Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-04-30
A P ON FACES.
what Manner of Men are seen In
memPbis city After Midnight
The Birds of Prey.

strange faces which are never seen dur
ing the day. The citizens Of each city
have a distinctive individuality appa-
rent to a stranger, just as is the individ-
uality of a stranger apparent to otherp.
IT Is an easy matter for a city resident
to detect a stranger, either from the
country or from another city, although
there may not be anything particularly
striking in the appearance Of either.
The stranger from another city, al
though he has city ways and
dresses in city style and goes along
the streets like city. people, is new
ertheless detected at once as one not
native here or to the manner born"
This does not arise from any reasoning
faculty, which man alone possesses, but
it is instinct, that attribute or n com
mon to all animals, from the highest
grade (the animal mani down to the
lowest. Darwin has recognized this con-
Meeting link between all animals, spring.
ing from the senses common to animal
life. There is a mysterious similarity
between citizens Of the same city in gen
eral appearance, expression and man
nerism entirely different from that SINH
larity existing between citizens of an.
other city or country. Let a Memphian
20 into another city and he is at once
recognized as a stranger or outsider, a
thing difficult to explain, except upon
the theory Of ideas and impressions" "
so strongly supported and sustained BY
a certain set Of philosophers. At might,
however, all this is changed, and you see
strange faces; you see them in saloons,
at cheap eating houses, at low places of
amusement, gaming establishments, in
all out Of the way and questionable
haunts and at the station house. These
faces seem to belong to a mysterious
midnight race Of people who shun day.
light like the owl or some other bird Of
prey that fits about in search Of some
lite-sustenance to be obtained, if neces-
sary, by crime. Toward daylight these
men disappear, going, no one knows
where, to sleep and hide away from the
suns rays and rest until night comes
again. They have a cat.like appearance
in the face, and their nature is feline, of
step stealthy and glance furtive and v
changing. Ask the police what manner
of men are these, and the reply will be
suspicious characters, " " drop ms" or
"vags," who have no visible means ofsup-
port and no known habitation or name.
They are human mysteries, whose history
is too often connected with b~urglaries,
robberies or other crimes. You find
them in all cities; they go in pairs gene
rally, hunting in couples like many other
animals. Occasionally, when they hang
around a city too long, they are pulled"
by the detectives and locked up as vags
and suspicious characters. 10 the morn
ing the Recorder sentences them to the
Changing in default of the payment Of
a fine. When searched at the station
hsuse, a few dimes, a knife, a bunch of
keys and often some swindling device
are found on their persons, but nothing
is found calculated to lead to their ideu-
tity. This system Of police surveillance
or espionage run them out Of town and
they disappear to turn up in some other
city where the police do not know
or recognize them for a time.
In this way that gang Of Express robbers,
headed by Johnson aud Morris, hung
around the city, ostensibly engaged in
drift catching until they "pipe.layed -
and Accomplished the robbery of Express
messenger Brady some months since on
Madison street. How and when they
come is a mystery, and they generally
keep dark and shy until they succeed in
accomplishing some crime. They are 9
race of social Ishmaelites or gipsies, dis
tinct from their fellow-men, and arr
known to each other by a system of sig
mails, signs and a slang language, which
is the recognized link of brotherhood
between all professional criminals.