other. Perhaps if you had found us be- 
 fore, then this would not have happened to 
 me, but then I wouldn't have found you, 
 love I feel so weak, I can't hold my head 
 up any more." 
 
 Her head sank back on to the pillow. 
 
 "Bend your head near to mine," she 
 whispered. 
 
 I laid my head on the pillow next to hers. 
 Mrs. Hazeldon clasped her hands in mute 
 anguish, while Julia turned her face to- 
 wards mine and feebly laid her hand on my 
 cheek. She smiled and I barely heard her 
 words : 
 
 "I'm going, love. I'm Good " and 
 her eyes closed. 
 
 When the doctor declared she was dead, 
 I tenderly removed the cold hand from my 
 face, and rose from the bed. I had faith- 
 fully fulfilled my word, and, although I 
 should have desired to bear this innocent 
 corpse to its earthly shell and to remain 
 with her mother, I knew that I should be 
 called upon to offer explanations that 
 would not be conducive to my own safety 
 or to that of Pureheart. I accordingly 
 sought for immediate means of escape.
 
 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 255 
 
 "I must send some wires to her friends," 
 I said sorrowfully, for my sorrow was real, 
 though my excuse invented. 
 
 The detective did not offer any overt op- 
 position, but I noticed, after I left the 
 house, that I was being shadowed. I did 
 not wish to risk arrest by attempting to 
 return to Chicago, for I did not know what 
 the man's orders might be. 
 
 It was about five in the morning, and 
 very few people were about. I took a 
 direction which I thought would lead me 
 away from any pedestrians, and, as soon 
 as I noticed that no one was in sight, I 
 wheeled suddenly, as if about to retrace my 
 steps, and walked towards my shadower. 
 He came on, trying to look as indifferent as 
 possible; for to stop would have laid him 
 open to suspicion. I did not look at him 
 either, but beyond, and once I looked be- 
 hind me, but casually, to see whether there 
 were going to be any witnesses to my ex- 
 ploit. In the far distance I could make out 
 approaching figures, but they were too far 
 away to affect my purpose. As I passed 
 the unprepared man, he did not even deign 
 to give me a glance, so anxious was he to 
 aupear unconcerned. I struck him a ter- 
 rible blow behind the right ear and dropped 
 him. 
 
 Then I walked coolly into the country,
 
 256 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 and hid in the grass till nightfall, when I 
 walked back to Chicago. 
 
 I followed Pureheart's trial through the 
 papers. He was charged with the murder 
 of Steel and of his daughter, and with per- 
 forming an illegal operation on his second 
 daughter and on numerous other women, 
 besides being a partner in several houses 
 of ill-fame. 
 
 Many facts new to me were elicited dur- 
 ing his trial. 
 
 "If I killed him," he pleaded, "he de- 
 served death. He betrayed an innocent 
 girl, and I was justified by the natural 
 law." 
 
 "An unnatural father, an unnatural hus- 
 band, and unnatural man, has no right to 
 appeal to the natural law," retorted the 
 public prosecutor. 
 
 "Since when have you become the pro- 
 tagonist of innocence and virtue? Only 
 since your own daughter fell a victim to 
 your vile practice. If your paternal in- 
 stincts had not revolted, you would never 
 have admitted the evil of your ways. 
 
 "Don't you think the fathers of all the 
 girls you initiated into your Adam and Eve 
 Club had similar feelings and in a thou- 
 sand degrees more pure, because they had 
 not become degenerated by the practice of 
 betrayal ?
 
 257 
 
 "Then if Steel were the father of her 
 child, you could have forced him to marry 
 her, instead of resorting to abortion." 
 
 "If I had known she was my own 
 daughter, I would not have done it." 
 
 The prosecutor broke into contemptuous 
 laughter. 
 
 "Didn't you know your own wife, when 
 you tried the same on her ? Not know your 
 own daughter? And you had her on your 
 operating table !" 
 
 "She wore a thick veil, and brought me 
 a note. She pretended to be dumb, till her 
 betrayer entered the room." 
 
 "Incredible ! Such a defence is merely a 
 cloak to hide the shame you know that a 
 father ought to feel towards his own 
 daughter. You performed hundreds of 
 abortions on other girls. How is it you 
 never advised those girls to compel the 
 fathers of their children to marry them? 
 Why did you not hesitate when you forc- 
 ibly performed that vile operation on your 
 second daughter? 
 
 "You have tried to rob vice of its effects, 
 to increase its pleasures and decrease its 
 pains. You have therefore appl 1 '^ yo" 1 * 
 science exclusively to the female sex; and 
 not because ovariotomy is voluntary, and 
 vasectomy involuntary. 
 
 "Your excuse that you were trying to
 
 258 CRIMINALS OF CHICAGO 
 
 prevent over-population is as false as your 
 others. You set up as a specialist to cure 
 barren women, and to produce male or fe- 
 male children at will. Your only remedy 
 was to introduce those married women to 
 members of your Adam and Eve Club, as 
 you initiated into the same hot-bed of vi- 
 cious corruption the young girls that came 
 under your baneful practice. 
 
 "The performances of your Adam and 
 Eve Club give you the lie. It was not a 
 club to restrict birth, but to increase the 
 opportunities for vice, and if children could 
 have been brought into the world without 
 fear of detection, or hampering the oppor- 
 tunities for the uncontrolled enjoyment of 
 vice, we should hear nothing about over- 
 population." 
 
 The jury, without retiring, returned a 
 verdict of guilty. 
 
 And now, gentle reader, I must bid you 
 farewell. We have waded together 
 through the lugubrious, lascivious, and 
 lawless labyrinths of a modern Babylon. 
 The experience to me has been detestable. 
 To you I hope it has attached a share of 
 responsibility, for "Responsibility prevents 
 crime," says Burke. When I return to 
 America again, may it be my lot to lead 
 you along pleasanter paths. 
 FINIS.
 
 >^ 
 
 &M 

 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA