The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-11-24
For The Cecil Wing.
BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LETTER.

THE TOMBs- REMINISCENCEs OF THE OLD
TIME-CoURT sCENEs-wAIFsA AND sTRAYs
MURDERS AND sUICIDEs-PRIZE FIGHT
ING AS A FASHIONABLE AMUSEMENT.
On Center street, between Leonard and
| Franklin, stands building, every associa.
ton of which is full of evil and crime, built
in the vicinity of the vilest portion of the
city, its dark and gloomy portals may well
be called the way of sorrow and of death.
One block to the west is the great thor
oughfare of Broadway, with it's prncely
marts of commerce and of trade. One
block to the east are the vile dens of Null
berry, Mott and Baxter street, where the
great body of our thieves have their homes
and where dwell the low fences (receivers
of stolen goods. The shops are dirty and
| squalid, and the keepers of that hard and
villainous class whose evil countenances
are suggestive of penitentiary and state
prison. The Christian missionary seldom
| finds his way into this Gomorran, for the
weeds of sin grow rank and strong, the
tares have strangled the wheat, and the
seed he might SOW would be lost on the
| barren ground.
A little over a hundred years ago, and
the site of the Tombs was occupied by
Klock's pond, sheet of water which
stretched away from Grand street to Pearl,
aud then, connected by a small stream
which crossed Chatham street, reached the
sluggish waters of the Swamp. The asso-
citation of the locality Of the Tombs have
been criminal away into the infancy of the
colony of New Amsterdam. Three years
after the first settlement, in 1909, party
of settlers were massacred by the Indians
on pleasant October afternoon, close to
the site of Tombs, and later STILL an island
in the middle of the pond became the scene
of most of the public executions. 1t was
here that all the negroes were burned and
hung for being concerned in the Negro
plot of 1741, and here John Hughson, with
his wife and daughter, were swung off from
the same gallows, for being the principals
in the same atrocious crime, while thou
sands of sturdy burghers crowded the hill
sides with their wives and children, aud
held sort of royal picnic in honor of the
great event.
The Tombs is situated in the sixth ward,
which has long been celebrated for con-
tanning the refuse and dregs of our foreign
population. The building was begun about
forty years ago, a foundation of piles hav-
ing to be prepared on which to erect the
| q Ill. -
police court was the celebrated constable,
Old Hays-a short, thick set, rather coarse
looking man who was the terror of evil
doors in his day and generation and whose
etfic lent service is not yet forgotten. A
great many executions have taken place
within its gloomy walls and it has also
been the scene of some remarkable ro-
mances and escapes. Only about four
years ago murderer named Sharkey, uu-
der sentence of death, walked out of the
prison in open day, disguised in the dress
of his mistress, who remained behind to
pay the penalty of assisting in his escape
Two years after she sought her lover in the
island of Cuba, and the ungrateful wretch
nearly beat her to death, and she only sue
ceeded in saving her life by escaping on
board an ocean steamer in the harbor. 1t
was here John G. Colt was sentenced to be
hung, and on the day of the execution,
just as the sheriff was about to lead him to
the gallows, the cupola on the Tombs
caught fire; in the confusion the execu-
ton was temporarily postponed, and when
the sheriff returned to the cell OF the con-
demned man he lay dead on the floor with
a knife sticking in his breast. An inquest
CONTINUED ON FOURTH PAaE.l