The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-26
Haunts Of Crime In New York.

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For thirty years the river front on the
west side of the city, north of Thirtieth
street, has been infested by gangs OF
rufians of the worst possible character.
Tenth and Eleventh avenues and the
cross streets from the old Hudson River
Railroad Company's depot as far up as
Fiftieth street. have been at times al
most at the mercy of bands of thieves
and desperadoes. The tenement houses
and rookeries in this section are like
seething caldrons of vice and brutality,
and the filthiness and slime of the pas
sageways and alleys in these human
hives are in emblematic keeping with
the moral dirtiness and corruption OF
their inmates. g
AS you walk along Tenth avenue with
detective at your side-you would be
foolish indeed to venture alone even in
daylight with decent suit of clothes on
you feel that you are stranger in
deed and are making sensation. You
even find out that the whole neighbor-
hood is watching you and speculating
upon your errand. "They think
you've been robbed and are trying to
identify the place or the men,"
explains the officer. Every move
ment is watched. Villianous faces
glover at you from the doors
and windows of grog shops and tene-
ments. The general occupation has
stopped and every one with singular
unanimity is looking at the stranger
and his escort. Faces peer through the
screens in the rum holes. That coterie
of half-a-dozen young men in the porch
of this " "saloon," as the gilt sign am
bitiously calls it, stop their boisterous
laughter as you approach. They stare
from under their hat brims in a furtive
way and there is dead silence. Turn
quickly after you pass and you catch
lowing you with their eyes. Slatternly
and brazen young women, and dirty and
bloated old ones, nod and leer at the Off
Ger with very evident desire to main
tain friendly acquaintance with him,
as they lean from tenement house win
dows or loaf about the doors with arms
akimbo. You meet thin and pale, sickly-
hued lads of fourteen or fifteen, with
prematurely old and wicked faces, show
ing already the marks of dissipation.
They, too, suddenly cease their talk and
start and gaze with furtive, guilty
manner. Poor, precocious young
wretches, trained and schooled in crime
as they are, they have not yet learned
to conceal their emotion beneath hard
ened and stony face. Even the little
children recognize the detective and
move away from before him with open
moutha and wide-eyed wonder that is
half alarm. You cannot get rid of the
impression that you are a disturbing
element, that you are cloud passing
over the lives of those people, when you
find, as you move along, that conversa-
ton is hushed as you come and that
eyes are following you from all direc-
tions.
By-and-bye you pass young rufian
staggering beiorea liquor shop. AS he
squirts stream of tobacco Juice be-
tween his dirty teeth he gives a quick
glance at the officer, with a sneer on his
face. You catch the eye, and its pierre
ing look is full of hatred and wicked
ness. It is only n moment, and you pass
on and know that the look was meant
for the detective, not for you, but it
startles you and makes you little ner-
vou5. nevertheless.
"Who is hep" you ask of the officer,
in a low tone.
"He's one of the worst of the lot. I
arrested him for highway robbery last
year. He's just back from prison. He'd
murder you for five cents" is the reply,
in an Indifferent tone, and you devoutly
believe it.
You hear laughter and compensation
in a basement LIQUOR shop. "It's one of
the worst resorts in the precinct" says
the detective. "You viii find the place
full of young thieves. The proprietor
himself is q receiver of stolen goods,
and was last arrested for passing coun-
terfeit money. Look around you when
you 60 in and you'll see fun"
AS we push open the screen doors
and the detectives form is revealed the
inmates suddenly cease their laughter,
and all sit motionless and silent, every
eye fixed on the new comers. Some
have been playing cards, some drinking
and some lolling over the barrels and
stools. The proprietor, with nervous
smile and trembling haste, greets the
officer with great tenderness and invites
us to drink. We venture upon soda, as
the only safe beverage in such place,
and the detective insists upon paying.
He throws down half-dollar, and the
saloon keeper is so nervous that he gives
in change four quarters and is continu-
ing with smaller coin when the officer
laughingly corrects him. The other oc-
cupants of the place have not spoken
word, and the visit has evidently caused
CONSERVATION.
"What is the matter there?" you ask
the officer. who is still enjoying the
joke.
"Why, there is not a man in that place
who did not think might be after him,
that's all. knew we'd scare 'em, and
that is why said there'd be some tun."
-Ne,D York Herald.