The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1877-06-02
Our New York Letter.
Crime Among EVOmen-SnMg-
gIimg-VV omem's RiGhts-'Ihe
GarnbIers-The end OfTilden-
SSTnl etc

| EDITOR CHIEF:
The removal of sixty eight female
convicts from the prison at Sing Sing.
to. the Brooklyn reform prison was q
curious and Instructive sight. When
a woman does get bad she is as much
worse than man as possible. The
women were marched to boat and
their profanity was something Won
derful. Their first exploit was an
attempt to drown an obnoxious officer,
which they nearly succeeded in doing,
and they sailed away singing the most
4 horrible travesties of the most sacred
hymns. One woman of sixty, named
Elkins, is the mother of eight children,
all of whom are at this time in prison,
and there has never been a time since
the youngest was ten that five of them
have not been in confinement at the
same time. The old lady was in her
youth pickpocket, and the most
skillful one in the city, but of late
years her fingers lost their nimbleness,
and she has confined her attention to
shop lifting. The little freedom of
the boat, reused all the old enthusi
asm. +" How / wish | was out" she
said. ''Couldn't | work the second
floors Of the stores OH Sixth Avenue,
where there amt but one clerk! It's
too bad.n And the old harridan sighed
to think of the oppol tunities she was
missing One beautiful girl of not
more than twenty-five, belonged to
one of the best families in the city.
/! She fell in love with q moustacled
pickpocket, who married her, her
family cut her off, she became ap
adroit thief herself and went down, as
women do, like a shot. She became
abandoned, and utterly reckless, her
family count her as dead, aud she is
one of the worst and most unruly of
the prisoners. Another is a woman
of good connections, who is a con-
firnetl kleptomaniac. She was we'll
! enough of, having . husband IN q
good business, who was very liberal
to her. But she could not avoid theft.
She would steal the most useless arti-
cles, things that she could not use,
and that were of no possible account
to her. Shop keepers dreaded to see
her come into their places, for it be-
came necessary to detail o clerk to
watch her, and even then, sO expert
had she become, that she would get
away with plumber. She was arrested
great many times, and was saved
from punishment by her husband 60
ing to the expense of saving her every
day or two. Finally it broke him up,
aud he was compelled to let the law
take it's course. She continued her
operations in the prison. She would
secrete needles, threads, dishes from
the table, food that she could not use,
every thing that could be concealed
and carried. It is an incurable mad
ness, and she would be better in an
insane asylum, although in all other
respects she is perfectly sane. The
others had histories, bnt there We're
! sixty eight of them.
Women have been for many years
in the habit of smuggling laces, silks
, ETC., but it is only recently that mef
, have tried the smuggling of wearing
, apparel. The famous London tailor
Poole, made an arrangement with the
! officers of Cunard steamer, to ge
; goods through without paying duties
and then sent "A man here to canvas
; for orders. Without paying duty h'
could underseH the Broadway tailors
and besides the swells never conside
themselves dressed till they have /;
, pair of Poole's pantaloons. The New
: York tailors got wind of it, and wer
, ready for the Cunarder when it landed
3 The detectives spotted and seizet
: thirty suits of clothing, the most
them for the best known men in TIL
/ city. The extent of smuggling
4 little understood. There is a hous
> in the city in the book trade, VIII
have printing establishment jus
It across the line, near Rouse's point i
: Canada. 1t is in the woods and re
+ mote from every thing. The momen
Y successful American book makes il
e appearance, it is stereotyped, printe
and bound on the other side of th